Zaiko

Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School

Industry: Grocery/Retail Tech

MBA Founding Student Name(s): Franklin Taylor

Brief Description of Solution: Sustain-a-Plate streamlines inventory management for convenience stores and grocers by alleviating the manual invoice data entry process using computer vision and AI.

Funding Dollars: $26,900

What led you to launch this venture? Being an MBA student, you often get free food at events, and that is exactly what I did. But the problem is that the ground turkey waiting for me at home that I bought is going to go bad because I did not cook all of it. I knew that was both silly and a financial waste, and I wanted to solve that. Changing consumer behavior is hard, so I thought about what level of the supply chain could have this problem and where it would be a large financial burden as well, and that ended up being the grocery store level.

So, Sustain-a-Plate started out by making meals out of close-dated food from the grocery store. We realized early on that most grocery stores did not keep expiration date data in a streamlined fashion. We have seen everything from elaborate inventory systems, fancy Excel files, and old-fashioned pen and paper. One thing held true: every store receives some type of invoice from the distributor telling them what was in that delivery shipment. Grocers do one of two things: put it into a manual/semi-automated system or do nothing.

We concluded that inventory is tedious. If the store is strapped for staff, then it often goes by the wayside when other activities such as manning the cash register hold a higher priority than inventory.

After talking with over 100 stores, we realized we could create a solution to make inventory go much faster, and that is how the current iteration of Sustain-a-Plate was born. Now, using computer vision and AI, we can scrape the information off these paper invoices and format the data to be easily entered into their existing inventory systems, turning a process that was once three hours into just 10 minutes.

What has been your biggest accomplishment so far with venture? Our biggest accomplishment so far has been integrating with our first POS system partner and establishing a fully functional inventory system in our first customer’s grocery store. We have seen them improve inventory data entry time from three hours to ten minutes. Now, they don’t have to check expiration dates manually anymore—an activity that used to take more than two days to complete.

What has been the most significant challenge you’ve faced in creating your company and how did you solve it? The most significant challenge we have faced so far is creating something that people want and turning an idea into reality. In such a short time, Sustain-a-Plate has changed its operating model a few times. All of this came from talking with customers and conducting discovery calls. We would hear certain things from customers that they were really excited about but ultimately were not possible. For example, at one point we wanted to do dynamic pricing. After approaching a large retailer, they told us, “We would love to implement that into our stores, but it is not possible.” I was dumbfounded and asked, “Why not?” They answered, “We don’t have that data; we barely have accurate inventory data.”

After that point, we knew from talking with others that inventory was a pain point. After thinking through strategies to solve that problem and speaking with even more customers, we knew we were on the right track when, while explaining to someone what we did, they were willing to sign a contract before we had even built the full product. The moral of the story is that the only way to get over humps in your business is to ask your target customers what their exact problems are and solve the initial problem. A common mantra is, “Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”

How has your MBA program helped you further this startup venture? WashU Olin’s MBA program helped me tremendously in thinking through and growing Sustain-a-Plate to what it is today. I was able to reach out to every professor I had outside of office hours to think through problems. The entrepreneurship courses are top-notch and teach you how to fall in love with the problem and provide the playbook for founding a new business. There are opportunities in class to formulate your idea and pitch to your class, real VCs, and alumni entrepreneurs. Finally, they push you to talk to actual customers so you can get the best feedback of all. Additionally, in combination with Olin, the Skandalaris Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship also runs the Skandalaris Venture Competition, where you can pitch your venture idea and win money for it—in which Sustain-a-Plate won $7,500! Additionally, we participated in the WashU Olin BIG IdeaBounce Pitch Fest competing against MBA entrepreneurs from all over the world. We came in third winning $2,000. Overall, WashU Olin’s MBA program in entrepreneurship transformed my trajectory in life as an entrepreneur and will continue to do that for future MBA students to come.

What founder or entrepreneur inspired you to start your own entrepreneurial journey? How did he or she prove motivational to you? Honestly, it wasn’t a single founder or entrepreneur who inspired me, but rather a collection of young people on YouTube showcasing their business successes—whether that was real or not. Seeing them take the leap and share their journeys when I was their age, around 21 at the time, motivated me to want to change how things operated. Their willingness to step outside the norm and pursue their ideas inspired me to do the same.

Frustrated by how people often complain without taking action—at the time particularly regarding issues like literacy rates—I decided to make a difference. This led me to found my first successful venture a non-profit organization called Our Future Reads, where we give 4,000 individuals free books each year in Chicago.

Being in an academic setting, I was surrounded by many great ideas on how things could change, but few people acted on them. I genuinely loved attending those academic talks in undergrad and still do to this day. However, I realized that if I don’t take away at least one thing and try to implement it into my life, then I won’t ever be able to make a difference. I’ve decided to do everything in my power to get 1% better every day, and I think my entrepreneurial journey is just a part of that.

I saw opportunities to make a real impact and knew I had to go for it, even if it wasn’t the status quo. The collective inspiration from these young entrepreneurs and so many other life events showed me that taking action is possible and necessary, which motivated me to start Sustain-a-Plate.

