My lightbulb second: Meals entrepreneur Tessa Clarke reveals the inspiration behind her enterprise
My lightbulb moment: Food business owner Tessa Clarke reveals the inspiration behind her business
- Tessa Clarke, 44, lives in Wiltshire and co-founded the free Olio app in 2015
- Addressing the problem of food waste, Olio is used by 4 million people in 59 countries
- Inspiration came from growing up on her parents’ dairy farm in Yorkshire
- She learned how much hard work goes into making the food we eat
- At the end of the lease, she was told to throw food and looked for someone to give it to
Tessa Clarke, 44, co-founded Olio, a free app to solve the food waste problem, in 2015. Today it is used by four million people in more than 59 countries. She lives in Wiltshire with her husband and children, ages eight and six, and has four adult stepchildren.
Growing up on my parents’ dairy farm in Yorkshire, I learned how much hard work goes into making the food we eat. That’s why I feel passionately that food should be eaten, not thrown away.
My background is in management consulting. I was the managing director for e-commerce at Dyson before briefly moving to Switzerland.
Tessa Clarke, 44, who lives in Wiltshire, co-founded the free food waste app Olio in 2015, which is used by 4 million people in 59 countries
I spent eight months there before deciding to go in 2014. I packed up our apartment in Geneva and got ready to return to the UK, but despite our best efforts, we were left with six sweet potatoes, one cabbage and several pots of yogurt in the kitchen.
The movers told me all the food had to be thrown away, but I couldn’t do that. I dressed my newborn and toddler and headed out with this food to find someone to give it to. I thought, ‘This is crazy. Why isn’t there an app that I can use to share it with someone nearby who wants it? ‘The idea for Olio was born.
Back in London, I came up with the idea with a friend from Stanford Business School.
Movers told her to throw away food and she went looking for someone to give it to. She wondered why there was no app that could help her – and gave her the idea of Olio
We did a two week experiment with 12 volunteers and a WhatsApp group and people started sharing food. Olio launched in five postcodes in North London in 2015. It was so successful that we made the app available across the UK by the end of 2016.
Today we also help companies deal with food waste, including Tesco, Pret A Manger, Selfridges and Costa Coffee. They pay Olio to collect unsold food and give it to the community.
Since launch, Olio has helped share over 18 million servings of food that would have been wasted.
During the lockdown, I was inspired by neighbors who were supportive of each other. That’s why we’ve launched our first new service for the Made app, which allows neighbors to buy and sell homemade groceries, handicrafts and art without commission. We will be launching a “borrow” function for the app in June.
We just want to make it easier for people to share.
