Stephanie Gómez Cardoso (Cali, 34) is the driving force behind Bacu, one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the country. In November 2025, they opened a new headquarters in Medellín, the 17th since the start of their activities, in Bogotá, in 2022. “We want to bring a balanced and accessible diet to all of Latin America,” he explains. The idea was born from his own frustration in searching for options that met these conditions.
He graduated in Business Administration from the University of the Andes in 2016 and has spent his entire professional career at Rappi. It started like director account, he went on to run the hidden kitchen operation in Colombia, then throughout Latin America, and retired while serving as chef of gastronomy, that is, restaurants focused on offering a luxury dining experience. His job consisted of traveling the continent to support the sustained growth of the different brands present on the platform.
“I often went to Mexico and went out to lunch, but it was impossible to find a healthy meal without having to spend 40+ minutes sitting, ordering, and waiting for the waiter to bring the food to me. On the other hand, for those who preferred a hamburger or a sandwich, the experience was very different.
His pain was shared with his former colleagues from Rappi, Mateo Albarracín and Juan Osuna, the first an expert in commerce and the second in setting up digital platforms. Also featuring chef Andrew Clarkson, who helped her identify the root of the problem: “On the one hand, it was a question of mindset, because restaurateurs don’t like to do things quickly; on the other, operational efficiency.
A predestined path
For Gómez, doing business is in his DNA. “My great-grandparents, grandparents and parents started a business and strongly believe that they can contribute to the country by generating employment.” His parents, Jairo Gómez and Martha Cardoso, own a real estate company and instilled in him that progress is possible if you lead with resilience, a firm head and a clear purpose.
From his family, he also learned that what we now often call “eating consciously” is synonymous with well-being and good health. “I see it in my grandparents and my parents, who are very healthy people.” His favorite foods, which he ate in Cali during his childhood, are sancocho, lentils, empanadas and Tikka Masala, this appears in Bacu’s letter.
Rewind the current
Rappi, according to him, is an ecosystem that invites its collaborators to dream and build through constant and disciplined work. “It sounds very cliché, but with them the sky is the limit“That’s partly why he joined forces with Albarracín, Osuna and Clarkson to create Bacu.
The timing of the start turned out to be not the best: Colombia was barely recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and the strong social epidemic of 2021, caused by a difficult economic outlook. Besides, she was pregnant. However, they jumped into the water. “We did it innocently and naively because we were very enthusiastic and believed in our goal and our ability to solve the problem we had identified. Sometimes you have to take risks because there is no ideal time,” he says. Facing this first challenge helped them develop a mentality of frugality, execution, and control over what is in their hands.
For Gómez, the key to Bacu’s success has been the partners’ ability to attract international investment, the technological framework behind the kitchens, which transforms the project into a mix between a restaurant and to start upand a philosophy that invites employees and suppliers to grow with the company.
According to Forbes Colombiatoday the channel enjoys the support of Benchstrength Capital, Reshape Ventures, Simón Borrero (CEO of Rappi) and Ángela Acosta (CEO of Morado), among other groups and angel investors. Attracting them was one of the most difficult tasks. “If you don’t believe it, no one will believe it. I went to New York and told them not to the founders of a very important coffee chain. I told them: “I want to revolutionize the catering sector in Latin America because it is very complex to find balanced and accessible food options. “We’re going to start in Colombia because I’m local, and then we’re going to replicate this throughout the region,” he recalls. They didn’t think twice about it. Three years later, they are seeing good results.
This support allowed them to invest in technology. At the center of the strategy is a point-of-sale system (POSS) developed by Bacu, which integrates all the other technology tools the company uses to make data-driven decisions. This allows them, for example, to better project demand, understand what to buy from suppliers – around 70% are local farmers – and know how best to use products to avoid excesses or shortages. Analyzing this information leads them to offer options and personalized attention to each customer: you can order at the table digitally or with human attention, at the bar for greater speed or at home with waiting times between 7 and 13 minutes. “No decision is made without data. We are obsessed with understanding it and knowing what Colombians want,” he explains.
From there emerged strategies such as Club Bacanes, which operates on the model of loyalty plan (loyalty plan), and from the next quarter a menu entirely adapted to each visitor. Gómez defines the latter as the “Netflix” that will ultimately position it as the balanced food chain par excellence in the country.
On the other hand, there is the team. At the beginning, there were 10 of us. Today, there are 300 of them and at least 80% of them are under 25 years old. Everyone has the opportunity to access training and progress within the company. “One person started as a waitress and is currently running the Medellín opening,” he says. The same thing happens with suppliers: there were 20 of them and now there are at least 200. They all receive clear information about the chain’s growth forecasts and at the same time have been able to increase their production capacities.
Bacu went from around 3,000 orders per month, in 2022, to 60,000 at the end of last year, and its goal is to reach 150,000. In addition, it has become the choice of thousands of Colombians who want to have a balanced diet, including parents concerned about nourishing their children well and people with diabetes. The future commitment is to continue growing to reach all of Latin America with a range of healthy and well-being foods.
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