Office Hours: I founded a neighbour-to-neighbour sharing app called Olio. I’m Tessa Clarke. AMA!Featured

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Hi Elphas!

I’m Tessa (Cook) Clarke, co-founder and CEO at Olio, an app that connects users with unwanted food (homes or local businesses) and surplus household items (think clothes, books, toys, toiletries, etc.) with neighbours living nearby who would like them.

Before Olio, I had a 15+ year corporate career in retail, financial services and media, always in general management roles in digital business units. Prior to that, I spent 3 years as a strategy consultant, and I also took out 2 years to study for my MBA at Stanford Business School. Originally I’m a farmer’s daughter, so a million miles away from the world of business that I now find myself in.

During my downtime, I enjoy pilates, strength training, batch cooking, dancing to cheesy music and absolutely love, love, love food.

Ask me anything about working with cross-functional teams, sustainability, zero waste, creating businesses that combine profit with purpose, foodtech, community building, fundraising for a female co-founded business, or anything else!

ElphaStaff·Jul 01

Thanks so much for joining us @TessaC!Elphas – please ask @TessaC your questions before Friday, July 5th. @TessaC may not have time to answer every questions, so emoji upvote your favorites 🔥👍🏾➕

remoterebel·Jul 09

Absolutely love your app and what you've build, Tessa. I' constantly telling people about it!

eliseasanias·Jul 04

Hi Tessa! Your story inspiring, thanks for making yourself available here to answer questions : )I'm looking into building an app and am not sure how to move forward on the tech side. Could you share a bit about how you evaluated options on what tools to use to build the app, and ultimately how you ended up developing it? I'm looking at low/ no-code options for an mvp, and see that hiring a developer may rake up costs significantly. Thanks in advance!

TessaC·Jul 05

Hi there, you're definitely on the right track with a low/no code option. We did the proof of concept for Olio via a Whatsapp group - you can read more about that here: https://foundersfactory.com/articles/tessa-clarke-olio/You absolutely must try and test your core hypotheses without building an app - because building an app is expensive, and getting people to download and use it is even more expensive!!We got the first version of the app built by an agency called Simpleweb in Bristol - they were much cheaper than a London based agency (back then) and also they gave us half price day rates in exchange for a small equity stake in the company when we did our first round of fundraising.I highly recommend you read The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick, and also The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

eliseasanias·Jul 06

Tessa, thanks so much for the thoughtful response here! Will definitely look into those resources you shared.

karijatunadjiru·Jul 04

Hello Tessa! I would like to know, after 15 years of having a corporate career, what is the most fulfilling part of running your own venture?

TessaC·Jul 05

Being able to throw away the 50% of stuff that happens in a corporate that's a total waste of time, and utter nonsense. Being able to create an organisation that genuinely has zero politics - because we've recruited people who are 'mission obsessed' (not just mission aligned), and who bleed our 4 company values of inclusive, resourceful, caring & ambitious - and if you get that right, everything else follows.Having full autonomy over my working day/week and not having to 'ask permission' to do anything - and then being able to gift that same level of autonomy to everyone in the company has been a huge huge joy!Being able to rethink things and build an org that's fit for the 21st century e.g. we've been a remote first business for 10 years now, we have a limitless holiday policy (but you must take a min of 20 days), and we really carve out time for wellbeing. That has created a truly top performing team

LauraKassapakis·Jul 04

Firstly Tessa, I have been a huge fan of Olio for a while now - what a great mission you have. Love the app.I am also a female co-founder of a business that combines profit with purpose (womenofcustomersuccess.com) and so I have 2 questions for you: 1. People often assume that our businesses is non-profit and I sense shock and discomfort when they find out otherwise...even though this shouldn't take away from the fact that we are purpose-driven and help women through our work. What is your advice for positioning a business like ours to prospective partners or customers? 2. What are your tips for working with a co-founder, particularly one that lives on a different continent? What are some "must-haves" in this kind of relationship? Thanks in advance!

