How Flashfood Uses Data And AI To Solve The Grocery Food Waste Crisis

[00:00:04] - [Speaker 0]
Welcome back to the Tech Talks daily podcast. A quick question for you. Something's been frustrating me a lot recently, and that is how can we all live in a world where food banks are increasingly overwhelmed, grocery bills are continuously rising, but at the exact same time, in parallel, mountains of perfectly good food are just being thrown away every single day. Well, today, I'm gonna be talking to the CEO of Flash Food, and she's gonna be talking about how technology is stepping in to solve one of the most frustrating, and let's face it, illogical problems in our modern economy. In North America alone, billions of pounds of edible food end up in landfill.

[00:00:51] - [Speaker 0]
All at the same time, millions of people are struggling to afford fresh nutritious groceries. And the system is not short on supply. It is short on coordination. So Flash Food is a company that's using a marketplace model to connect those surplus food from grocery retailers and put it directly in front of shoppers at up to 50% off the retail price. And it sounds simple, but behind it sits a powerful mix of real time data, AI driven pricing and behavioral insight, which is actually helping retailers reduce waste while also helping families saving thousands each year on annual grocery bills.

[00:01:33] - [Speaker 0]
And my guest has some pretty big stats on just how much money is being saved on annual grocery bills. So today's conversation is about what happens when we stop chasing novelty and instead apply technology to fix gaps in systems that already exist. And for me, it's a reminder that innovation does not always mean creating something new. Sometimes, it means rescuing what is already there and solving a problem that is already there. Feel incredibly passionate about this one, so enough from me.

[00:02:05] - [Speaker 0]
Let me officially introduce you to my guest right now. So thank you for joining me on the podcast today. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:02:17] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. Of course. Thank you for having me. My name is Jordan. I'm the CEO of Flash Food.

[00:02:23] - [Speaker 1]
And what do I do? I mean, since I started the fun journey in technology and food, I like to build big companies that have an impact on human health, human well-being, and the well-being of our planet.

[00:02:38] - [Speaker 0]
And it's such a great story behind it all. But for listeners that are hearing about Flash Food for the very first time, what problem were you trying to solve when the the company very first started, and and what does FlashFood actually do day to day inside grocery stores? Because it's one of those almost best kept secrets, isn't it?

[00:02:56] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. It you know, the initial sort of vision and founding of FlashFood really came from the idea of the sort of unexplainable amount of food waste that we see across our our entire supply chain. You know, every year, just in North America alone, over, you know, three I think it's a 385,000,000,000 pounds of edible food. Like, quite literally, edible food finds its way to a landfill, and that could be from farm to grocer. About $355,000,000,000 of that is inside of grocery, and that's food that's you know, a steak that you could eat, a gallon of milk, produce, etcetera, it tends to be some of the freshest and healthiest stuff.

[00:03:43] - [Speaker 1]
And so our our mission, you know, I think initially was really to get the food, you know, away from a landfill because it has that sort of duplicative impact of, like, wasted food plus climate. But really as we've grown in March, heard as a business, what we we've actually seen ourselves be able to solve is, you know, a big part of not only the food insecurity crisis, but I would also say the, call it, health accessibility crisis. In addition to just, like, it's really ridiculous that we waste billions and billions and billions of dollars of stuff that that you and I could eat.

[00:04:17] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. It gets me quite frustrated, annoyed, and so many other emotions. I mean, there's what? 5,000 miles between us here in The UK. Before you came on, I was looking up how much food we waste over here, and it's 10,700,000 tons of food waste every year, which is frustrating.

[00:04:34] - [Speaker 0]
And we see over here as well a lot of food banks where people can't afford food because grocery prices are rising faster than many household budgets, and food access as a result is becoming so much harder for families. So none of it makes any sense if you try and think about it logically. So from your perspective, why has this turned into a crisis even though we are producing more than enough food both here in The UK, The US, and and beyond?

