
In early 2020, Pepper launched a mobile app designed to streamline the relationship between food suppliers and their restaurant customers. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. In response to the outbreak and the unprecedented restaurant closures across the country, the scrappy, tight-knit team knew they had to adapt their product to fit their new reality — just a few short months after the company officially formed.
The result is Pepper Pantry: an online grocery delivery platform designed to help those hit hardest during the crisis by allowing Pepper’s food supply partners to easily work directly with consumers. Now, Pepper is able to help provide people access to the same fresh, locally sourced ingredients used by top restaurants across the Northeast, all while helping farms and suppliers stay afloat. “Our hope is that we can provide a convenient way for friends, families, and neighbors to buy what they need from home, while also helping family-owned businesses throughout our cities adapt to stay in motion and not let warehouses full of fresh ingredients go to waste,” says Bowie Cheung, co-founder and CEO.We caught up with Pepper to hear more about how they pivoted their business to do grocery delivery differently, why they hope to make video an integral part of their early business model, and what advice they have for other small businesses weathering the storm.