JASMINE CROWE-HOUSTON, FOUNDER & CEO, GOODR -
SOLVING FOOD WASTE AND HUNGER (WITH THE SAME APP)
Every year we throw away nearly 40% of our nation's food supply – perfectly edible – leaving it to rot in landfills and release harmful greenhouse gasses. Meanwhile, more than 10% of U.S. households are food insecure. Why do we throw this food away instead of getting it to people in need? Hunger isn’t a scarcity problem, it's a logistical one. That’s according to Jasmine Crowe-Houston, the founder and CEO of Goodr, an Atlanta-based startup that’s using technology to fight both battles: food waste and food insecurity. Jasmine joins the podcast to explain how Goodr has built a mobile app that uses delivery partners (like Uber Eats, Roadie, and DoorDash) to redistribute millions of surplus meals from businesses to nonprofits that feed people from Atlanta to Dallas to Denver. She also shares her fundraising experience as a Black female founder and gives advice to social entrepreneurs on how to raise money, pitch a solid business case, scale, and, ultimately, become “a company that can do well by doing good.”
“We don’t need to produce more food. We need to connect excess, wasted food to the people who need it most.”
LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE TO LEARN:
- Why redistributing food from businesses like airports, convention centers, and hotels is more cost-effective than throwing it away – and the role technology plays in making the UX easy and seamless
- How collecting data and displaying it on a sustainability dashboard is helping businesses from Goldman Sachs to Nike quantify their positive impact on the environment and in their communities
- Why creating the right partnerships is essential to solving complex problems like food waste and hunger, and an efficient way to scale fast for any startup
- Jasmine’s perspective on the advantages of being a tech founder without a tech background, and how it impacts everything from culture, to hiring, to thought-leadership
- Why social entrepreneurs might want to consider forming a for-profit company rather than a non-profit (clients place more value on the things they pay for!)
- Why Atlanta is the ideal place to launch and grow the next great tech startup
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