Tessa Clarke began her career in the corporate world working for companies such as the Boston Consulting Group, Planet … I’m the daughter of Iowa hippy entrepreneurs (hence the origin of my last name, Celestial-One – which my parents made up!) I’m a farmer’s daughter, and so have always hated throwing away good food. And so – much to their frustration as we still had a lot to pack up – I got my new-born baby and toddler dressed and set off armed with this food to find someone to give it to. Users simply snap a picture of their items and add them to OLIO. The ‘lightbulb’ moment came on 17th December 2014 – I remember it well. I was packing up our apartment in Switzerland, getting ready to move back to the UK. Episode 8 – The Food Sharing Revolution – Tessa Clarke, Olio. Maddyness spoke with Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder and CEO of Olio to understand how their company is coping during the COVID-19 pandemic and what the future holds. It does this by connecting people who have food & other household items that they don’t want or need, with their neighbours living nearby who would like them. How very Crouch End ☺. Tessa is Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO, the world’s only neighbour-to-neighbour food sharing app, with over 1.5 million users worldwide. Olio's Series A funding was led by Octopus Ventures, with investors such as Accel, Quadia and Quentin Griffiths contributing towards the $6 million that was raised. Tessa is Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO, the world’s only neighbour-to-neighbour food sharing app, with over 1.5 million users worldwide. We throw away around one third of the food we buy, while 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. ), we launched the app in the App Store on 9th July 2015, quickly followed by Google Play 3 weeks later. Find out more below! Why isn’t there an app where I can share it with someone nearby who wants it?” And so the idea for OLIO was born…. and I grew up in a large, relatively poor family. The first thing we did was desk research in order to understand how big the problem of food waste was and what we discovered truly shocked and terrified us. That’s 1 in 9 people on the planet who are starving or malnourished. Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO & Former Exec at Dyson. I failed miserably. So, we conducted some market research using SurveyMonkey and through this we found that 1 in 3 people are “physically pained” throwing away good food. “But waking up is not enough. OLIO CEO Tessa Clarke describes how food sharing apps are leading the revolution against the food waste epidemic. Tessa Clarke, Saasha Celestial-One: Headquarters: London, United Kingdom. OLIO. She told us about how OLIO aims at resolving one of the biggest issues our world is faced with today: food waste. Tessa Clarke, the co-founder and CEO of Olio, on how she launched her game-changing food-sharing app. What are your goals for OLIO in the future? We caught up with Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder of OLIO, to talk all about the app that connects neighbours with one another and with local businesses ensuring that surplus food can be shared and not thrown away. First launched in early 2015 by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One, by October 2017 the company had raised $2.2 million in funding. Tessa Clarke is the Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO. The beauty of food in eco-friendly skincare. Between 33 per cent and 50 per cent of all food produced globally is never eaten, according to London-based tech business Olio. To date, 2.5 million people have downloaded the app and shared over 7 million portions of food, the carbon equivalent of taking more than 20 million car miles off the road. I’m a farmer’s daughter, and so have always hated throwing away good food. OLIO was founded by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One, who met during their MBAs at Stanford Business School and felt inspired by their first-hand experience of food waste. This is because I know from first-hand experience just how much hard work goes into producing it! OLIO is a hybrid of a marketplace and a community app, that alerts neighbours of unwanted food in their area, connecting like-minded individuals wanting to fight food waste, and in turn the climate crisis. Tessa Clarke, OLIO. I thought about knocking on my neighbours’ doors to see if they wanted it, but the problem was I didn’t know if they would be in; and even if they were in, I didn’t really know them and it might be a bit awkward if they didn’t want what I was offering. Tessa is one of the co-founders of OLIO, an app making a dent in the global food waste problem. Clarke was a farmer’s daughter, while Saasha Celestial-One is the daughter of Iowa hippies and an avid freecycler. Within an hour we had settled on a name and made our plan! Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO & Former Exec at Dyson. We incorporated the company on the 9th of February 2015 and decided we had that year to prove it and make it happen, and if not we would have to go back and get proper jobs. Your 40 Minute Mentor today is Tessa Clarke Co-Founder and CEO of the food-sharing app Olio. Our vision for the future is an unashamedly bold one – we want a billion OLIOers within the next 10 years! this food is delicious. Despite our best efforts to eat everything we had, we were still left with 6 sweet potatoes, a whole white cabbage and some pots of yogurt. It has even been dubbed the ‘Tinder for food sharing’. Tessa Clarke, co-founder of OLIO (OLIO - Share More, Waste Less) shares 5 lessons they've learned so far on tackling COVID-19 as a small business https://bddy.me/37uNfYy Every business owner in the world was entered into the world’s toughest race — sometime in early Spring 2020. Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO, the food sharing app. All rights reserved | Food being shared. Tessa Clarke is Co-Founder and CEO of OLIO, a free app tackling the problem of food waste by connecting neighbours with each other, and volunteers with local businesses, so that surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. View Tessa Clarke’s profile on LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional community. Tessa Clarke has always had an issue with throwing away food, Start typing to see results or hit ESC to close, Yellow sticker shopping tips with The Reduction Raider, 9 ways to save money on your weekly food shop. Tessa Clarke is the cofounder and CEO of game changing food sharing app OLIO. Very traditional British choices! The conclusions were unanimous…… “it’s amazing”, “ you have to build it” and, perhaps most importantly…….. “it just needs to be a bit better than a Whatsapp group”! Tessa Clarke: Back in May 2017, an amazing Jersey resident called Elis Joudalova joined OLIO as a regular user. One of them has certainly been the shift towards more sustainable lifestyles. Listen Now → After a 15 year corporate career, Tessa Co-Founded OLIO, the world's only neighbour-to-neighbour food sharing app, which is solving the problem of household food waste at scale. Despite our best efforts to eat everything we had, we were still left with 6 sweet potatoes, a whole white cabbage and some pots of yogurt. All the food on OLIO is available for free and half of all listings are requested in less than one hour! Tessa Clarke, CEO and co-founder of the food-sharing app Olio, talks all things business, climate change and making a difference. They all lived close to each other and we asked them for 2 weeks to add any surplus food they had into the group and we’d see if food sharing started. Also, learn to love your freezer – it’s amazing how many things can be frozen and then used later on. in Podcast. TESSA CLARKE. OLIO’s co-founder and CEO Tessa Clarke Are there any other industries or parties that could benefit from the rising popularity of the sharing economy? Since launching in 2016, over one million people have joined OLIO and together shared almost two million portions of food. The very first version of the app was extremely basic, and could only be used in 5 postcodes in North London. I told some friends & family about my idea of a food sharing app, and they all And so the idea of OLIO, a mobile app that connects neighbours to share food, was born. Passionate about sustainability, startups & diversity. But just because it’s a big problem and just because people hate throwing away food, that doesn’t mean to say they’ll take the next step, which is to share food. See the complete profile on LinkedIn and discover Tessa’s connections and jobs at similar companies. OLIO is a free app that connects users with their neighbours to give away spare food, and other household items. We caught up with Tessa Clarke, co-founder of the popular food-sharing app OLIO, to discuss food waste, kitchen essentials and sticky toffee pudding . We often look to shift the blame to producers and supermarkets but actually, we may be more to blame than you think. Tessa Clarke is Co-Founder and CEO of OLIO, a free app tackling the problem of food waste by connecting neighbours with each other, and volunteers with local businesses, so that surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. OLIO has been founded in January 2016 and as of now has more than 600,000 users worldwide. The removal men told me that all the food had to be thrown away, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do this. Tell us about OLIO. Tessa Clarke is the cofounder and CEO of game changing food sharing app OLIO. However around 8.4 million people are living in food poverty. Where you can find us . When she told me about her idea for a food sharing app I instantly knew it was genius and that I wanted to be a part of the journey bringing it to life. For starters, I’d probably go for soup. What we settled on was a slightly bizarre ‘proof of concept’ involving Whatsapp! But that didn’t matter, we were live and ready to bring food sharing to the world! To date, 2.5 million people have downloaded the app and shared over 7 million portions of food, the carbon equivalent of taking more than 20 million car miles off the road. And working like crazy, exactly 5 months after we’d incorporated the company (we were Mums on a mission with no time to spare! No one ever said we don’t dream big or move quickly ☺. Read our interview with Tessa Clarke to understand how OLIO has grown to over 1 million users in just 3 years. OLIO’s co-founder and CEO Tessa Clarke Are there any other industries or parties that could benefit from the rising popularity of the sharing economy? Since launching in 2016, over one million people have joined OLIO and together shared almost two million portions of food. Tessa Clarke is the Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO. Jan 8, 2020 Courtesy of Tessa Clarke. We got to find out more about their approach to reducing food waste and how we as individuals can tackle the issue. I was packing up our apartment in Switzerland, getting ready to move back to the UK. Tessa Clarke, CEO and co-founder of the food-sharing app Olio, talks all things business, climate change and making a difference. In salvaging and reselling these items, I not only earned my pocket money, but I literally learned that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Read writing from Tessa Clarke on Medium. What are your top tips for people who want to reduce their food waste but aren’t sure where to begin? https://techround.co.uk/interviews/interview-with-tessa-clarke-co-founder-of-olio OLIO was founded by business women, Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One, in 2016. Tessa Clarke, CEO and Co-founder of Olio, on what is next for the food sharing app. Food & Drink Sustainability Technology. Read our interview with Tessa Clarke to understand how OLIO has grown to over 1 million users in just 3 years. So this means that we’re half the problem. That’s 1 in 9 people on the planet who are starving or malnourished. Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One are the Co-Founders of OLIO. And so I grew up with the firm belief that food is meant to be eaten, not thrown away. Tessa has 13 jobs listed on their profile. We chat to co-founder Tessa Clarke to find out more “We will look back on 2019 as the year that the world woke up,” OLIO co-founder Tessa Clarke tells me. Clarke was a farmer’s daughter, while Saasha Celestial-One is the daughter of Iowa hippies and an avid freecycler. She told us about how OLIO aims at resolving one of the biggest issues our world is faced with today: food waste. Then Join us for Episode 3 of our Sustainable Tech Series, in which we are joined by the Co-Founder of OLIO, Tessa Clarke. Tessa Clarke is co-founder & CEO of OLIO, an app tackling the problem of food waste by connecting neighbours with each other, and volunteers with local businesses, so … The single most important thing you can do to reduce food waste is to plan for your meals each week, and then to shop to that plan. The world has a food waste problem: up to half of the food produced globally is never eaten, equivalent to … This has had the environmental impact of taking nine million car miles off the road and has saved 450 million litres of water. Tessa Clarke. Getting my head around the climate crisis. Without a doubt. The idea for OLIO came when I was moving to a different country and on moving day, I found myself with some good food that I hadn’t managed to eat and I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away so I set off on a bit of a wild goose chase to try and find someone to give it to. Founder Focus: Tessa Clarke of Olio "1/3 of all food produced each year gets thrown away" January 6, 2020 | LIBBY WILLIAMS. Your 40 Minute Mentor today is Tessa Clarke Co-Founder and CEO of the food-sharing app Olio. What is the most planet-friendly source of protein? How crazy is that?! Speaking to Tessa Clarke, founder of OLIO, about how kids and chefs shared food during COVID. An obvious beneficiary is the government. Why is tackling food waste so important today? The Mission of OLIO is to connect neighbors with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. Tessa Clarke: OLIO is a free app that connects users with their neighbours to give away spare food, and other household items. in Podcast. 17 (2018) Website: olioex.com: Olio (rendered as OLIO) is a mobile app for food-sharing, aiming to reduce food waste. Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder of OLIO. Our friends at Smith & Williamson met with Tessa Clarke, Founder of Olio the food sharing app with a mission to stop food waste. OLIO first appeared on Tech Talks a number of years ago and now have millions of users. Tessa Clarke. Then Join us for Episode 3 of our Sustainable Tech Series, in which we are joined by the co-founder of OLIO, Tessa Clarke. It seemed crazy that I should have to throw this food away when there were surely plenty of people within hundreds of metres of me who would love it, the problem was they just didn’t know about it. OLIO was founded by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One, who met during their MBAs at Stanford Business School and felt inspired by their first-hand experience of food waste. • Press Pack • Volunteer Hub • It does this by connecting people who have food & other household items that they don’t want or … I’m a total dessert person so I immediately went there – probably a sticky toffee pudding with ice cream or an Eton mess. After a 15 year corporate career, Tessa Co-Founded OLIO, the world's only neighbour-to-neighbour food sharing app, which is solving the problem of household food waste at scale. Unfortunately, the lady who I had hoped to give it to wasn’t in her usual spot outside the supermarket and I got quite upset. So what can you do to help tackle this issue and ensure food does not go to waste? Pick-up takes place, often on the same day, at the home or another agreed location. As a result of this, I learned pretty much as soon as I could walk just how much hard work goes into producing the food that we all eat. We waited with bated breath for what seemed like an eternity and then eventually someone added an item – half a bag of shallots! Olio is an app that aims to tackle the problem of food waste by in their words: OLIO co-founders Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One If you’ve ever gone to restock your fridge and had to start by throwing away unused food, you’re not alone. Globally, a third of all the food produced gets thrown away each year. OLIO was founded by business women, Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One, in 2016. Interviewed at Disruption Summit Europe after being placed 3rd in the Disruption50 Index 2019. Contact •, © 2020 OLIO 8.4 million people are living in food poverty dubbed the ‘ for... How much hard work goes into producing it for people who want to reduce their food waste – and more... 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