High Tech Grilled Cheese? Does that sound good?

Jonathan Kaplan, the inventor of the Flip video camera, has come up with a new venture – THE MELT. People will be able to order their ‘perfect’ grilled cheese via their smartphone and they will be able to pick up their sandwich at one of the the 20 new stores that will be opening soon. Sequoia Capital is the lead investor. Kaplan’s plan is to have 500 locations by 2015 throughout the country, with the first one opening this August in San Francisco.

In 2009 Cisco purchased Pure Digital Technologies, where Kaplan was the founder and CEO, for $590 million dollars. Pure Digital technologies invented the easy to use Flip camcorder in 2007 and the company was ranked by Deloitte as one of the fastest information technology companies. However, two short years later Cisco Systems announced in February 2011 that they were going to kill the Flip Camcorder. They reported they were reducing their investment in the consumer market. Fans of the Flip were shocked and upset that the nation’s best-selling line of camcorders was coming to an end. Kaplan left Cisco a few months before Cisco decided to kill the Flip camera and has recently said that he suspected the end to his beloved Flip was on the horizon at Cisco prior to him leaving.

So would some consider Kaplan a genius with his new idea – THE MELT. Others would say that this new scheme is a shot in the dark. Do people really love grilled cheese that much? Let’s look beyond the food and look at the genius behind the technology. The user will be able to order the grilled cheese to their liking and pay for it on their smartphone. However, they do not have to indicate which location they want to pick up their sandwich. Instead, when they arrive at one of the restaurants they will scan the QR code they received when ordering and their grilled cheese will be made on location. No waiting online! Sandwiches will take less than a minute to make – made on a machine by Electrolux.

Sandwiches will be sold for $5 apiece, or $8 with soup.