Cloud Kitchens: Providers, Ghost Kitchens, Virtual Restaurants

Food delivery apps are creating the chance for delivery-only restaurants to thrive.

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🔍 Problem

Traditional restaurants will lose in the delivery game unless they optimize.

🏁 Players

Cloud Kitchen Providers

• CloudKitchens
• Kitchen United
• Virtual Kitchen Co
• Fulton Kitchens
• DoorDash Kitchens
• Kitopi

Cloud Kitchen Restaurant Groups

• Rebel Foods
• Alt Grub Faction
• Keatz

Cloud Kitchen Dropshipper

• 2ndKitchen

🔮 Predictions

• Casual dining will become harder to find.
• Most restaurants will focus on efficiency or experience.
• We will cook for the experience instead of cost savings.
• More apartments will be built without full kitchens.
• Delivery-only restaurants will evolve faster as setup costs drop.

☁️ Opportunities

• Rent cloud kitchen space
• Build cloud kitchen equipment
• Start a delivery-only restaurant
• Start an upscale restaurant
• Make packaging for delivery restaurants
• Build software to track and improve delivery-only restaurant operations

😠 Haters

“This isn’t new. Takeout/delivery joints have existed forever.”
Yes, but, recent logistic improvements and friction reduction takes this to another level.

🔗 Links

1. Virtual Kitchen Documentary — HNGRY
2. Delivery Only: The Rise Of Restaurants With No Diners As Apps Take Orders — NPR
3. How to start your own delivery-only, virtual restaurant — The Food Corridor
4. A16Z Virtual Kitchen Co Investment Thesis — A16Z
5. Ghost Kitchens: Their Rise and Why They’re Here to Stay — FsR
6. Why ‘ghost’ restaurants are changing the delivery game — Restaurant Dive
7. The Rise of the Virtual Restaurant — New York Times
8. Is Tech Destroying Restaurants? — Slate
9. Ghost kitchen — Wikipedia
10. Million Dollar Brainstorm – Cloud Kitchens, Kava Bars & Religious Products — My First Million