Revolutionizing Trade Spending: First Bite’s Innovative Approach to Foodservice Sales

First Bite, co-founded by former Impossible Foods executive Reed McCord, seeks to optimize foodservice sales for food manufacturers. By tackling the opaque nature of trade spending, First Bite is introducing a digital rebates platform that empowers manufacturers to deliver offers directly to end customers.

The Problem with Current Trade Spending Practices

Managing rebates in the foodservice channel presents significant challenges, according to McCord. “Manufacturers often rely on outdated methods such as paper forms, PDFs, and spreadsheets,” he explains. This result is a lack of visibility and attribution, coupled with prolonged redemption cycles that can last months.

The situation is exacerbated by the role of distributors, who sit between manufacturers and customers, and typically do not share downstream sales data. As a result, “manufacturers are left in the dark regarding which operators are purchasing their products and why,” McCord notes.

Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) further complicate matters. McCord states, “For manufacturers, GPOs and traditional trade programs can feel more like a burden than a growth opportunity, characterized by blanket discounting, cumbersome manual processes, and delayed settlements.”

Bringing Efficiency to Trade Spend

With First Bite’s platform, manufacturers can now manage rebates more effectively, running precise and high-performance programs. “Our system offers full visibility from incentive to purchase,” McCord states. Users can target any operator in the country and attribute sales back to those specific operators, all from a centralized and user-friendly dashboard.

Within minutes, First Bite users can create and process digital rebate programs—receiving payment in “days, not weeks or months.” The platform also includes real-time tracking capabilities, allowing users to monitor clicks, claims, redemptions, and attribution effortlessly. McCord mentions that redemption rates are already seeing a threefold increase compared to legacy programs.

Filling the Visibility Gap

Founded in 2023 and officially launched in early 2024 with $2 million in seed funding, First Bite facilitates access for manufacturers to over 1.5 million foodservice locations across the United States, including restaurants, schools, healthcare facilities, colleges, and hotels. As a software as a service (SaaS) platform, First Bite utilizes a wealth of data—including online menus, reviews, social media interactions, and location demographics—to provide crucial market insights.

Over 50 manufacturers that collectively oversee more than $800 million in foodservice commerce have adopted the platform, with McCord reporting a six-fold growth in revenue since the seed round in February 2024.

Navigating the Long Tail of Foodservice

McCord notes the stark contrast between retail and foodservice dynamics: “In retail, maybe there are 500 buyers that you need to focus on; in foodservice, there are a million decision makers.” This presents substantial workflow challenges.

First Bite has developed a comprehensive CRM that includes contact information for everyone in the foodservice ecosystem. Additionally, the platform offers workflow tools to identify decision-makers and run targeted email and automated campaigns to connect with them effectively.

For example, users can identify high-traffic restaurants in Colorado that serve tacos and craft targeted offers to boost business. In another case, manufacturers can offer incentives to loyal customers already purchasing their products.

McCord emphasizes that First Bite is “already close to profitability,” and much of its growth can be attributed to word-of-mouth recommendations. The platform primarily appeals to consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands seeking a hands-on approach to foster growth in the foodservice sector.