I think at about $7-$9 for a decent sized lunch meal in say New York or SF would demolish the competition. Sub $10 is really the magic number. Mealpass tried to do this, but as was pointed out, the costs are real, so if you wanna lower the price, usually the size or quality (or both) goes down.
If you hit about $6-7 a meal, you'll be very close to competing with home-cooked meals on cost. Sure people can go a bit cheaper, but it isn't gonna be really a significant reduction, but there will be a large time cost to it for home-cooked.
A bowl of rice with some veggies, beans or protein cooked at home is way less than $6/serving. Heck an apple and a couple of hard boiled eggs is a pretty healthy meal and is less than $1.
You don't have to stand there and do nothing when beans or a lot of foods are on a stove.
Plus, I don't get the fascination of cooking "single" portions the last decade. The amount of time it takes to cook one portion of nearly everything, you can knock out 4-8 in the same 30-40 min time span. Leftovers next day, lunch or freeze it for a little while. You spent $3/serving and you technically saved more time in the long run and hassle just because you learned to utilize the whole pan instead of a small corner.
If you hit about $6-7 a meal, you'll be very close to competing with home-cooked meals on cost. Sure people can go a bit cheaper, but it isn't gonna be really a significant reduction, but there will be a large time cost to it for home-cooked.
I am rooting for you. :)