- Nabeel Alamgir, who came to the US at 15, learned English by watching mafia movies.
- The former New York busboy became CEO of the food-tech startup Lunchbox at age 27.
- Alamgir explains how, after 72 "brutal" VC rejections, a fellow immigrant bet on him first.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in April 2022. Since publishing, Lunchbox announced it will start giving mom-and-pop restaurants free access to its restaurant software.
"We want to give Chipotle-level tech but to all," Nabeel Alamgir, the CEO of food-tech startup Lunchbox told Insider. Alamgir said it's always been his mission to help mom-and-pop restaurants, and now he's in the financial position to help those who need it most. "The economy is going to be so rough. It's going to be as bad as the pandemic."
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nabeel Alamgir, the CEO and cofounder of the food-tech startup Lunchbox. Lunchbox enables ordering, loyalty, and marketing services for restaurants like Mexicue, Fuku, and Bareburger, where Alamgir got his start in the restaurant business. He explains how an immigrant busboy in New York found his voice and began using it as a bullhorn to help restaurants save money by forgoing third-party delivery apps like Grubhub and DoorDash.
The conversation has been edited for clarity.
I am happy to say the things that are hard to say. I am happy to say them because my people — who look like me — don't do that.
I was born in Chittagong, Bangladesh. That's like the Missouri of Bangladesh, so it was bad. At 7, I moved to Kuwait. And I lived in Kuwait during the invasion of Iraq after 9/11. I came to America in 2005. I was 15. I picked up enough English after listening to friends and watching a lot of mafia and crime movies like "Scarface."
Life was always harsh. We were living in the projects. Dad was a cab driver. Mom sometimes worked at Dunkin'. Cab drivers get robbed every few weeks. Someone robs you or doesn't pay.
It became very clear that we were from a very different part of society. And I didn't like it one bit. There's nothing I hated more than that feeling.
So when I got a chance to work, I never looked back.
A jack of all trades, master of none
I remember I wanted to get a job to buy a pair of Jordans. So I went to Bareburger. I got a job as a busboy at 17. I worked, and they gave me a bunch of cash at the end of the night. And I said, "Whatever this is, I love it. I want to do this more."
So that was the life of a busboy — for two to three years.
I remember never getting promoted. I was like, "Can you just please promote me? Everyone who's here, they get promoted."
"Nope," they said. "We'll pay you more money, but you have a face of a busboy."
One time I was like, "I'm leaving if I don't get a promotion." And they're like, 'All right, we're gonna take you to HQ.'"
So I became an intern. I sat at the ping-pong table. I did whatever people wanted. Anything. It was a lot of, "Bring coffee. Move my car."
I was a jack of all trades, master of none, which is the perfect job for a future CEO.
I started talking, and I never stopped
But even then, I was having a hard time finding my voice. I was quiet. Shy.
I was still picking up the language. I was afraid. I didn't want to step on toes. But I was always bringing 110% because when you don't have your voice, you still have your actions.
If someone said, hey, can you go print some of these menus out, I wouldn't print them out. I'd redesign them and then print them.
But I knew it was important to have your voice. At some point, I had to learn how to talk to people because I was still afraid. I loved my CEO at Bareburger. He was an excellent speaker. He was amazing. He was an inspiration.
One day I woke up and I wasn't so scared anymore.
I started talking, and I never stopped.
Dress for the position you want, not the one you're in
I'm very unapologetic about my ambition and hustle and desire to do more.
I felt I could take on more responsibilities, so I focused on what job I wanted, and I started crafting it at Bareburger. I told myself I was going to be a marketing coordinator. It's not like I loved marketing. I did it because no one else was doing it. Dress for the position you want, not the one you're in.
And then at 25, somehow I stopped faking it and became their chief marketing officer at 25.
—Nabeel (@nabeeleats) February 13, 2022I'm obsessed with action
When I became CMO, they let me in the room that you get to enter when you're, you know, up there.
I was hearing all the challenges. "Third-party delivery apps are taking a chunk of Bareburger's revenue." It's crap. Problems were killing us. We cut them a $6.5 million check.
