Manifold immediately assembled a team of marketing and subject matter experts who brainstormed ways to pivot the business, focusing on different areas of the supply chain. After interviewing and surveying countless restaurant owners and chefs it became clear that they already knew where and how to buy specialty ingredients. However, they had no idea how to elevate packaging for their take-out orders

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As a result, Manifold decided to pivot their business to an e-commerce packaging site that supplied restaurant operators with the best packaging solutions for their menus, along with general guidance about how to build and grow successful takeout businesses.

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Manifold’s food and beverage SMEs and go-to-market team narrowed the buyer to independent restaurant owners with five or fewer locations and who didn’t have packaging strategies in place. Manifold found that this same buyer was using a default vendor’s packaging or buying materials directly from Amazon. These restaurants really cared about their takeout experience and wanted their food to be high-quality and fresh with eye-catching, well-branded, and eco-friendly packaging.

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Manifold’s developers and designers then concept tested and validated the ideas. To enhance the actual packaging, they digitized it by adding QR codes that customers could scan to get a coupon or a sneak peek at an upcoming menu.