We were lucky to catch up with Janylle Radden recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Janylle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Has Covid resulted in any major changes to your business model?

Covid had a major impact on our business model. We work directly with restaurants to bring food allergy and dietary restriction information to consumers. Without a doubt, the hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. Many were forced to close their doors and pivot on their offerings. With so much uncertainty with regard to the recovery of restaurant revenue, we placed a temporary halt on payments, offering restaurants to join MenuMD for free so they could still benefit from being featured on our platform without having to worry about when they may fully recover. We figured that MenuMD can help bring in business by catering to people with food allergies and dietary restrictions in a way that no one else does and we wanted to do our part to help the industry. From a consumer perspective, a lot of restaurants went to strictly delivery which eliminates the opportunity to discuss dietary needs in person with a server. Having the restaurants up on MenuMD (for free) during the pandemic was not the plan, but we knew it was the right thing to do in the moment.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As a person who has managed food allergies since birth, I’m all too familiar with the challenges of dining out. The idea from MenuMD came from a particularly pleasant dining experience where I felt that my dietary needs would be considered and accommodated without question. I wanted to provide that experience for others. MenuMD works with restaurants and food service outlets to identify allergens in their existing menu items. For a restaurant, there is no need to change a menu or to give away the secret sauce recipe, but rather indicate in a yes/no format whether a dish contains certain allergens or is vegan or vegetarian. For consumers, having a clearly labeled menu with information coming directly from the chef offers peace of mind that is rarely experienced by people with food allergies or dietary restrictions when dining out. Having worked in hospitality and food service for years, I understand how precious a chef’s and restaurant staff’s time is during service and with MenuMD readily accessible on anyone’s personal device, we can save the restaurant time and energy allowing tables to turn faster. I’m most proud of our ability to pivot during Covid and the positive impact we’ve had on the allergy community. I’m excited to continue expanding across the US and internationally so we can continue to help the hospitality industry and its patrons. The goal is to expand to food trucks and hotels as our “phase two”. We want to make it so any person who wants to dine out whether their guest or themselves has a dietary restriction can easily access the necessary information no matter where they are.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Interestingly and unexpectedly, Instagram DMs have proven to be a fruitful resource for MenuMD’s prospecting. It’s an easy and unobtrusive way to contact someone and it offers a less-pressure way to communicate through the initial stages of the process.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

MenuMD has so far been bootstrapped but as we grow and enter a phase to scale, we are considering options to bring on investors.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://menumd.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menumd/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MenuMD/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyndtGcyHSbcpFwKpq2WDUQ/featured

Image Credits
Regina Felice – https://www.badasswomenphotos.com