Just a few years ago, Snap Kitchen was a small startup with a couple stores in Austin and Houston. Founder Martin Berson thought that would be about it.
But his idea to have healthy, pre-packaged meals sold in relatively small retail storefronts has grown well-beyond that.
“As we got into this, we realized it’s way bigger than a couple stores in Houston and a couple stores in Austin,” he said. “Now, we really think Snap could be bigger than it is now.”
Snap now has seven stores in Austin, 11 in the Houston area, nine in Dallas and five in Chicago, which will get three additional stores this year. Snap is also planning to open about five stores in Philadelphia. Snap grew from about 150 employees a year and a half ago to roughly 500 today.
A lot of people are trying to eat healthier and have little time to invest in cooking or finding choice ingredients, creating significant demand in certain markets for Snap’s healthy and environmentally-friendly ready-to-go meals.
“I think people are more cognizant of what they’re eating,” he said. “People care more about balance. We’re not a preachy brand. We’re not going to tell what you should or shouldn’t do. We want to give you as many choices as possible so you can.”
The company’s growth has been fueled by several major rounds of funding, including the $22 million invested by Snap Kitchen founders and consumer-focused private equity shop Catterton Partners in July. Snap Kitchen, founded by Berson, formerly a managing partner at Benjy's Restaurant in Houston, and Bradley Radoff, a partner at Fondren Management LP in Houston, also reported $13 million in funding in 2013. The company is using that to open new stores, investigate new markets and explore the latest technology available to make it even easier for consumers to get Snap meals.
“We think that there is a ton going on in the food tech space, and, from our standpoint, there’s a big opportunity and a lot of white space,” Berson said. “If you think back even 5 years ago, Uber didn’t exist. The ability to be geo-fenced wasn’t quite there yet. A lot of existing apps were sort of buggy, and it was difficult to get accurate information. Now it seems like anything you want is at your finger tips.”
He said Snap Kitchen prides itself on providing accurate and transparent nutritional information to customers, and he sees an opening for integrating Snap’s detailed nutrition figures into smartphone-based diet programs. He said Snap has also been monitoring how on-demand ordering and delivery have advanced. But Berson said Snap isn't yet ready to say which direction the company may go with new technologies.
“There’s so much opportunity there,” he said. “The end goal is making sure we stay as relevant and convenient to our customers as we can.”
In conjunction with its latest, $22 million funding round in July, Snap Kitchen hired former Weight Watchers executive David Kirchhoff as its new CEO. Berson will remain engaged on a day-to-day basis.
Berson said Kirchhoff is already having an impact as the Snap Kitchen eyes expansion.
"We searched for the right person for a couple months," Berson said. "We're just crazy with David. He's only three weeks in, but he's had a massively positive impact already."