TessaC·Jul 05

Yes, it drives me crackers that people assume that if you're doing good, you must be a charity!! I like to explain to people that there's a 3rd route (i.e. not charity, not traditional business) which is profit with purpose. And I point to the fact that we're a B Corp, which can be quite helpful - definitely check out their resources. And I like to say that we're proud to support The Better Business Act too (check that out also). The key thing is to be really proud and proactive in your position, rather than feeling defensive about it. People soon get with the programme once you spend a few minutes explaining it. Re co-founder relationship, here are some sample of 1 tips: - We divided and conquered on the 'functions' of the business on day 1. So even when there was only 2 of us we decided who would own which of the 10 or so functions there are in an organisation. We decided to play to our strengths/experience where possible, and agreed that we would be each empowered to run with our function, but that for any major decisions, we would cross reference with one another- We agreed to never let ourselves get more than 5% frustrated with one another without raising it. We have this mental imagery of a pressure cooker, and by releasing the steam little and often, we've not once had a blow up, in 10 years of working together!- Discuss and agree your working styles and each write a 'user manual' about what brings out the best (and worst) in you. Fully understand each other's wider lives and whether you're the type of people to 'blend' work and personal or whether you like to have clear boundaries (and if the later, what are those boundaries/how do they work?)- If you don't share the same vision and values then the relationship will be very challenged. Both Saasha and I are in it for the long haul, and if you cut us you'd find we each bleed our 4 company values, which are inclusive, resourceful, caring and ambitious

gowriprakash·Jul 04

Hi Tessa,Thank you for sharing your journey and experiences with us. Its very inspiring!!! I'm currently working on an app idea (Food Waste Management at home) that's in the initial stages.I'm particularly interested in how Olio encourages trust among its users, especially when it comes to sharing food from homes and local businesses. What strategies or measures have you implemented to ensure that users feel safe in the quality and safety of the food they receive?

TessaC·Jul 05

Hi there, the good news is that in our experience, early adopters are not too fussed about trust - they are SO excited to have a solution, and they think that if someone is food sharing (in our case), then they must be someone like them/trust worthy. For a more mainstream audience though, trust is important - although we've found it's trust around personal safety and not food safety (we have *never* have a shortage of demand for surplus food!!). So we've built things like user profiles, ratings, every user is SMS verified etc. And we kick bad actors off the platform

DrKingaMnich·Jul 03

That is incredible. Tessa, since I moved to the US I have been wondering of a good way to teach people around me not to collect things they no longer need. Every has so much stuff. garages and basements are filled with it. While others are really in need. There is so much poverty. I hope that people in need can also take advantage of it.

TessaC·Jul 05

Yes, agreed, we all have far too much STUFF!! And sadly so much of it ends up as waste - globally households throw away 2 billion tonnes of waste every single year. At Olio we believe we should all be sharing more, and shopping less. And we definitely see lots of people who are struggling using Olio and finding it an absolute lifeline.

teresaman·Jul 02

Hi Tessa! I just downloaded Olio - super cool! LOVE that you're building a circular economy!I'm curious on the business side, how have you found the road to acquire users, considering you might be a new player in town and there is no shortage of apps that provide similar neighbourhood/city-based buy and trades. I'd also love to hear what inspired you to start Olio!And was today's product always the idea, or had you have to make strong turns to get to where you are now?Thanks for answering! 🙏

TessaC·Jul 05

Hi there, you can read about the 'lightbulb' moment for Olio here - https://olioapp.com/en/our-story/Because we're building a marketplace business we have the chicken & the egg problem to solve. We quickly learned that supply is crucial (and demand will follow supply). So then the challenge was how to cost effectively unlock supply in thousands of local communities and the UK (and beyond). We found a brilliant way to do this via our Food Waste Heroes Programme - we now have over 100k trained volunteers who collect unsold food from businesses like Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, corporate canteens, school and hospital canteens, and TV & film shoots, and they take it home and give it away to the local community via the Olio app. Our first really big client was Tesco, and over a couple of months we rolled out to redistribute food from their 2,700 stores which therefore immediately injected supply into those communities. You can read more about the FWH Programme here - https://olioapp.com/business/And we continue to develop the product in lots of ways that we didn't envisage on day 1 - and it's crucial to do that, in response to market response/data. A very common problem is founders who fall in love with their 'idea'/solution, rather than falling in love with the problem that they need to solve, and then developing whatever product is required to solve it

carolineminnich·Jul 03

Living in a city with a lot of poverty Id want nothing more than to see this app come into fruition and help people. What would the structure of the user interface be? I’m a huge fan!