Something unfair was happening, and I needed to step in. Also, that was where the action was. I'm obsessed with action.
We were losing. How do we win?
I'm doing all of these things in automation and digital to move third-party delivery sales to first-party. I need to fight them. Three months before Lunchbox started, I was like, "Hey, we need to build our own system. We need to build our own Grubhub."
I was calling them out publicly.
—Nabeel (@nabeeleats) December 21, 2019I was getting in trouble for speaking up. We had a contract with Grubhub, and they were like, '"Hey, can you get your guy to stop talking?"
It became very clear to me: If Bareburger was struggling, what about other restaurants? I couldn't fight third-party services from Bareburger. I would be hurting the company.
I needed to start a service by restaurants, for restaurants — something that was an attractive alternative to third-party giants. We rolled out app and web ordering and our first loyalty programs in February 2019.
—Nabeel (@nabeeleats) February 1, 2022
Over the 72 rejections, every pitch got better
I had five people ready on day one. We had one client for the first couple of months. It was Bareburger.
We begged our second client, 16 Handles and we begged that third client, Sticky's. We always made the company seem bigger than it was. The first year, we didn't have any investor money, even though we had revenue from day one.
We got 72 rejections. It's like dating, right? It's like sales — not the right fit and you move on. They get it, or they don't get it.
Those were 72 brutal rejections. This is what 72 rejections do to you, psychologically: They make you start believing you're shit. It was my fault. I didn't sound like them. I didn't talk like them. I didn't look like them. And it affected fundraising.
You try to modulate when you hear the same feedback again and again. I finally found my balance.
Over the 72 rejections, every pitch got better. Slowly and finally there was a right time, the right investor, the right pitch. These are the two investors: Nnamdi Okike and Alessio Fanelli.
They saw a founder who will not back down.
Nnamdi cut the first check for Lunchbox. He's Black. He went to Harvard. This inspirational human being is one of the smartest guys I know. And he talked to us.
As soon as he gave me his million, everyone said, "Someone like Nnamdi believes in you. We believe in you."
I needed an immigrant and a son of immigrants to bet on me before anyone did and that's fine.
But until the first check, no one wants to talk to you — you're a pariah.
(Editor's note: Lunchbox has raised $72.1 million in three years. Backers include Coatue, Primary Ventures, and 645 Ventures.)
—Nabeel (@nabeeleats) February 15, 2022If they're all cutting, maybe I'm hiring
When the pandemic happened, we were afraid we were going to all lose our jobs. I was calling all my CEO friends. And they all said, "We're all cutting."
And I said, "If they're all cutting, maybe I'm hiring. Maybe I'm recruiting their people."
If I'm going to go down, I would rather go down in flames and not slowly. They all came from the big three: DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub.
That year we grew about 800% in sales. Employees went from 12 to 100.
We're changing the narrative
We have a live tracker on our website to remind everyone what we're doing. It's connected to our actual processing of sales and third-party fees. We're at $38 million and our goal is to save $100 million for restaurants by the end of the year.
Lunchbox is changing. We are doing more and more for our customers. We're investing in engineering over anything else. We're going to win because our competition in the restaurant industry is doing very little to go in and evolve the conversation. It's just ordering. Olo does ordering. And they do it better than anyone else. And they do it for the Goliaths only — restaurants with 1,000 plus units.
We do ordering, design, engagement, and loyalty. We help everyone. They can add their podcasts. They can go ahead and do Apple Pay. They can do so much more through the system we're building for them. We just built the first metaverse restaurant, where you can walk around the whole place. And in two months, we hope you'll be able to go up to a kiosk there and order.
You can't do that on Grubhub. We're changing the narrative.
—Nabeel (@nabeeleats) February 3, 2022I've checked all the American dream boxes
I work hard. I helped my family retire when I was 25. And when I was 27 or 28, I got them their first house. And that's the American dream. So I'm done. I've checked off all the American dream boxes.
I'm not one of those quiet nice immigrants who is humbled by my background. I'm angry. I'm annoyed. There's more work to do, more immigrants to help. I'm going to call out when I see unfairness — be it Grubhub or any part of society that's not equal.
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