00:00welcome to the a 16z podcast I'm Michael
00:03Copeland and we are going to talk about
00:05food this is sort of a technology meets
00:07the holidays segment and to help us with
00:10this is none other than Roush Magog who
00:13is the co-founder and CEO of gobble who
00:15Sh'ma welcome thanks for having me
00:17Michael who Sh'ma has been up since I
00:20don't know when well before it was light
00:22out because you guys get cooking at 4:00
00:24a.m. is that correct that's right thing
00:27I should say what all of the above
00:28so gobble as you well know is a sort of
00:31a food preparation meals that come to
00:35you almost fully prepped you get to put
00:38them together in a very short amount of
00:39time and put them on your table and
00:41enjoy them correct am I correct here
00:43that's right we are your sous chef we do
00:45all the prep work so that you can
00:46control the end result and cook in one
00:48pan in ten minutes and have a fresh
00:50home-cooked meal for your family the
00:52holidays are coming up we're all going
00:54to be doing a lot of cooking or maybe
00:56trying to avoid doing a lot of cooking I
00:58just want to know from logistics like
01:01you guys that so one meal is hard enough
01:03for one person to sort of pull off over
01:06the holidays you guys are doing that
01:07thousands upon thousands so how do you
01:10guys approach you know even just an
01:13average week but even you know the sort
01:14of weeks and months coming up what do
01:17you guys have to do to sort of think
01:19about who's gonna want what and how it's
01:21gonna get out there right this is where
01:24the data and Technology really come in
01:26we we rely so heavily on on user surveys
01:31on past year behavior and on watching
01:34how people evolve every single week to
01:37forecast exactly how much to procure of
01:40every single ingredient and and then to
01:42make the very best menus every single
01:45week and especially for the holidays so
01:49so we have to rely a lot on on data
01:52science to figure out what to cook and
01:54what you like and then on our own
01:56software to actually figure out the
01:58order in which to produce all the food
02:00so that we can actually make tens of
02:03thousands of portions of turkey stuffing
02:04and send it to you on time ok so this
02:07gets to one of my questions and I think
02:08you started getting into it a little bit
02:10but like how is a food company you know
02:15great question I think a modern food
02:18company has to be a tech company and
02:21I've seen companies like Netflix or
02:24Pandora or Amazon really leverage all of
02:29their rich customer data to make the
02:32experience for you very personalized on
02:34their websites and and in my opinion you
02:38know people eat food three times a day
02:39if any company should have the most data
02:41or insight into who a person is it
02:43should be a food company so from day one
02:46when we started gobble almost five years
02:48ago I have always been a huge nut about
02:51about understanding people's tastes and
02:54basically predicting exactly what they
02:57should and want to eat every single day
03:00and that that is how it becomes a tech
03:01company and how how a winning food
03:04company will succeed okay so let's talk
03:06about the holidays then when you say
03:08that you have all this data what are
03:10what are some of the things you're
03:11seeing in terms of what people are doing
03:13over the next month as we get into
03:15Thanksgiving and then and then into
03:17other holidays right what's really fun
03:19about the holidays is that everything is
03:21about comfort food and so we'll have our
03:23green beans and Brussels sprouts and
03:24things but year on year the you know
03:26highest selling items hold on a second
03:28our Brussels sprouts comfort food no I'm
03:33not saying I don't like Brussels sprouts
03:34but Comfort and Brussels sprouts those
03:36two doing exactly so the top selling
03:39items off our Thanksgiving menu are
03:41things like homemade biscuits and mashed
03:43even simple mashed potatoes above the
03:45sweet potato mash so interesting it's
03:47it's really kind of these items that
03:51remind people of home and of comfort and
03:54of warmth as simple as they may be that
03:56are the highest sellers huh I wonder if
03:59it's also that you know mashed potatoes
04:01don't get me wrong they're good but if I
04:03don't have to make some side dish then
04:05somehow I get to make the glory dish
04:08which is the turkey like nobody is like
04:10oh my god those mashed potatoes or maybe
04:12they are but anyway the glory dish is
04:14the turkey so maybe they just want to
04:15take the hassle out of the rest of it
04:17that's right yes we do we sell a lot of
04:19sides but but we also sell a lot of
04:21turkey and then of course again nowadays
04:24the easier you can make the whole
04:26process the better so we have a gobble
04:28Thanksgiving feast and that above
04:30everything with all the sides included
04:32and the turkey and integrated
04:34instructions on when to start the green
04:36beans versus the turkey versus the
04:38potato so it all comes out okay right
04:40doing all of that work for the whole
04:41I think our population really
04:43appreciates okay so I if I order the
04:47gobble gobble full Thanksgiving boat how
04:52is that meal and the way it's prepared
04:55at home different than if I had to do it
04:57all by myself at home that that's been a
05:00fun creative challenge for our team over
