- 1 week ago
Melissa Fahs, Vice President of Enterprise Partnerships at Coco Robotics, shares how autonomous delivery is changing the way restaurants get food to their customers. With Coco already completing thousands of deliveries, Fahs believes robot delivery can lower costs, protect food quality and fit seamlessly into restaurant operations.
Watch now to learn how autonomous delivery can lower costs, protect food quality and fit seamlessly into restaurant operations.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
Watch now to learn how autonomous delivery can lower costs, protect food quality and fit seamlessly into restaurant operations.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
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NewsTranscript
00:00In Miami, they get flooding rains, so our next model, which comes out this winter, fall,
00:06is actually submersible. It's not just waterproof, it's literally submersible.
00:20Welcome to Restaurant Influencers, presented by Entrepreneur. I'm your host, Sean Walchef.
00:24This is a Cali BBQ Media production coming to you from the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago.
00:31It's the biggest restaurant show on earth. We've been coming for five years.
00:35Thank you to Informa and the entire team for allowing us to tell stories from the ground.
00:39Thank you to Toast, our title sponsor, for believing in this show.
00:42We get to interview all of the greatest technologists, all of the greatest restaurateurs,
00:47all of the greatest service providers that are happening here at our restaurant in Chicago.
00:52What I care about is things that you guys need to know.
00:55If you aren't here at the show, what are the things that we're going to talk about
00:58that is going to inspire you to come the following year?
01:01What are the things that you can directly implement in your business?
01:03When I was at the Food on Demand conference, I got to see not the future of delivery,
01:09I got to see what is actually happening with delivery, logistics, and I got to see Coco Robotics.
01:16It's Melissa Favs, the VP of Enterprise Partnerships at Coco Robotics.
01:23I was so excited to learn from what you guys are building.
01:27Welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.
01:28Thank you so much for having me. Thrilled to be with you.
01:30I'm so happy that you guys are here at the show.
01:34I mean, obviously, why the National Restaurant Show?
01:37Why is Coco Robotics showing up here?
01:38Well, this is really the biggest show for the restaurant business.
01:42And what we've learned is that, to your point, I think for a while,
01:47people have thought that autonomous delivery is so much farther ahead.
01:50But it really is here today.
01:52And what I've learned after doing conferences is seeing is believing.
01:55Yes. Show me, don't tell me.
01:57Exactly.
01:59I've met a lot of restaurant groups that are interested in working with Coco
02:02after seeing the robot.
02:04Because you really understand, like, oh, it's actually, it's not scary.
02:07It's spacious.
02:08It's, you know, simple.
02:10And we can talk to them about how it integrates easily into their platforms
02:14and can bring costs down for consumers.
02:16So it's just a great show to be a part of.
02:18Tell us, high level, what is Coco Robotics?
02:21How big are you?
02:22How long have you been around?
02:22How many restaurants are you serving?
02:24So Coco Robotics actually launched in 2020.
02:26It was founded by two, basically, rocket scientists that met at UCLA.
02:31Fantastic.
02:32Yeah, they were, they both shared a passion for surfing.
02:35And they, you know, were just kind of looking around at the environment thinking, like,
02:39why are we using 5,000 pound cars to deliver a five pound bag of food?
02:43Yeah.
02:44They're like, there has to be a better way.
02:45And they set out to really create a purpose built vehicle for restaurant meal delivery
02:50and delivery of other items over time.
02:54And they kind of started, like, delivering on the UCLA campus for a little while
02:58and then expanded into, like, real commercial deliveries.
03:02The, you know, what it really offers is a very efficient, greener, snow emissions,
03:10safer way for people to get their food delivered, like, very quickly and conveniently.
03:15It's, the food is secure.
03:17It's locked in the robot.
03:19People can unlock it when it comes to their, wherever they are, their home or whatever.
03:24And they can order through DoorDash and Uber Eats to get it.
03:27Amazing.
03:27How many restaurants are you guys, where, what locations, where around the world are you guys using these robots?
03:32We are, we're actually at seven cities now.
03:34Seven cities.
03:35Seven cities.
03:37Yeah.
03:38We started in LA.
03:39Yep.
03:40And then Miami, Chicago, Jersey City.
03:43Just launched San Jose a couple weeks ago in the San Francisco area.
03:46And we also operate internationally.
03:48What have you learned about international robots?
03:52There's different rules and regulations.
03:55Yes.