TessaC·Jul 05

Olio is being used in lots of communities all over the world - you just snap a photo of your spare things (food or household) and add it to Olio. People living nearby get an alert, they browse through the listings, request what they want and pop round to pick it up. A typical food listing is requested within 30 mins and a typical household item is requested in 4-6 hours. You can become an Olio Ambassador (joining over 50k others) to get Olio going in your local community - https://olioapp.com/en/olio-ambassadors/

Iynna·Jul 01

You're so inspiring, Tessa! Would love to connect! For context, I run an investment firm where we back companies founded by alumni and dropouts from Stanford, UPenn, and Harvard - my partners and I's alma. LOVE to see more women building startups and always looking to connect with them (not just about their own fundraising journey) but generally to share learnings etc. being an emerging manager and being a startup founder are two sides of the same coin! My question though what drew you into a career in business (besides maybe making money/moving to a big city)? Would love to know your WHY!

TessaC·Jul 05

I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere - and whilst it was an incredible childhood, I knew I didn't want to be a farmer (or a farmer's wife!) and so I worked incredibly hard at school as my parents always told me that a good education would be the ticket to wherever you want to go. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I 'grew up' so became a strategy consultant, and then decided I wanted to 'do' and so moved into a variety of general management roles in media, retail and financial services. Although I enjoyed all my jobs, I didn't find my 'why' until I founded Olio. With Olio I feel I've come full circle to my upbringing which was fully immersed in food, farming and nature, and I'm deeply deeply agitated to try and solve the climate crisis. You can read about my 'lightbulb' moment here - https://olioapp.com/en/our-story/

Iynna·Jul 07

what an incredible story, Tessa! Thank you for sharing!

tiffanyyhchang·Jul 02

Love your journey, Tessa! I first heard about Olio from a product leader who deeply respects the FAQs on your company's website and the transparency around CO2 emissions of running the site (which I +1 times infinity!)(1) If you had the power to turn back time, what would you have done differently with respect to seeking funding for Olio? Curious about which other avenues of fundraising Saasha and you had considered. (2) From your experience of prototyping Olio's value proposition, what are some ways you recommend thinking through MVPs and market validation? (3) Love to see that your work hasn't had a negative impact on your hobbies. I've observed mixed results to the age-old advice, “Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” What's helped you to not let challenges at work impact your enjoyment of related hobbies? Thanks for spending time with us and sharing your wisdom!

TessaC·Jul 05

Hi thereGlad you enjoy the transparency - when you're building a community based business like we are, transparency is pretty much a non-negotiable, although it can be uncomfortable at times!Re fundraising, it was always clear to us that venture capital was the right route as Olio is something that only works at scale and needs investment to get to scale. Like most marketplaces we need to build and scale it first before starting to monetise, so that immediately removed debt/bank loans/revenues as financing options for us. Nowadays there are a lot more impact investors around which is great, as we feel very aligned with them (and we have several on our cap table). Re MVPs, read this piece here where I share some of our experience - https://foundersfactory.com/articles/tessa-clarke-olio/ and also here - https://olioapp.com/en/our-story/I think it's crucial to test your core hypotheses using existing platforms/manual methods before building anything. And I strongly recommend reading The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick and The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. You need to be in love with the problem you're solving and *not* in love with your 'idea'/solutionRe hobbies, many are related to my health and well-being so I schedule them into my working day where I can so that way they always get done. As the most important thing for the business is that I'm well and happy. However when things aren't going well at Olio, it is inevitable that it bleeds into my whole life - and when that happens I try and remind myself that THIS is the journey, and to enjoy it as I'll be dead soon!

tiffanyyhchang·Jul 09

Love this, Tessa! Thanks for sharing the link to your fireside chat - excited to learn more about your and Olio's journey - and your book recommendations. 💗 Onwards and upwards!!

sharonloh·Jul 03

No question. I am your fan.

