Blue Apron Readies To Take On Increasingly Competitive Market

Times have quickly gotten competitive for Blue Apron, the arguably leading name in the meal kit space. Every good idea has imitators, after all, and given the sheer proliferation of meal kit products and services on the market today, Blue Apron clearly had one of the greatest ideas in history.

But will it be the firm that rides the meal kit on-demand innovation over the finish line? Perhaps not. Apart from its myriad rivals in the startup world, Blue Apron has also seen out-of-left field challengers like The New York Times (albeit paired with rival startup meal kit service Chef’d) and bigger, more established players like Amazon take the field.

In response to more competitive times, Blue Apron is looking to get more competitive in the hopes of leveling up its services.

That includes hiring Foursquare alum Andrew Hogue as vice president of engineering. Hogue’s previous role at Foursquare was most recently as senior vice president of engineering; before then, he spent seven years at Google. Hogue will lead the development of the proprietary software part of Blue Apron’s business. That covers a rather large chuck of real estate for the firm, covering everything from the firm’s website for customers to the logistics operations that runs about 8 million meals per month.

“There’s not a lot of software that can help us run a business like ours, so we’ve had to build it from scratch,” said Blue Apron’s CTO and founder Ilia Papas.

Blue Apron has grown quickly over the last year, with Web sales in the $117 million range. That is an 80 percent pick-up from 2014, and has required an extreme upgrade to the Blue Apron technical team, according to Papas.

“Bringing in strong, seasoned leadership is critical to making sure we’re set up for success,” Papas said.

Currently, Blue Apron runs three fulfillment centers nationwide, though the firm has spoke (vaguely) about expansion. To aid in that effort, former Amazon software developer and development manager Victor Estevez has signed on as Blue Apron’s director of engineering.

“Victor, coming from Amazon, has worked with warehouse systems and demand planning,” Papas said. “He’s very strong on fulfillment. It’s no secret that Amazon has accomplished a lot in logistics. Our logistical challenges are extremely complicated. Having someone who has experience dealing with difficult logistical processes and who can marry that with technology is a huge benefit to us.”