[00:04:59] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. I mean, by the numbers, we we overproduce. I think it's we overproduce 2,000 calories per every person on the planet. That's just, like, the level of production. And I think, you know, whatever you decide your daily caloric intake is, we're we're overproducing by by two x.

[00:05:17] - [Speaker 1]
For me well, when I first sort of came to it, and I've worked on food more so on the, call it, consumer packaged goods side. So my time at Impossible or or cofounding Sunwing, I I saw it more so as a producer and manufacturer. With Impossible, it was interesting because technology at one point, we were saying, hey. Let's solve, the meat production crisis. Let's add more into the system.

[00:05:40] - [Speaker 1]
Let's put more onto the shelves. And in the same way with Sunwink, it was like, let's now solve accessibility to nutritious beverages, to, like, to powders, all of that. And I kinda came to the end of it as an executive just fatigued of, like, we don't need the novelty of more on the shelf. Now with that being said, when you think about the world of, you know, venture capital or how you think about even consumers at large, novelty is, like, such a sparkly and special thing. So, naturally, that's all going to be favored in terms of how we how we as humans think about innovation.

[00:06:17] - [Speaker 1]
We oftentimes, like, look to the thing ahead versus we look at the thing behind as, you know, it doesn't feel it's not as exciting. Right?

[00:06:25] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah.

[00:06:26] - [Speaker 1]
But for, you know, for this space, and I would even say for this space from a tech standpoint, what we've often overlooked is what when we actually look behind the, like, the sheer value of what you can bring forward, what you can create, especially in food waste is, like, 30 fold to try even more than that, trying to put something new on the shelf. So we got here because we as a civilization, we love novelty. We love newness. We reward it. We favor it.

[00:06:54] - [Speaker 1]
We often like to forget about the system at large is very obscure. And how we get out of it is, you know, businesses, whether it's Flashwood, and you guys have some fantastic ones in The UK as well that are, you know, not looking they're looking ahead, but in doing so, they have to look behind and say it's a systemic issue. Let's start building technology for it. Now that's, like, a whole other conversation on when you're building technology and sort of the world of, like, waste and things that people aren't like, that's the sexiest thing to go after. But but that's I mean, that's where we've we've we've gotten.

[00:07:29] - [Speaker 1]
We're addicted to novelty. We're not addicted to solving problems, and looking at the problems of old because they feel hard or or complicated.

[00:07:39] - [Speaker 0]
So the scale of food waste in North America alone is staggering from the grocery stores alone to the much wider system. So from your vantage point here, what why do you believe this waste exists in the first place? Why has it been treated as unavoidable for so long?

[00:07:54] - [Speaker 1]
It's such a hard question to answer because the system is has many sort of nuances in it. Right? And I think if you're looking at grocery as a whole, one of the first challenges that you'll experience in in grocery and, again, without speaking so much, I would say consumer behavior is a bit different in Europe to to Asia in terms of what you see. But on the whole, consumers have just been conditioned to demand, like, the merchandising that's bountiful, that's beautiful, that's fulsome on grocery shelves. You know?

[00:08:29] - [Speaker 1]
Americans, for example, don't love to buy the last apple. I think it's sometimes a bit better in in Europe where people are like, it's fine. You know, I walk to my local market. I can it's okay if it's, like, the last clove of garlic. There's nothing wrong with it.

[00:08:42] - [Speaker 1]
But there is a little bit of that conditioning that we see in terms of consumer expectations should feel fulsome, bountiful. Nobody likes to walk into a grocery store in that store and there's empty shelves. There's something about that that's always, driven it. So that naturally creates a system of reward for overproduction. In the same way, if you think about it at a grower level, you know, growers are in positions of whether it's, like, produce or product optics where it's still perfectly good, that that might be one piece of it.

[00:09:16] - [Speaker 1]
In addition to everything is everything runs on a supply chain schedule. So if you miss the shipment, if you miss the timing, if the price isn't right, it's a competitive landscape, which oftentimes has these moments where, you know, whole fields of, you know, carrots or what have you can be produced. But if it doesn't make the shipment or if it doesn't cut the cut it in terms of visibility, it's just it's left out there. And so you've got a lot of these things and dynamics happening, and there's all sorts of interesting technology emerging throughout the supply chain. But, really, a lot of it comes back to just how we've conditioned to expect food to arrive to us that favors a system that isn't about taking the last bite.

