Clout Kitchens

Clout Kitchens: celebrity-branded virtual restaurants on delivery apps

Guest Stu Iverson's idea, ranked among Shaan's favorites: instead of celebrity brick-and-mortar restaurants, influencers and celebrities launch branded virtual restaurants on DoorDash and Uber Eats, fulfilled by cloud kitchens or existing restaurants behind the scenes.

“And he's like, you know, these celebrities create their own restaurant chains. I think people are gonna do this as cloud kitchens on top of Uber Eats, DoorDash, et cetera. So I thought it was a great idea. I put it in my newsletter, 'cause I started ranking in my newsletter some of our best ideas, right?”

Steal thisPartner an influencer with a cloud-kitchen operator to launch a branded delivery-only restaurant overnight in dozens of cities.

MrBeast Burgers hits #1 app, 200 locations overnight via cloud kitchens

Shaan breaks down MrBeast (50M+ subscribers) launching MrBeast Burgers: the ordering app spiked to #1 ahead of Facebook and Instagram and crashed, and he deployed 200 locations nationwide overnight by tapping existing cloud-kitchen infrastructure, with some dishes fulfilled by other restaurants.

“so his app for MrBeast Burgers goes to number 1 on the store ahead of Facebook, ahead of Instagram, ahead of— he spikes to number Number 1 on the store yesterday. The app crashes because tens of thousands of people are trying to order burgers in their cities at once. He deployed his restaurant in 200 locations overnight because it's a cloud kitchen. So in all the cities where they already had cloud kitchen infrastructure, he kind of organized this so in one day he could have 200 locations nationwide. Fucking brilliant, right?”

White-label mom-and-pop restaurants into delivery-only brands

Shaan describes a company he wants to invest in that sits between restaurants and cloud kitchens: it creates consumer-facing delivery brands but fulfills orders through existing mom-and-pop shops, owning no kitchens, labor, or equipment, just the brand and the marketplace listings.

“There's a company that's doing something in the middle. They're creating a brand like a cloud kitchen, but they're fulfilling it using real restaurant staff that already exists. So they don't, they're basically creating these cloud brands that are consumer-facing, like it might be Pizza and Pies, right? And Pizza and Pies is their, Pizza Hut is their brand name, but what they're actually doing is they're fulfilling by using actual pizza shop, mom-and-pop pizza shops that don't know the first thing about technology.”

Steal thisBuild delivery-only brands and fulfill them through existing mom-and-pop kitchens, handing them a tablet and taking a marketing upcharge.

Clout Kitchens: influencer-branded cloud kitchens

Stu pitches 'Clout Kitchens', delivery-only cloud kitchens fronted by food influencers, the way Kylie Cosmetics and Fenty paired a celebrity name with a behind-the-scenes incubator. The influencer brings distribution and recipes; the operator handles formulation, marketing, and execution.

“So something that I've been thinking a lot about, which I'm calling— are you ready for it— Clout Kitchens, is influencer-based cloud kitchens. Okay. And so if you look at the, the, the expansion of influencer marketing, and not just influencers as a pay-to-play scheme that startups are, or large corporates are working with to hawk their products, but instead actually having these influencers build real businesses.”

Steal thisPair a food influencer's audience and recipes with a cloud-kitchen operator to launch a delivery brand with near-zero startup cost.