The CARI app was born in April 2024, when founders Patrick McFarland and Davide Thompson, both senior Notre Dame students, decided to create a food delivery app for Notre Dame students. The purpose of the app is threefold. McFarland and Thompson want to make local food more accessible to students, allow students to earn money as delivery drivers and connect students to local businesses.
The app allows students to either pre-order food for pickup or have it delivered by a Notre Dame student using a scooter or bike. Right now, the app is connected with local restaurants such as Taphouse On The Edge, Danny Boys and Tossed ToGo. Additionally, the app allows students to order from dorm kitchens like Alumni Hall’s “Dawg Pizza,” Sorin College’s “Eddy’s Late Night Eats” and Keough Hall’s “House of Protein.”
Many dorms run late-night food services, but previously this food could only be picked up. CARI gives these kitchens a wider consumer base and saves students a cold, late-night walk with its delivery feature.
Students are ideal drivers because they understand Notre Dame’s unique campus layout.
“We’re bringing the jobs back to the students … you don’t have to rely on a third party who will deliver it off at the main circle or the nearest parking lot … We thought, why not use students who you trust, where there’s a level of safety?” McFarland said.
Chefs at the dorm kitchens can track sales, update customers on their delivery status and even show what the busiest hours for orders are. The app has made these businesses more organized and profitable, especially because using the app costs less than global food delivery services like GrubHub or UberEats.
“It acts as its own POS [point of sale] system, so all of our orders are online through the app … they all get sorted so we can easily see them and so we have ways of tracking the order. We can see that they’re being prepared, in the oven, or that they’ve been delivered. We didn’t have that before,” Dawg Pizza worker Thad Lipinski said.
The founders have been flexible at adapting to users preferences.
“One of the things I like is working closely with Davide and Pat. They’ve helped us see what we want out of this. I told them that we wanted some more buttons to track orders, and they fixed that,” Lipinski said.
McFarland acts as CEO, while Thompson is CTO and focuses on the tech aspect of the business. Their team includes sales employees in charge of promoting the app and around 15 drivers.
“We have a lean team, me and my cofounder, around 15 drivers and then six guys who are in sales. We are funded by the company’s profits,” McFarland said.
Stephan Perenich is a member of the sales team who has enjoyed working for CARI.
“Ever since I started working for CARI, I feel like it grew in the sense of purpose, like I’m making a difference in the lives of students here,” Perenich said.
After their first semester in operation, the app has over 500 users and over 100 orders. McFarland and Thompson have big goals for the app after their initial success.
“We are in talks with other universities and are meeting with Notre Dame to talk about implementing it here. We could have flex points involved,” McFarland said.
