In 2013, founderfood founder John Moraski noticed that google was doubling down providing work amenities to its employees to boost morale. At the time most restaurants didn't take catering seriously but John understood that market was going to explode. He approached the NorCal Counter Burger franchise proposing to lead the catering effort across 7 locations. To his surprise The Counter was skeptical, but allowed him to proceed on a "spec" basis with no salary. Believing deeply in the opportunity John took the deal and went door to door selling nearly $1,000,000 in catering. Then, something magical happened. The franchise profit DOUBLED versus similar year on year sales. How? Incremental recurring revenue. Free, highly effective marketing. Improved kitchen labor utilization. Brand new fans! The catering effort was the growth engineering The Counter had been seeking. This was the early proof of concept for founderfood.

 

Upon learning of John's effort The Counter Burger founders Jeff Weinstein and Craig Albert recruited him to lead their 52 worldwide locations as Corporate Catering Director. In 2016 after successfully scaling out the world wide catering effort John realized he wanted to engineer growth for his favorite restaurant founders back home in Silicon Valley. After all, people don't eat burgers for lunch every day. Upon engaging local restaurant owners John was again surprised. The founders were passionately creating incredible food and loved by many community members - yet, not as successful financially as it would appear. They had multiple issues involving growth and operations stemming from a lack of revenue and profit. John considered this the "story behind the story" and a problem to solve.

 

John approached the NorCal The Counter franchise owner Peter Katz with a simple proposition. “Peter, I’d like to sell catering from other restaurants. I will not compete with you and sell burgers from another outlet. However, I believe we can raise revenues in a "sticky, recurring fashion for a small group of outstanding food founders by joining forces. ....oh, and I’ll never ask you for a raise again!” Peter accepted the out of the box deal and founderfood was born. John embarked telling his growth story to the best food founders in the valley. 

 

Now in the year 2024 founderfood still works with The Counter Burger and has added many catering partners. The founderfood “collective” continues to speak together amongst the group brainstorming: “how can we collaborate to grow our business?” founderfood is currently doubling down on it’s mission to share founder stories. The goal is to sustainably support restaurants while preserving the local “pop-culture” manifested as excellent multicultural food. John’s considerable passion, love for the food and the founders inspired the slogan “TY from founderfood and friends!”