留学生在美国的社交圈子里只跟中国人打交道，不好融入当地文化，Plenry根据地理位置去邻居家付钱蹭饭的平台帮你解决这一系列问题！Plenry.com
Plenry是一个根据地理位置，帮助你找到附近的家庭主体餐饮的应用。通过社交餐饮，Plenry能够让用户在当地居民家中，享受美味的私房菜。平台整合闲置资源并再利用，通过吃来认识你身边的朋友。平台拥有易使用丶安全性高丶优化设计丶开放社区的竞争优势，让喜爱烹饪的人在结识朋友的基础上赚得额外收入。Plenry力争开拓美国“吃”的分享经济
www.plenry.com
Silicon Valley Startup Provides New Way to Share Food: This is the Future of Eating
You have just landed in San Francisco and you need to get a ride to the room you booked on Airbnb a week ago. So you take out your phone, and hail an Uber car, that picks you up within a couple of minutes. As you drive, you notice that the city you grew up in has changed substantially since you last visited; there are new buildings, and the roads have been paved. As you look out the window you notice that even the pedestrians seem to have a different vibe about them, though you can’t quite pinpoint what it is. You look around, and come to the realization that the World you once knew is a completely different place then it used to be. You wonder what else has changed.
It turns out a lot.
You go back five years. Both Uber and AirBNB existed, but chances are you weren’t using either of them. Very few people were. If you go back 10 years, you find that neither of those services was even in existence yet.
A New Paradigm
Both AirBNB and Uber are part of what is known as the ‘Sharing Economy’. In the sharing economy strangers are brought together to exchange resources that would once have been thrown away or would go unused. In Uber and AirBNB’s case it was about eliminating excess capacity. In the case of Ebay, one of the first companies in the sharing economy, it was about solving inefficiencies in the used goods market.
It seems that the sharing economy is transforming our entire economic system. Every industry from transportation, to finance, to entertainment and housing seem to have changed drastically over the past five years, or are in the process of transforming as a result of the sharing economy. One industry that seems to have been left out however is food.
Plenry: The AirBNB of Food
Plenry is a peer-to-peer dining-experience website that allows guests and hosts to come together to share meals, and meet new people. The company was founded in 2014 by Lisha He and Momo Ge, as a way to change the way we consume food and meet new people.
Their vision was simple. Combine the warmth and comfort of a home with the convenience and quality of a restaurant, and then add in the opportunity to make new friends. That dream is now becoming a reality. To date the company has received just over $600,000 in funding, and is already expanding rapidly in the San Francisco-Bay Area.
How it works
First the host sets up an event on the Plenry website. They set the date, time, price and the details of the event.
Guests can then search for events based on their interests and preferences. Once they find an event they are interested in, they ask to join.
The host is notified of the potential guests request, and can either approve or deny that individual. Once a guest is accepted they are charged with the cost of the event, and the host is credited for the event.
After the money is transferred, the exact address of the event is given to the guest.
Guests are then able to go to the event where they can meet new people, and eat delicious food.
Hosts love Plenry because it offers them flexibility, the ability to make some extra money, and a chance to meet new and interesting people. While guests love Plenry for its ability to help them try new food, and experience new cultures, along with the ability to make new friends.
Roadblocks to Plenry’s Success
Right now the biggest challenge for Plenry is getting the word out there. The Plenry team is currently going to different culinary schools in the San Francisco-Bay Area to meet with students who may be interested in hosting events. They have also gone to super markets, churches and other locations to try to find people who may be interested in their services.
Plenry has seen a lot of interest from college students, as well as single, young adults. Many of their users are between 20 to 40 years old, and tend to have achieved, or are in the process of achieving higher levels of education.
The Plenry team believes that as more events are hosted, and more people experience the Plenry lifestyle, they will begin to tell friends and the company will continue to expand until it reaches a significant portion of the U.S. population.
Safety
While growth is by far the biggest challenge for Plenry at the moment, their highest concern is on safety.
Plenry has implemented several safeguards to ensure that guests and hosts alike have a good experience.
