Wonder Buys Tastemade – Is Mark Lore Trying to Give Everyone Their Own Personal Chef?
In the latest edition of Omni Talk’s Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Simbe, Infios and Ocampo Capital Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss how Wonder has scooped up Tastemade for $90 million as part of its grand plan to become the super app of mealtime. Chris and Anne dissect the strategy behind combining streaming food content with real-time delivery via Grubhub and Blue Apron—and whether Wonder’s vision of democratizing personal chefs can actually scale.
(0:02) – Wonder acquires Tastemade to fuel its mealtime super app ambitions
(0:33) – Wonder’s pivot from food trucks to centralized kitchens and restaurants
(1:14) – Grubhub and Blue Apron acquisitions—building blocks of a food empire
(1:40) – Marc Lore’s bold plan: Personalized chefs for everyone?
(2:03) – The appeal: choice, convenience, and reducing friction in mealtime decisions
(2:52) – Is it about delivery... or empowering consumers to cook with ease?
(3:36) – Advertising potential: Tastemade as a platform to subsidize costs
(4:46) – Scaling the logistics: Can Wonder handle the complexity at a reasonable price?
(5:29) – Bezos’ rule of choice, food as friction, and the psychology of convenience
(7:00) – Final verdict: Big risk, big vision—but is it big enough to work?
Marc Lore is betting big on food—and the way we eat might never be the same. Will Wonder change the game... or burn through billions chasing an impossible dream?
For the full episode head here: https://youtu.be/K-LainhQQyY
#wonderapp #tastemade #foodtech #mealdelivery #superapps #grubhub #cloudkitchen #venturecapital #retailinnovation #foodstartup
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Transcript
Wonder Mark Laurie's food delivery startup Chris, once known for its fleet of kitchens on wheels, said it has acquired the media company tastemade.
Speaker A:According to the Wall Street Journal, the purchase price was around $90 million.
Speaker A:Man, I want Mark Lori money.
Speaker A:How do I get Mark Lori money?
Speaker A:Chris, how do we do it?
Speaker A:Because it sounds amazing.
Speaker A:Timberwolves, you know, tastemades.
Speaker A:Buy whatever you want.
Speaker A:Okay, well, according according to people familiar with the transaction here, the deal is also the latest step in Wonder's effort to create a mealtime super app.
Speaker A: vertising business, wonder in: Speaker A:Shifting to a less complex, costly model, its flagship business now offers pickup delivery and dine in from multiple restaurant brands, prepping dishes in a large central kitchen and cooking them to order at 38 restaurant locations.
Speaker A: meal kit brand Blue Apron in: Speaker A:The acquisition means viewers who want to watch a famous chef make her signature pasta on a tastemade streaming channel, for example, may soon be able to easily order the dish to their door through Wonder grubhub or Blue Apron, tastemade co founder and CEO Larry Fitzgibbon said.
Speaker A:Chris, does Wonders tastemane acquisition make you more or less inclined to buy into Wonder's super app for mealtime positioning?
Speaker B:Oh, man, the super app positioning.
Speaker B:No, but I want to explain that, and I'm dying, too.
Speaker B:But yeah, first of all, the valuation for Wonder is out of control.
Speaker B: illion, I think they said no,: Speaker B:It's, if memory serves, and don't quote me on this, but I feel like Walmart acquired jet for 3.6 billion.
Speaker B:If I'm not mistaken, it was something like around that.
Speaker B:So, like, so this is.
Speaker B:This is like nuts.
Speaker B:It's out of control.
Speaker B:But I gotta tell you, and like, I don't know, maybe I hit myself on the head last night as I was getting out of the shower or something, but I kind of more and more like what he's trying to do here.
Speaker B:But instead of the super app for meal time, my handle would be like a personalized odd demand chef for anyone that wants one.
Speaker B:That's really, I think, what hooks me here.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker B:Not for mealtime.
Speaker B:I just don't get that.
Speaker B:I'm like, what is that?
Speaker B:But if you give me a personalized chef for everyone.
Speaker B:If anyone in the world can have a personalized chef, that's cool.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And Lori, like I mentioned earlier at the show, he's hitting on all the trends here.
Speaker B:He's hitting on Food is medicine, the inspirational social commerce and conference conversational commerce angles as well.
Speaker B:So you know, how.
Speaker B:But my one question with this, though, is how.
Speaker B:How in the world does anyone ever make money with that idea?
Speaker B:Like, the logistics of it seem just impossible to line up all the ingredients to be everyone's chef on demand.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But maybe there's like a middle ground here, an in between position that wonders trying to go for that.
Speaker B:I just don't understand yet.
Speaker B:And so, like.
Speaker B:But just on the pure audacity side of venture capital, going after something big and bold for an idea that has a hook and could work, I think for that reason, I think it's a great idea, and I actually like it.
Speaker B:And I don't know what's wrong with me.
Speaker B:I don't know if I have a fever.
Speaker B:I'm having a fever dream.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:But I actually like something that Mark Laurie is doing now.
Speaker B:I think people need to be cognizant of just how big they need to get behind this idea, which he's very good at doing.
Speaker B:But fundamentally, as a concept, I.
Speaker B:I like it in principle.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:But I.
Speaker A:So I won.
Speaker A:I love your.
Speaker A:Your I.
Speaker A:Your concept of, like, democratizing personal chefs for all people.
Speaker A:But, Chris, like, if you had a personal chef, what is the beauty of having that personal chef?
