She is a self-proclaimed startup addict. After spending nearly a decade at Amazon, she ran a food business called Kukree before launching her current venture Edizeven.
1. Tell us more about your company and your journey.
My venture, Edizeven, is a game-changing platform connecting hiring managers with job seekers in the restaurant industry. While many platforms exist today that cater to white-collar workers, there aren’t many looking to solve the specific needs of the hospitality industry.
Most people aren’t even aware that the attrition rate in restaurants is over 70% compared to 13.2% in say the tech industry. When I faced the challenges first hand when running a food truck business in 2018, I knew things had to change. Edizeven follows a job-seekers first approach. We believe that if we help the seekers get what they want, restaurateurs will benefit in the long run.
Prior to my foray into the food-tech business and the world of entrepreneurship, I spent nearly a decade at Amazon - Prime Video. I enjoyed writing code, managing tech teams, and was glad to be working at a well-respected company, but I wanted more.
I have a philosophy of every year at the end of the year, ask yourself if you’re excited for next year. When I asked myself that question in 2016, the answer was no... I wanted to learn something new, try something brand new.
I knew I would have to leave behind a lot of money, but I also thought if not now, when? And then thought about one of Jeff B’s famous resources for how to make a decision, The Regret Minimization Framework. I asked myself, ‘Will you regret not doing it? And I was at the point where I’d say yes.
With that thought, I left Amazon to kick start my entrepreneurial journey.
2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?
Well, when I left Amazon I just had two goals - 1) build something from scratch, and 2) build a product that scales. But I wasn’t really interested in starting a tech business right away. I came from that world, I wanted to explore a new space.
Food was always space I was interested in… something I’m super crazy about, I am a foodaholic at heart. But I am also really conscious about eating right. So, I decided to launch a food truck business to see if there was a food concept that was healthy and could scale.
Since I’d not worked in the industry before, I had only a superficial understanding of how it worked. Before opening my food truck, I went to work at a few restaurants as a line cook, just to get the hands-on experience of what it felt like to work in a restaurant. I wanted to know about the whole system so that I could serve it better.
I launched the food business, Kukree in 2018. It got a phenomenal response and was lauded in various media outlets such as The Seattle Times, King 5 news, and more.
While running the food business, one thing constantly came in our way of growth - hiring! I re-hired 7 times for the same cook position in one year. It was painful. Something didn't feel right and I was truly motivated to change it. That gave birth to Edizeven (pronounced like the number after 86 - an industry term for when something is over)
I spend major parts of 2019, confirming the problem statement by talking to multiple restaurateurs and employees. We then worked hard and fast to build an MVP based on the inputs gathered. We launched Edizeven in January 2020 and have been steadily growing despite COVID-19.
3. Can you tell us more about the startup ecosystem in Seattle, Washington?
If you asked me this question 5 years ago, I would say that the startup ecosystem in Seattle is bad. But things have changed, With FAAMG companies having a huge footprint in the city and the constantly increasing tech talent in the area, the startup ecosystem has been growing exponentially.
Accelerators like Seattle Techstars have existed for a long, but there are many new angels, VCs, and accelerators groups committed to improving the Seattle start scene. Seattle startups raised a total of $3.5 billion in VC funding across roughly 375 deals in 2019, according to data collected by PitchBook.
One of my favorite accelerator groups in Seattle is by Female Founder’s Alliance - also referred to as the Y-Combinator for female founders.
4. What are your tips for the first time and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Startup life is really rewarding but very lonely too. What you don’t want on top of that is a financial burden. Raising capital as a first-time founder will be challenging, you would need to prove a lot more than just selling a concept such as solid team, customer acquisition, growth, and revenue amongst others.
But stakes are high. You are constantly worried about money running out and what if you don’t have enough to go on for just a few more months. You feel the pressure to rush everything - not experiment enough to truly understand your customer base and get to a product-market fit.
The one thing I would tell to first-time/aspiring entrepreneurs - please save enough money to fund your business for a good two years without having to worry about your next meal.
Give yourself the time to understand your customers, make sure it's solving their problems. Get to a product-market fit. Focus on your customers. Investors will come to you. They will be a lot more open to hearing you out.
5. What impact do you want to make in this world?
I always have one goal irrespective of the industry I am working in - I got to leave it in a better state than when I entered the industry.
The restaurant industry is a low margin business (5-10%) - it's really hard to run a food business and maintain a good quality lifestyle. Most people in the industry work easily 60-80 hours a week and generally suffer health issues.
Most employees earn minimum wages, mostly because restaurateurs just cannot offer more due to low margins. I would love to be one who figured out how to help improve the margins and enable a healthier lifestyle for restaurant staff, owners, and the end customers. Overall, improving the ecosystem!
Another space I am really passionate about is Education. Over the years we have figured out how to teach maths and science to our kids but still haven't figured out how to teach GRIT - how to make them not give up, and push even after failure and more failures. There's a lot to be done there, and I would love to be associated with making the change for our next generation.
6. Which is your favorite book and why?
Currently, Traction.
To be honest, I am not someone who reads a lot of books. I enjoy reading articles, blogs - basically short format content. But, if I am reading a book, it's because it's going to help me with something I am currently working on.
As a techie, I knew nothing about marketing and sales. But as a startup founder, you work like a swiss-army-knife and got to know it all. I was recommended this book by a friend of mine and I can’t tell how much it blew my mind.
I didn't even know that there are 19 different traction channels! There is just so much logic and thinking that goes into marketing - just like designing an algorithm. :-)
Shilpi Gupta is the founder of Edizeven - a job platform for the restaurant industry. She is a self-proclaimed startup addict. After spending nearly a decade at Amazon, she ran a food business called Kukree before launching her current venture Edizeven.
Shilpi Gupta
Interviewed By - Sandeep VirothuShilpi Gupta
Founder at Edizeven, Ex-Amazonian, Serial Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger
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