A few years into building Flashfood, Josh was $35K in debt with no money in his account. Just a few months earlier, he'd lost both the pilot customers he'd worked so hard to lock in. He'd worked for months to land them and had delivered what he promised.

But both retailers told him the problem he was solving was not important enough.

And then, he met Loblaws-- one of Canada's largest retailers. They loved the case studies he had. They tested it out and quickly launched it across 100% of their locations.

"I was going to shut down the company." That's how close it came to failing completely. Instead, a year after meeting Loblaws he was doing $1.5M ARR and had raised a $3M seed round. Now, he does 10s of millions in revenue and will soon be profitable.

Here's the story.

Why you should listen:

Why startups often drive founder to near bankruptcy.
Why you need to keep testing your startup until you hear 'no'.
Why sometimes large customers might be easier to close than small ones.
How to get champions to close enterprise deals.
Why you might be a top priority for some customer sets and not others.

Keywords
food waste, grocery stores, app development, early stage founders, product market fit, sustainability, entrepreneurship, discount food, consumer behavior, environmental impact, enterprise sales, customer priorities, stakeholder buy-in, corporate culture, product-market fit, revenue growth, grocery industry, startup challenges, business strategy, environmental impact

Send me a message to let me know what you think!

Episode 100: Leadership, Fulfillment, and Impact: Lessons from Arthur C. Brooks for Educational Leaders