Jamie Marshall, 24, and Kevin Tan, 26
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when Jamie Marshall and Kevin Tan were students at Yale, they thought the same thing generations of students had thought before: But unlike others, they decided to solve the problem. They created Snackpass, an app that lets users order ahead for fast and easy pickup, all the while earning rewards points that can be shared with friends. At launch, 80 percent of Yale students started using the app, and restaurants were quick to partner with it. (It charges about 10 percent or less per order, which is much lower than most delivery apps.) “Other food apps need to burn money to acquire and incentivize drivers,” Tan says. “We’ve removed that line item from our equation.” Today, the app is used across 14 campuses and has raised $21 million. But COVID-19 has swiftly changed restaurants campuses. “We’re helping both reopen safely and go contactless,” says Tan. Adds Marshall, “We built an integrated suite for restaurants, including digital menu QR codes and self-serve kiosks, to drive business safely.” And throughout the turbulent changes of this year, they’ve learned to make their product easy to use—no matter what. “Your value needs to be a no-brainer to the customer,” Tan says. “They need to be irrational to not use your product.”
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