TessaC·Jul 05

Awww thank you, that's made my day :)

isabellaperaertz·Jul 01

I have been following your story since starting a master's in sustainable urban development because I myself am interested in (someday) building a startup that solves problems in food insecurity, while advancing social & environmental sustainability - you're an absolute inspiration! I have two questions for you:1) What do you think has been your biggest challenge in thinking through the solution to the problem you wanted to solve with Olio?2) When you were looking for funding, did you encounter a lot of skeptics about the return they would get on their investment into Olio? If so, how did you address it?Thanks so much in advance for answering & I'm *so* excited that we Elphas get to learn from you!

TessaC·Jul 05

Biggest challenge has been monetisation - in the circular economy you really are innovating and creating brand new operational business models, which means there isn't any playbook to follow when it comes to monetising those models. So a lot of experimentation has been required!No, we didn't encounter scepticism in terms of ROI - it was much more profound than that. Most (male) investors weren't excited about/couldn't relate to the problem we were trying to solve. I have an approach which is ABF - always be fundraising. That way I get to meet lots of investors to find the very rare few who are excited about the problem we're solving and us as a team (female founded) to solve it. I'm pleased to say we have an *incredible* cap table of investors who are mission obsessed like we are, who have truly patient capital, and who are good human beings :)

Claudia413·Jul 03

Awesome to have you here to do an AMA Tessa! I would love to know more about creating a business that combines profit with purpose. It's something that I'm very interested in but find very difficult to get into. Would love to hear more about your journey and idea valuation to combine sustainability with profitability if you have advice on that :) Also, any resources (books, interviews, articles, podcasts) on this topic that you would recommend, I'd love to hear them, esp since there's only so much you can type here before it gets to be a bit much. 🙏Thank you so much for joining and I'm putting up that emission calculation, that Olio has on the website, on our website today. (we're A+ woop!) Love that 💗

TessaC·Jul 05

On the profit vs purpose point I like to use an analogy... back in the 1990s everyone was asking how you could treat your employees well and grow a profitable business - as if they were two contradictory/opposing things. We've moved beyond that now and collectively recognise that treating your people well can be a business super power. So I'd like to think we can get there with profit and purpose too - sooner rather than later. Because I firmly believe that over the medium to long term the very best performing businesses will be businesses that have a true purpose/positive impact on people & planet (and that businesses without this will lose the licence to exist). You are correct that it's getting very competitive to work at existing sustainability/climate/impact orgs. The key to getting a job in a profit with purpose org is to have a *killer* covering email. Make it personal, make it clear why you're committing your life to that purpose and how it fits with your personal brand valuesI definitely recommend learning about the space by listening to podcasts e.g. Outrage + Optimism; Zero50; How to Lead a Sustainable Business; The Edie podcast; What planet are we on?; Earth Shakers; How to save a planet; The Big Green Money Show etc. In terms of books I love Naomi Klein's Capitalism vs the Climate and Jason Hickel's Less is MoreIf you're in marketing then I'd recommend going deep on behavioural psychology (again reading + podcasts) because sustainability/impact marketers are all about behaviour change (which is v v hard) rather than flogging stuffFinally, check out Impact Hustlers (online community and podcast), the Unreasonable Group; Chivas the Venture; Tech Nation's Net Zero cohorts. These are all great places to find climate tech/impact/sustainability businesses who may be recruiting--

adorism·Jul 03

Hi @TessaC and thank you for doing Office Hours! My question is about the challenge of pitching a community-driven idea focused on the small change stuff. I always think that investors want to see something that can plug into exchanges that are inherently high-dollar. That's intimidating since I'm working on an idea that's focused on hyper-local, small, and event-based commerce. Did you encounter resistance to the idea that this app is worthwhile? And if so, how did you overcome that resistance? What is a helpful way to frame the value of an app that could be seen as primarily for social good?

TessaC·Jul 05

I completely agree that this is a challenge, and so probably wouldn't look at conventional venture capital funds, but instead angels or impact funds. Impact funds care as much about the social and environmental return as the financial one, so will be much more aligned with you. GOOD LUCK!!

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