[00:10:04] - [Speaker 1]
It's about how many big old bites can I have in a beautiful tower that that I need to to engage with at my my grocery store? So that alone is, like, is a tricky place to be. Right? It definitely doesn't favor the sort of food or the point of accessibility. It favors the optics of of what it what it means to consume food in this beautiful, bountiful way.

[00:10:25] - [Speaker 0]
And I think something else that is quite frustrating is that we're living in a world of ultra processed food and so called food deserts in some areas where poor neighborhoods cannot even access fresh produce, fresh food, because it's just the ultra processed food that stops. And one of the things I find annoying about that is when I was reading about what you guys are doing here, a lot of wasted food is also some of the most nutritious food out there. So fresh produce, meat, dairy, for example. So how do you help address that nutrition gap? Not not just the cost of groceries.

[00:10:57] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. So where where we've come in, you know, we partner with retailers to everything that's sold in our platform is within the expiration date. But what we actually you find in this cycle of when something is is heading to landfill is, you know, you've you've got things days before and even, you know, the day of that are already in the trash in the morning. Even if it was perfectly good to eat and it was within the bounds of of expiry that day. And so we come in where we partner with a retailer who actually instead of pushing the button on on the device that sends it to inventory scrap, it actually sends it to inventory where FlashFood's able to support and then sell it.

[00:11:38] - [Speaker 1]
And what we've also found, and it goes back to your point of, like, there's you know, we're seeing more food insecurity. We're seeing higher demand for nutrition. And oftentimes, nutrition is an interesting one too because consumers think nutrition is expensive. We've also done this disservice to civilization where we're like, it's aspirational to be healthy, thus that must mean it's expensive.

[00:12:00] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah.

[00:12:01] - [Speaker 1]
And that couldn't be further from from the reality. So we we we do all these little things that make it almost we market our way into making it quite difficult for consumers to to feel a part of it. But our job there is and why the sort of behaving in this waste stream is interesting is that we can actually get the price to be cheaper than a commodity good. Like, you can get a white you'll find Wagyu steaks on this platform for half off of what their, you know, usual sort of friends on the shelf would be, which is like organic food that's showing up super, super cheap. So we actually help take away the friction point of, like, oh, should I is it too expensive to buy this, or is it you know, the quality folks always know is going to be incredible because it's, you know, it's sold within the cycle.

[00:12:48] - [Speaker 1]
So that's where we've been able to solve it. And we're not just solving it for folks that are call it nutrition insecure or food insecure. I mean, the average consumer, even I'm sure you and I, like, groceries are insane. Like, it's not it's it's a real like, you're making meaningful trade offs for a number of things for for how you want to feed your your family these days, and that's that's something that we help, you know, really support as well for our grocers. Because what we also can do and where food waste is powerful is, like, you know, a shopper with us will get a few really good items, some great produce, some great meat, and then they actually come into the store and finish the shop.

[00:13:28] - [Speaker 1]
And so for a grocer, it's actually leveraging a stream to bring in folks to the store. So it's really flipping this whole idea on its head of where this supply often used to sit in in relation to the full chain at a grocery store and using it almost as a as an advantage, if you will, to how you encourage shoppers to think differently, encourage them to come into your store more frequently, protect the image of your shelves, like not everything is on sale or what have you. So we've really focused that there to help try to address a number of these, like, sort of friction points with with sort of perception and behavior in the space.

[00:14:12] - [Speaker 0]
And I think so much of what you just said will resonate with people listening all over the world there, and so many people nodding in agreement, I would imagine. So to bring to life what you're doing here, how you're using technology to solve one of the world's biggest problems, can you just explain how the marketplace works in practice for a retailer, especially when it comes to surplus items or, I don't know, let's say, seasonal overstock or products that are nearing their best buy date? How does that work?

