Bootler comes to Wisconsin to further simplify online ordering

A new search engine for food and alcohol delivery services has come to Wisconsin with hopes of further simplifying the online ordering process.

Bootler is a Chicago-based company that got its start in late 2016. It’s now active in over 20 major metro markets and 250 cities overall, according to CEO and Founder Michael DiBenedetto.

He describes the service “like Trevago.com for food delivery — it aggregates multiple services into one site, and shows which services work for which restaurants.” It’s free to use, and includes desktop, mobile, iOS and Android functionality.

This allows users to compare pricing, menu items and wait times between various delivery services like Delivery.com, GrubHub, DoorDash, Postmates, EatStreet and others. They can search by restaurant or food type, and also get alcohol delivered through a partnership with alcohol delivery service Saucey; it’s limited to food delivery in Madison right now, as Saucey’s service area is limited to Chicago and parts of the east coast.

The search engine hit Madison earlier this summer, with a goal of tapping the returning student market at the end of August.

Bootler makes money through affiliate commission when it drives traffic from its own search site to the various ordering sites and services.

DiBenedetto says he got the idea for this business model working in Chicago, trying to figure out how to best order dinner with co-workers. He thought going through several different sites to compare pricing and options made a site like Bootler useful.

The company includes engineers, marketers and business development specialists. At around 10 members, he says the team can “still be agile and quick.”

“We can enter new markets in one or two day spans, so we don’t have to worry about a ground team,” he told WisBusiness.com.

He says he and the team look at metro areas that have multiple services as good places to enter, with two target demographics roughly spanning the Millennial range: college-aged people between 18 and 22, and professionals between 25 and 34.

DiBenedetto says in Madison, the company will be hitting all the standards of a marketing mix: Facebook campaigns, google campaigns, direct mailers and flyers.

Though he says the team is “keeping our sights set on Madison right now,” to ensure initial success, moving into the larger Milwaukee metro area is definitely on the horizon.

–By Alex Moe
WisBusiness.com