Personalizing palates: Zucchini platform connects companies with local chefs
Lucas Gama (CompSci '22, picturedÌýleft)Ìý& Luiz Pompeo (Bus'22,ÌýpicturedÌýright) came separately to the U.S. from BrazilÌýto study at Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder, but theyÌýbanded together on campus to formÌýZucchini, a B2B food platform.ÌýAfter one year of doing customer discovery research and testing the Zucchini idea with real customers, they've decided to compete for the first time in Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder's New Venture Challenge.ÌýLearn more about theirÌýstartup journey:
Q: What is your startup or business idea? How did you come up with your business idea? What inspired you?​
Lucas Gama (LG):ÌýWe identified that at most companies, there is a significant difference in employees' food preferences/restrictions. We believe employees want to have a say in what they eat. However, accommodating everyone's dietary needs is a problem that companies face every time when serving food at the office. For this reason, we are developing a platform called Zucchini, which connects companies with local chefs. These chefs take into consideration all employee's dietary restrictions, food preferencesÌýand meal recommendations to offer a menu 100 percentÌýcustomized for each team.
Q: How did you form your team?​
LG:ÌýLuiz originally had the idea of creating a B2C food platform when he still lived in Brazil. He and I met, and he invited me to help develop the business project, forming the Zucchini team.
Q: What Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder academic courses and entrepreneurial resources did you take advantage of to help you build your business?
LG:ÌýWe've participated in Demystifying Entrepreneurship workshops with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, Get Seed Funding program, New Venture Challenge,Ìý and working with our professors.
Q: What has been your biggest challenge in running your startup? What about notable wins or successes?
LG: My team and I have been doing customer discovery before the COVID-19 pandemic; we believe that the pandemic should have a big impact on our customers' behavior. We have the challenge to understand what exactly will be the future of our industry. We consider it a win that we have already tested our service with different customers, and they were excited to use our solution.
Q: What do you love about having your own company?
LG:ÌýWe love the endless amount of learning and execution. We consider ourselves to be a very proactive team; we want to use this synergy to create positive changes in the world.