Separate checks? UVA students create Foodio app

Okay, so maybe this new food ordering app that a couple of twenty-something UVA students came up with doesn't address a major issue, but it does eliminate one annoying thing about eating with friends. 

"The idea all started with credit card splitting," says Rory Stolzenberg, a 21-year old UVA fourth-year student who recently founded Foodio (getfoodio.com) with two friends.

"It's a problem every college student–- or really, everyone who's ever had a roommate–- has faced," he says. "You're ordering pizza with two or three other people, and when it comes time to pay, only one person can use their credit card, and nobody ever has cash in the right denominations to properly pay everyone back."

As Stolzenberg points out, existing restaurant ordering apps (or even calling on the phone) just aren't designed for the common phenomenon of people ordering in groups. 

So Stolzenberg and his buddies decided to fix that. 

"Users can now use as many cards as they'd like," he says, "paying just a small fee to cover the processing costs." 

For example, say you're sitting around with a bunch of friends and you want to pay for a pizza or some Chinese food. To pay for the order, everyone pulls out their credit card, selects what they want, but then the order has to be made on one phone. With the Foodio app, everyone just enters their food selection and card number on their own phone, syncs up their order with everyone else (for example, by bumping phones against each other, or entering a passcode), and then a single order is made. The app lets everyone see the combined order on each person's phone before its submitted to the restaurant. 

"That way everyone can browse the menu and choose at the same time," says Stolzenberg, "saving time and avoiding the hassle of passing a phone around between people." 

Well, not a solution for world peace, but Stolzenberg and company are working to promote the app at other colleges in Virginia.