Which MBA class has been most valuable in building your startup and what was the biggest lesson you gained from it? Olin has a class called The Hatchery, where on the first day you have two minutes to pitch your idea to the class. After that, you have about one week to create a team of four to work on your project for the semester. I had a disastrous pitch; I forgot my lines, had to read off my phone, and yet I was still able to assemble a team of four. During that semester, we had the opportunity to talk with grocery stores and customers at the grocery store, and quickly learned and iterated on our idea. We were able to get pitch feedback from real-life VCs and ultimately compete in the coveted Olin Cup (which we won). From there, we met some incredible angel investors in the St. Louis area and started to really take this idea seriously. I know that if I had never gone up in front of the class and embarrassingly fumbled through my pitch, there is no way I would be where I am today. I attribute much of Sustain-a-Plate’s success to that class.

What professor made a significant contribution to your plans and why? I could create a list of many professors who have helped me in my journey, but the professor who stands out the most is Doug Villhard. I took Intro to Entrepreneurship with Professor Villhard and pitched in that class as well, but my idea did not end up being selected in the top five. Professor Villhard personally emailed me to say that it was okay that I did not make it to the top five, but that I should really continue with my idea. I was able to make it into the top eight and still work on that idea called Circular, which has pivoted to what Sustain-a-Plate is today. Without that small push, who knows if I would be sitting here typing this message.

On top of that, another interaction stands out. I had the privilege of doing my MBA internship at Fortune 500 oil & gas company, which was fantastic. I learned so much about the oil and gas industry and even got a return offer. Come around to March 2024, and I had a serious dilemma on my hands: take the offer or pursue Sustain-a-Plate. Naturally, I turned to Professor Villhard to ask for his advice. He actually said, “More and more nowadays, since my kids are of college age, I am advising people to take the safe full-time job, and then five years later you will discover so many other problems that you could potentially be an expert in. The thing is, I am not sure if that is the right or wrong choice—that comes down to you. Before I help you with anything, I need to see that you have conviction, and taking a full-time job is not believing in yourself that you can do this.”

Essentially, that conversation and talking with my parents—where my dad said, “This is up to you; you are either going to do it or not”—were the only things I needed to answer the question of “Would I regret not pursuing Sustain-a-Plate later in life?” The answer was yes, and the rest is history.

How has your local startup ecosystem contributed to your venture’s development and success? St. Louis has so many resources for entrepreneurs, from meetups to industry talks, pitch competitions, and happy hours. I have made so many new friends in the past few months that I can learn from, and I am disappointed I didn’t get myself out and mingling earlier.

First, there are the Square One Ignite and Bootcamp classes at the Cortex Innovation District, where the team, including Ben Molina and Gabriela Ramirez-Arellano, bring in speakers to inspire and support a select group of entrepreneurs in advancing their businesses. A major competition in St. Louis is Arch Grants, where participants can pitch for a chance to win up to $100,000. Although we made it to the finals last year but didn’t win, some of the judges connected us with potential customers, so we still gained tremendous value from the experience! Another competition that stands out is the Startup World Cup, hosted by Emily Hemingway of TechSTL, an entrepreneur support organization in St. Louis, and Vikram Lakhwara of Steakhouse, a local VC fund. Not only was this a competition to win a $1 million investment from Pegasus Ventures, but it was also an opportunity to get personal feedback and development tips from Vik, share your idea with the St. Louis community, and find other like-minded entrepreneurs among the St. Louis community (many of whom I now call friends).

We did not end up winning, but that’s not the point; the experience and opportunity to be seen were much more valuable than the competition itself. I should add that St. Louis is also the location of all our early customers who have allowed us to use their stores as a testing ground, which has been tremendously helpful in the development of the company as well. St. Louis’s startup ecosystem is strong and ever-growing. I am so happy and thankful that I have been able to call St. Louis the headquarters and home of Sustain-a-Plate.

What is your long-term goal with your startup? The long-term goal of Sustain-a-Plate is to become the de facto solution for inventory and waste management for retailers across the world. We know that waste in business is inevitable, but it can be tracked and mitigated so that it can be reduced to minimal levels. We see ourselves as one of the solutions to get there. If you have accurate real-time inventory, you can make greater data-driven decisions to benefit not only your company but the world as a whole.

Looking back, what is the biggest lesson you wished you’d known before launching and scaling your venture? I have learned that if you are selling to businesses, they will only adopt something if it saves them time or money and is advocated by their colleagues. If these two things are true, you will have no problem selling your product. Not to say it will be easy nor will it be lightning fast, but you can sell your product.

We learned this firsthand when we had come up with an inventory system to put an additional tag on products that assigned a unique ID to track expiration dates so that products could be dynamically priced. The fact that it added any step in the process threw grocery stores off so much that they did not even want to engage with us after the first contact. Once we figured out a different way to track inventory that actually reduced time, we have had our customers reach out to their friends who are store owners for us. We are still in the early stages of the company, but we know that we are on the right track to solve the problems of so many others and make their lives easier when it comes to tracking inventory and making purchasing decisions.

DON’T MISS: MOST DISRUPTIVE MBA STARTUPS OF 2024