Chief Food Truck Officer might sound like a strange title for a software startup founder, but it makes perfect sense for Ray Chow of foosye.
Chow has spent the last five years building a successful local food truck business called Hibachi Xpress. But all along, he’s hoped for better software to help market his truck’s location, operating hours and menu, to secure event permits and catering gigs and track his sales based on those details.
After years of frustration and no solution, he eventually found a couple partners and set out to build it himself. Foosye (short for food systems) hit the Google Play and App stores late last month and solves what Chow and CEO Chris Wellington call the “Drive, Park, Pray” market challenge.
To rally the local community and position himself as a leader in the food truck movement, Chow also joined the leadership of the RDU Mobile Food Association and the food truck advisory board of the Wake County Health Department.
“Our goal was not to be first to market with no success,” Chow says. “Our goal is we are going to lead the industry—I’ve positioned myself to be respectable in food truck industry, as a center of a lot of knowledge.”
With U.S. food trucks projected to bring in $2.7 billion in 2017, up from $650 million in 2012, there is certainly room for more technology solutions to serve them. Foosye thinks it can build the app that helps owners increase their revenue and eliminates the risky “Drive, Park and Pray” system of the past.
Laura Baverman contributed.
