The buzz about GiftAMeal continues, with two wins at the RECESS Pitch Competition in Los Angeles: the Audience Choice Award and an award for best explanation video. The startup also locked in its first major corporate deal, and is now being featured at 32 Applebee’s locations in the region.
Aidan Folbe and Washington University in St. Louis senior, Andrew Glantz founded GiftAMeal, originally FoodShare. The old app had similar features, but operated as a point reward system spread over the participating restaurants.
Philanthropy was important to the founders since the beginning, as they pledged to donate a portion of their profits to fight hunger. Then, in June 2015, the founders decided to bring the meal donation out of the periphery and made their buy-one-give-one model central. They partnered with Operation Food Search and changed their name to GiftAMeal.
During this time, they added Jacob Mohrmann, now a Washington University graduate, to the team as chief marketing officer.
Read more in FUSE: Igniting Innovation & Connecting Entrepreneurs