Guests are expected to verify who they are through at least one of several means. They can connect to their Facebook or LinkedIn account, using their Google account, or, if they are a student they can confirm that they have a .EDU email address.
Additionally hosts have complete freedom to deny any guests they wish. Hosts are encouraged to look for guests who have their identification verified in multiple ways.
Finally there is a review system on the site, so if either a host or guest has had too many bad reviews, it is unlikely that they will be accepted as a guest, or that anyone would want to go to an event they host.
Food Safety
Hosts are given a set of guidelines for what to do and not do during an event. They also must go through a certification process conducted by Plenry, where Plenry checks to make sure that the host is meeting all necessary requirements in order to host a meal.
Regulation
The sharing economy of food is not regulated heavily at the moment, however this may change in the future. Plenry is looking forward to working with regulators to come up with sensible ways of addressing concerns that will be beneficial to the government, its citizens, and the company’s members.
Other Home Dining Platforms
There is another large home-dining experience website, EatWith.com. EatWith has a similar business model as Plenry. Both companies allow hosts to create events, and guests to join these events. Guests then pay a set amount, determined by the host in exchange for being able to go to the event. Eatwith takes a 15% cut, Plenry’s fee is 12%.
While the two companies have very similar business models, the target demographics, and uses of the two services are completely different.
Eatwith mainly has hosts who were professional chefs, or had graduated from culinary school. While Plenry targets the everyday person, who is passionate about cooking and entertaining guests. Because of this, Plenry usually ends up being much more affordable for guests. While Eatwith events are usually around $60 a person, Plenry events are often below $20. This makes Plenry a much more convenient option for the casual diner.
Another major difference between the two services is who they target as guests. Eatwith markets itself as a way for tourists to go to events in the area that they are visiting, while Plenry offers guests the chance to experience home-dining events in their community. Eatwith wants to give tourists the opportunity to experience the culture of a community they are visiting, where as Plenry gives locals the opportunity to share in the different cultures that make up their own community.
This gives Plenry members the opportunity to meet their neighbors, and make lasting friendships with those surrounding them, and it encourages diversity through the mixing of different people at events.
While Plenry uses dining as a means to share culture, the company is ultimately not just about food, but about people.
Plenry是一个根据地理位置，帮助你找到附近的家庭主体餐饮的应用。通过社交餐饮，Plenry能够让用户在当地居民家中，享受美味的私房菜。平台整合闲置资源并再利用，通过吃来认识你身边的朋友。平台拥有易使用丶安全性高丶优化设计丶开放社区的竞争优势，让喜爱烹饪的人在结识朋友的基础上赚得额外收入。Plenry力争开拓美国“吃”的分享经济
www.plenry.com
Silicon Valley Startup Provides New Way to Share Food: This is the Future of Eating
You have just landed in San Francisco and you need to get a ride to the room you booked on Airbnb a week ago. So you take out your phone, and hail an Uber car, that picks you up within a couple of minutes. As you drive, you notice that the city you grew up in has changed substantially since you last visited; there are new buildings, and the roads have been paved. As you look out the window you notice that even the pedestrians seem to have a different vibe about them, though you can’t quite pinpoint what it is. You look around, and come to the realization that the World you once knew is a completely different place then it used to be. You wonder what else has changed.
It turns out a lot.
You go back five years. Both Uber and AirBNB existed, but chances are you weren’t using either of them. Very few people were. If you go back 10 years, you find that neither of those services was even in existence yet.
A New Paradigm
Both AirBNB and Uber are part of what is known as the ‘Sharing Economy’. In the sharing economy strangers are brought together to exchange resources that would once have been thrown away or would go unused. In Uber and AirBNB’s case it was about eliminating excess capacity. In the case of Ebay, one of the first companies in the sharing economy, it was about solving inefficiencies in the used goods market.
It seems that the sharing economy is transforming our entire economic system. Every industry from transportation, to finance, to entertainment and housing seem to have changed drastically over the past five years, or are in the process of transforming as a result of the sharing economy. One industry that seems to have been left out however is food.
