Gigamunch hit proverbial wall in December, going strong with new model
By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA
Enis Cirak says the Gigamunch team more or less hit the proverbial wall last December.
“All of the challenges were piling-up,” the Co-Founder of the food-focused start-up said. Fast forward a few months into spring, and the outlook is much better.
“We’re going strong with our new model,” the former Tennessee Tech University student told us.
The company’s goal is to be the Etsy for cooking, connecting would be chefs who cook in their homes, not in restaurants, with customers who want to experience the pleasure of eating the food of many nations when there are not restaurants with that type of cuisine in their community.
We had not talked with Cirak, whose initiative has been described in several teknovation.biz posts, in probably a year before we ran into him in April during the inaugural “Nashville Startup Week.” Gigamunch was competing in the finals of the multi-night pitch competition.
While the company did not win, it made an impression on the judges and attendees by providing samples of the international food that it is offering under the revised business model.
“We were experimenting with different models last summer and fall,” Cirak said. “We kept running into challenges on both the cooks and eaters sides.”
With the help of family time during holidays, the team came back with a fresh perspective and a new business model.”
“If we do a subscription model, it will solve a lot of issues,” Cirak said, noting that an important consideration was a level of predictability for the cooks.
When we talked with the Co-Founder, Gigamunch had signed-up eight cooks and had about 20 subscribers. Three of the cooks featured on the webpage have very diverse culinary backgrounds from their experiences in Asia, Bosnia, Italy, and Jamaica.
There are two subscription options – dinners for two at $15 each or family dinners at $14 per person. They are delivered free of charge by the Gigamunch team in Nashville only.
The delivery aspect presents its own set of challenges, so Cirak says Gigamunch is looking for a partner to assume that role. Once the logistical issue is addressed, the company can sign-up more cooks and expand its delivery days.
The Gigamunch team has progressed this far with one successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $10,633 and $4,000 in prize money from the Tennessee Tech “Eagle Works Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.”
Going forward, Cirak and his teammates are focused on growth on two fronts.
“We’re running booths at events like TEDx Nashville to get more customers,” he says, adding that he’s also seeking to connect with individual angels. “We need investment capital to expand the business.”
