How does it it feel to know there is someone that just sold a Grilled Cheese for 10 million dollars. I stuff you not. Entrepreneur Jonathan Kaplan, the guy behind the Flip Cam Camera, just received 10 million dollars from a venture capital firm to launch his new business “The Melt”. Here’s the deal with The Melt; beginning with a few restaurants in the San Francisco area, you will be able to order grilled cheese sandwiches and soups via the Melt mobile website. Then you will receive a QR code, redeem the code in any Melt restaurant, and receive your freshly made order in minutes. Jon’s reasoning behind getting into the Grilled Cheese game, “grilled cheese makes you happy”. The Melt will open five restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area between August and November, and Kaplan wants to open 500 locations in the next five years.
I can imagine the exact scenario when jon came up with this concept. He was sitting on his couch, trying to think of his next big idea. He took a hit of the bong in front of him, then took another hit, and began to get that munchie feeling. He considered traveling around the city for a White Castle burger, but that seemed like too much work for a dude that just took bong hits. His next thought, I can go for a Grilled Cheese and I’d love to have it by simply pressing a few buttons on my iPhone. There you have it, The Melt was born.
I totally understand building a business around a mobile premise. It makes sense with the expanded usage and capabilities of smart phones across the country. And I love a good grilled cheese as much as the next guy. But this idea of ordering a grilled cheese over your phone doesn’t really blow my mind. I mean it will take roughly 1 minute to make a Grilled Cheese, do I need to really order it in advance? Not to mention, grilled cheese is good on a rare occasion, but people are generally looking these days for healthier alternatives to snacking. I guess the fact that Sequoia Capital gave him 10 million dollars to start making Grilled Cheese sandwiches proves that if you have been successful before, people are willing to bet that you can do it again, no matter what the business idea is.
