E-Drive

ASAP is an app based restaurant platform that connects restaurants and guests. Guests scroll restaurant menus, customize an order, modify any item, add people to a group order, split the check, choose delivery or carryout, and with the push of a button, have an order in their hands. ASAP has transformed the way restaurants reach people & the way people choose restaurants. The ASAP delivery team & on-demand delivery platform differentiates itself from the pack by being built by hospitality professionals for hospitality professionals. ASAP (formerly known as Waitr) began in late 2013 and started in Chris Meaux's home office and moved into the SEED Center, a Lake Charles, Louisiana business incubator near McNeese State University's campus on Ryan Street. In late 2015, by the end of the first year of operations, 57,000 food delivery orders had been placed on the Waitr app. That was when the decision was made by then CEO Chris Meaux to begin to amp up the digital marketing & operations efforts in addition to the engineering and administrative efforts to guide the company. In marketing, Patrick Hardey was added to the team to take over founder Addison Killebrew's marketing role alongside Katie Davis & Chloe Friend. For operations, Matt Sarradet, Charity Grandchampt, and Crystal Day were hired. As they grew quickly, several months into 2016 their first acquisition took place when they bought GoGoGrocer and then a competitor called Requested out of Northern California founded by San Francisco's Jeff Bolante, & Sacramento's Sonny Mayugba, two seasoned marketing veterans who dropped out of Facebook's Global Marketing Team responsible for developing and growing the Facebook Blueprint. With Sonny Mayugba and Jeff Bolante at the helm in combination with an already successful marketing effort they were able to mentor Patrick Hardey into becoming a customer acquisition professional on Facebook rapidly, which was alluded to by CEO Chris Meaux in a 2017 YouTube video. Some time later Patrick Hardey spearheaded an internal business unit embedded in the marketing department called Partner Marketing (premium digital marketing service), and also cofounded the Waitr Impact corporate social responsibility program after a pitch to executives and board members, and afterward was invited to join the operations stewardship council. Subsequently, through their teamwork with operations, HR, sales, and service they posted a 20%+ month-to-month growth rate average for roughly 3 consecutive years before going public through a strategic partner in the world's wealthiest restauranteur who was impressed with their ability to bring in and keep customers happy on the B2B and B2C fronts. Through a SPAC led by Tilman Fertitta (who is the Billion Dollar Buyer (CNBC), owner of Landry's, the Houston Rockets (NBA), and the entire Golden Nugget casino resort franchise) they exited onto the Nasdaq in November 2018 at $308M, Louisiana history's largest tech exit valuation, and the world's second publicly traded food delivery company beating Uber to the public markets.