This sounds a lot like Spyce, a robotic grain bowl restaurant that's been open in Boston for a few years. Not a criticism, there's obviously room for more than one of this kind of place in the world, but were they an inspiration for you? Even your motivation for starting the company is similar to the Spyce founders: https://boston.eater.com/2018/4/27/17290330/downtown-crossin...
It makes perfect sense that their motivations are similar. I can't think of two bigger reasons than lack of time and lack of funds to have quality, healthy food that's cheap or quick.
It's also funny to see the Spyce creators complaining about $10-$12 meals, when the prices on the website range from $10.40-$11.90.
Yes we're very familiar with Spyce; I've actually eaten there myself. Our motivations are pretty similar but our approaches are different – they've been doing walk-in style partially-automated restaurants (although they've recently pivoted; I know less about the new direction) while our "auto-kitchens" are totally automated, more like a big/complex vending machine.
I also came to say it reminds me of Spyce (in a good way!). I was I think pretty close to their number one customer for a while before I changed jobs / locations.
The business model and approach does look pretty different, but the types of meals look vaguely similar. I'm curious if that's just because when you start thinking about what types of meals can be automated (partially or fully) it pushes you in that general direction. If you don't mind sharing, what was the process like for figuring out what types of meals could be cooked by robots?
You can do a lot with bowl-style meals but they're also simple to assemble! That said, Spyce does a "stir fry" style approach while we do a more traditional "keep ingredients separate" serving style. We picked Mediterranean food first because we like it a lot ourselves, it's healthy and tasty, and does well with our process – but we'll be expanding to other cuisines too.
