About Us


This is the story of how the GrubHub.com you know and love came to be…

GrubHub.com began back in 2004 by two guys- Matt and Mike- who were working for a major Internet company in Chicago at the time. As it often happened, Mike and Matt found themselves working late, hungry, and in need of delivery. Both were tired of the usual pizza and Thai places. They turned to the Internet to find a listing of Chicago restaurants that would deliver to them. But, the Internet failed them; there was no place online that could answer their simple question. Matt and Mike decided this needed to change immediately. Matt looked at Mike, and Mike looked at Matt. One said “Grub”, and the other said “Hub” and with that, GrubHub.com was born.




Matt and Mike set to work calling every restaurant in Chicago asking if and where they delivered. It became clear to them why nobody had done this before; this information sucks to collect. Some of the restaurants were unresponsive, some didn’t understand English and others still were just plain rude. GrubHub.com is the result of several hundred hours of mind-numbing, data collection. Mike and Matt hope you and your stomach appreciate all their hard work. They did it for you.

Matt and Mike quickly learned that being one of the most ingenious websites around was not enough. GrubHub.com had to make money for them to keep doing it. For those who don’t know them, Matt and Mike are geeks, not salesmen (trust me…I do know them). So for now they’re stuck going to restaurants and asking them to pay a couple bucks for every order GrubHub.com sends them. It’s a win-win situation; it is a steal for restaurants, and Matt and Mike can use the profits to take Grubhub.com to the next city. That is what’s behind the curtain- just a couple guys trying to make a living providing a solution to a very common problem.

So if you like the site, try to order from the restaurants with a logo, they’re the ones who help them make money. But if you want them to starve, you can order from the restaurants without logos as well. Just remember, there’s a thing called Karma…and that’s all I’m going to say about that.