05:02the last few months which is figuring
05:05out how you can prepare all these sides
05:07as freshly as if you cooked them but
05:09with the same kind of pre prep and
05:12convenience of our normal day-to-day
05:13dinner kids right so for example the
05:16vegetables might be washed and cleaned
05:19for you and chopped as we normally do
05:21for your normal dinner kits but but will
05:24actually give you a for example a sage
05:27butter for a different spices too to
05:31cook those vegetables with and you're
05:33basically finishing the cooking of them
05:34and integrating them with some flavor so
05:37that we like to say you do the sizzle
05:40and the serve I say Thanksgiving and
05:44whatever your holiday meal of choice is
05:45they're kind of high-stakes meals for
05:49good or for Hill and so I think in some
05:51sense and it's not as if every day I've
05:53meal isn't high stakes for you like if I
05:55order dinner and it didn't show up I'd
05:57be hungry but but these are especially
05:59high stakes so how do you guys approach
06:01that as a kind of a problem if if indeed
06:05you think of it as a problem yes we well
06:08we hope it's not a problem but we
06:09certainly preemptively work very hard to
06:12not make it one so we for example all of
06:15our shipments are going out on Monday
06:17for an arrival on Tuesday and they're
06:19built to go in your fridge and then you
06:21can cook them off on Thursday when
06:23you're about to serve Thanksgiving
06:24dinner the reason we did that and our
06:26team is actually working on Tuesday and
06:27Wednesday and I'm flying home on
06:29Thanksgiving Day for that slide-in
06:31arrival right at 5:00 p.m.
06:33apparently you are not cooking
06:34Thanksgiving meal I mean not to say that
06:38you haven't cooked it for the thousands
06:40of people already but anyway yes our
06:42mantras that we have to make it is such
06:44high stakes of a meal that we have to
06:45make sure that all of our customers get
06:47those dinners and those sides before we
06:50really can enjoy our own so we have a
06:52huge gobble Thanksgiving party after all
06:54the shipments are out for hundreds of
06:56people including some of you folks at
06:58the firm oh good and that will be going
07:01down after everything is successful but
07:02we actually have emergency you know
07:05trucks ready for overnight shipments a
07:07certain buffer amount of every single
07:08dish we did we've been doing this for a
07:11long enough to where we know how much
07:13buffer to make and how many missed
07:15deliveries we expect on any one shipment
07:17day to have contingency contingency
07:20plans in place for be inevitable so
07:23something goes you know south a little
07:25bit and you get the frantic call and
07:27boom there's your meal on a truck or
07:30however on a horse or a boat or however
07:32you guys yeah that's fascinating and
07:34like it's a meal at the end of the day
07:37that we all want to enjoy but to
07:39logistics out of it you guys seem almost
07:42more closer to Amazon than you are to
07:44the restaurant that I go to to go have a
07:47dinner how would you describe the
07:49logistics problem that you guys are
07:50solving and and what do you bring to
07:52bear on it on a daily basis and then
07:55here over the holidays you mentioned you
07:56have all these contingency plans but but
07:58but what is it look like from your
08:00perspective yes well there are two huge
08:04logistic problem that we solve one is
08:08actually producing all of the food which
08:11is which is very difficult which is
08:13actually where we focus most of our
08:15software efforts and the second is after
08:19all that's produced and packaged at high
08:21quality and and at high safety it's
08:24sorting all of that into all the
08:25customer orders more of like an Amazon
08:28like pick and pack sort of warehouse
08:31operation the actual delivery to
08:33everybody's houses while we used to do
08:35that and that's a fun you know routing
08:37problem to figure out we now outsource
08:38that to on track and FedEx I see because
08:41they're actually very good at that and
08:43yes and it allows us to reach more
08:45people and so before while we drove
08:46similar to an on-demand company within
08:49city limits of let's say San Francisco
08:51or Palo Alto now we can reach every home
08:53in California and people are enjoying
08:55Thanksgiving from gobble
08:56in San Diego Tracy you know Bakersfield
09:00and Palo Alto all at the same time so
09:02the bot the gobble boxes or box shows up
09:04in my door on Tuesday or YES on Tuesday
09:07in theory right day Wednesday or
09:09Thursday do I hide the box immediately
09:10before my family comes over like what
09:12what have you guys heard from people who
09:15have used this in the past and you know
09:16or even on a regular basis for meals
09:19during the week right that's a fun one
09:21some people actually hide the box
09:23they'll open the box they'll take out
09:25everything they'll you know put it
09:26wherever they put it one guy went so far
09:28as to tell his wife he was taking
09:30cooking classes and and and always has
09:34been cooking a meal before she gets home
09:35with his gobble dinner kit and when the
09:38box was delayed he had emailed you know
09:41direct messaged and just said hey send
09:43it to my office like it can't show up at
09:45my house because my wife doesn't know so
09:47that that's it's pretty fun how people
09:49use it and make it their own and a lot
