Google’s former executive chef Nate Keller is running the kitchen at the oven-hot startup Sprig in San Francisco. Sprig is an organic meal delivery service that takes orders–through an app, of course–and delivers incredibly fresh, healthy meals to you in 20 minutes. (If you’re around San Francisco, that is, but Sprig’s got VC money so it’s on the move.) That sort of makes Nate Keller the 21st century Alice Waters–and located not too far either from where Waters made her name in the 1970s with her famous local food restaurant Chez Panisse. (Alyson Shontell does a nice profile of Keller for Business Insider, where she points out that Keller used to serve Googlers $1 million worth of chicken a month!)
Here’s the problem Sprig solves. People are busy but want to eat healthy. The choices to eat fast are plentiful, but there are far fewer healthy choices. Say you’re a Silicon Valley entrepreneurial mastermind like Sprig CEO Gagan Biyani and you’re hungry. You don’t want a sub or pizza delivered–you want a balanced, delicious organic meal but you’re pressed for time. The solution, called Sprig, is now in your pocket. The expansion plan should be interesting–maybe Sprig will join forces with somebody like Blue Apron, a company that’s already working the local food deliver beat, but mostly with meals that are ready to prepare at home.