[00:14:39] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. So it's it's as simple as the morning routine. You know, every grocery store has someone in the early hours of the morning that's taking care of that store, and they're walking that store no different to a shopper. They're looking you know, in their device technology is telling them items that might be getting close to their Best Buy. They need to move them, pull them, discount them.

[00:15:02] - [Speaker 1]
They're doing the same as they sort of walk around and look at the the visual aspects of the store, which as I told you are such an important part of the equation of of what happens in in in surplus. And they it's just like we're integrated into their tech. So instead of them taking that item and sending it to discount or sending it to to scrap, they send it to our platform. It lists on a marketplace. It's much like shopping on, like, an Instacart or, you know, door Uber Eats.

[00:15:30] - [Speaker 1]
It's no different than looking at the item you're getting. You know what you get as a shopper. You're able to shop that item. You can pick it up within the window that it's that that it's available to to buy, and you head in store. And on average, we see, you know, our shoppers are they tend to get things like, you know, meat's our number one seller on the platform.

[00:15:50] - [Speaker 1]
So they'll tend to get, like, you know, a good amount of chicken, beef, whatever you you sort of fish, whatever you're looking for for the week, and then they'll come in and and usually finish the the store. They may get some produce boxes, dairy, etcetera. But that's ever changing too. And what's really cool about our platform and I I'm sure you've seen you guys have a lot of, like, fantastic, like, vintage resale platforms where it's like the one item is there. And if you're gonna get that that shirt or a scarf or whatever, there's one and it's gone as soon as it's gone.

[00:16:22] - [Speaker 1]
It's very similar to our platform. So our audiences are coming in to our app multiple times a day because the items and the deals are so good. And when you like, it's there and it's gone. We don't have back stock, like, you know, a grocery store or one of the sort of, call it, meal ordering apps. Like, we're very like, it it's a great deal.

[00:16:41] - [Speaker 1]
It's there. You get it. It's gone. And it's just like this constant sort of flow of folks looking for for great things. And like you said at the top of it, like, the items that are oftentimes coming to waste are the best things in the grocery store.

[00:16:53] - [Speaker 1]
Like, quite literally, like, the most, like, coveted, delicious. It's it's it's pretty interesting, but it's but it's not super complex. It's no different than, you know, you're booking a driver, writer experience with Uber. You're staying in someone's house in Airbnb at a grocery store. You're able to shop food that's also nearing its Best Buy, and we just we play that two sided marketplace connection point for for folks.

[00:17:20] - [Speaker 0]
And assuming that both sides win, there are no losers here, are they? You know? The the supermarket's getting rid of of their surplus food there, making it much easier. People are getting their hands on thing too, but you guys probably make a little as well. It's win win win for everyone, isn't it?

[00:17:39] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. We and it's funny because I have been in the space where we have been developing businesses that have, you know, big mission, big whether it's, again, climate or human health, and you don't often in, like, a consumer good space get to play win win win because you're playing with margin. You've you just got a whole other you got a supply chain you're you're looking at. And on this one, it's like, we're able to come in and facilitate a seamless transaction between the two where the retailer actually sees the ROI. And it's not just the ROI of, the side of, like, waste reduction.

[00:18:11] - [Speaker 1]
It's actually the meaningful ROI of return on the business. Right? So right back to that line that says, like, lost inventory, you're seeing dollars back. You're also seeing traffic. And shoppers, you know, we have shoppers who get to see their pounds diverted in our app.

[00:18:26] - [Speaker 1]
They also get to see their savings annually. So we have folks that are saving upwards of, like, $68,000 on their annual groceries because what they're buying are like, the items are coming on there oftentimes upwards of 50% off. And so folks are able to really see a meaningful impact. And we have this, like, thing that happens at the end of every year in our year where, like, people, like, proudly show the volume of savings, and they talk about what they've done with it. And what we don't talk about oftentimes with groceries is especially when grocery prices start to rise, the trade offs that people make are are meaningful ones.

