If you’re a workaholic at a tech startup (or anywhere else), it’s probably a challenge to make sure you’re eating tasty, healthy meals, at least if you aren’t being fed by the chefs at a company like Google. So a startup called Gobble just launched an online marketplace where you can order home-cooked meals for pickup and delivery.
Gobble is currently in beta testing in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it also announced that it has raised $1.2 million in funding. On its frequently asked questions page, the Palo Alto, Calif. company describes itself as “peer-to-peer lasagna” and says it can serve both individuals and companies that want to feed their workers.
When I was growing up, I remember my parents (both workaholic engineers) would sometimes order meals from friends. This is a similar idea, but on a larger scale and searchable. Users go to the site, enter their geographic area, then see a list of meals they can purchase. They can narrow their search based on date (Gobble doesn’t support same-day orders), dietary restrictions, and by using tags like “cheesy” and “meaty”.
Gobble says chefs apply to work with the company and are selected based on their personality, knowledge, and the quality of their food. Several of them are also nutritionists who specialize in creating healthy meals.
The company is founder and chief executive Ooshma Garg’s second startup. She says that the idea emerged, in part, from her experience at her first company, Anapata, where she found herself eating fast food and takeout three times a day. Gobble’s investors include Greylock Discovery Fund, Felicis Ventures (which also invested in VentureBeat), Founder Collective, and Ron Conway’s SV Angel.