Meet Joe Capone of FoodSquire in Marshfield

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Capone.

Joe, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We started after experiencing huge frustration with having to wait on hold for crazy amounts of time when trying to order lunch or dinner. The kids wanted our attention and we were starving. Over and over again – please hold. Then the order would show up and something would be missing or our specific request to hold the mayo, etc would not have been acknowledged. We would then need to call the restaurant and we all know how that goes.

FoodSquire would be a local business that leverages tech in every possible manner to bring delivery to the people of the area. We could scale to whatever level we want and we can have our own delivery network in specific areas. It would be amazing!

As a computer programmer that owns and runs a web development company, we set out to build the perfect food ordering app.

We worked on it while we tackled client projects. Development went on for just about 20 months. We finally reached a point where all of our push notifications for the customer and merchant alerts were working and we had added a lot of features that we believed were critical.

We set out on our grassroots marketing efforts. We walked into restaurants with the folders and inserts that we had designed. “Let me tell you about our food ordering app that is based in Marshfield…” Restaurant owners loved it from the get-go. We had some restaurants that stopped us and said, “I want it!” Others took more coaxing but it was clear that it was going to be welcomed in the community.

We thought that everybody loves food and everybody can help. It ends up being something that benefits the local businesses and the hungry consumers. We would hire people to deliver food and that would help the community as well.

So build and build and build we did. We added features at the request of restaurants. There are some pieces of logic that you just cannot think of unless you get into the nitty-gritty of running that specific restaurant.

We plan to expand beyond the local area in eastern Massachusetts. Stay tuned. Mangia!

Has it been a smooth road?
The challenges and speed bumps came from all angles. We countered that with having more wins than we did losses. On we went.

It is challenging to build a business from $0 of revenue when the startup expenses can be staggering. We hired a Director of Operations before we had any revenue.

We did what we had to do to get our name out in the manner that wanted.

Revenue would, of course, be the biggest challenge. Building our systems to automate so much of our communication to drivers and merchants was challenging. We nailed that eventually after mapping out the sales flow and information that we wanted to pass along.

We are huge fans of form automation to send emails based on certain criteria and with specific time delays.

Another challenge had to do with getting all of the proper agreements in place for drivers. We had to straighten out our insurance needs and other legal requirements for delivery food. That was really made easier by having great people to lean on for advice and input.

The challenges will continue but the entrepreneurial fire burns on!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a food ordering and delivery app that is based in Marshfield, MA. Consumers can search by location, by cuisine type, etc. to find the perfect dish in their area.

We can deliver the food directly to them or the customer can pick it up. Tons of options.

Our drivers work when they want by switching the setting to “On-Duty” in our FoodSquire Driver app.

Merchants enjoy the benefit of seeing an increase in sales. Drivers are paid well and know that they can stay local to deliver to their favorite locations.

We have apps in the Appstore as well as in the Google Play Marketplace. Consumers can also order at our website.

Customers earn loyalty points to help to bring them back. Tons of notifications for any and all parts of the process. We believe in passing data to the customer, driver, and merchant whenever we can.

The restaurant backend has stats and analytics for best sellers as well as other features to help a restaurant to maximize their business efforts.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
We are based south of Boston. The area is perfect because there is a huge opportunity to grow and expand into other local areas.

There are so many great restaurants around us and with the quantity of restaurants being what they are, we are sure to have plenty of opportunities to grow our merchant list.

I would not choose a different place to start. We are far enough from Boston that we are not in direct competition with the larger competitors out there but we are close enough to plan our approach to the largest city in the area. Quincy makes for a great focus area as well and we can get to Cape Cod easily.

Location is not going to make or break us but we like what we have.

Pricing:

• For drivers, we pay $8 per completed delivery. If it is after 5 pm and the driver has a star rating of 4.7/5.0 or higher and they have done at least 5 deliveries – we pay $12
• Customers will pay a delivery fee of $4-$6 depending on the location. We urge customers not to top the driver since the driver is already being paid.

Contact Info:

• Address: 81 Tilden Rd
• Website: https://app.foodsquire.com
• Phone: (888) 538-5319
• Email: info@foodsquire.com

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