By Melanie Balinas
For WisBusiness.com
Hungry and you’re out of ramen noodles in your apartment? No crackers to snack at work? Busy college students and working professionals have found that online food ordering is easy and convenient – and a growing market for companies.
That’s where U Connect LLC wants to feed a market opportunity. Started in 2009 by three UW-Madison students, U Connect is a software company specializing in facilitating the food ordering process from local restaurants.
“We wanted to offer a free service to the Madison community. Many competitors were charging fees to use their services and we wanted to make ours free for all of Madison to enjoy,” said Matt Howard, founder and CEO.
U Connect’s current sites are BadgerBites.com for Madison, ICEats.com for Iowa City and BrewCityBites.com for Milwaukee. These sites are used to order food from various area restaurants and pay online.
U Connect is planning to expand to 30 new cities over the next year.
“The cities are chosen because of the size of the student population, limited presence of competition and the number of restaurants that do delivery,” Howard said.
Howard said that U Connect is targeting college students and professionals because of their affinity for online commerce.
U Connect is already seeing success in Madison, Milwaukee and Iowa City, generating about $3,000 weekly in revenues from those locations.
U Connect’s websites allow users to log on and view different restaurant menus, place an order and pay for food. It’s free for users, with no service fees and is has lower rates for restaurants than the competition. U Connect will also run promotions or specials of various restaurants free of charge.
Howard claims the success is due to two factors: customer service and tailored software.
“Restaurants love the fact that we have a campus manager in each city — this allows us to advertise as well as help with any problems. Secondly, we have tailored our software to meet the needs of our growing customer base. We listen to our customers and make the necessary modifications to ensure we have the easiest to use website in the industry,” Howard said.
The two main competitors of U Connect are GrubHub.com and Seamless.com, but neither of those companies are hitting the same main customer market, Howard said. U Connect is trying to hit the two newer, niche markets of college campuses and office professionals during the lunch hour.
U Connect also differentiates itself because it’s free for users and has no added service fees. Restaurants also benefit because of its lower rates, almost half as much as the others. U Connect also is the first to start working with non-profits and student organizations by donating.
The site founder sees the potential and planning of U Connect leaving them in a prime spot for acquisition by the larger companies within the industry. Within a few years, Howard said, U Connect could potentially be sold for $10 million to $20 million.
— Balinas is a student in the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication.
