Most of us would like to order food from multiple restaurants, but it isn't practically possible as there aren't meta-order services that collect orders from restaurants and deliver them to you.
YoPotato is a Chennai based startup that has launched its service which enables customers to order any food from any restaurant in Chennai (currently serves Nungambakkam, Alwarpet, Kodambakkam and NM road area).
The way it works is very simple – call up YoPotato (on 044-45 54 1111), order the food and YoPotato will have it delivered to your place within an hour time. Seems like an idea life? Well, few years back – a Hyderabad based startup tried a similar service (OrderMonger) but shut down few months later, owing to operational challenges in running a service like this.
Such businesses are operational intensive and while meta operators take a generic approach to accepting food orders from customers, some of the restaurants might just refuse to take orders for particular dish, which is so common among restaurants. Unless there is a real time feed system, scalability is a huge challenge in building a meta business.
Having said that, I'd expect YoPotato to be a destination site wherein one could browse through menus in the partner restaurants and order directly – which I believe will bring in more customers to try out the service, as opposed to a phone based system which intrinsically assumes that the person knows what he/she wants to eat, which is not true most of the times.
Also, the team has to decide what business they are in – logistics or food delivery? If it's the former, they can be in different services (like flower delivery etc) and can be the platform that connects tier-2 business like restaurants who do not have the $$s to hire delivery personals and customers who look for specific delicacies/products from such businesses.
What's your take on YoPotato? If you are in Chennai, do give YoPotato a spin and share your feedback.