03:55Around what you can and can't do in different markets.
03:58So, but to be honest, we've kind of learned it even in the U.S.
04:00Like each, each state, each city, you kind of have to go one by one on really getting alignment on
04:06the policy.
04:07Because we always want to participate with full alignment and permission of the government and the community.
04:13So, we actually go overboard on making sure that's done right.
04:17Because we really want to be a positive part of the culture.
04:20You know, I would say that overseas we were operating in Finland.
04:24Finland.
04:24Finland.
04:25Wow.
04:25So, we learned what happens when it gets really, really cold.
04:30And we learned that, like, we need a little bit more battery.
04:33Because the battery will drain that much, much faster when it's cold.
04:36We learned that we needed studded tires.
04:39So, we did that.
04:40Yes.
04:41We've learned a lot.
04:42What do you think about that?
04:42In Miami, we learned that, like, it's not enough to be waterproof.
04:46Like, in Miami, they get, you know, flooding rains.
04:50So, our next model, which comes out this winter, fall.
04:53Yep.
04:54Is actually submersible.
04:55Like, it's not just waterproof.
04:56Wow, really?
04:57It's literally submersible.
04:58So, that we can keep operating.
04:59So, it's submersible, and the food from the restaurant will not get wet?
05:04Correct.
05:04That's crazy.
05:05I mean, we don't want it to be submerged.
05:08Yes.
05:08But if it has to go through.
05:09But Mother Nature is Mother Nature.
05:11If it has to go through a deep puddle, we want it to be able to go through a deep
05:13puddle.
05:14So, I would say, like, with every city, we kind of learned.
05:16So, you learn, like, nothing in L.A. because the weather's perfect all the time.
05:19But then, Miami, we learned about the rain.
05:22And Chicago and Finland, we learned about the colds.
05:25And that's just making our next model even more robust.
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06:43Let's keep that momentum going.
06:48That'll be Cocoa 2.
06:49Why did you choose to make this leap?
06:53Why did you?
06:54What was the thing?
06:55From my prior career.
06:55Yeah, what was the buy-in moment?
06:59You know, I have been working in the space for a long time.
07:01Yep.
07:01So, right when it really started emerging in the U.S.
07:06And I was working with restaurant partners for the company I worked with.
07:10And they were really struggling with the commissions.
07:13And I think they had a perspective that, like, they were being charged really unfairly.
07:17And so, I unwound the value chain.
07:19Like, figured out where all the money was flowing.
07:21The last mile was broken.
07:23Exactly.
07:23Yeah.
07:24The last mile was broken.
07:25The cost equation has to change.
07:27And I think at that time they thought that self-driving cars were, like, five years away.
07:32But this was, like, back in 2012.
07:34Yeah.
07:35You know, and so we're still not there.
07:37Well, I don't know.
07:38I mean, I got into a Waymo.
07:40Well, we are there.
07:41At the Restaurant Leadership Conference.
07:43And it was just, it was an unbelievable experience because I felt so safe.
07:48Which is so weird.
07:49I felt so peaceful.
07:50I felt peaceful.
07:51They had great music playing.
07:52Yes.
07:52I'm like, it's like a spa.
07:54Yeah.
07:55Yes.
07:55It's amazing.
07:56No, well, we, I think they thought we would be at full-scale L5.
08:00Yeah.
08:01Autonomy.
08:02Of cars.
08:02And, you know, we didn't get there.
08:03So, I think that's okay.
08:06Because you still probably shouldn't use a car to deliver a small bag of food.
08:09It's just not the ideal purpose-built vehicle.
08:12So, when I left my prior company, I got introduced to Coco.
08:18And as I understood what the founders had built, and they, you know, to their credit,
08:22they built a very, very cost-efficient, on a unit economics basis, robot.
08:28Versus building the coolest, fanciest robot they could build.
08:32Which you would think rocket engineers could do that.
08:35And I was like, I looked at it, and I'm like, this is going to fix what's broken in third
08:41-party delivery.
08:42It reduces the tip.
08:43No tips for the consumers.
08:45It allows the restaurant to keep the food presented in the way it was prepared,
08:50at the temperature was intended.
08:52We always go one-to-one, like, direct from restaurant to consumer.
08:57So, then the food stays of highest quality.
09:00It's locked, like I mentioned.
09:02So, it's secure.
09:03And people like that.
09:04You know, there's some transactions where people want a human really involved,
09:08and there's some where it's okay not to.
