espite being coastally challenged (currently living in Philadelphia), Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization. In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – an Internet information company. In 1996, Infonautics went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Why Real Food Works
Today I’m excited to announce First Round Capital’s investment in Real Food Works -- a Philadelphia-based company that offers subscription-based programs for home delivered meals. The company’s goal is to improve health by helping people to eat a real food diet for both weight loss and healthy living. Customers have an online portal where they manage their account and select meals. And weight-loss customers have weekly coaching sessions and track their behavior and results and interact with the company through an online portal.
The magic of their business model is the supply chain. The company uses local restaurants (and their excess capacity) to produce the food. Each dish is the restaurants' own creation, tailored to fit within stringent nutritional specifications. They create delicious dishes that contain all whole foods — and nothing processed or artificial, no dairy, and very little added fat, salt, and sweeteners. Each plan provides customers with meals from a variety of restaurants each week.
Personally, I’m excited about our investment here for a few reasons:
- First, as someone who’s been trying to avoid wheat and dairy for the last few years, I’ve had firsthand experiences with the challenges of finding quality food to accommodate a restricted diet. With Real Food Works customers don’t need to make a trade-off between good-tasting food and healthy food.
- Second, in addition to First Round Capital’s investment, Real Food Works is the first investment from the StartupPHL seed fund (a public/private venture fund that we run in partnership with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation to increase the availability of investment capital for Philadelphia-based startups). In fact, Real Food Works moved their offices to the city of Philadelphia as a result of the StartupPHL investment.
- Third, it’s great to be working with the company’s founder, Lucinda Duncalfe, again. I’ve known Lucinda for almost 20 years – and have invested in several companies she’s led (including Turntide – which was acquired by Symantec in 2004). I’m thrilled to be working with her again on this project.
They currently service the Philadelphia-area – so if you live in the region, please give it a try. It’s a great way to save time, lose weight and eat healthy! Or, feel free to join them for one of their free Farm Table Lunches!
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