• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

3

Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

3

Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
TechConnected Logistics

Munchery Cautiously Expands to Serving Lunch With This New Program

By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 6, 2016, 11:52 AM ET
Courtesy of Munchery
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Munchery, one of San Francisco’s handful of meal delivery startups, is finally expanding its service to include lunch—but it’s taking a safe approach.

On Thursday, the six-year-old company said it will start serving lunch to office workers whose employers sign up for a company account and order ahead of time. This way, Munchery hopes delivering several meals akin to a catering service to each office will keep its operations more efficient than if it ferried hot lunches one-by-one.

“We know, of course, that people eat more than just dinner,” Munchery co-founder and CEO Tri Tran tells Fortune. Unlike delivery services like Postmates and UberEats, Munchery makes its own meals instead of simply delivering them from a restaurant. It also sells meal kits that customers can cook in as little as 15 minutes.

Munchery’s new lunch service will be quite similar to how it’s been handling dinner for corporate customers. To feed employees at lunch, a company signs up for a corporate account, and then works out details like a minimum number of orders, whether it wants to entirely pay for its employees’ meals, or provide each one with a set amount of credits to use toward lunch. Munchery handles billing—even for individual employees who go above their company’s allotted lunch credits—and in some cases, may give an employer a discount if it commits to ordering a large number of meals on a regular basis.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Because employees can select whichever meal from the day’s menu (Munchery rotates dishes adds new ones on a regular basis), Tran hopes the new lunch service will be more appealing than bulk orders of a few dishes from one restaurant. The company tested the new lunch service with several companies in San Francisco, including Smart Sparrow and Cloudflare.

For Munchery, being able to plan in advance—employees have to place their orders the night before—and deliver an entire office’s meals at once is critical. A bit over a year ago, Munchery almost debuted a lunch service, but backed out at the last minute because it found its original idea too inefficient. Under that model, it planned to deliver lunch meals one-by-one to workers in select downtown areas in San Francisco, offering discounts when two or more customers in the same building placed an order within 20 minutes of each other. Ideally, coworkers would encourage each other to order from Munchery, which in turn would have a more streamlined delivery route if it dropped off multiple meals at once.

Though Munchery did a pilot test for a few weeks at the time, the company ultimately decided not to pull the trigger. As companies that deliver hot meals learn, it’s a difficult business with thin margins and a lot of operational challenges.

This isn’t the first time Munchery has made changes in the name of a more sustainable business model. In April, the startup rolled out a monthly membership fee for all new customers, leaving existing ones to decide if they want to switch. The membership model, Tran argues, lets customers buy each meal at a slightly lower price than it used to cost. Of course, the real advantage is that it helps Munchery better forecast its revenue. It knows it can count on the monthly fees, while customers are likely incentivized to order on a regular basis so they don’t feel like they’re paying for a service they don’t use.

Not surprisingly, Munchery was only the latest so-called “on-demand” startup to adjust its business model in search of stability. Grocery delivery service Instacart has raised its delivery fees, while Zirx, a valet parking service has closed down its consumer service to focus on business customers with a more predictable revenue stream. And the list continues.

Many others that didn’t made such changes have perished already, including home cleaning service Homejoy, virtual assistant service Zirtual, valet parking startups Caarbon and Vatler, “Uber for kids” service Shuddle, and most recently, laundry service Washio.

About the Author
By Kia Kokalitcheva
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

rh
AIReid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman says SpaceX is ‘not an AI company’ and xAI is a ‘complete train wreck’—and there’s room for both OpenAI and Anthropic
By Nick LichtenbergJune 24, 2026
1 hour ago
Tesla cofounder JB Straubel’s first pitch to Elon Musk failed. Then he turned his ‘hobby’ into a $1.3 trillion success
SuccessBrainstorm Tech
Tesla cofounder JB Straubel’s first pitch to Elon Musk failed. Then he turned his ‘hobby’ into a $1.3 trillion success
By Rachel VentrescaJune 24, 2026
3 hours ago
Amazon Prime Day isn’t a midsummer shopping event anymore. Here’s what changed in 2026
RetailAmazon
Amazon Prime Day isn’t a midsummer shopping event anymore. Here’s what changed in 2026
By Vidhi Choudhary and Retail BrewJune 23, 2026
13 hours ago
The hidden cost of your AI rollout: burning out the high performers running it
Workplace Cultureburnout
The hidden cost of your AI rollout: burning out the high performers running it
By Mikaela Cohen and HR BrewJune 23, 2026
13 hours ago
Quantum computing stocks surge after Trump signed executive orders backing the sector
Investingquantum computing
Quantum computing stocks surge after Trump signed executive orders backing the sector
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 23, 2026
14 hours ago
Alan Greenspan testifying before the Senate Banking Committee.
BankingFederal Reserve
The man who invented the Fed’s magic trick just died. His successor is about to try it again
By Eva RoytburgJune 23, 2026
15 hours ago

Most Popular

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
Success
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
22 hours ago
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
Banking
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
By Jim EdwardsJune 23, 2026
24 hours ago
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 23, 2026
21 hours ago
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
Investing
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
By Nick LichtenbergJune 22, 2026
2 days ago
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
Success
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
By Sydney LakeJune 21, 2026
3 days ago
Texas and Charlotte used to build huge McMansions—now they're copying the California design tricks they once mocked
Real Estate
Texas and Charlotte used to build huge McMansions—now they're copying the California design tricks they once mocked
By Sydney LakeJune 22, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.