Hangry is an amazing new service that launched at UofT last month. Just download the app and you can find, order, and pay for food on campus using your mobile phone. On November 4, Hangry was featured on the CBC Television series Dragons’ Den. We sat down with Mark Scattolon and Fabian Raso, the co-founders of Hangry, to learn more about the service.
BlogUT: What makes Hangry so unique?
Mark: Hangry is designed specifically for college and university students – you will soon be able to connect Hangry to your meal plan, and you’ll earn reward points with every order. We know that busy students are convenience-cravers, and Hangry helps them save precious time by skipping the line. Hangry has also built sophisticated technology allowing students to track their order status as the kitchen receives, prepares, and completes their meal. Our back-end merchant algorithm ensures student’s food is always fresh, warm, and ready when they’re expected to arrive.
BlogUT: Why did you choose to launch at UofT?
Fabian: We’re so thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the University of Toronto, St. George Campus. With such an amazing campus in the heart of downtown Toronto, we know that students here have so much choice – about where to eat, what services to use and how to spend their time. The University’s food service department continues to think innovatively about their students’ on-campus experience, and Hangry is one way to deliver on that promise. We couldn’t think of a better school to launch at — and the response from the whole school community has been so positive.
BlogUT: Tell us about the Dragons’ Den experience.
Mark: After two years of planning and development, we launched at the University of Toronto and appeared on Dragons’ Den in the span of less than two weeks – so you could say we’re having an exciting month. As young entrepreneurs, it was incredibly inspiring to be in the same room as these five amazing business-people. It was even more inspiring to come out of there with a deal! We learned a lot about ourselves and our business as we went through the Dragons’ Den process, and we’re really grateful for that.
BlogUT: What’s next for Hangry?
Fabian: Building up our user base, for sure. That means getting the word out about Hangry to more students, faculty and staff at UofT, and getting the service into more schools across Canada. We’re getting ready to launch at five new schools in January, and continue to receive more requests from other schools to learn more. We’re ready to scale across Canada, and we’re optimistic about travelling across our border to the U.S. soon. Tell your friends!
BlogUT: What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?
Mark: Don’t be afraid of change. We originally launched Hangry to the general public in the individual restaurant space, but we saw an incredible unfilled need on campuses. We made a bold decision to pull out of our existing restaurant accounts, who were amazing partners but slow and costly to grow one-by-one, and shifted gears to solely focus on the campus market. This was the best decision we could have made. The response has been amazing from both students and campus food operators. We’ll admit it’s not what we would have predicted when we started out, but it’s better than we could have imagined. And remember to eat! It’s never easy to grow your startup when you’re ‘hangry’ with an empty stomach.