In July 2014, Josh Boldt and Erik Rust started to take notice of the burgeoning food truck scene in Lexington, and they wanted to test a few of them out. There was one major problem, however — they weren’t sure where to find them.
It wasn’t long before they figured out a solution. They purchased the domain for Lexingtonfoodtrucks.com and started compiling information on as many local trucks as they could track down. After just a few weeks, the site had thousands of fans on Facebook.
Seeing this demand, they realized tracking food trucks could be more than just a fun hobby; it had the potential to be a business.
What started as a Lexington food-truck website has now developed into a free iPhone app with the potential to go national. It’s called “Follow That Food Truck!” and 3,000 people are already using it.
The app, which launched in September 2014, uses GPS to display the location of nearby food trucks. Upon opening the app, a map of your location appears, with icons pinpointing any nearby food trucks that are open for business.
Fifty-two trucks are currently signed up with the app, including some local favorites such as The Gastro Gnomes, J. Renders BBQ, Red State BBQ, Ellos Taco Cart, Fork in the Road and Athenian Grill, to name a few.
The app is currently free to use for both diners and food-truck operators, and some revenue is received from in-app advertisements. Depending on how the service and advertising grow, Boldt and Rust may charge food-truck operators a subscription fee of $10 per month to take advantage of additional features, they said.
In February, Boldt and Rust presented their idea at the 5Across competition at Awesome Inc., in which five Kentucky startups pitch their ideas in front of a panel of judges, with the winner being awarded $500.
“The one problem with food trucks, the one challenge about them, is what makes them so great: They’re on wheels; they’re mobile,” Rust said early on in the presentation. “That’s where we come in.”
During the presentation, Boldt discussed the shortcomings of other apps that try to track food trucks. For one, most are too localized; they focus on one city and often include that city in the name of their app.
Though “Follow That Food Truck!” is beginning in Lexington, they picked a name that could be expanded to other markets. They already have trucks using the app in Columbus, Ohio, and are starting to reach out to trucks in Louisville and Cincinnati as well.
Boldt said most of the existing food-truck apps are overcomplicated and poorly designed.
“This app needs to do one thing: It needs to tell you where the food trucks are the instant you open it. And that’s exactly what our app does,” Boldt said.
Follow That Food Truck! was the first to present at the competition and eventually took home the top prize.
“To actually hear people that were in the business say that we were onto something was pretty validating,” Boldt said. “Just being able to get the word out there every chance we get, to have people hear about the app, is always a good opportunity.”
The next step for Boldt and Rust is to develop an Android version of the app. After that, the focus will be on expanding to other markets and working to gain national exposure. Stats show that there are more than 4,000 food trucks in the United States.
“How cool would it be if you’re visiting some city and you’ve already got the app that allows you to follow trucks that are already in that town?” said Boldt. “Whether it’s our app or somebody else’s app, I really want that to happen. It’d be so cool to have a national food truck app.”