Brok McFerron aims to slash the number of sad desk lunches and bring the power lunch to the people. He hopes that instead of gulping down a sandwich while deleting email, Burlingtonians will try his recently launched platform, Out to Lunch, which matches members with new companions for a midday meal.
McFerron, 46, said his goal is to foster a “happy group of people” who feel linked to a broader community and, through that expanded network, find new ways to flourish professionally and personally.
His small team picked lunch — rather than coffee, say — because “there’s something about breaking bread together,” McFerron explained. “The guard comes down a little bit.”
Open to the public since late June, Out to Lunch has about 100 active members, of whom roughly three-quarters have moved beyond the two-month free trial period to pay $10 monthly. McFerron, who is self-funding the project for a sum he declined to share, thinks it will take about 10 times that many users to reach critical mass.
But even at the platform’s current scale, members said they’ve found value in their lunch dates.
“There’s something about breaking bread together.”
Brok McFerron
Greg Fanslow signed up during Out to Lunch’s pilot phase in February. During his 10 lunches so far, the 57-year-old Burlington data science consultant has answered questions about his field from a young businessperson and heard from another lunch date about a fun improv show.
Every lunch, Fanslow said, has provided him with a fresh perspective: “You never know what you’re going to learn from somebody.”
Fanslow believes in the power of casual connections, as elucidated by author Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Most people have already absorbed what there is to learn from close friends or colleagues, Fanslow explained; it’s often the less deep relationships that bring “some real ‘aha’ idea” or new opportunities.
Like many early Out to Lunch adopters, Fanslow works at the Hula coworking space in Burlington’s South End. That’s where McFerron juggles his latest venture with two other businesses: one in real estate and the other in location-specific advertising delivered to people’s phones. (“I office out of Hula,” McFerron said, sounding very much like a tech entrepreneur.)
The spark for Out to Lunch came from a real estate colleague who suggested McFerron dream up something to help remedy “the lack of in-person connection and loneliness,” he said. McFerron recruited fellow Hula members and developers Griffen Fargo and Gabe Koss to brainstorm ideas, and the trio “squeezed [their concept] down” to a lunch matchmaking platform.
The interface is simple and smartly designed by Alfonso Fabrega. Users check off interests from a list that ranges from art to travel to tech, optionally share social media profiles, and select their lunch buddy goals: friendship, networking, mentoring or collaboration.
Although members start with a two-month free trial, Out to Lunch does require a credit card to verify identity.
Lunch matches are currently offered only in Burlington on Thursdays and Sundays to ensure there are enough participants while membership grows.
Every week, Out to Lunch sends an email reminder to sign up, with a perky “Your future self will thank you!” After the registration deadline, users can see and rank a list of potential lunch dates. The service opens a private chat between matched pairs to set lunch details.
While Out to Lunch is intended mostly to foster new connections, McFerron believes having lunch with a colleague or acquaintance can be worthwhile, too. He thinks the platform could enhance collegiality within large companies or institutions.
Through an early match on his platform, McFerron paired with someone who works the front desk at Hula, with whom he’d exchanged small talk for more than a year. Learning that the person had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean twice and worked on an organic farm in Hawaii provided fresh insight into his acquaintance.
So far, though, members seem most enthusiastic about adding new nodes to their network.
After Heather Jerrett moved to Colchester from the Northeast Kingdom, she sought to meet people beyond her workplace and was happy to learn about Out to Lunch through a friend of her husband. She had tried group meetups but found those interactions to be “more surface level” than the one-on-one lunches.
During a recent job search before Jerrett, 50, landed a position with Mamava, she said Out to Lunch helped her build her confidence and practice her pitch with friendly new faces.
The tasty bonus, Jerrett said, was meeting in Burlington at Belleville Bakery & Catering and Pingala Café’s New North End location. “As someone who loves to support local food and restaurants,” Jerrett said, “I like that aspect.”
In the future, McFerron said, he may partner with restaurants to offer discounts for Out to Lunch meals. One of his newer members could play a role in that.
Hannan Merritt, 36, works for SpotOn, which supplies restaurant point-of-sale systems. He grew up in Shelburne but spent many years away before returning in June to his hometown with his wife and young child.
As soon as Merritt heard about Out to Lunch through the Vermont Technology Alliance, he signed up. “I view it as reengaging and a little bit of reintroducing myself,” he said. “Like, ‘Hey, I’m actually not 15 anymore.’”
A side benefit, Merritt said, is the work break a lunch date obliges. “It’s probably not good for us to eat lunch five days a week at our desk trying to half-answer emails, and Oh, somebody Slacked me, and I didn’t even finish my sandwich,” he acknowledged.
Merritt said he’d seen several interesting people on his Out to Lunch ranking list with whom he hoped to lunch in future. Among those was Marlon Fisher, development director of Dad Guild, a nonprofit resource for dads.
Fisher, 43, matched for a meal with this reporter. Over a salad and sandwich at Haymaker Bun in the Soda Plant, where Dad Guild’s Burlington offices are located, Fisher said the platform struck him as an innovative way to meet new people. He joined largely to aid his “friendraising” efforts, which entail building support for and spreading the word about Dad Guild.
Fisher said he found the whole process quick and easy, though he’s unsure if he will be able to justify the expense after his free trial expires.
Like Merritt, Fisher appreciates the midday desk break. “It slows you down,” he said. And unlike a chat over coffee, he added, lunch encourages balanced conversation.
“While chewing, you have the time to actively listen and really engage with someone,” Fisher said.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Lunch Power | The Burlington-born Out to Lunch platform facilitates new connections over a meal”
This article appears in The Tech Issue 2025.
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