This week’s HNGRY Live featured Cindy Klein Roche, Chief Growth Officer at ezCater, the largest online catering marketplace featuring 125,000+ restaurants across the US with over $1bn in GMV. While Uber Eats and DoorDash built consumer delivery around ~$30 orders, ezCater is operating in a very different lane: $430 average order values, roughly half the commission of standard 3PD, and orders often sent to merchants 48+ hours in advance.

For restaurants, the pitch is simple: bigger orders, lower commissions, more predictability, and a channel that can generate incremental demand before the lunch rush begins. DoorDash has taken note, launching recurring and one-off catering functionality in SF and NYC two weeks ago. In the convo, Roche and I discuss the differences between on-demand delivery and online catering, how it leverages restaurants’ fixed labor costs to drive more profitability, and how it can also serve as an acquisition channel for future owned takeout, delivery, and dine-in occasions.