Speaker B:Like, the beauty of it is, like, all the ingredients that.
Speaker B:And again, you're gonna.
Speaker B:There's gonna be.
Speaker B:Have to be a high willingness to pay for this too.
Speaker B:But, But.
Speaker B:But the beauty of it is that the beauty of it is, like, you know, if you have dietary restrictions or whatever you're in the mood for, you can go on the app, you can get in.
Speaker B:You can actually just look through your social media feed.
Speaker B:And, you know, with AI, it should, over time be able to understand all those things.
Speaker B:So it can serve me up, like, 10 things I find inspiring for dinner.
Speaker B:Boom.
Speaker B:Click it.
Speaker B:I want it.
Speaker B:Here it comes to my house.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That's kind of cool.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, what you're getting to.
Speaker A:And the question that I was asking you is really, you have choice.
Speaker A:Because right now, when you get home and you want something to eat, you either have the option of making it, ordering all the ingredients, or going to the store to get all the ingredients or doordashing something and you know, you're getting the best case scenario.
Speaker A:And so what I actually really like about this is that when you look at all the pieces that Laurie's bringing together here, he's bringing in the more opportunity and choice for the consumer.
Speaker A:I think it still plays on Gen Z, especially their willingness to like doordash anything.
Speaker A:They'll doordash food instead of making it.
Speaker A:But instead of worrying of paying the fees to have that meal prepared, you, you could also potentially be like, you know what?
Speaker A:I, I'm in the mood for tacos tonight.
Speaker A:And you can do Blue Apron to your house in, you know, no time at all.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:And maybe that's a little bit less than ordering prepared tacos from your local taco restaurant like there.
Speaker A:I think it's giving people a little bit of an ability to lever up.
Speaker B:You could still cook it, you're saying, if you want to.
Speaker A:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker A:So I think that's the smart thing here.
Speaker A:Or you know, you're getting inspired by like you said, watching a cooking video and you want to do that thing.
Speaker A:Do you want to make it yourself that night or do you want it to come prepared for you?
Speaker A:Like I think it's taking all of.
Speaker B:Those trade offs, all that.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:That you cannot do right now.
Speaker A:And that's where it's like if we're using the term super app, I think that's where the, the beauty of this is.
Speaker A:Not that it's going to be like solving all of your problems and you only have one app that you're like, it's not Alibaba or something in China.
Speaker A:It's really just how do you figure out how to give people the most cost benefit and convenience benefit here to get what they want in a shorter amount of time that Blue Apron couldn't do on their own.
Speaker A:Grubhub can't do on their own.
Speaker A:And now finally you have an advertising platform where all of these brands now can potentially come in to help maybe even subsidize some of those delivery fees like that.
Speaker A:All of this money is being fueled into this organization to again continue to provide maybe more opportunities now for, for consumers to get this at a lower price.
Speaker A:Like you, you watch the full video or the full ad like we do on YouTube and then you get $5 off at the end your delivery or you get free delivery.
Speaker A:Like there's so many levers here that I think Mark Laurie is very smartly positioning for the next generation of food consumption and ordering.
Speaker A:So that's, that's where I think the magic really really comes into play here.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah, right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:No, you're bringing up some good points.
Speaker B:The devil's, of course, in the details of can you actually make this work at.
Speaker A:Oh, God.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Like.
Speaker B:Like assembling all those ingredients and getting them to be able to do this?
Speaker B:It just seems, like, impossible to me without, you know, charging just a hell of a lot of money, but I don't know.
Speaker B:Maybe.
Speaker B:But I think the point you're bringing up, though, is really interesting, is like, you know, the one.
Speaker B:It is a universal point of friction.
Speaker B:Food, you know, and what we eat is constrained by what we have available and what we know how to do.
Speaker B:And so this is eliminating that point of friction in people's lives, potentially, as a concept, because it gives you choice.
Speaker B:And, you know, what does Bezos always say?
Speaker B:Choice is one of the universal truths of the human psyche.
Speaker B:And so I think you're hitting on it, and I think.
Speaker B:Yeah, so we both like this.
Speaker B:I'm surprised.
Speaker B:I was kind of surprised that you're kind of in on this, too.
Speaker B:So that's fascinating.
Speaker A:Well, at this point in time, like, if Mark Laurie is going to do it, I need to learn a thing or two.
Speaker A:He needs to write a book so we can all learn how to.
Speaker A:How to just, like, open our mouths and no words come out and people just start throwing money at us.
Speaker A:This is.
Speaker A:I need to figure out how to.
Speaker A:How I can make a career out of that.
Speaker A:So I'll follow.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker A:Until this.
Speaker B:Yeah, until the.
Speaker B:Until, you know, until we find out what happens.
Speaker B:You know, we'll probably follow them on the next one, too.
Speaker B:It's an interesting pivot, though, too.
Speaker B:Like, you know, they start out with the food trucks, and we're always like, how's that going to scale?
Speaker B:You can't scale that.
Speaker B:You can't have food trucks everywhere.
Speaker B:You know, that's just not economical because you need one everywhere you go.
Speaker B:But, you know, if they can find a centralized kitchen, you know, and figure this out.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:Greater men than you and I, Greater men and women and everyone else than you and I have.
Speaker B:Have.
Speaker B:Have probably more experience on.
Speaker B:On the.
Speaker B:The cloud kitchen aspect of this, and.
Speaker B:But, God, it's audacious.
