Sales Role at HUNGRY

Overview

You sell HUNGRY's workplace food solutions—office catering, group order programs, and pantry stocking—to enterprise companies. Your main contacts are office managers, HR directors, and workplace experience teams who handle employee perks and day-to-day operations. You're selling a recurring service where usage drives revenue, not a one-time software purchase.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Private, mature startup (326 employees suggests Series B/C equivalent)

Size: 326 employees

Growth: Hiring for sales, indicates expansion mode

Market Position: Challenger in a competitive space—competing against ezCater, Fooda, Grubhub Corporate, and incumbent catering vendors

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 10-20% Inbound - companies searching for workplace food solutions, referrals from existing clients
• 70-80% Outbound - cold calling office managers, LinkedIn outreach to HR teams, targeting companies with return-to-office mandates
• 10% Partners/Referrals - workplace consultants, real estate brokers, existing customer expansion

SDR/AE Structure: Given Joe's focus on cold calling, likely SDRs book initial meetings and AEs run demos and close

SE Support: No technical SE needed—this is food service, not software

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: ezCater (marketplace model), Fooda (pop-up restaurant model), Grubhub Corporate, local catering companies, existing vendor relationships

How They Differentiate: Chef partnerships for quality, comprehensive solution (catering + group orders + pantry), meal donation program for CSR angle

Common Objections: "We already have a catering vendor", "Too expensive vs local caterers", "Our team is hybrid/remote now", "We use Grubhub/DoorDash for expensed meals"

Win Themes: Consistent quality through chef partnerships, simplifies vendor management (one platform for multiple needs), employee experience/engagement angle

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (35%) | Active Deals (40%) | Account Management (15%) | Internal (10%)

Key Activities

• Cold calling office managers and HR teams: You're calling 40-60 companies per day asking if they need a better workplace food solution. Most aren't actively looking and already have vendors. You're trying to book 8-12 discovery calls per week.
• Running discovery and tastings: You ask about office size, return-to-office status, current catering budget, and pain points with existing vendors. Often you'll coordinate a food tasting on-site to showcase quality, which requires logistics coordination.
• Proposal building and negotiation: You're creating custom proposals based on estimated weekly orders, per-person budgets, and service frequency. Expect back-and-forth on pricing, minimum order requirements, and contract length.
• Managing procurement and legal review: Enterprise deals get stuck in procurement for 2-6 weeks. You're chasing down vendor forms, insurance certificates, and contract redlines. Finance wants Net-60 terms, you're pushing for Net-30.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Most companies already have catering vendors or meal stipend programs in place. You're displacing incumbents, which means longer sales cycles and political navigation.
• Hybrid work kills deal size. A company that was going to spend $80K/year pre-COVID now has 40% in-office attendance and will spend $35K.
• You're competing on price with local caterers who have lower overhead. Your quality is better but you need to justify the premium, and some buyers just care about cost.
• Usage fluctuates based on office attendance, company events, and seasonality. Revenue isn't predictable like SaaS—clients can scale down or pause without much friction.
• Implementation requires coordination with office managers on delivery logistics, dietary restrictions, and feedback loops. It's operationally intensive.

What Success Looks Like

• Close 3-4 new enterprise accounts per quarter, each worth $40K-100K annually
• Maintain 85%+ client retention by ensuring consistent quality and addressing operational issues quickly
• Expand existing accounts by adding group order programs or increasing order frequency

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Office Managers / Workplace Experience Managers (day-to-day decision makers)
• HR Directors / People Ops Leaders (budget owners for employee perks)
• Facilities Directors (at larger enterprises, control vendor relationships)

What They Care About:

• Consistent quality and on-time delivery (they get complaints if food is late or bad)
• Dietary accommodations (vegetarian, vegan, allergies, religious restrictions)
• Budget predictability and cost per person
• Easy ordering process for employees
• Vendor reliability and account management responsiveness

Requirements

• 2-4 years of B2B sales experience, ideally in services or hospitality
• Comfortable with high-volume cold calling (Joe's post emphasizes cold calling)
• Ability to manage operational details—this isn't just closing deals, it's ensuring smooth execution
• Experience selling to HR, facilities, or office management buyers
• Comfortable with consultative selling where you need to understand usage patterns and build custom proposals
• Located in or near a major metro area where HUNGRY operates (likely NYC, DC, SF, or similar)