09:11And so, I just see a lot of value being created for the consumer, for the merchant, for the cities,
09:16and the planet.
09:17Because we're also, every cocoa takes a car off the street.
09:20Yeah.
09:21And so, that's, you know, a lot of the cities that we work with are eager to kind of make
09:25their cities greener,
09:26and less congested, less polluted.
09:29Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada, and UK?
09:36It's an incredible company.
09:37I'm on the Toast Customer Advisory Board.
09:40They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.
09:42We couldn't do it without their support.
09:44They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
09:47If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at
09:54your restaurants,
09:55please reach out to me.
09:56I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.
10:00You can reach me at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
10:03Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology,
10:07the power of storytelling, the power of hospitality.
10:10Back to the show.
10:11Can you explain just the logistics if you're a restaurant owner that's watching this?
10:15Like, how does it work?
10:16It's super simple.
10:18We pride ourselves on being super simple for the operators.
10:20So, it basically operates like a fee per delivery.
10:24So, if you work with Uber Eats or DoorDash and Coco's in your market, you can ask Uber Eats or
10:28DoorDash to turn it on.
10:30Oh, wow.
10:30Yeah, it's that easy.
10:32There's no capital.
10:33You don't maintain it.
10:34You don't clean it.
10:36All you do is load your food in the robot and we take care of everything else.
10:40Amazing.
10:40We map the cities.
10:43We have human supervision so that if any kind of extreme edge case arises, we can deal with it.
10:49Like, jump in on top of the autonomous mobility that we have.
10:54And it's super simple.
10:56And that's what we want it to be because we understand the emergent challenge.
10:59Like, I always think about how I always tell people that I work with or that don't know the space,
11:05like, restaurants are running, like, mini factories, producing, like, widgets at a very rapid pace for, like, a very demanding
11:12consumer with entry-level labor.
11:14Like, that's so hard.
11:16Thin margins, perishable goods.
11:18Yes.
11:18All of the odds here against this industry.
11:21Like, could you do anything harder?
11:22I don't know.
11:23So, it's like, our robot has to be, like, so seamless.
11:26Coco has to be so seamless into their operation so that they actually love it.
11:31And we have had a region manager at Shake Shack said, Coco's our favorite courier of the organization.
11:39That's amazing.
11:40Yeah.
11:40So, that was really good to hear.
11:42I think one of the cool things that I learned at Food On Demand when you guys were talking was
11:46just how it goes from a novelty, meaning someone orders it,
11:50and then they are excited that the robot's coming and they take out their phone and they put a video
11:55that goes viral on TikTok or Instagram because, but then there is an expectation of, like, no, I want that.
12:02Right.
12:02Like, I can't even imagine, if my kids could see a Coco robot come to Eastlake, without a doubt, the
12:08Wolfpack would go nuts and that would be the only way that we would get food delivered to us.
12:12Yes, absolutely.
12:13Like, that's the world we live in.
12:14Yes.
12:15Like, and especially when you go with the economics behind it, the benefit to the restaurant, the benefit to the
12:20earth, the benefit, so many different benefits along that value chain.
12:24Yeah.
12:25And that's what I love about it because I want to do good.
12:27Yeah.
12:27Like, I want to create value.
12:28And I want to create value that's distributed, like, not just for one player in the chain, but everyone, you
12:34know?
12:34And we can do that.
12:35What's the most important thing you want?
12:36If I could get all of these 55,000 people into one room on one stage, what would you want
12:41them to know about Coco Robotics?
12:43I would want them to know what we said at the beginning.
12:45Like, it's here now.
12:46It's operating at scale.
12:47We do 1,000 deliveries a day in L.A.
12:49We've done over half a million deliveries since inception, over a million miles through all kinds of weather.
12:56It is in the future.
12:57It is here today, and it's super easy to get started.
13:01You know, I think what I'm seeing is, you know, we're now working with Little Caesars, Taco Bell, Shake Shack,
13:05White Castle.
13:06So, in addition to our 4,500 merchants, we also have big enterprises starting to not just ask questions, but
13:13actually start to explore.
13:15Yep.
13:16And, you know, it's a great time to learn.
13:18Like, get in the game.
13:19You could do one store, you know, but learn about how it can fit or not fit in your operation,
13:25how it fits with your guests.
13:28But people do love it.
13:29It does bring universal delight.
13:31So, it is super fun.
