• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

The Pentagon said Iran War costs $29 billion,but the real cost is closer to $200 billion—and counting

3

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

The Pentagon said Iran War costs $29 billion,but the real cost is closer to $200 billion—and counting

3

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
Blue Apron

Blue Apron CEO: ‘People are interested in food more than they’ve ever been’

By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 30, 2014, 7:14 PM ET
Courtesy: Blue Apron
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Blue Apron wants to change the way Americans cook for themselves, starting with the groceries. By delivering weekly packages of meal kits to customers around the country, the 18-month-old startup has begun to do just that. Earlier today, the company announced it had raised $50 million in venture funding led by Stripes Group with participation from prior investors Bessemer Venture Partners and First Round Capital. (Fortune had previously reported the company was in the market seeking new funds.)

The fundraise follows a wave of food startup investments. In the first quarter of this year, food startups pulled in $300 million in VC funding, according to Rosenheim Advisors.

Fortune spoke with Blue Apron CEO Matt Salzberg about the raise, fast-moving competition, scaling challenges, and the company’s plans to become a billion-dollar company. Below is an edited transcript of the conversation:

Just over a month ago, we reported that Blue Apron had crossed the milestone of selling 500,000 meals per month. Now it’s up to 600,000 per month. Is the pace of growth accelerating?

We’re already quite a bit bigger than that even. We’re growing at an unbelievable pace. We are only 18 months old as a company, so all of this came from zero 18 months ago. We’re continuing to grow at an increasingly fast pace.

What’s driving that?

At the base level, we have a product that people really, really like. What we’ve provided is fun, so people want to tell their friends and they want to share what they have made on social media and around the office. What’s driving a ton if growth is word of mouth and social media activity. That viral element of our product is what allows us to keep scaling so quickly.

You now have more than 200 employees. What do all those people do?

The biggest component is people running our fulfillment centers. We operate refrigerated fulfillment centers around the country where we get shipments from farms and food suppliers and family-run businesses in bulk. We have teams of people that do receiving and portion and package them up and ship them to customers and that requires hundreds of people on a weekly basis to manage that operation. We have two main fulfillment centers and we’ll be opening two more in the next couple of months.

So I’m guessing some of the new capital will go toward those fulfillment centers. What are your other plans for growth?

The next part is transforming grocery supply chain so we can get better food and more interesting food to people at prices than they can’t get at the supermarket. We’re managing the supply chain to be ultra-seasonal and ultra-flexible. We’re looking to continue to expand geographically. Today, we deliver to 85% of the country and hope to be nationwide by the end of year. We’re thinking about offering additional options that target people based on different meal preferences. Today we accommodate vegetarians, and pescetarians, and people who don’t eat pork, shellfish, fish, or red meat, but we’re thinking about expanding those kinds offerings, as well as different kinds of adjacencies around home cooking that are not just food.

What kinds of adjacencies?

There’s nothing specific now, but a lot could be done around learning and onboarding people into that cooking experience. Helping you set up your kitchen and things like that.

What is the size of the market for this in the US?

We’re tying to build a company with billions in revenue over time. The grocery market in aggregate is almost a trillion dollars in the US, and we think we have a better supply chain solution that is applicable to almost everyone in the country. The product today is really great for couples and young families and we think that our model can be applicable to pretty much everybody who wants to cook, so we’re going after a multi-billion-dollar revenue stream.

Talk to me about the competitive landscape for Blue Apron. There are a lot of meal kit services out there.

We are far and away the largest company that does what we do. We see ourselves competing against companies that are the way that people today currently get their groceries and dinner. For us, the biggest competitors are people like FreshDirect and Whole Foods and Seamless. We’re trying to show people that cooking can be fun and that this is a better way to eat.

What’s the biggest challenge as you scale up?

Taking it from 600,000 to six million or ten million or more meals a month is a big challenge. We have to hire hundreds of people. We have to open up additional fulfillment capacity and really expand our supplier relationships to continue to grow at that pace.

I used to think this kind of product would only appeal to young, urban professionals. But you’re also bringing exotic ingredients and cooking styles to people across the country who are obsessed with the Food Network but can’t find things like baby bok choy in their local supermarkets.

People are interested in food more than they’ve ever been, and they’re interested in cooking more than they’ve ever been. Because of that, and our model, we can create a market for this higher-end style foods that didn’t exist before.

About the Author
By Erin Griffith
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

Taktile cofounders Maik Taro Wehmeyer (left) and Maximilian Eber (right) stand side by side, smiling at the camera.
Startups & VentureVenture Capital
Exclusive: Taktile raises $110 million from Goldman Sachs, Tiger Global to automate high-stakes financial decisions 
By Camila Grigera NaónJune 24, 2026
1 hour ago
price-of-oil-06-23-2026
Personal FinanceOil
Current price of oil as of June 24, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 24, 2026
1 hour ago
Sarah Youngwood, EVP and CFO at Nasdaq.
AICFO Daily
Nasdaq’s CFO says leaders must learn AI—not just their teams
By Sheryl EstradaJune 24, 2026
1 hour ago
Current price of silver as of Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Personal Financesilver
Current price of silver as of Wednesday, June 24, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 24, 2026
2 hours ago
steve
Commentary250 Years of Innovation
Steve Case: America was built by entrepreneurs. Here’s how we keep that edge for the next 250 years
By Steve CaseJune 24, 2026
2 hours ago
(left to right) Andrew Berman, Tal Peretz, and Vitor Balocco
AIVenture Capital
Exclusive: Vinod Khosla wanted ‘every available dollar’ of Runlayer’s funding round. It just raised $30 million to govern the agent workforce
By Lily Mae LazarusJune 24, 2026
2 hours ago

Most Popular

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
Success
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
1 day ago
The Pentagon said Iran War costs $29 billion,but the real cost is closer to $200 billion—and counting
Economy
The Pentagon said Iran War costs $29 billion,but the real cost is closer to $200 billion—and counting
By Jacqueline MunisJune 24, 2026
7 hours ago
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
Banking
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
By Jim EdwardsJune 23, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 23, 2026
1 day ago
Texas and Charlotte used to build huge McMansions—now they're copying the California design tricks they once mocked
Real Estate
Texas and Charlotte used to build huge McMansions—now they're copying the California design tricks they once mocked
By Sydney LakeJune 22, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of gold as of June 23, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of gold as of June 23, 2026
By Danny BakstJune 23, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.