On this week’s episode of Masters of MAX, Tom speaks with Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder & CEO of Olio. Founded in 2015, Olio is a sharing app for local communities, making it easy to give away the things you don't need to someone else who would value them. Since inception, Olio has now grown to over 7M users, with nearly 100,000 volunteers and more than 28M local neighborhood pickups.

In the conversation, Tom is able to explore what inspired Tessa to start Olio in the first place, and the way it connects back to her early upbringing. Tessa also gives an inside look on how she and her early team built the first version of this product as simply a WhatsApp Group in order to test their idea.

You will hear just how fast Olio took off, where they are at now in 2023, and what Tessa has planned for the future. One of the biggest lessons to keep an ear out for is the impact that Olio’s community has had on growing a loyal user base and why this can sometimes be a double-edged sword. Hear Tessa give her advice on building your own community, and why it might not be for every brand.

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Guest Bio

Tessa is Co-Founder & CEO of Olio, an app tackling the climate crisis by solving the problem of waste in the home & local community. Olio does this by connecting people with their local community so they can give, get, buy, sell, lend and borrow pre-loved items, as well as give away surplus food. They also have over 85,000 volunteers who collect unsold food from local businesses and redistribute it to the community via the Olio app. Olio has grown to over 7 million users in 63 countries and its impact has been widely recognized, most notably by the United Nations who highlighted Olio as a "beacon” for the world, and by Vivatech who awarded Olio "Next European Unicorn.”

Prior to Olio, Tessa had a 15 year corporate career as a digital Managing Director in the media, retail and financial services sectors, and she met her co-founder Saasha whilst they were studying for their MBAs at Stanford University. Tessa is passionate about the sharing economy as a solution for a sustainable world, and about ‘profit with purpose’ as the next business paradigm.

Tessa was awarded the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award for 2023, the longest running female business award.

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Guest Quote

"I think the single most important thing that you need to do if you want to foster community is to have a very clear ‘why,’ a very clear mission that will resonate with a community. Our mission at Olio is extremely clear. We want to live in a waste free world, and we believe in sharing, not shopping, and that's something that our community can really rally around." – Tessa Clarke

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Time Stamps

*(01:25) Tessa's background

*(11:35) What is Olio?

*(14:50) From WhatsApp to iOS App

*(17:21) How fast did Olio grow?

*(22:57) Tessa's plan for the future

*(25:39) How to foster community and sharing on your app

*(29:44) Changing humanity's North Star

*(33:20) Preventing burnout

*(35:19) Rapid Fire Questions

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Links

A Culture of Safety

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