When someone says ‘food’ what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Is it the meal you ate most recently? Is it your favourite food item? Or have you just never really given it much thought…

When we first started out with Thrive, our main aim was to make the lives of restaurateurs easier, more seamless, and profitable too. Today, we’ve expanded that vision tenfold. For consumers, the experience of ordering food is tainted. It’s smeared by discounts, manipulated by algorithms, and influenced rather heavily by sponsored listings. In the chaos of our daily lives, we’re pushed to rely on these suggestions given by conglomerates and platforms, so we don’t really think twice about it.

However, what if there was such an app out there that could give you the realest suggestions, aid your process of food discovery, and give you a platform to unabashedly voice your opinion about the food you eat, all while allowing you to place orders from the best restaurants in the city? Well, I would conclude that it does seem like a great app to have in your library. So we went out and made it.

You may have noticed the new look, new branding, and overall differing ethos. Here’s why we did what we did -

For us to truly be able to help restaurants at the scale we would like to, we had to attempt to solve the pertinent problem of food discovery. Low commissions don’t really mean too much if we can’t generate the demand to support it. Whether with our direct solution, or our consumer app, we’re always going to be placed in the same pool as the dominant aggregators in the space. Everyone in the F&B space is aware that these are not profitable platforms for restaurants unless you’re paying low double-digit or single-digit commissions and have a large brand following.

The need of the hour was to break or at the very least, destabilise this duopoly. It has been one of the biggest asks from restaurant partners, and so we went for it. However, the biggest blocker for us was that we couldn’t build our consumer platform as the aggregators did. It’s like playing catch-up on two mountain climbers climbing Mt. Everest, and they’re already on Base Camp 2, while you haven’t bought your equipment yet, nor do you have the money to. To top it all off, you don’t even know where Nepal is. You catch my drift.

So, we took a few steps (further) back and tried to understand the root of the problem, our beginning. The main issue as I brought up in the opening paragraphs is that food is now viewed as a transactional commodity. Just something to fill your stomach instead of the cultural and social enigma it is. It brings people together, no matter which part of the world you reside in. It is a conversation starter for someone nervous on their first date, and a sense of nostalgia for a couple who cooked their favourite meals together for 50+ years. It seeds itself in our relationships, and can’t be weeded out - ever.

So, we took food back to its true form, as it should be, innately social. We knew people wanted to talk about food, we just needed to give them an outlet to do so. In comes the Thrive Feed. A trusted community of foodies, who can ask for or dish out the best recommendations in town, put out hot takes on food through posts, and curate lists of their favourite restaurants and food. The feed culminates the essence of our thought process and it all boils down to how individuals shed light on an item that influences their everyday life - the food they eat.

Another defining factor, apart from the Thrive feed, is the strides we’re making when it comes to a one-of-a-kind differential commission structure. We put it together in such a manner that we take into account a repeat purchase by a consumer, hence aiding acquisition along with retention. Here’s how it goes -

1. 14% on orders placed by new customers

2. 10% on orders placed by repeat customers (given that they place the repeat order within 60 days)

This gives restaurateurs an incentive to work on retaining customers, instead of rushing behind just another order from another masked consumer they know nothing about. Of course, it goes without saying, they will still retain complete and transparent access to their customer data.

There are a bunch of pertinent outcomes we wish to record from people knowing about, using, and consuming the app. Our main motive? To push consumers to get personal about the food they eat, and get candid about their expression when it comes to food too! The new Thrive is brash, it’s unruly, and it isn’t afraid to shake the status quo. Our ethos focuses majorly on getting real, calling a spade a spade, and calling food like we see/eat it.

Download the app to experience what we’ve been harping on about, and to start taking food personally. If you’re a restaurant in Mumbai, sign up with us!

We hope you stay along for the ride, it’s going to be a long one.