[00:19:01] - [Speaker 1]
It's like, I'm not traveling as much or, you know, I didn't do that round of new school shopping the second time for my kids, or maybe I didn't fix my car this year. Like, it's a big trade off when groceries hit the bill. And so what we often see is people posting and publishing being like, saved $6,000 this year, and what I was able to do is fix my roof. And so it's like it's it's that kind of thing where, like, the win win win happens, but it's it's it's rare when that win is happening from a monetary standpoint. Right?

[00:19:29] - [Speaker 1]
Oftentimes, we feel far away from it. We're like, what does my c o two weigh? And, like, did I fix like, is this resolved? Like, you know, you you have no idea sort of in the scheme of it. You just have the belief.

[00:19:40] - [Speaker 1]
But on this, it's like the rubber actually meets the road for all parties involved, which, again, when I think of triple bottom line, that is the triple bottom line. You know? It's it it it has a very real substantial impact in the here and now that people can be a part of that makes, you know, our whole sort of system function a bit better.

[00:20:01] - [Speaker 0]
Wow. I absolutely love what you're doing here, and it's working. I mean, Flash Food currently works with more than 2,000 grocery partners and more than 1,500,000 users. But I'm curious. What have you learned around shopper behavior and retailer habits as as your platform continues to grow?

[00:20:19] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. I mean, from a shopper standpoint, a question we'll get actually quite often. It's it's kind of what I'll call the OG. It's like the intro question. People will ask ask questions like, what do people do if are they angry with what the food looks like, or do the do people actually want and demand this?

[00:20:37] - [Speaker 1]
And I it's really interesting because if I think about even our businesses, like, our customer like, the customer service tickets and refunds we're getting are, like, nominal. It's, like, it's, like, in the one per like, it's, like, in the 1% in terms of, like, people engaging with it. Usually, it's like, an item's missing. Help me. And so oftentimes when I'm talking to folks, it's like, actually, what we've seen is completely counter opposite to what you would think in terms of what people are demanding for food.

[00:21:07] - [Speaker 1]
I think consumers, especially when you've got that price component of it, are are much more willing to not only try, but also repeat. And oftentimes, like, I think we also overestimate that, like, consumers are actually quite smart in the here and now, and they you know, if it's a day you've probably got things in your fridge that are days past, and you're still hanging out with them. And, like, consumers are way they're way smarter, but they're also will always be motivated by the price side of it when it comes down to food. And so we often see this behavior where there aren't questions about at all about what the food looks like. Sometimes the food is awesome looking.

[00:21:51] - [Speaker 1]
So it's like, if a grocery store is gonna sell it within their date of sale, it's gonna look great. So you're not dealing with that issue. That would be some of the first ones that folks would ask us. And behaviorally, we can show up in a market, and we've got a line of people and it's selling out. So it also shows you it was, like, without me having to buy billboards or TV ads.

[00:22:12] - [Speaker 1]
And so what it shows you too and, you know, Deloitte ran this really great study globally where 89% of consumers, like, that would be even in the upper echelons, demand deals for their items, for their food. Like, we just we have been conditioned. We have been trained. We prefer and it's it's funny too. I saw another thing, and I know you guys have different holidays where you have big discounts.

[00:22:36] - [Speaker 1]
But, like, folks are waiting for that now. It's like a coveted thing. It's coveted to buy something not at the the sort of the full price side of it because consumers have really sharpened up. And I think that is what we see behaviorally starting to manifest here in in in the sector of, like, no one's even thinking about it as food waste. They're like, this is just perfectly good food at a great price.

[00:23:00] - [Speaker 1]
I call it the Goldilocks window. It's like Love it. Why wouldn't you buy something that's perfectly ripe and perfectly priced? Like, why would who's try if I if you sold that to me on the street and be like, here's a perfectly ripe mango, and it's half the price. And here's a full price mango, and you have to wait six days for it to be ready.

