How Spoiler Alert is Growing Its Food Waste Marketplace

by danielle gould

27 mar 2017

 

In the United States, we spend $218 billion annually growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is discarded. As awareness around the cost of food waste grows, the food industry is increasingly looking for creative solutions to reduce it. Boston-based Spoiler Alert is one of the startups working to help food businesses, farms and non-profits to minimize waste and recover value from surplus food. Through its platform, food businesses and farms can post, donate and sell surplus food and “ugly produce.” It also streamlines accounting systems, making it easier for companies to capture tax benefits and to track key metrics.  When food becomes available, potential recipients are notified and interested parties are able to connect and coordinate costs and logistics.

While working towards an MBA at MIT, co-founder and CEO Ricky Ashenfelter met Emily Malina,who would become his co-founder and chief product officer. In 2015, they launched Spoiler Alert and were awarded a $50,000 non-dilutive grant from MassChallenge. They are also recipients of a $100,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation as part of the Unreasonable Institute’s Future Cities Accelerator. In March 2016, they raised a $100,000 convertible note from TechStars. Then, in November 2016, Spoiler Alert raised a $2.5 million Seed round of funding, led by Acre Venture partners with participation from Valley Oak Investments, LaunchCapital, Fresh Source Capital and FTW Ventures. The startup also recently partnered with major food producer, Sysco Corporation.

I spoke with Ricky about Spoiler Alert’s growth goals, how he’s proving company culture while scaling-up (they’re hiring!), and the unique initiatives that his team has created to assess personal growth within the company. He also told me how he plans on expanding his company’s services to other key markets in North America.

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Danielle Gould: What are your growth goals for the next 12-24 months, and how do you plan to achieve those goals?

Ricky Ashenfelter: This is a great time to be in the “food waste innovation” industry, and we have a lot of work ahead of us to continue building a brand as a trusted resource in this field. We’re doubling down on our efforts to target leading wholesale distribution, food manufacturing and retail companies with our Enterprise offering, and we’re eager to take our Marketplace offering to other key geographies in North America. How are we going to do this? By continuing to work with great companies like Sysco Corporation, as well as by seeking input from leading nonprofits, food rescue organizations and government agencies that have a presence in those target communities.

DG: What does your team look like?

RA: Our team is loosely split across three functions: Product Development, Sales & Marketing, and Customer Success. Half technical, half non-technical – ranging from 20-something on the younger end to 50-something on the older end. We all work together in Boston’s Bay Back neighborhood in a great office decorated with lots of green, natural light, and our own company garden (the waste from which we try to keep to a minimum!).

DG: What does your company culture look like? How have you built your company culture?

RA: Culture is something we take incredibly seriously, and it’s built around 5 pillars that we’ve documented as a manifesto of sorts: Impact, Results, Transparency, Collaboration, and Personal Growth. These five are the results of principles (both realized and aspirational) that were important to the founders and enhanced with direct input from early team members. My personal favorite is Impact. Employees must – without question – be passionate about Spoiler Alert’s mission and/or how it materializes as a product. We have such a unique play within the food industry, and as an early stage company, it’s critical we see that embodied in each new wave of hires.