Foodcaching Makes Finding Restaurant Deals a Social Adventure

March 1, 2011 - PRLog -- SEATTLE – Foodcaching, a new industry movement powered by a system developed by Redmond-based LightVantage, seeks to bring good food, great deals and geocaching together in one app that makes dining out an exciting social adventure.

Consumers are not required to pre-pay for a deal, nor print anything out. The paper-free, low-stress, social shopping Foodcaching app is now available as a free download for iPhone and Android users at www.foodcaching.com.

“Cooking starts with freshness and continues with treating ingredients with attention. Foodcaching makes dining out a fun adventure by playing against friends or earning bragging rights on the leaderboard,” said chef in the hat Thierry Rautureau owner of Luc and Rover’s Restaurants. “Consumers can simply set their cuisine, location, and even dietary preferences to uncover better food experiences by geocaching.”

In addition to enjoying limited deals updated in real-time by the businesses themselves, players can amass “Food Cash” points by inviting their pals, sharing their finds, or simply by showing up and redeeming deals. And because often users generate the best content, Foodcachers can also suggest deals to the app if they feel like they’ve found one at a participating restaurant location.

“Foodcachers can share that experience with their Facebook friends, Twitter followers or just text and email their next door neighbors,” Vigano said. “It makes every meal using the app a fun social networking experience. No coupon clipping, no Groupon tipping!”

Foodcaching users benefit not only from the fun social aspects of using the app, but also by being able to easily search for a type of food in the palm of their hands using keywords such as “Indian”, “teriyaki”, “diabetic”, “low sodium” or even “dessert”. They also can opt-in to continue receiving special real time offers exclusively from their favorite restaurants.

The local “Foodcaching Movement” members will leverage the system to offer great value, but also great food quality, and dining experience, not just discounts. It’s real-time mobile marketing in the hands of the restaurants themselves. Participating restaurants can upload their own deals in less than two minutes, and the smartphone app updates immediately. Businesses set their own limits on deals, and consumers pay the restaurant directly so the cash-negative, detrimental onslaught of redeemed deals that daily deal sites heap on top of featured food establishments is avoided.  

"With Foodcaching I can create the deal, set my limit, and I can track what's happening. It makes perfect sense, and I'm not stuck with gearing up inventory, or caught with my pants down." said Skyler Locatelli with Gelatiamo. “We look forward to offering guests some fun deals, along with spreading the message about our great tasting, better quality, lower calorie, gourmet frozen treat.”

The Foodcaching system eliminates the need for the middle-man, giving restaurants full control of posting deals when they want. When a deal is redeemed, the Foodcaching patent-pending system tracks and logs it to relieve busy staff from a tedious paperwork trail and management from cumbersome spreadsheets. Daily metrics are available to participating restaurants through the streamlined, restaurant-friendly analytics features on Foodcaching's website.

To celebrate its initial market launch in Seattle, the Foodcaching Movement will host a treasure hunt-style event on Saturday, April 9th.  Sponsored teams, as well as interested members of the general public will race to win a $1,000 prize for their selected charity and to redeem great deals offered by Rover’s and Luc Restaurants, Marriott’s Bistro 2100, La Vita e’ Bella Ristorante, Luciano Ristorante, Mondello Restaurant, Osteria La Spiga, Gelatiamo and more.

Foodcaching is still inviting restaurant partners to participate in the Seattle launch event. For more information about the launch event, the Foodcaching patent pending system and the app for iPhone and Andrioid smartphones now available, please check out the website at http://www.foodcaching.com.

About LightVantage

LightVantage LLC’s mission is to help entrepreneurs realize their dreams by contributing to incubate and accelerate their new or existing business ventures. The Redmond, Washington-based company focuses on cloud computing, mobile software and social networking-enabled software solution. Foodcaching and the Foodcaching logos are a trademark of LightVantage LLC. Foodcaching is patent pending. For more information, visit www.lightvantage.com.

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