José Guillermo Calderón pivots MUY to cloud kitchens delivery-first model amid COVID-19

José Guillermo Calderón first gained experience building Domicilios, a food‑delivery platform that reached millions of users and exited via an IPO with Delivery Hero in 2017. He realized that, despite high user numbers, food delivery remained a luxury for most Latin Americans, prompting him to look for a more efficient model.

He launched MUY, a cloud‑kitchen startup that combined traditional restaurant space with delivery‑optimized kitchens and proprietary tech systems. Before the pandemic, about 80% of MUY’s sales were on‑site. When COVID‑19 hit Colombia and sales plummeted 95%, Calderón decided to shift the business to a delivery‑first approach, expanding contactless ordering, lockers, and app‑based pickup while keeping the same kitchen footprint.

Delivery share rose to 80% of sales, food waste fell to 2.7%, cost per meal dropped to $0.80, and MUY expanded to 40 cloud‑kitchen locations across Latin‑American cities

The pandemic exposed the vulnerability of relying on dine‑in traffic, making a delivery‑centric model essential for survival.

MUY’s existing technology stack (31 proprietary systems for demand prediction, production, and staffing) allowed a rapid reconfiguration of operations without major capital investment.

Cloud‑kitchen economics—low food waste (2.7% vs. industry 25%) and low per‑meal cost ($0.80)—provided a scalable path to profitability once delivery became the dominant channel.

Leveraging existing tech infrastructure and deep market knowledge enables fast pivots; focusing on unit economics and scalability turns crises into growth opportunities.

After the shift, MUY’s sales recovered with delivery constituting 80% of business. The company opened its first contactless restaurant in Bogotá in July 2020 and planned additional locations in Mexico City and São Paulo. By maintaining a tight focus on unit economics and leveraging its tech platform, MUY continued to expand its footprint while keeping waste and costs low, positioning itself as a resilient player in Latin America’s evolving food‑service landscape.