We’re sorry, it’s true: even your mom can’t cook a lunch this good

From just beyond the side door of our office, we hear the sound of feet bounding up the stairs — two at a time.

We’re on the fifth floor of a small warehouse in the Old Port, and for the last month, our elevator’s been broken. (All good things take time, and apparently elevator maintenance is one of those things.)

So as the doors swing open and a young man steps through, we’re surprised that he hasn’t broken a sweat when he calls out “Kirill!” with a smile on his face.

This dude is limber. Even with a gargantuan bag on his back, he strolls through the office with gusto.

Approaching my desk, he slings the camel-hump-sized bag off his back and pulls out our lunch: two home-cooked meals from FreshMint, the Montréal food delivery startup.

Felix will bike more than 15 to 25 kilometres during the typical lunch hour — ferrying food between Old Port, Chinatown, Little Burgundy and everywhere in between.

In the two years since the company’s inception, Felix and his fellow bikers have watched the FreshMint grow from humble upstart to gourmet-delivery empire.

It’s an empire built on the bellies of hungry office workers and munchie-stricken students. For them, FreshMint provides all of the conveniences of fast-food (like price and speed) but with all of the added benefits of home-cooked meals: they’re wholesome, tasty, and filled with fresh ingredients.

The formula behind FreshMint’s success is simple enough: create quality, home-cooked meals, price them affordably, and deliver them quicker than anybody else. A simple formula, sure, but one that’s been brilliantly executed by the chefs, coders, and athlete cyclists at FreshMint. If things continue at the current pace, it won’t be long before the company becomes the biggest gourmet-delivery service in Canada.

But while its ambitions have no bounds, FreshMint, the company, is pureblood Montreal.

Founded by Côte-des-Neiges native Daniel Perel and his friend Cherif Habib, FreshMint has managed to create a Montreal-based supply chain that extends all the way from farm to fork — even though the company has never accepted any outside funding.

In its quest to build a profitable and sustainable business, FreshMint controls (and optimizes) every single aspect of its operation: the company runs its own in-house ordering system, it develops its own sales and logistics software, employs its own chefs and sous-chefs, sources its food from local farmers, and employs the bravest team of bikers the city has ever known. (The bike couriers work 12 months a year — there is no such thing as a “snow day” at FreshMint).

Bootstrapped from head to toe, FreshMint is very much a homegrown product. But every once in a while, reinforcements have to be called in….

A few months back, Daniel and Cherif decided that after two years, it was time to give their website a refresh. They wanted a website that was responsive (aka it didn’t get all garbled when viewed on a mobile device), reflected their wholesome company aesthetic, and that put their menu front and centre.

While Daniel and Cherif could have outsourced the work to a number of freelancers, they chose to send their project through Crew (that’s us!).

Over the past 3 years, we’ve connected people like Daniel and Cherif who are looking for help with their website, app, or branding, with our community of hyper-talented designers and developers.

After hearing the issues that FreshMint was having with their old website, we put them in touch with Luke. He’s a veteran Crew member whose team has worked on projects for Skullcandy, Basecamp, Zappos, and a small Los Angeles start-up called Tinder. How good is Luke? Ask his old boss:

“They are the best.” — Sean Rad, CEO of Tinder

FreshMint worked with its design team, 26lettres, to draw up sketch for their new site, and sent the drafts over to Luke. Luke then took FreshMint’s vision for their new website, and translated it into elegant, responsive code. Afterwards, he connected it all to FreshMint’s database, ensuring that no FreshMint order ever gets lost.

While FreshMint’s old site was fresh, FreshMint’s new site is supa-fresh. You can now:

• Know exactly what’s on the menu for the day
• See the lower prices offered to FreshMint members, and
• Order directly from the homepage — even dessert!

The new functionality makes it easier to place orders, and the design makes it easier for potential customers to learn how FreshMint deliveries work. There’s even a download link for their app — a godsend for FreshMint regulars! — which lets you place an order even faster.

Everyday, we work with entrepreneurs and companies from all over the globe. But there’s just something so damn special about working with someone who works across the street. (Especially when they can reward your services with Guinness braised beef).

So as we watched Felix pedal off with his humongous backpack — headed off to feed some other hungry Montrealers — we felt pretty good about having played a small part in FreshMint’s quest to bring healthy, sustainably-sourced food to the masses. We know that it’s only time before the whole city knows their name.

And with that said, we’re going to stop writing.

We’ve got a sizzlin’ order of FreshMint to eat.