In 2016 I got a pitch about a hugely successful entrepreneur who was launching a streaming site dedicated to foodies.
Steve Chen, the co-founder of Youtube, was combining a love of food with his proven experience building online video to launch a new site that would “allow anyone to direct, produce, and host their own food show.” Called Nom, the site debuted at SXSW on March 9, 2016, and went live to the general public a few days later.
Two years and $4.7 million in funding later, Nom shut down.
There have been other sites with similar pitches since 2016, including YesChef, an “online education platform dedicated to cooking” complete with James Beard award-winning chefs like Nancy Silverton to teach cooking techniques and recipes. Or World Chef, a “platform for foodies; a place where truly special Chefs can share their extraordinary food experiences directly with their fans.”
And then was Fanwide’s hot-minute pivot to a chef platform in the middle of the pandemic, or GE’s attempt to create a video streaming platform for chefs called Chibo that has since shuttered.
So you’ll have to forgive me when my first reaction upon hearing the pitch for Kittch, a site that Vanity Fair calls Onlyfans for Chefs, is one of skepticism.
I hope my initial reaction is wrong, and after spending some time looking at Kittch, I suspect it could be. Kittch has assembled an impressive team that includes successful TV producer Brian Bedol, former Plated head chef Elana Karp, and big names on the investor list, including LeBron James and uber-agent (and Supermensch) Shep Gordon. Throw in a sprinkling of celebrity chefs like Marcus Samuelsson and Daniela Soto-Innes, and the team has a roster of talent and star power to make this thing work on paper.
Kittch’s design and feature set are impressive. One particularly smart feature is the marketplace that allows chefs to sell products and private dining lessons or tableside conversations with the chefs. With chefs and culinary influencers, appearances on TV and online are often loss leader activities to push a product like a line of sauces or even a visit to one of their restaurants. Kittch is building in this monetization directly into the service.
Finally, it’s worth noting that 2022 is a different time than 2016, and we’ve seen the full emergence of a robust and mature creator economy in the intervening years. Consumers are accustomed to patronage models, where sites like Patreon, Substack, and, yes, OnlyFans allow them to give directly to their favorite influencers without a greedy media corporation intermediary sitting in between them.
Of course, Kittch still faces some headwinds, including potential competition from big social platforms like TikTok, which has started experimenting with food-centric monetization features for influencers. But I’m willing to give Kittch a try, and I hope they can finally create the food-centric streaming and engagement platform that has been the holy grail of the food industry for much of the past decade.
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