Plenry: The AirBNB of Food
Plenry is a peer-to-peer dining-experience website that allows guests and hosts to come together to share meals, and meet new people. The company was founded in 2014 by Lisha He and Momo Ge, as a way to change the way we consume food and meet new people.
Their vision was simple. Combine the warmth and comfort of a home with the convenience and quality of a restaurant, and then add in the opportunity to make new friends. That dream is now becoming a reality. To date the company has received just over $600,000 in funding, and is already expanding rapidly in the San Francisco-Bay Area.
How it works
First the host sets up an event on the Plenry website. They set the date, time, price and the details of the event.
Guests can then search for events based on their interests and preferences. Once they find an event they are interested in, they ask to join.
The host is notified of the potential guests request, and can either approve or deny that individual. Once a guest is accepted they are charged with the cost of the event, and the host is credited for the event.
After the money is transferred, the exact address of the event is given to the guest.
Guests are then able to go to the event where they can meet new people, and eat delicious food.
Hosts love Plenry because it offers them flexibility, the ability to make some extra money, and a chance to meet new and interesting people. While guests love Plenry for its ability to help them try new food, and experience new cultures, along with the ability to make new friends.
Roadblocks to Plenry’s Success
Right now the biggest challenge for Plenry is getting the word out there. The Plenry team is currently going to different culinary schools in the San Francisco-Bay Area to meet with students who may be interested in hosting events. They have also gone to super markets, churches and other locations to try to find people who may be interested in their services.
Plenry has seen a lot of interest from college students, as well as single, young adults. Many of their users are between 20 to 40 years old, and tend to have achieved, or are in the process of achieving higher levels of education.
The Plenry team believes that as more events are hosted, and more people experience the Plenry lifestyle, they will begin to tell friends and the company will continue to expand until it reaches a significant portion of the U.S. population.
Safety
While growth is by far the biggest challenge for Plenry at the moment, their highest concern is on safety.
Plenry has implemented several safeguards to ensure that guests and hosts alike have a good experience.
Guests are expected to verify who they are through at least one of several means. They can connect to their Facebook or LinkedIn account, using their Google account, or, if they are a student they can confirm that they have a .EDU email address.
Additionally hosts have complete freedom to deny any guests they wish. Hosts are encouraged to look for guests who have their identification verified in multiple ways.
Finally there is a review system on the site, so if either a host or guest has had too many bad reviews, it is unlikely that they will be accepted as a guest, or that anyone would want to go to an event they host.
Food Safety
Hosts are given a set of guidelines for what to do and not do during an event. They also must go through a certification process conducted by Plenry, where Plenry checks to make sure that the host is meeting all necessary requirements in order to host a meal.
Regulation
The sharing economy of food is not regulated heavily at the moment, however this may change in the future. Plenry is looking forward to working with regulators to come up with sensible ways of addressing concerns that will be beneficial to the government, its citizens, and the company’s members.
Other Home Dining Platforms
There is another large home-dining experience website, EatWith.com. EatWith has a similar business model as Plenry. Both companies allow hosts to create events, and guests to join these events. Guests then pay a set amount, determined by the host in exchange for being able to go to the event. Eatwith takes a 15% cut, Plenry’s fee is 12%.
While the two companies have very similar business models, the target demographics, and uses of the two services are completely different.
Eatwith mainly has hosts who were professional chefs, or had graduated from culinary school. While Plenry targets the everyday person, who is passionate about cooking and entertaining guests. Because of this, Plenry usually ends up being much more affordable for guests. While Eatwith events are usually around $60 a person, Plenry events are often below $20. This makes Plenry a much more convenient option for the casual diner.
Another major difference between the two services is who they target as guests. Eatwith markets itself as a way for tourists to go to events in the area that they are visiting, while Plenry offers guests the chance to experience home-dining events in their community. Eatwith wants to give tourists the opportunity to experience the culture of a community they are visiting, where as Plenry gives locals the opportunity to share in the different cultures that make up their own community.
This gives Plenry members the opportunity to meet their neighbors, and make lasting friendships with those surrounding them, and it encourages diversity through the mixing of different people at events.
While Plenry uses dining as a means to share culture, the company is ultimately not just about food, but about people.
