Startup Revolution: Meredith Sandland of Empower Delivery On How Their Emerging Startup is Changing the Game

An Interview With Dina Aletras

A strong mission: We are working to make restaurants better for everyone. Every single one of us is part of the restaurant ecosystem — from restaurant operators to drivers to consumers. And right now, everyone is losing. This purpose allows us to make better decisions and work toward an exceptionally better future where everyone wins.

Startups are at the forefront of innovation, driving change across various industries with fresh ideas and cutting-edge technologies. These emerging companies are not only disrupting traditional markets but also creating new opportunities and transforming the way we live and work. What makes these startups successful, and what can we learn from their journeys? As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Meredith Sandland.

Meredith Sandland is the CEO of Empower Delivery, a software company that enables restaurants to profitably and sustainably serve off-premise demand. Prior to this, she was Chief Development Officer at Taco Bell and COO at Kitchen United. Sandland is also the co-author of “Delivering the Digital Restaurant: Your Roadmap to the Future of Food” and “Delivering the Digital Restaurant: The Path to Digital Maturity.” She also co-hosts The Digital Restaurant podcast.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I ended up in restaurants accidentally, as I think most people do. Because of a recruiter cold call, I interviewed with Greg Creed (then the CEO of Taco Bell) and Melissa Lora (then the CFO) and I thought, “these are people I want to learn from.” Both are incredible leaders, and I am fortunate to have been able to work with them.

I have continued in restaurants because it is interesting, fulfilling, and fun. Restaurants are people-oriented, incredibly innovative and fast-paced. And there are natural experiments everywhere — across restaurant types and within brands across fleets of restaurants. The digitization of restaurants has only increased the pace of innovation and the types of tests restaurants can do.

I was the Chief Development Officer of Taco Bell when delivery became a thing. GrubHub and Seamless existed when I joined Taco Bell, but DoorDash and UberEats did not. I had a front row seat to watch how a very sophisticated restaurant chain reacted to such an enormous change in consumer demand. And I was responsible for integrating these changes into the four walls of the restaurant through our designs, remodels, and new builds.

Now, consumers have delivery as an option, but it’s both incredibly expensive and an inconsistent experience. High costs, poor service, and disappointing food quality are all too common. In survey after survey, it is the lowest customer-satisfaction channel of any restaurant interaction with guests. The third-party system is a broken system, and it’s not sustainable for the future.

Because I believe delivery can bring affordable access to nutrition for anyone who doesn’t have the time, ability, or energy to cook, I want to see delivery be the best version of itself. This purpose has taken me to write a book, to host a podcast, and now to lead Empower Delivery, where we’re building the technology to make delivery simpler and more affordable for restaurants and consumers.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

We are partnering with some really exciting, forward-thinking restaurants who place a high value on their brand experience. We all know that how food gets delivered makes a big difference on how people think about a restaurant. But the third-parties don’t care about a restaurant’s brand or the guest experience, and in many ways actively hurt the relationship between restaurant and consumer.

What Empower Delivery is doing is helping these restaurants run their own delivery program in-house. Empower Delivery’s truly innovative technology enables any restaurant to have dedicated, gig drivers, so they can manage their own delivery experience from start to finish without compromising on quality, profitability, or the brand experience. As a team, we’ve been laser focused on making the driver experience great, which in turn makes the guest experience great. When guests are happy, they give restaurants repeat business, which makes the restaurant experience great. We want to get the message out about the magic of this approach so more like-minded restaurants can do the same.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. What was the initial inspiration behind your startup, and how did you turn that idea into a reality?

We are a unique startup in that we spun out of a successful restaurant called ClusterTruck, the busiest and most profitable delivery kitchen in the US. Its founders, Dan McFadden, who is now our CTO, and Chris Baggott, who is now on our board, saw that restaurant delivery was growing, but it was a terrible experience. They launched ClusterTruck on the belief that the enemy of good food is time.

To make this work, they created a software that improves driver efficiency to ensure guests receive fresher food, faster. And it works. Out of a single location, ClusterTruck does 800–1,000 deliveries per day. Today, ClusterTruck continues to serve great food, and the software is now a standalone business that any restaurant who wants to do delivery well can use.

I joined Empower Delivery as CEO in 2022, because once I saw behind the scenes at ClusterTruck, I couldn’t unsee it. It’s truly the future of restaurants. And Empower Delivery software is the foundation on which restaurants should run. We are still turning our vision for the future of food delivery into reality, and we’re only at the beginning. It only gets better.

Can you describe a significant challenge your startup faced and how your team overcame it?

The hardest thing about a startup, if it’s truly disruptive, is that most people don’t get it. Or sometimes are even outright hostile to it. Empower Delivery is not marginally improving restaurant delivery, we are completely reimaging it.

Most restaurants added delivery to their operations as an afterthought, and an incremental foundation is what delivery has been built on. Every few months, there is a new problem from third-parties that operators have to solve. They’re exhausted. They know they need to fix it. They want to fix it. But additional incremental methods of solving this problem don’t work.

