Bizchallenge20506 Truck MSH
As part of the Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge, we look back on past winners. Today: DeliverLean
PEOPLE’S PICK: DELIVERLEAN
DeliverLean delivered.
It was a huge growth year for the young South Florida gourmet meal delivery service with a national appetite. Scott Harris co-founded the company, and its sister company OnJuice, to fight the obesity epidemic and because he saw a need in the marketplace for tasty, convenient meals.
When the company won the People’s Pick in the Business Plan Challenge, DeliverLean was already serving hundreds of customers in the tri-county area. Since then?
“We now have 21 delivery routes and well over 1,100 clients in South Florida and that number is increasing rapidly. January was our biggest sales month since inception,” said Harris, who co-founded the company with Olga Kuzenkov (both pictured above). “Along with winning the People’s Pick Award for the Miami Herald Business Challenge, we were also ranked eighth nationally in the Food & Beverage Category for the INC. Hire Power Awards.”
There have been no big changes to the business model, but there have been tweaks: “We’ve been expanding our options in order to give our clients more variety so that we can improve overall retention,” said Harris. “In this past year, we’ve added vegetarian, pescatarian and vegan meal plans to our already-expansive menu. We’ve also implemented an e-commerce section of our website for ease of ordering.”
DeliverLean is raising money for its national expansion: The first target will likely be New York City, a market six times the size of South Florida. The company presented at the Florida Venture Capital Conference last week to a packed ballroom of investors.
“We are improving our technology for more customization and a better customer experience and preparing for a national rollout into New York and the West Coast,” said Harris. “We’ll also be focusing on rolling out our direct-to-consumer raw snack brand and also on a kid friendly meal delivery service to help the younger generations build healthy habits at an early age. DeliverLean has a big year ahead.”
We'll continue to follow the progress of DeliverLean, as we do all our winners, throughout the years.
Read about the other winners in the Community Track here.
More about the Business Plan Challenge and to view the contest rules: MiamiHerald.com/challenge