Unicorns 73/229 – Blue Apron

Unicorns 73/229 – Blue Apron


Blue Apron

Founder / S: of Ilia Papas, Matt Salzberg, Matthew Wadiak
Key people: Matt Salzberg (Founder & Chief Executive Officer), of Ilia Papas (Founder & Chief Technology Officer), Matthew Wadiak (Founder & Chief the Operating Officer), Melody Koh (Product Manager ), Kathryn Bain (Creative Director) and Edgar Gonzalez (Senior WMS Engineering Manager)
Number of employees: 501 – 1k

History

Matt Salzberg (CEO), Ilia Papas and Matt Wadiak first starting customers boxes containing the ingredients to cook multiple recipes in August 2012, packing and shipping the first 30 orders themselves from a commercial kitchen in Long Island City. In May 2014, the company Announced in the opening of fulfillment center in Jersey City, New Jersey. In the opening of fulfillment center in Arlington, Texas in June 2015, the company To start shipping to the contiguous United States. The company published in February 2017 that it would be opening a fulfillment center in Linden, New Jersey.

Blue Apron Market

In November 2014, Blue Apron launched Blue Apron Market, an store featuring kitchen tools and cookware curated by Blue Apron.

Blue Apron Wine

In Friday, Blue Apron launched Blue Apron Wine, a direct-to-consumer wine delivery service that assays customers six 500ml bottles per month. The wines, made specifically for Blue Apron, are purchased directly from vineyards and sent directly to customers.

Sustainability

In 2015, Blue Apron began recruiting farmers that would work with the company to source ingredients for its recipes. Blue Apron provides organizational support so that crops are ready when needed, and plans its menus week what the farmers are growing

Blue Apron helps to abate food waste by portioning ingredients precisely so home chefs are not left with excess food. However, they have been critiqued for creating excess packaging waste from the exclusive packages ingredients. To combat this, the packaging is made of recyclable or biodegradable materials. Additionally, Blue Apron was one of the first meal kit companies to give customers the option of reduced packaging for recycling.