Nabeel Alamgir | Lunchbox
What Is Lunchbox? Tell Us About What You Do And What The Company’s Mission Is.
Lunchbox is a collection of enterprise solutions that redefine the digital restaurant experience. With built-in growth hacking tools drive guests to your system and away from third-party. Lunchbox is an all-in-one month-to-month SaaS model.
What Is Your Background? What Led You To Starting Your Own Company, And How Did You Choose This Space?
Lunchbox was founded by restaurateurs who grew tired of the exhaustive and fractured journey of solving omnichannel digital ordering. Nabeel Alamgir, former CMO of the NYC-Based Bareburger, took his extensive experience of working in restaurants to help build the perfect solution for the industry. Nabeel partnered with his longtime friend Andrew Boryk (Co-founder and CTO) to assemble a team to make the backbone of Lunchbox. Lunchbox launched in early 2019 with Bareburger's web and app products.
What Was The Inspiration Behind The Company Name?
The name is inspired by our ability to provide our clients with multiple tools and products (the food, thermos, and silverware) all under one company (the lunchbox), giving a complete experience.
Who Are Your Co-Founders At Lunchbox and What Roles Do They Play?
I am surrounded by some of the best co-founders I could find. Hadi Rashid - VP of Solutions, Andrew Boyrk - CTO, Mohammad Afzal - Lead Engineer, and Zach McCurdy - Creative Director. Each of them bring in a major component that helped shake Lunchbox out to be what it is today.
What Have Been The Most Challenging And Most Exciting Moments For You And The Company?
My favorite and least liked part of the journey are the times we cut it close. our seed fundraiser was essential or we would be out of money in 60 days, that was the most stressed I have been. Also, when the wire hit the bank. It was all worth it.
What Was The Fundraising Process Like For You? Tell Us About Your Investors And What You Use The Money You’ve Raised For.
We were able to secure $20m of funding led by Coatue, followed by syndicate investors like Celebrity Chef Tom Colicchio, Scott Belsky, founder of Behance, COO of Venmo Michael Vaughn, Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl, Hello Fresh Founder Bryan Ciambella, and Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani. We plan on using that money to help grow and spread our product as well as grow the team.
How Has Growth Been In General Over The Last Two Years?
We have grown over 740% in YoY revenue from Sept. 2019 - Sept. 2020!
The Restaurant Industry Was Definitely Hit Hard With COVID-19. How Has The Pandemic Affected Your Business And What Have You Done To Adapt To Any Changes?
COVID impacted our business in many ways. One way it impacted us was by closing down some of these locations. It hurt to see so many of our partners struggle, but in the same sense it opened us up to provide more solutions and opportunities to help us grow our business.
How Do You Think Your Industry Will Change Post-COVID?
I think our industry will trend towards a more digital/ tech driven world. It was slowly trending that way to begin with, COVID expedited that trend.
Can You Walk Us Through A Typical Work Day?
The typical morning starts out at waking up around 5-6am. I like to get a head start on any emails, and social media work. Ideally I like to get a workout in by 8am. Once that is done I have standup meeting with our Sales/CX/Dev/Marketing team. Once all ironed out I block out sometime for some deep work where I do not have any meetings. From there I take on any and all meetings.
What Are The Top Three Most Important Skills A Modern Day Entrepreneur Needs In Order To Be Successful? And What Advice Do You Have For Entrepreneurs Who Are Just Starting Out?
Grit - Be determined in your vision and dream of your idea/company. And be ready to grind to get through obstacles.
Agility - Allow yourself to pivot quickly based on new information. Have the open mindedness that your initial idea may not work and you may need to find a new way/solution.
Data Minded Decisions - Start collecting data around your product and idea yesterday. Collecting data as early as possible will give you the ability to have stronger projections across your company and predict trends.
Tell Us A Story Of Something That Happened To You That Either Made You Laugh Or Taught You An Important Lesson.
I had an investor who after I talked to, I would feel like crap. He wasn’t bad, but he was just critical. I shared this feedback with him once and he said he pushes harder on his best CEO’s. I felt great that I shared feedback and that he valued my drive, but I realized I do the same thing sometimes with my top performers. Wake up call!
If You Can Have A One-Hour Meeting With Someone Famous, Who Would It Be And Why?
Martin Scorsese. Because of him I was able to learn English when I was in high school. I learned from watching his movies.
Who Is Your Role Model?
Kobe Bryant. I have always been his biggest fan. Not just for his skill but for his drive and determination. He is and will always be a true inspiration.
What Are Your Top Three Favorite Books?
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
The Martian, by Andy Weir
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
What Do You Do In Your Free Time?
In my free time you can find me out dining at some of the best restaurants around NYC. I love to try new foods!
What Does Success Mean To You?
Success means a lot of different things to a lot of people. What success means to me is doing something that makes you happy and doing something that makes an impact. I feel like at Lunchbox we do that. Not only for the restaurants we partner with, but for the culture in the company as well. I want everyone to share in our success. So, to me, success is being happy every day of your life doing the things that make you happy/love.