What's Cooking?

The pals behind Plated dish about their hunger for the food business

- Sam Jenkins

FOR NICK TARANTO AND JOSH HIX, THE CO-FOUNDERS OF Plated, the popular meal-kit delivery service, the early days of building their business were no picnic. “We’d come out of meetings and get rejected dozens of times a day,” says Taranto. Adds Hix, “But our decision from day one was to see this to the end, even if it meant bankruptcy.”

Bankruptcy isn’t a concern anymore. After steadily growing Plated for five years, Taranto, 33, and Hix, 36, sold their New York City-based company for a reported $300 million to Albertsons Companies, which has over 2,300 grocery stores across the country. Plated’s online customers, who get to choose from 20 healthy, flavorful dinner recipes a week—think shawarma turkey burgers and maple-roasted squash—will now see kits in the aisles. Here, the two friends, who met at Harvard Business School, talk about their dogged path to savory success.

What inspired you to start Plated? Neither of you is a trained chef.