I suspect that the unit economics of this business aren't profitable at the moment. It's possible that the pro forma looked nice based on quotes from suppliers

I suspect that the unit economics of this business aren't profitable at the moment. It's possible that the pro forma looked nice based on quotes from suppliers. I've tried several of these meal kit companies and they all suffer from basic logistics and quality problems. I suspect it's a hard business with hidden costs and lots of unknown unknowns. This is why I and others[0] believe Amazon will use its purchase of Whole Foods to change the fundamentals of this business and provide the infrastructure companies like Blue Apron need to do this profitably. Before Amazon fulfillment existed ecommerce was a logistical mother fucker. I worked at a number of startups in the late 90's and early 00's that struggled with this. I think there are a lot of similarities here. 0: https://stratechery.com/2017/amazons-new-customer/ https://stratechery.com/2017/amazons-new-customer/