Foodology

About Foodology

 Foodology was built around a big idea: change food delivery in Latin America. Daniela Izquierdo and Juan Guillermo Azuero started the company after Harvard Business School, aiming to grow virtual restaurant brands across several markets without the usual weight of traditional restaurants. It was not about opening kitchens and crossing fingers. It was about creating brands around what people actually wanted to eat. That became a portfolio with names like Avocalia, The Crunch, and Burritos and Co. Today, Foodology operates in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. With virtual brands and centralized operations, the company can move faster, test more, and avoid dragging the heavy furniture of the old restaurant model.

As Foodology grew across the region, the internal side got more complicated too. More countries meant more teams, more rules, more payroll cycles, and more chances for small admin problems to grow teeth. Payroll, compliance, and employee management had to stay accurate while the business kept moving quickly. The food may be virtual, but payroll problems are very real. And they do not arrive quietly. They knock with both hands.

What problem were they facing?

As Foodology expanded in Latin America, payroll became one of the hardest things to manage. At first, an external accounting firm handled it. That worked early on, but once the team grew across several countries, the process felt slow and stiff. Payroll had too many manual steps, long timelines, and very little room to adjust. Every cycle needed a lot of coordination. If one detail was wrong, delays appeared and the team often had to repeat big parts of the process. Ernesto Hernández says it clearly: “Payroll was a nightmare, and there was no one on the team who could solve it quickly.”

The process had bottlenecks everywhere. Calculations had to be sent days ahead, sometimes a full week before payroll. If something changed, the work could go back to the start. That meant lost time, frustration, and less speed for a company that needed to move fast. As Foodology kept hiring and opening in new markets, the old setup started to feel like a kitchen printer that keeps spitting tickets when everyone is already busy. The team needed payroll to be faster, clearer, and easier to control.

How did Runa help solve it?

Runa brought order, visibility, and speed to a process that had become heavy. One of the first changes was control. Instead of depending on several outside parties and manual checks, payroll moved into one platform. The team could see information more clearly, review calculations faster, and process payments correctly and on time. Runa also reduced repetitive admin work by automating routine tasks, which helped the internal team stop fighting payroll fires every cycle and focus more on growth and employee engagement.

Employees felt the change too. They no longer had to ask HR for every update or document. They could go into the platform and check their own information. Simple, but useful. As Ernesto Hernández says, “We went from putting out fires every two weeks to having full control of the process in one place.” That shift gave Foodology more peace of mind in a process that touches everyone, every pay cycle.

Why did they choose Runa?

Foodology needed payroll that could keep up with fast growth across several countries. The team wanted speed, accuracy, flexibility, and real support, but not another complicated system. Runa helped from the start by cutting processing times. Results that used to take days arrived much faster, giving the team time to review, adjust, and move without panic. Being able to fix issues without restarting everything was a big relief. Nobody wants to remake the whole burger because one pickle moved. The support also mattered. Runa understood the pressure of a company growing quickly and did not force Foodology into a stiff setup. The team adapted processes to the way Foodology works while keeping things moving. That mix of technology, flexibility, and support helped Foodology strengthen one of its most critical processes. Today, the company has more confidence, visibility, and control over payroll across Latin America. With less admin noise, the team can focus on growing the business, building brands, and serving customers across the region.