What if there was a BETTER WAY TO MAKE AND DELIVER PIZZA TO YOU?” ASKED CNBC'S JIM CRAMER-SHIRT SLEEVES ROLLED UP, WAGGING HIS FINGER AT THE CAMERAAS HE PASSIONATELY SET UP A SEGMENT OF HIS POPULAR MAD MONEY SHOW IN JUNE 2018. “TURNS OUT, THERE IS, WHICH BRINGS ME TO ZUME, INC., A SILICON VALLEYBASED STARTUP TRYING TO BRING THIS INDUSTRY TO THE MODERN ERA.” CRAMER, ON LOCATION IN MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, AND STANDING IN FRONT OF A SHINY RED FOOD TRUCK, OUICKLY INTRODUCED ZUME'S ROBOTS, CUING UP FOOTAGE OF A ROBOTIC ARM BALLETICALLY MOVING PIZZAS IN AND OUT OF OVENS INSIDE A WAREHOUSE. THIS, HE INTONED, WAS A REVOLUTION.
“WE AUTOMATE EVERYTHING ELSE, WHY NOT PIZZA?”
When Zume cofounder Alex Garden stepped into the frame, the frenetic energy spiked further. “If you think about the huge explosion in scenarios that food companies are trying to address today,” Garden said, meaning improving margins, finding workers, and meeting consumer demand for the convenience of delivery and healthier food, “this”—Garden pointed at the vehicle—“is the key to making it all work.”
The truck behind him was tricked out with custom refrigerators, ovens, and other kitchenware that let it cook food on the go. “This is one of the most complicated things anyone's ever attempted before,” Garden proudly explained, ticking off on his fingers all of the tech that Zume was deploying. “We've got artificial intelligence, we've got logistics networks, we've got positioning, robotics, automation, I could go on.”
He went on. Zume made pizza with robots in a warehouse and then finished it in these kitchens on wheels. It served three markets near San Francisco, but Garden had good news for everyone else: Zume had become a platform. “All the technology we built for Zume Pizza is now available” to any dining chain, convenience store, or grocer in the country that wanted its own roving restaurant.
“Wow!” Cramer exclaimed, going in for a hearty handshake just before commercial. “You have got one great idea.” He stopped to correct himself. “It's not an idea, it's a business.”
In June 2023, five years after the CNBC segment almost to the day, Zume was liquidated. The company, which raised approximately $445 million in its lifetime, is one of Silicon Valley's most embarrassing failures.
Cause of death? Well, for one, too many ideas and not enough business.
Zume did not go under because of a huge scandal. It never committed the kind of fraud that sent Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to prison. Zume is a sadder kind of failure: Hundreds of accomplished people spent years trying for this story. Those employees who did asked to do so anonymously.
