From The Flip to The Melt, Appiness is a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Jonathan Kaplan, who gave us the Flip — the web-ready video camera sold to Cisco for nearly $600 million in 2009 before its demise this year — has flipped to a new business, a "Chipotle-style chain" of grilled cheese restaurants called The Melt.

You might say that Kaplan, the former CEO of Pure Digital Technologies, has an app-etite for innovative ideas.

Four outlets for his new gourmet sandwich concept (which comes with its own app) will be open in the San Francisco Bay Area by Labor Day, with a goal of 500 nationwide by 2015.

Backers have so far put $10 million in his coffers, including a $500,000 to $1 million stake by Sequoia Capital, whose previous investments were Apple, Google, YouTube, and PayPal.Continue reading...