[00:23:17] - [Speaker 1]
We would be like, what? This is the weirdest sale ever. So we've actually sort of solved common sense in that too, and that's that's pretty cool. And then for for retailers, you know, I think what we learned in the early days as a so as a tech company, you come out and you're, like, you know, you're trying to find your product market fit. You're like, it has to be sustainability.

[00:23:41] - [Speaker 1]
That's gonna be the angle. And as you start to work with these big companies, you realize that you can actually build technology that solve problems on their balance sheet first and foremost. And if you can solve that first for anyone that you're trying to solve for, then the mission will follow suit naturally. So for us being able to provide the the ROI that's seen from a return, but also the consumer metrics, like transaction behavior, how folks engage with those products, the demand for it, the traffic that we drive into stores actually changes the game. Also, pricing, we're able to help support in terms of what's the right price for this item based off of the data that you've got, that we've got so that you're not, you know, having someone hand sticker around the store 15 times a day for those items once upon a time.

[00:24:29] - [Speaker 1]
And so that that again is, like, it's a very interesting way to think about solving mission forward companies that if you don't solve it at the value point first or the ROI, like, your mission is your own like, your mission is yours. Right? And so it's it's cool to build tech, and we do what's cool is also building tech with a lot of data around it. Like, we're one of the only ones with all this data that's out there in terms of what we see from a user standpoint, a behavior standpoint, how items move, sell, behave. It's it's it's a cool place to be.

[00:25:02] - [Speaker 0]
And on that tech side of things, before you came on today, was reading how you described the retail surplus market as a billion dollar opportunity. And you mentioned there a lot of data. Talking tons of data there. So how does your AI powered pricing and recommendation framing, how does that change the way that grocers think about discounts and sell through? Because a few years ago, all that data would be very hard to make sense of, but AI kind of unlocks it here, doesn't it?

[00:25:29] - [Speaker 1]
It does. It can take I mean, as we know, you have the power of taking sort of multiple data sources and unifying them them very quickly. And so for us, we would be able to we're able to see, you know, what items get wait. What items get shrunk out? What items, you know, move move to discount?

[00:25:48] - [Speaker 1]
All of those different pieces. And and with grocery retail, oftentimes, the the sort of lines of defense with food waste are how much can we call it discount or yellow sticker in store to preserve it. And then the other reality is, like, a lot of it's just going to to landfill because there isn't a solution. We're actually able to see those datasets, like, at the inventory level and help, retailers plan around that because we also have the consumer data. So we know who's engaging with it at what time, when they walk into store, what are the companion items they like to shop with.

[00:26:20] - [Speaker 1]
And we're able to provide not only recommendations for where items should be priced, so it's not just sort of a a blunt guessing game. And because we're a tech company, you know, we have a little bit more mobility than, like, a you know, some stores have digital shelf tags, and we're all still getting there. So you guys are a little bit further in Europe. We're able to really help answer that equation, and we can do that not only with the pricing that AI recommends. So based off of traffic behavior, etcetera, we can also do that, with companion items, like what items need to sit next to each other to to best sell and really help mobilize that inventory faster than a store might think about it.

[00:27:02] - [Speaker 1]
Because oftentimes, you're gonna prioritize the store and all the things that happen in the day. We can actually handle that part of the day that's really heavy on someone's balance sheet every year and quarter, but actually help do it in a way that's seamless and it doesn't require labor and and all of that. So that's where we've played. And it's interesting because I think where people weren't as focused on it in the early days is without AI, people weren't thinking about these massive datasets that sit here to solve it. We wouldn't have been able to solve it in absence of this this era that's emerging in terms of how you can sort of congregate all of these things together and allow your marketplaces or platforms to make faster decisions for for not only shoppers, but supporting retailers.

[00:27:46] - [Speaker 0]
And, Julie, at the very beginning of our podcast today, you were talking about your origin story before Flash Food. You were part of early growth at Impossible Foods, later founded Sunwink as well. And it reminds me of the Steve Jobs quote, you can't join up the dots looking forward. It's only when you look back. So when you look back, did those experiences shape your view of food systems, consumer behavior, and the role that technology could play in that?

