In Germany, on average, one in eight food items ends up in the trash. A mountain of garbage containing still-edible food is unimaginable! A Munich-based founder has now made it her mission to combat this food waste. She's doing it through food sharing. We wanted to learn more about it from founder Lisa Zvonetskaya and asked her our 7 questions.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your services!
My name is Lisa Zvonetskaya (31 years old) and I am the founder of UXA Foodsharing UGUXA Foodsharing is a one-woman business, which means I handle many tasks myself, such as product management and sales. Development, however, is outsourced to an external service provider. I earned my MSc in "Strategy and Innovation" from the University of Maastricht.
UXA Foodsharing pursues an urgent social mission: to reduce food waste in private households to a minimum.
For this purpose, I provide everyone with a free app called UXA.
With UXA, leftover food can be dropped off and picked up in 3 steps:
Step 1: Take a photo of the food
Step 2: Upload a photo including a short description and expiration date
Step 3: Organize handover via chat
The app is simple and user-friendly, and it specializes exclusively in sharing food—meaning no clothes or other non-food items. It's purely about combating food waste.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Yes, and that's a good thing. Competition is essential to continually optimize and simplify the product for the consumer. Competition also means increasing demand. And what could be better than people who would rather share food than throw it away?
3. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
My biggest challenge is bringing together a large number of drop-off and pickup customers on the platform at the same time. It's a chicken-and-egg problem: without drop-off, there are few pickups, and vice versa.
However, the trust users have in the app shows that this challenge is also a feasible one, provided you create an offering that is tailored to the users and offers significant added value to both sides.
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
My main focus is on distributing the app over the next two years. This means bringing together as many donors and collectors as possible on the platform at the same time to ensure a positive food rescue experience for everyone.
The goal is to convince 100,000 users to use UXA in 2019.
Assuming the goal is reached and everyone donates two food items per month, that would mean up to 2.5 million food items saved per year! There is a business model funded by advertising and donations, but it is in the testing phase and not the focus at this time.
A few background facts: On average, every German throws away one in eight of the food items they buy. Over the course of a year, each person throws away food worth around €235.
5. What does Munich mean to you?
Munich has been my adopted home in Germany for seven years. The proximity to the Alps and nature is unique and an important factor for me when choosing a place to live. I was born in the Russian Caucasus, and that's where my desire to live close to nature comes from. So, it's an important factor for me personally.
For the UXA company, location isn't yet crucial, as the product is purely digital and could also be managed from another location. However, through my presence here, I've noticed that Munich residents are showing increasing interest and initiative in the topic of food rescue. I'm embracing this positive trend and supporting it with a digital product – the UXA app – so that even more people can enjoy saving food without much effort.
6. How can your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
One thing at a time. I founded my company last year; the demand is there, and people's awareness of UXA is also changing for the better. My goal isn't to create a unicorn, but to protect the environment while running a profitable business. I will continue to do everything I can to achieve this goal and don't want to elaborate more than necessary. Things usually turn out completely differently anyway, and I'm prepared for that.
The most important factor is the product itself, the UXA app, which is intended to make food rescue much easier. UXA is designed to be high-performance and work without serious bugs on all common mobile phones, initially in German-speaking countries.
The second most important factor is implementing a comprehensive marketing concept with the goal of maximizing the distribution rate. To support this, I'm looking for a marketing superstar who would like to take on this challenge.
7. Isar or English Garden?
Isar River when I want to relax and find a place away from crowds. English Garden when I'm longing for surfing, because just watching the waves on the Eisbach helps.
