Please describe your proposed solution.
The background:
When Grubhub, UberEats, DoorDash, and other similar food delivery apps were introduced, they brought an effortless and convenient way to order food by choosing from one of the many available restaurants nearby. Nothing like that has ever been possible before. Unsurprisingly they immediately attracted millions of users worldwide. The audience capture was so impactful that if a restaurant wanted to attract customers, they had to be on one of the platforms and had to sign any draconian agreements the app overlords would offer them to sign. Each of those apps is a great tool. But in the hands of corporate middlemen, slowly, step by step, they imposed enormous fees on the restaurants. The restaurants eventually passed the costs to the customers. And instead of decreasing their fees, the apps cut the expenses by lowering earnings for those who are the least in control - the delivery drivers, who often struggle to get even the minimum wage.
The problem:
- Revolutionary tools like the Internet and food-ordering apps helped a few individuals to monopolize the market.
- A small group of people in charge of the apps is driven by self-interest, which results in high restaurant fees and low driver pay.
- The audience capture and convenience of the apps don't leave many options for restaurants and delivery drivers.
The reasons behind decentralization and how decentralization can fix the problem:
Any business can decrease the fees even without the blockchain. Even more, at this exact time, ChowNow is already doing exactly that and, slowly but surely, taking over the market share! Before ChowNow, there were other similar startups that gained significant market share by lowering the fees. Each of them was purchased by giants like DoorDash and GrubHub: a so-called "purchase to kill the competitor" and keep prices high. And the apps that control the market are bound by Fiduciary Duty to Shareholders to act in the interests of the shareholders: in other words, maximize their profits. The same fate awaits ChowNow and its management.
That's why, instead of creating another traditional business, we want to create "a protocol" that can't be controlled by company shareholders, similarly to how the Internet can't be controlled by shareholders (there are none). Blockchain and decentralized governance are the tools to make it possible. By providing decentralized infrastructure based on Cardano, we can eliminate unnecessary middlemen in the process, drastically reduce high fees, reduce the overall cost of each order (especially pickup orders), and significantly increase drivers' pay. Additionally, by leveraging the token economy philosophy, we can find new ways of monetization for the builders and early adopters.
Which problems can be solved in food ordering?
- We can significantly decrease fees on pickup orders by removing centralized entities from the equation.
- We can increase drivers' pay by sending all the fees directly to drivers instead of the app owners.
Both problems are important to solve. But we believe it's better to handle one problem at a time. We will start by reducing fees on pickup orders. This problem is easier to solve, requires less funding, and we can prove that our idea is working. Plus, 75% of all food orders in the US are pickup orders. While the app can be used in any country, we will launch in California - one of the most popular places for food ordering on Earth. When thousands of customers and restaurants already use the system and transact on the Cardano platform, adding drivers and food delivery will be much easier.
Important: This funding will help us to implement a solution for pickup orders. The driver app and delivery orders are not included in this proposal. While we mention our plans for drivers and delivery orders in this proposal, this problem is harder to tackle and will be included in the second version of the app. Let's handle them one at a time and deliver a strong proof of concept first.
The solution:
The solution will benefit all participants in the food pickup process. Restaurant fees go to zero. Customer fees become significantly lower than in any other available service. Drivers get 100% of the delivery fees. Participants will also receive our utility token for different actions they perform for the network. Smart contracts will transparently redistribute the earnings between restaurants, drivers, customer support members, and builders. We will also use our utility token to measure everyone's involvement in the project. There won't be any sale of the token. The token will be paid for different types of work performed for the network, so there is no expectation of profit derived from the efforts of others. The token will be used for governance purposes, and the participants will be able to vote on the network's decisions, like whether we should pay more to drivers or reduce delivery costs for customers. Additionally, tokens will be used to purchase different privileges in the system, so those participants who prove their understanding of the internal workings of the system will be able to gain a slight advantage over newcomers.
An interesting side effect of the utility token and the fact that all our apps will be open source is that people will be able to clone the code and span multiple delivery services competing with each other with different governance settings. Some can provide better pay for drivers, and others can vote for higher user discounts. The best approach will win.
The solution consists of multiple apps and smart contracts:
- Web App. The web application is available in your browser to order food and find restaurants near you.
- Mobile App. Mobile apps for iOS and Android provide a seamless transition from apps like DoorDash to our new app. Our team has a UX designer responsible for user research and ease of use. We put extreme emphasis on simple transition, even for people who have no idea what Cardano and cryptocurrencies are. We will leave an option to pay in fiat. Fiat currencies will be internally converted into ADA so that every fiat transaction will be a transaction on the Cardano platform. However, the users who use ADA will gain immediate benefits and better offers. We hope it will motivate more people to understand the ecosystem and gradually switch from fiat to ADA.
- Restaurant Admin Panel. Every restaurant will be able to access the app that will notify them when new orders come in. The app will also allow editing their menu and other information.
- Customer Support Admin Panel. The web app will help to manage the system's data, track the status of the orders, cancel orders when needed, onboard new restaurants, and so on.
Parties and how they benefit from the system:
- Customers. Customers will benefit from eliminating restaurant fees on pickup orders and drastically reducing customer fees, resulting in huge discounts. The discounts are parameters in the system that are governed by the utility token and can be changed by the community to achieve the best experience for all parties. Customer fees will become approximately 10 times smaller than current DoorDash fees and will be used to support builders and customer support members.
- Restaurants. We will entirely get rid of restaurant fees.
- Builders. Builders will be rewarded with the minor fees paid by the customers and the utility token's monetary expansion.
- Drivers (Future Versions, not included in the current scope). Drivers are the second primary beneficiary of the system. We plan on the biggest chunk of the profits going to the drivers. However, the distribution of the earnings in the system will be governed by the utility token and can be changed in the future by the community vote.
<u>The Prototype:</u>
You can find landing and test version of the Web App using this link: https://hungryapp.io.
You can find our designs here: Link to the design (Web and Mobile apps)
By the time of the Fund11 launch we will also have the mobile apps for both Android and iOS ready (their implementation is not a part of this proposal).
<u>Web App Map: </u>
<u>Web App Menu:</u>
<u>Mobile App Restaurants:</u>
<u>Mobile App Menu:</u>
<u>Restaurant Admin Panel:</u>