The web development is easy: A good friend or member of the family appears to be like into the digicam and tells viewers, in a barely aggressive tone, that they’re about to witness a presentation and that they’d higher be good.
That’s what Kendall, the sister of Lucious McDaniel IV, did, and after she stepped apart, her brother pitched his firm, BiteSight, a meals supply app that lets customers watch movies of meals earlier than ordering. It additionally lets prospects see what their pals have ordered and bookmark locations to check out. The app performs on how younger individuals interact with content material — by short-form movies and suggestions from pals.
McDaniel posted the video and went again to work. Fifteen minutes later, his sister texted him that their submit was going viral. “We have been at 20,000 views in quarter-hour,” McDaniel instructed TechCrunch. Pleasure got here, however then chaos ensued as “elements of our app began to interrupt as we received extra customers.”
The engineering staff labored across the clock to maintain BiteSight practical, whereas McDaniel took to creating TikToks in regards to the chaos, which ended up going viral, too. He mentioned individuals cherished the “authenticity” behind seeing what occurs when “your app explodes in a single day.”
The video of McDaniel presenting this concept has since amassed almost four million likes on TikTok and a quarter of a million on Instagram, becoming a member of a development of young entrepreneurs using TikTok and Instagram Reels to gain traction and deal flow.
McDaniel instructed TechCrunch that the thought to make this video got here after watching a good friend partake in the identical web development for his courting app. “It received over one million views, and he instructed I attempt it for BiteSight.”
McDaniel, who’s 24, mentioned he, like many younger individuals, realized he was consuming an excessive amount of takeout, ordering from the identical three locations as a result of he couldn’t uncover new eating places on supply apps. “I’d hit this wall of identical-looking eating places with inventory pictures, and in some way each place had 4.6 stars.”
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He began retaining a spreadsheet of eating places he’d discovered on Instagram and TikTok, monitoring precise evaluations, and seeing what his pals thought of mentioned locations. “Once I realized different individuals have been doing the very same factor, my co-founder Zac and I made a decision to construct one thing higher: an app that truly displays how we uncover meals immediately,” he mentioned, referring to Zac Schulwolf, the corporate’s CTO.
McDaniel is not any stranger to the tech business. He beforehand labored at Common Atlantic, the place one among his essential focus areas was restaurant expertise. He beforehand based a funds firm known as Phly, led product for a recruitment software program, and has even angel invested in a number of corporations, together with the fintech Mercury.
McDaniel and Schulwolf, 25, spent over a 12 months constructing BiteSight, together with participation within the Winter 2024 cohort of YCombinator. They then did a restricted beta round New York College in April. In mid-Could, the corporate launched an early model and did a little bit of social media advertising and marketing. In June, they made their viral video.
“What made our video stand out was that what we’re constructing resonates,” mentioned McDaniel, who’s BiteSight’s CEO (also referred to as chief consuming officer). He added that “it’s clear that customers, and particularly Gen-Z, are prepared for one thing that feels contemporary and constructed for the best way they interact.”
After the video, BiteSight briefly grew to become #2 within the App Retailer’s Meals and Beverage class, bypassing Uber Eats, Starbucks, and even McDonald’s.
McDaniel mentioned the app additionally gained greater than 100,000 new customers and, although the app is just accessible in New York for the time being, individuals in different cities began messaging for a nationwide launch. On the restaurant aspect, McDaniel mentioned everybody from small family-owned spots to chain eating places has reached out to accomplice and, after all, “we’ve had a surge of investor curiosity from people who see that that is the place meals supply goes.”
He declined to touch upon the scale of any upcoming funding offers, besides to say he expects to have information to share quickly.
After all, BiteSight has a whole lot of large, well-funded competitors like DoorDash and UberEats. McDaniel believes, nevertheless, that being a startup within the age of AI might be his benefit. For instance, whereas most of its opponents wanted tons of of engineers of their early days, BiteSight can work with AI instruments that carry out 10x the work of a human for a lot much less of the associated fee.
“Through the use of AI to keep away from huge overhead and infrastructure prices, we will do rather more with a lot much less and cross on the financial savings to the small enterprise house owners and prospects who want it most whereas nonetheless sustaining wholesome margins,” he mentioned.
What additionally differentiates BiteSight is its deal with meals and video, slightly than different classes for the time being.
“We’re making an attempt to be the go-to app for the era that discovers every thing by social suggestions and short-form video.”