09:51of parents even say hey you know my kids
09:53think I'm a great chef
09:54thanks to gobble right what advice do
09:56you have for people who are sitting down
09:58for this meal and and kind of stressing
10:00out about it look you guys are preparing
10:02meals for tens of thousands of people
10:05what kind of could translate to us just
10:08having a more calm relaxed enjoyable
10:11holiday meal ourselves oh man
10:14well this is advice for myself too I'm a
10:17very precise and perfectionist person
10:20and the way we we designed our dinner
10:23kits so that type a precise
10:25perfectionist people can actually cook
10:27and get a great meal on the table
10:29without you know worrying was it 11
10:31minutes or nine minutes and and that
10:32kind of thing so I guess the advice I
10:34would give is is a simple one and that's
10:36just to relax and understand that most
10:39the time cooking comes out great anyway
10:40because it's just made with that care
10:42and love you know within some like Delta
10:45of time limit and and reason so the way
10:49I kind of loosened up and even got into
10:52cooking when we were inventing these
10:54dinner kits was by was by learning to
10:56flip food in my pan I would just you
10:58know use a spatula or a ladle when I was
11:00first learning how to cook and our
11:02executive chef Thomas vici you know
11:03taught me how to pick that pan up and
11:05flip everything so that it would so it
11:07cooks so much better and after I learned
11:10I added a bit more fun and whimsy to the
11:12cooking experience and it took out my
11:13type-a stress and so that's what I would
11:16tell our customers I was gonna say if
11:17you use the word Delta while you're
11:19cooking a different kind of chef than I
11:21know yes so you're gonna be at home for
11:25Thanksgiving I am we have a we have a
11:28very fun Thanksgiving tradition and I
11:31think it you know shows in how we run
11:33the company my family gets together with
11:36about 12 other families at someone's
11:38house there's tables all over their
11:40house in the living room and a formal
11:42area and a regular area in the kitchen
11:44and now it's almost three generations
11:46it's grandparents parents their kids and
11:48now new kids and we've been going to the
11:50same house for 15 years and everybody
11:52brings food as a potluck so I actually
11:56have never missed one and in all the
11:57years I've been going well that sounds
11:59like fun I should come to your house or
12:00so well whoever's house that this this
12:02thing is happening feast in between like
12:05the sort of inter holiday period you
12:08know between Thanksgiving and and you
12:09know Christmas whatever it is your
12:10celebrate do people stop eating do they
12:14are they over it like is there any
12:17pattern that you see in that kind of
12:18inner holiday period hmm we well we
12:21changed the kind of food that we're
12:23serving and of course there's there's
12:24different vegetables that that are in
12:27season that we use you know squashes and
12:30root vegetables and and we only see the
12:34only shift we see is when people are
12:36traveling out of town so most people
12:37take a longer vacation in December if
12:39they're home and it's not a holiday
12:41there they're eating gobble like it's
12:43it's something that people depend on and
12:45get very upset about if it doesn't show
12:47up which is exciting to me I want to be
12:49an integral part of your life but but
12:51and then we actually ask someone to to
12:55let us know when they're skipping a week
12:56why it is so they'll tell us hey the
12:58menu isn't good or I'm out of town or
13:01I'm cost saving right now so according
13:04to all of our results in the past really
13:07we only see people going out of town
13:09more right now do you see after the
13:10first of the year you know that's when
13:11everybody joins a gym do they also like
13:13shift to like okay I'm only eating
13:15vegetarian now or just bring me all
13:18vegetables and raw vegetable form and
13:22absolutely absolutely it's such a funny
13:25shift because we go from all of our all
13:26those biscuits and mashed potatoes to
13:29lots of salads and you know like
13:32shredded chicken or salmon and that kind
13:34of thing so we're we're ready for that
13:36shift January and onwards is really a
13:39game time for developing new habits for
13:43folks and so for food services and
13:45especially subscription food services
13:47it's good to be prepared are you seeing
13:50any trends in terms of how people are
13:52eating there's you know there's lots of
13:53discussion I mean like we'd all like to
13:55let's be frank eat healthier that
13:56doesn't necessarily mean that we do
13:58right in our menu rubric we have a
14:00certain we have rules around how many
14:03healthy meals and how many comfort meals
14:05we would offer or how many traditional
14:07American meals or ethnic meals about 10
14:10percent of our user base right now is
14:12vegetarian there is a vocal population
14:14that are gluten free and we do see folks
14:18that usually get our omnivore box which
14:21is chicken fish and red meat dabbling in
14:25vegetarian meals and those are
14:26individual meals they're not all piled
14:28in one box that's right they're all
14:30individual meals so people will switch
14:31out let's say a beef for a vegetarian
14:33meal or chicken for a vegetarian meal
14:35and and I care about that and I care
14:38about a balanced diet so we focus a lot
