Backstory: I have a friend who is a server at Buffalo Wild Wings. Sometimes we hang out after he closes the restaurant. Whenever this happens, he always brings leftovers for us to eat. He says that most of the food he brings back are mess-ups from the kitchen. This sounds pretty wasteful to me.
The Idea: An app where you can buy back unused food from local restaurants at majorly discounted prices.
Deep Dive: The app would have a customer-facing side, similar to Uber Eats or Postmates. Whenever a restaurant had a mess-up or accidentally made an extra plate, they could post it on the app for a discounted price.
Users could get alerts whenever a new item is posted in their area. These alerts could be toggled on or off depending on if they’re actually looking for food or not.
Validation: Who doesn’t want a discounted meal?! Also, this is definitely a problem in the restaurant space. I also used to work at a restaurant when I was in high school, and we had about 2-3 wrong orders placed for every 6-hour shift that I worked. I think this is a win-win for both the consumer and the restaurants. Consumers get cheaper food, and restaurants don’t have to lose money on wasted food.
Monetization: There’s a bunch of different ways to monetize this:
1) Charge the restaurant a fee for every transaction (similar to how Uber takes a cut of the drivers services)
2) Charge the restaurant a fee for every transaction
3) Charge restaurants an annual fee to use this service.