13:32And everywhere we bring a robot, even here, even in L.A. where people see them, when they see it
13:36up close, they still get excited.
13:38That's amazing.
13:39Can we, at some point, figure out with your teams to get, we want to see the restaurant delivery operation.
13:45Is that possible?
13:46Yeah.
13:47You'll help us do that?
13:48Sure.
13:48Okay, fantastic.
13:49Absolutely.
13:49What do you think is the most important question that I didn't ask you?
13:56What's my favorite food?
13:57What is your favorite food?
13:58What's the best thing you ate at the show?
14:00Oh, the best thing I ate at the show was gelati.
14:05Is that what it's called?
14:06What is it?
14:06Gelati, like ice cream, but like Italian ice cream.
14:09Gelato.
14:09Gelato, thank you.
14:10Yeah, gelati.
14:11I like that.
14:11That could be a new thing.
14:12I don't know.
14:13Maybe innovation happens here.
14:14Gelati could be a, 100% could be a thing.
14:17Maybe gelati is like the female version, gelato is the male.
14:20That works for me.
14:21Yeah, it was delicious.
14:23That's amazing.
14:24What's the best place for restaurant owners to learn more about Cocoa?
14:28CocoaDelivery.com.
14:29You can find me on the website.
14:31Perfect.
14:32So you can give me a call.
14:35I'm on LinkedIn.
14:35You're posting on LinkedIn?
14:36Posting content?
14:37Yes, absolutely.
14:38You know, I really, but a serious answer to your question of what's the most important
14:43thing probably for restaurants to know is that I really see my role as like being an ambassador
14:50of A, B delivery and helping restaurants like understand like what to ask, what to understand,
14:56what are its capabilities, what are its limitations.
14:58And I really love, I have so much love for the industry that I'm going to be a good resource.
15:04I'm going to tell you because it serves me no good to set you up for something that doesn't
15:08make you happy and doesn't serve your needs.
15:10So I would say that's the most important thing.
15:13And I always, I always say hashtag Cocoa Cares at Cocoa because I think that's something
15:19that really makes us different.
15:21Like we have restaurant people in our business.
15:23We understand what restaurants are challenged with.
15:26Amazing.
15:26If you guys are watching, if you're listening, we do a live show every Wednesday, every Friday.
15:30It's called Rising Tides Live, 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1 p.m. Eastern time, 6 p.m. London time.
15:35We have people all over the globe, restauranteurs, hospitality professionals, technologists, storytellers.
15:40Be a part of the community.
15:41You can go to betheshow.media slash risingtides.
15:45We're going to put links into the show notes for Cocoa Robotics and for Melissa.
15:49We are grateful to Informa.
15:50We're grateful to Toast for being a partner, for believing in this show.
15:54As always, guys, stay curious, get involved.
15:56Don't be afraid to ask for help.
15:57If you want to reach out to me, I'm weirdly available at Sean P. Walchef, Instagram, LinkedIn,
16:03all the platforms.
16:03We're always telling stories about things that can help improve your restaurant business.
16:08Melissa, thank you so much.
16:09We really appreciate it.
16:10We're going to put links to all of the Cocoa Robotics stuff that you need to know about.
16:14And if you get, if you're doing Cocoa deliveries at your restaurant, please tag me in your videos.
16:19I want to see it.
16:21I want to see how it comes to your restaurant.
16:23I want to know how it gets delivered.
16:24And we want to feature you.
16:26So, please, if you do that, I would love to see it seen as believing, as you said.
16:30That's a great idea.
16:31I could probably hook you up with some restaurants to do that.
16:34Where we go?
16:34Let's go.
16:35Amazing.
16:35We appreciate you guys.
16:36Thank you so much.
16:38Please subscribe.
16:38And we'll see you next year at the National Restaurant Association Show.
16:45Thank you for listening.
16:46If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
16:49You're part of the tribe.
16:50We can't do this alone.
16:52We started.
16:52No one was listening.
16:53Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
16:57Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.
17:02It's a Substack newsletter.
17:03It's free.
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17:07Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.
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17:13We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
17:15Hopefully, you guys like that content.
17:17If you want to work with us, go to betheshow.media.
17:20We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
17:24We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
17:28You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
17:31I'm weirdly available.
17:33Stay curious.
17:33Get involved.
17:34Don't be afraid to ask for help.
17:36We'll catch you next episode.
17:37Bye-bye.
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