THE ON-DEMAND ECONOMY HITS RESET
“WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ‘LYFT FOR FOOD’?”
IN 2013, GAGAN BIYANI WAS WORKING AS WHAT TECHIES LIKE TO CALL A “GROWTH HACKER” AT THE RIDE-HAILING COMPANY LYFT—HIS JOB WAS TO HELP LAUNCH ITS SERVICE IN LOS ANGELES, LYFT’S FIRST MARKET BEYOND SAN FRANCISCO—WHEN A CHILDHOOD FRIEND, NEERAJ BERRY, ASKED HIM IF HE’D BE INTERESTED IN APPLYING LYFT’S BLUEPRINT TO ANOTHER TYPE OF SERVICE.
Biyani, a cheerful entrepreneur who liked starting companies, didn’t see why not. Three weeks later, he and Berry and two friends quit their tech jobs to found Sprig, an on-demand virtual restaurant that let consumers order dinner from a limited menu of healthy, homestyle dishes via its app. Biyani was CEO.
Biyani wasn’t the only entrepreneur at the time who saw opportunity in the Uber-ization of things. (Only Lyft alums like Biyani perceived the trend as a Lyft-ification.) Although Lyft and Uber had yet to grow into the disruptive and highly valued transportation companies they are today, Uber, in particular, had already shown promise. Leaked documents from that time revealed that the startup had managed to squeeze $213 million in revenues from $1 billion in gross volume, and investors who had missed out on ride sharing were now scrambling to apply the same system—connecting an army of independent contractors with customers through an app—to other services. Laundry. Liquor shopping. Weed delivery. Dog walking. Car washing. And, of course, eating. Every chore could now be a button on