A problem this complex can’t be fixed with a widget that adds on to your tech stack. Restaurant tech today is just adding layers to an already flawed and struggling system. If we imagine a future where delivery demand is 10x greater than today, everything would collapse. The only way to fix it is to reimagine and rebuild it from the ground up — with delivery at the forefront of how a restaurant operates.

What strategies have you found most effective in scaling your startup and reaching a wider audience?

Our software spun out of a successful restaurant. Most of our team comes from restaurants. I’m fortunate to be an author and podcast host in the restaurant industry. As a company, we deeply understand the problems restaurant operators deal with on a daily basis, and we’re able to address all the nuanced and unique challenges they face.

We also have a really compelling story and vision. When we talk about Empower Delivery at conferences and on podcasts, people get it. Finally, we have the team that can really bring that vision to life and make it a reality for our customers. All of this means we not only see a better future, we know how to create it.

How do you foster innovation within your company to stay ahead of the competition?

We are incredibly fortunate to have an innovative team who thinks from first principles rather than comparing ourselves to competitors. What this means is that we are always questioning assumptions. Restaurant technology is rife with old ways of thinking, and most of our competitors rely on existing strategies that will continue to create problems. We see this happen in other industries all the time, where companies fail to see that things can be better and get left behind. Think of what Amazon did for delivery in retail.

We’ve taken a bold step away from the status quo. We have completely reimagined what restaurant delivery could be, and created an entirely unique model that integrates cutting-edge technology and new operational strategies to rebuild the restaurant and delivery experience from the ground up. Because that’s what’s necessary for restaurants to thrive as delivery demand grows in the coming years.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful And Innovative Startup” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. A strong mission: We are working to make restaurants better for everyone. Every single one of us is part of the restaurant ecosystem — from restaurant operators to drivers to consumers. And right now, everyone is losing. This purpose allows us to make better decisions and work toward an exceptionally better future where everyone wins.

2. Deep industry knowledge and empathy: Every restaurant is a little different. They each have their own specific needs and challenges. Having a team that is deeply entrenched in this industry means we can tackle these challenges from a place of deep understanding, and means our customers trust what we can build together.

3. Start from first principles: To find innovative solutions, you have to challenge the status quo and question existing assumptions. You have to get obsessed with the problem and be able to look at it with fresh eyes. This is why we are completely reimagining food delivery, because the current system is flawed, and will collapse over time.

4. A long-term view: It may take 10+ years before your radical idea becomes the obvious status quo. You have to be in it for the long-haul, which means you’ll be more particular about the people you work with — co-founders, investors, and customers alike. We are all on board toward the same future, but we have to build it step-by-step.

5. Simple solutions: One of our company values is “make the complex simple.” This is important for technology, which can very easily become convoluted. Restaurant technology can be stressful, but we believe it should feel seamless and magical. Food delivery should feel seamless and magical. That doesn’t happen when you layer complexity on top of complexity.

More than four out of five startups fail. What have you done to break out from that pattern, and be successful when so many others have not?

Startups are not for the faint of heart. If you have started a company, by definition you are making something that did not exist before, and that is hard work. To make it through the difficult times, you have to really believe in it. Our team really believes in the magic of our technology. Our customers really believe in our mission and the future we’re building together. We are very selective about the investors and partners we work with because we know our approach isn’t for everyone (yet!). But for those it suits, it’s transformative.

We are always thinking 10+ years ahead. The phrase “10 year overnight success” exists because most of the things that seem to appear out of nowhere were actually a long time in the making. We know we are building step-by-step toward a long-term future. I expect I will work with our investors, customers, and co-founders for 10+ years. You have to really love what you are doing and love the people you are doing it with, and know why you’re doing it. We all believe restaurant delivery is fundamentally broken, and that it will take time to fix it. And we are ready to put in the work to make it happen.

Because of the role you play, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

My personal mission is affordable access to nutrition. I am very proud of working at Taco Bell, which has the lowest fat beef in the fast food industry, the least fried food in the industry, and a vegetable on many of the menu items. There has been an explosion in nutritional science over the last 20 years. We know what is good for us, and as stewards of the food industry, it’s our job to make those things accessible to everyone. And that starts with making food in general more affordable and accessible. Then we build from there.

This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.

About the Interviewer: Dina Aletras boasts over 20 years of expertise in the corporate media industry. She possesses an in-depth understanding of growth, strategy, and leadership, having held significant roles at some of the UK’s largest media organizations. At Reach PLC, the UK’s largest tabloid publisher, she served in various director capacities. Additionally, she held leadership roles at The Independent Magazine Group and DMGT. Her extensive knowledge spans editorial, digital, revenue, sales, and advertising. Upon relocating to Switzerland, Dina took on the responsibility of managing and promoting the international section of Corriere del Ticino — CdT.ch pioneering the English page “onthespot.” She also was the Co-Editor of Southern Switzerland’s first official Italian and English bilingual magazine.