Traders won’t leave their turrets for five minutes for lunch; bankers and research analysts routinely labor late at night over take-out dinners. Managing these on-the-job meals can be costly. Enter Jason Finger.
Finger, 31, quit his job as a first-year associate at law firm O’Sullivan Graev & Karabell a little more than three years ago after failing to find a decent late-night take-out supper -- and drawing inspiration for a new business. Finger and law school chum Paul Appelbaum, 30, formed SeamlessWeb Professional Solutions to outsource corporate take-out. Their online service consolidates billing while enforcing company policies on price limits and which employees are authorized for meals.
“From the first day of law school, Paul and I had always talked about starting a business,” says Finger. “After that night I called him and said, ‘This is our idea.’”
The pair started out serving law firms but in October 2001 scored a big coup when Goldman Sachs closed its cafeteria at night and turned to SeamlessWeb. J.P. Morgan Chase signed on soon thereafter, followed by Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Banc of America Securities. Last month Morgan Stanley became the latest SeamlessWeb client; next month Citigroup is set to begin using the service. The company also serves about two dozen hedge funds in New York and Greenwich and Stamford, Connecticut, and plans to enter the Chicago market next year.
Can an IPO be far behind? The company currently pulls in a modest $4 million or so in annual revenue, but it hopes to expand throughout the U.S. -- and perhaps beyond.
Finger says he initially didn’t contemplate going public. But he adds: “Seeing the growth that we’ve been able to sustain over the past couple of years, especially in this economy, I’m starting to think differently. This is a national enterprise.”
