This edition of A Deeper Dive is brought to you by Lamb Weston.

Virtual brands are all the rage right now. But how do they work? And how can they succeed with so many of them out there?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” focuses on this topic and features Alex Canter, the founder of Ordermark, who provides advice and insight into the creation of these concepts.

Canter’s company includes Nextbite, a creator and operator of virtual concepts—which operate for a primarily delivery customer out of leased kitchens at places like restaurants or hotels or ghost kitchens. Nextbite’s brands include Grilled Cheese Society and Hotbox by Wiz Khalifa.

These concepts have exploded over the past year-plus as brands looked for additional income during the pandemic while taking advantage of intense demand for delivery.

Such brands offer a very different economic model from a traditional restaurant—they can emerge and grow very quickly with relatively little capital costs. This can help brands grow very quickly. But it also means there are a lot of entrants. And there are a lot of them.

Canter talks about what differentiates successful virtual brands and how to best succeed at creating them. He also talks about his own history in the restaurant business.

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