The Internet trend is simple: a friend or family member looks at the camera and tells the audience, in a little aggressive tone, that they are witnessing a presentation and they will be better.
This was what Lucieus McDaniel IV’s sister, Kendall, and after stepping aside, her brother developed her company, Cutting lightA food delivery app that allows users to watch food videos before ordering. It also allows users to see what their friends have placed and bookmark locations to try. This app goes on how young people are engaged in content-through short form videos and recommendations of friends.
Mac Daniel posted the video and went back to work. Fifteen minutes later, her sister warned her that her post was going viral. Mc Daniel told Tech Crunch, “We were at 20,000 ideas in 15 minutes. The excitement came, but then the chaos spread when” parts of our app began to break down when we found more users. ”
The engineering team worked 24 hours to keep the cutting light active, while Mac Daniel worked to make tectox about chaos, which also ended viral. He said that people like to see this “truth” when what happens when “your app explodes overnight.”
Mac Daniel’s video has been submitted after presenting this idea About 4 million likes On the tricktok and A quarter of a million on InstagramTo join the trend of yOng businessmen using trick and Instagram rails to get traction and deals flow.
Mc Daniel told Tech Crunch that the idea of making this video came after seeing a friend in the same internet trend for his dating app. “He got more than a million feedback, and he suggested that I try it for a cutting light.”
Mc Daniel, who is 24 years old, said that like many young people, he also realized that he was taking too much takeout, ordering from the same three places as he could not discover new restaurants on delivery apps. “I will hit the wall of a visible restaurant with stock photos, and somehow there were 4.6 stars everywhere.”
Taxkarnch event
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
He began to have a spreadsheet of restaurants found on Instagram and Techtok, tracking real studies, and seeing what his friends thought about the places. “When I realized that other people were doing exactly the same thing, my co -founder Zack and I decided to do something: an app that in fact reflects how we discover the food today,” he said, citing the company’s CTO, Zack Scholoff.
There is no stranger to the Mac Daniel Tech industry. Earlier, he worked in General Atlantic, where one of his main hub was a restaurant technology. Earlier, he founded a payment company called Fly, which led the product for recruitment software, and even the angel has invested in some companies, including Finctic Mercury.
25 -year -old Mac Daniel and Schulf spent more than a year in the light of cutting, including the participation of the Yumkinator in the winter of 2024. He then made a limited son around New York University in April. In mid -May, the company launched the initial version and made a little social media marketing. In June, he made his viral video.
“What we made to our video was that what we are making is resonating,” said Mc Daniel, who is also known as the CEO of the cutter (also known as the Chief Eating Officer). “It is clear that consumers, and especially General Z, are ready for something that feels fresh and the way they engage,” he added.
After the video, the cutting light briefly became #2 in the Food and Beverage category of the App Store, in which Uber Ets, Starbucks, and even McDonald’s were ignored.
Mc Daniel said the app also acquired more than 100,000 new users and, although this app is only available in New York at the moment, people in other cities have started messaging nationwide release. On the restaurant, Mac Daniel said that everyone from small family -owned locations to China restaurant has reached for partnerships and, obviously, “We have increased the interest of investors from people who see that this is a place where food is operating.”
He refused to comment on the size of any incoming funding deals, except that he expects news to share soon.
Of course, cutting light is a huge, well -financing competition, such as Dordsh and Ebrots. However, Mac Daniel believes that being a startup in AI’s time will be the benefit. For example, while most of its rivals needed hundreds of engineers in their early days, cutting lights can work with AI tools that perform 10x human work much less than cost.
“By using AI to avoid large -scale overhead and infrastructure costs, we can do very little work and transfer small business owners and consumers to savings, who need the most needed while maintaining a healthy margin,” he said.
At the moment, instead of other types, the cutting light is also focused on food and video.
“We are trying to try to become an app for this generation that can detect everything through social recommendations and short -form video.”