Hartung’s experience includes Chipotle and McDonald’s. | Photo: Shutterstock
Wonder is adding longtime former Chipotle chief financial officer Jack Hartung to its board as it aims to become “IPO-ready” by next year.
Hartung retired from Chipotle last year after nearly 25 years with the fast-casual burrito chain. He helped take the brand public and grow it to more than 3,500 locations, from fewer than 200. Before that, he spent nearly two decades at McDonald’s.
He will look to bring some of that experience to Wonder as it aims to go from a well-funded startup to a household name.
Though his background is in finance, Hartung said that journey is all about the food. He learned that during his early days at Chipotle, when he worked closely with the founders and spent time on the farms that supplied the chain’s ingredients.
“It starts with real culinary, with real cooking,” Hartung said. “Then you combine that with technology, or great people, or great operations, so that you can deliver, on a sustainable basis, a terrific experience.” Economics, he said, are the final piece of the equation.
Wonder checked all of those boxes for him. “It’s the whole package, and that’s what appeals to me,” he said.
The company was founded by entrepreneur Marc Lore in 2018 as a food-truck delivery business. It later evolved into a chain of delivery-focused food halls offering multiple brands from a single kitchen.
Some of those brands Wonder developed itself, while others are partnerships with well-known chefs such as Bobby Flay and Marcus Samuelsson. Recently, Wonder has begun acquiring existing concepts such as Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken and Mighty Quinn’s BBQ to add to the roster.
Technology is key to Wonder’s operations, from its mobile app to its delivery software and its kitchens, which rely on just a few pieces of equipment to produce food from more than two-dozen menus. Last year, Wonder acquired bowl-making robot Spyce from Sweetgreen with plans to bring more automation to the back of house.
Wonder also owns the Grubhub delivery service, meaning it can fulfill many of its own orders without turning to third parties.
This multibrand, vertically integrated delivery model makes Wonder unique in the restaurant industry, and Hartung believes it has a chance to be disruptive. He noted that while food delivery is popular, it faces challenges with accuracy and timeliness. Wonder’s end-to-end model has helped ease some of those issues.
“It’s one kitchen doing all the cooking. It is an integrated, either fully or partially, delivery approach. And so there’s more seamlessness to it,” he said. “I look at this as Wonder disrupting what’s already going on in delivery and making it a better experience.”
Lore has built other successful ecommerce brands, including Diapers.com, which was acquired by Amazon, and Jet.com, which was acquired by Walmart. He then became the CEO of Walmart’s ecommerce business in the U.S.
Wonder is his first food-related company, but Hartung said the founder is more than up for the challenge. When he met with Lore at a Wonder location earlier this year to discuss the board position, Hartung arrived early and found the CEO in the dining room tasting the food.
“He wasn’t in the back looking at the technology, he wasn’t counting, ‘How many orders are we making?’” Hartung said. “And when we talked about things, you could tell that food is the highest priority.”
The tech, he said, is all intended to make the food more consistent and get it to customers faster.
“Marc seems like he’s uniquely positioned to make something that nobody else is doing happen,” he said.
Wonder’s board now includes renowned chef José Andrés; Carolyn Everson, a former Meta executive; and Viet Dinh, a former Justice Department official and assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush.
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