Monday, January 28, 2013
GrubTonight Launches Social Dinner Reservation Service
What's the best way to meet new people, and expand your social circle in a city? One way might be to try out GrubTonight, a newly launched iPhone application from Venice-based Grubwithus, which allows users to find organized dinners in a local area, reserve a seat, and meet others at meals. The free application, which currently is only available in Los Angeles, let users find nearby dinners at local restaurants, where they can then reserve a seat and prepay for dinners, getting a chance to network with others and meet new people.
Grubwithus said the app is aimed at anyone looking to meet new people, including travelers looking to eat with locals; people who have recently relocated into town; or even just folks wishing they could get out and meet new people. Grubwithus is just one of a number of startups here who have focused on helping others meet others around meals; other similar services from local startups include SupperKing.com (home cooked meals with strangers) and DinnerDate.com (group dates at local restaurants).
Grubwithus is led by Eddy Lu, and is backed by GRP Partners. The firm raised $5M in a venture funding round back in May of last year, and earlier had raised $1.6M in seed funding from the likes of Y Combinator, Ashton Kutcher, Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, and others.