Among the surprises in Blue Apron’s IPO filing last week was that at first blush, it looked worse off than its biggest competitor in meal delivery services, HelloFresh. But a closer look suggests that Blue Apron is positioned to be worth more than HelloFresh in the long run. 

In the first three months of this year, Blue Apron posted a loss of $52 million on revenue of $245 million, while HelloFresh had a loss of 34 million euros ($38 million) on 205 million euros in revenue. HelloFresh, which is privately held but files financial statements with European authorities, also grew faster than Blue Apron and burned far less cash.