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Tri-Valley leaders in a variety of sectors tout the area as a center of innovation.
That’s historically been driven by the two national labs in Livermore but has exploded around them in the last couple of decades.
Some life science startups such as 10X Genomics and Unchained Labs have grown into highly profitable cutting edge firms employing thousands of people. Others are still on the cusp, working with a few people to disrupt their niche.
That’s the case with boons, which aims to carve its share out of the exploding food delivery business. It’s headquartered in Pleasanton. Food delivery was growing before the pandemic lockdown and then soared and has continued to grow. It’s a bit of a dilemma for restaurateurs — the delivery service often takes a 30% cut of the price plus charging the customer a fee for the delivery. That chews up most, if not all, of the profit.
boons has positioned itself as a no-brainer for the restaurants, charging just $1 per order on transactions placed directly through its app. Customers ordering on the app get the restaurant price, not the marked-up version coming from a delivery service. The app is designed so restaurants can use boons’ partnered delivery drivers, their own drivers or another third party, whichever is the most economical. In short, it’s a company designed by restauranteurs who know the business and want to make it work for their competitors. A number of financial investors also own their own restaurants as does Rajeev Garg, the company’s CEO.
“…every owner understands they cannot rely on just the dining operations. They’ve got to be online,” Garg said. “Delivery was going to be the key in the entire equation.”
“We set out to aggregate the business because we’re not going to build a stronger driver network than Door Dash or Uber Eats. “We have packaged it so it works for the restaurant (the $1 order),” he said.
When asked how they would make money utilizing that loss leader, boons offers a variety of add-ons to make the owner/operator’s life easier and to grow their business. That starts with an evaluation to determine what the restaurant needs to succeed in today’s world.
The offerings include integrated marketing with social media and other platforms, a website, an online ordering platform, a catering platform and preferred delivery partners. The add-ons come with an additional fee giving boons a path to profitability.
Significantly, the restaurant owns the customer list (not the case with the delivery services) so they can promote directly and comes with a rewards program to build loyalty. It’s backed up by AI insights.
Garg and his team, which includes Joe Hill, believe they can help the restaurant scale to expand and grow profitability. The website and platform are set up for both individual delivery and catering, the latter being a key category to growth in the business-filled Tri-Valley market.
One of his favorite examples is a restaurant with locations in Pleasanton, Livermore and Danville. It saved about $200,000 by using boons. Those numbers work for restauranteurs.
Check out their website and you can see the variety of restaurants using their services: www.boons.io
Spell-check?
Looked at the site, can only order catering. All orders have a minimum order.
Not for one person to order a meal. At least for a couple of the places I checked.
@another reader, the link is correct. At least it worked for me…