Philadelphia Business Journal

SeamlessWeb Sates Appetite of Hungry Workers at Night

December, 2004 - One night in 1999, former law school classmates Jason Finger and Paul Appelbaum were working late.

The firms they worked for were only a block apart from each other in Manhattan. So they decided to get together in Appelbaum's office and have some food delivered.

Every place they called was closed. But that turned out to be a good thing. The two had been trying to think of an idea for a business since they met. And, as they sat munching candy bars, they realized they finally had one.

"We said, 'Hey, this is the idea. There's definitely a way we can make it easier for people who are working late at night to order food,'" Finger recalled.

That way is called SeamlessWeb Professional Solutions Inc.

Four years after it was founded, it has revenue of $50 million and has been profitable for a little more than two years. In addition to Manhattan, it has customers in Brooklyn; Jersey City, N.J.; Greenwich and Stamford, Conn.; Chicago; and Washington, D.C. It recently began serving several major law firms in Philadelphia, but Finger didn't want to disclose their names yet because it's still testing its operations with them.

SeamlessWeb provides customers with a number of restaurants from which their employees can order take-out food or catered meals by way of the Web. Instead of having to pay bills to all those places or reimburse their employees, its customers pay it once a month.

The company provides customers with an invoice they can upload to their accounting systems that details the clients, departments and/or individuals that should be billed for each order. In addition to only allowing authorized employees to place orders, SeamlessWeb's software enforces its customers' policies on price limits and can bill their employees' credit cards for orders when necessary.

SeamlessWeb recently was named the fourth fastest-growing privately held company in the country, and the fastest-growing privately held services company, by Inc. magazine. Last year, Deloitte & Touche named it the fourth fastest-growing member of its Rising Stars, which are privately held technology companies that have been in business three years, but not the five years required to make the accounting firm's Fast 500.

SeamlessWeb initially financed itself with $2.5 million from family, friends, individual investors and one venture firm -- King of Prussia-based Eastern Technology Fund.

Finger said the company wasn't looking for any institutional capital, but a friend of his who knew ETF Managing Director Wayne Kimmel suggested he call Kimmel.

"Wayne articulated a lot of benefits of having an institutional investor involved in the business and sold me, and they've been a terrific partner for us," Finger said.

Since then, SeamlessWeb has financed its growth itself, although that may change. Finger said it is looking into raising more private equity or aligning itself with a strategic partner with deep pockets that can help speed its growth.

Such a company also would make a good potential purchaser, but Finger said SeamlessWeb hasn't contemplated being acquired just yet.

"At this point, our focus has just been on growing the business," he said.

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