14:40on vegetarian meal innovation as well
14:42and so you're saying at least people are
14:44trying to okay this meal just one meal
14:46this week I'm gonna go vegetarian or and
14:48maybe that's increasing but like you
14:49can't pin down a trend at this point yet
14:52we can see more people caring about
14:55health and food transparency and where
14:58their food comes from and so I slowly
15:00see more people eating they want meat as
15:05a garnish on their food as opposed to a
15:07center of plate every single time which
15:09i think is is great and in line with
15:11what we know right now about what's most
15:13healthy for you but we still have a lot
15:15of work to do you admitted that you were
15:17learning how to cook flipping and kind
15:20of getting into it and you did use the
15:23word Delta when you were describing
15:24preparing a meal so and you've told me
15:26this is that you are not you know the
15:28world's most involved chef food person
15:31so why did you start a food company and
15:33how did that happen the way it happened
15:36that I I started eating very poorly and
15:38so I felt a direct health effect of
15:41eating takeout every day and I was
15:43lethargic and tired and I was running
15:45another business and I was I was pretty
15:48unhappy for a while and I would talk to
15:50my family about it and they were they
15:52were heartbroken because they spent all
15:54this time while I was growing up beating
15:57me only home-cooked food we would only
15:59eat out maybe once a month so gobble
16:01just started very organically by me
16:04solving the problem for myself and
16:05posting a Craigslist ad and asking hey
16:08can anyone make me home-cooked food for
16:10eight dollars a plate right I'll get ten
16:12friends to buy in and and the rest is
16:15but I I would say that another piece of
16:18it is that I I care a lot about family
16:21so even though I wasn't a cook I made
16:24the decision to start a food company
16:25because I care about family and I think
16:27that as people grow up as they start you
16:30know maybe choosing a partner or
16:32starting a family they care about
16:34nourishing that family and and their the
16:37way they look at food evolves so I used
16:39to eat out of a tray and then now as I
16:41get to a certain place in life where I
16:43might start a family I start caring
16:45about about about food and where it
16:48comes from and is it healthy or not and
16:51and so that that's um I think that's
16:54where my care for food comes from and
16:55now my like interest in helping food fit
16:59into this like 24/7 busy lifestyle let's
17:01talk about the future of food then what
17:04is that gonna start to look like I mean
17:05we talk about the resource kind of use
17:07you know whether that means meat or
17:08fishing overfishing the oceans etc etc
17:11but right how do you think about it and
17:13what what and for example we invested in
17:15a company here Soylent you know where
17:17you get your you know nutrition out of a
17:19bottle right how do you view the future
17:21of food I'm excited about the future of
17:24food because I think that there's so
17:25much innovation going on and I act I
17:28actually think that no one solution is
17:30gonna own the future I think it'll be a
17:32like constellation of solutions that fit
17:36different people and also people at
17:39different stages of life so for example
17:42I know some folks who do Soylent for
17:45breakfast and lunch and then they'll do
17:46gobble or cook from scratch for dinner
17:50I would say that efficiency matters very
17:54much so that's why things like gobble or
17:56Soylent might be working what we're
17:58seeing is that people care about
18:00efficiency but also nutrition and access
18:03to information so until even companies
18:06like gobble or Soylent can tell you that
18:08their solution has all the
18:11macronutrients and micronutrients
18:12required for your family to be healthy
18:14with great accuracy there's still a
18:17question in consumers mind and a lot of
18:20over information that needs to be
18:21answered but I think it's going to be a
18:23combined solution of hobbyist cooking
18:26from scratch hopefully something like
18:28gobble are efficient daily cooking
18:29solutions efficient powder or pill
18:32solutions and and then also the whole
18:35sensory experience of going out to
18:37dinner will absolutely remain as a as a
18:40really special thing to do for people
18:42with their loved ones yeah I think
18:44you're right I think for me part of the
18:46whole transparency thing like you say is
18:47also what resources are required you
18:51know to raise this beef or put that
18:54other piece of food on your table or is
18:57there any of it left in the ocean and
18:58therefore we should be leaving that
19:00alone all to get right and to the extent
19:02that we can know more and more about
19:03that and or find more efficient ways of
19:06farming you know whether that's fish or
19:09produce that's a really exciting area -
19:12yes I think there'll be more information
19:14and also more regulation in those areas
19:17as we progress one dish that you can't
19:20do without over Thanksgiving our turkey
19:22stuffing it's um it's homey it's
19:25comfortable and it's it's very true to
19:27Thanksgiving so I look forward to that
19:28every year I'm with you I love stuffing
19:30sushma I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving
19:32thanks for your time and we will look
19:35for more meals from you thank you so
