Rebecca Sholiton and Nate Cooper are the Co-Founders of Wise Apple(formally Pak'd), a startup that delivers pre-made, customizable school lunches directly to families’ homes.
They just announced their $3.6 million seed round led by Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Levy Family Partners with Chicago Ventures, Greycroft Partners, BoxGroup and Irish Angels also participating. Wise Apple was also part of Techstars Chicago class of 2016 which included previous podcast guests Bright and PartySlate.
Use code "chicagotech" for $20 off your first week or this link for it to be automatically applied.
In This Episode You Will Learn:
- The inspiration behind Wise Apple
- How they made their first lunches
- How they collected 300 emails from interested customers on day 1
- The importance of customizations to their business
- The value of hand delivering your orders and collecting feedback
- How they balance healthy and tasty for kids
- How a new porn site led to the name change
- What it was like working with the legendary Red Antler branding agency in New York
- Why Wise Apple won out as the name
- Any concern around going with a name without having the .com locked down
- How influential their Kellogg MBAs have been and whether they think they needed it
- Why starting a business with a bunch of MBAs is a mistake
- How Rebecca and Nate met
- Whether copycats and competitors in the food space is a concern for them
- How their space differs from the meal kit business
- How they arrived at their price
- The value in going through Techstars
- The importance of balancing realistic numbers and unit economics with a big vision
- Why we need more female investment professionals
- Why Rebecca won’t look at resumes unless there are non-white/male resumes included
- The value in having a big anchor tech company in Chicago
Selected Links From The Episode:
Favorite Books: