( Mashable ) -- What would you do after Cisco killed your beloved product ? For Jonathan Kaplan , the inventor of the Flip video camera , the answer was simple : start a venture-backed nationwide chain of grilled cheese sandwich joints . That may sound like Kaplan has lost his marbles , but bear with us . Kaplan 's genius , as shown in the highly popular Flip , is creating super-easy , mass-produced technology . With his new business , The Melt , he 's done that twice over . Buy a grilled cheese on your smartphone , and you get a QR code to swipe in store when you arrive . The back-end software ensures that you get a piping hot grilled cheese in your hands within 60 seconds of checking in . Kaplan has also invested a lot of effort on making his grilled cheese hardware easy and effective . He tapped European appliance giant Electrolux to create a brand-new grill with a built-in microwave . It nukes the cheese for 15 seconds , then toasts the bread for another 30 seconds . We can confirm that the resulting sandwiches , doing the rounds here at the D9 conference , were uniformly tasty . Win or lose , you ca n't deny that Kaplan has put a lot of thought into this scheme . He found a breadmaker in Chicago whose bread was kneaded in such a way that it created air bubbles for the cheese to fill . He 's pairing different kinds of bread with different kinds of cheese , as well as simple but tasty soups ( The Melt 's only other sale item , apart from Crackerjacks ) . Sandwiches will go for $ 5 apiece , or $ 8 with soup . `` We 're selling nostalgia and happiness , '' Kaplan told Mashable . `` Grilled cheese makes people happy . '' Evidently , his backers at Sequoia Capital agreed . Kaplan wo n't say how much funding he received , but he plans to start more than 500 Melt locations in the next four years . Each store will cost between $ 500,000 and $ 1 million . You do the math . Famed VC Michael Moritz is sitting on the board , as is Apple retail head Ron Johnson , and the first handful of stores will open in San Francisco in August . Some will stay open as late as 2 a.m. , a big deal in a town that largely shuts down at 10 p.m. Another reason the whole Melt concept might work out better than expected ? One word : calories . Put a grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of soup next to just about any other fast food option , and it 's going to look like a plate of greens . Chipotle may be able to offer you online ordering ( and Chipotle , by the way , is a $ 9 billion business ) , but good luck working off the 500-odd extra calories a burrito is going to give you compared to the Melt 's offerings . Are you buying it ? Is America ready for high-tech grilled cheese ? Let us know in the comments . See the original article on Mashable.com . © 2010 MASHABLE.com . All rights reserved .
Flip , inventor of the Kaplan video camera , launche new business The Melt . Buy a grilled cheese on your smartphone , and you get a QR code to swipe in store . Electrolux tapped Flip to create a brand-new grill with a built-in microwave .