I’ve written about the nascent startup for nibblers called CookItForUs several times, each time with skepticism and excitement. Anytime you write about a product you might actually use, the heart beats a touch faster.
For the uninitiated, let me give you the 30-second version of what the team is up to: CookItForUs connects a network of food makers with food consumers, utilizing a recipe database so large that you could never taste each dish before you die. Instead of constrained restaurant menus, think about any recipe you have ever seen on the Internet or TV -- made and brought to you. Heck, a cursory glance at the startup's website yields peeks at recipes for everything from bacon chocolate-chip cookies to sweet-potato burritos.
Hide the credit card, right?
Of course, there are risks in the strategy, as it is so grand. All that food-creating and eating requires a colossal network. As I noted before, if the company can hit scale, the potential market, eating, is simply massive ($1.335 trillion yearly, in the U.S.). Some things sound crazy until they work, and CookItForUs is just such an idea.
But a recent encounter with CookItForUs founder Moshe Tamssot has me rethinking the odds I would have laid on the startup. The team appears focused, cognizant of the dilemma involving the poultry and the pre-form, and honestly seems capable of pulling off its dream.
As I was standing around a campfire, happily supping my whisky and melted cheese-on-a-stick, I could not help but want them to succeed. The idea of food, of every note and title, with socially engaged pricing is simply too compelling to be neutral about. The team is currently working on building itself up before it takes on a large round, but I would suspect that when the time comes, it won’t be too hard to come by.
Startup communities need all sorts of companies, and while food might be hot at the moment, Chicago’s scene is certainly stronger thanks to the mad scientists of CookItForUs. Forks up!
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Alex is a writer and technologist who covers emerging companies in the Midwest. He has worked previously for numerous early stage technology companies, contributes to The Next Web, and has a particular interest in watching the social web monetize.