[00:28:11] - [Speaker 0]
It feels like there's quite a few synergies there, and it seems like a natural progression that you probably didn't see right at the very beginning of your journey.

[00:28:18] - [Speaker 1]
No. You always enter those things with, like, the the bright eyed bushy tailed thoughts of, like, I'm here to I'm here to change the world, which is, like, true when you just walk into it. I started out, like, in my twenties with my career being more on the product development side. But back in the days when, you know, nobody had an ecommerce site or nobody had a ordering app, and so I was I was building that more on, like, call it the production vendor side and seeing that as a friction point. But then, know, you one day you sort of wake up as many people do who are either in, like, advertising and production.

[00:28:53] - [Speaker 1]
Like, man, I don't know if I wanna sell that beer

[00:28:55] - [Speaker 0]
that I Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:56] - [Speaker 1]
Kid, like, care about or drink. And, like, you you try to find sort of meaning and purpose somewhere. I I went went into the the food system was really like you said at the top too, like, you're you're just like, this is so frustrating. It has to be solved.

[00:29:15] - [Speaker 0]
Yeah. Yeah.

[00:29:17] - [Speaker 1]
And what you don't realize when you have that thought is like, wow. It it takes a lot of, like, steam to run into places that, like, people have decided, like, in the look back not to solve because the system doesn't fit the system favors, like, novelty and exciting and all of these things and, you know, you kind of get on that that that whole rat race. But for me, it was like, I know that tech can do it. I've watched tech evolve. I've also seen the guts of the system and where it it starts to break down and where those friction points are.

[00:29:49] - [Speaker 1]
And I think also that gives you the the the humility to understand how to approach the industries that it's no one's real fault. And I think sometimes tech will look at it and almost play the game of, like, it's the fault of you or it's the fault of them, and it's it's it's actually it's just not. And so if you could enter the system and solve challenges and be empathetic to where the system is and keep building with them and being patient and patient, you know, it'll take time. That that's where I've just seen my strength play into to the space because I've been able to kind of see a number of facets of how it comes together to feel a little bit more empathy for the consumer or the retailer in terms of what we need to to build and solve, and it will take time. You know?

[00:30:34] - [Speaker 1]
There are industries that are not there are industries that are designed to move crazy fast, and we're watching that happen in the world of all these new AI SaaS tech tech companies. You know? They're native to this. And then there are industries that are designed to not. Because if they fail, it actually has, like, on the hierarchy of needs, a much greater impact.

[00:30:58] - [Speaker 1]
Like, if we did not have food on our plates, it's much greater impact than, you know, Claude being able to answer my nonsensical question.

[00:31:06] - [Speaker 0]
Such a great point. And kudos to you. I mean, because I I think for most of us, I include myself in this, I see news footage of the parallels of food waste and the rise of food banks at the same time trying make sense of it all. I might get angry, frustrated, and switch the TV off. You've gone out there and done something about this trying to solve this problem.

[00:31:26] - [Speaker 0]
So, big kudos to you there. And looking ahead, what else needs to change in grocery retail for food waste and food access to improve at scale? And also, what role do you see flash food playing in that future too? Not just in The US, maybe expanding beyond that.

[00:31:43] - [Speaker 1]
I think what I've been really what I've been excited about within grocery retail and, you know, even within my short tenure there because ten years for folks in in the industry are are it's long. I mean, it's it's a lifelong dream. And what I've just seen even in the past few years is the rate of adoption of technology and, like, the corporate mandate to innovate and to get on modern systems is is happening at a clip faster than I think any of us would have seen. I remembered it's actually really interesting. I was if I think about this in the context of the rise of AI and thinking about data and thinking about how to better serve because the only way we're gonna solve this is we actually have to kind of start to, like, infrastructure out and rebuild.

[00:32:29] - [Speaker 1]
It was always just a matter of when. But it was, like the funniest thing happened, like, it was, like, five years ago. I was at a conference. This is before it was, like, conference was a was a grocery one, and they were saying, it was like AI is coming, and we're still trying to figure out self checkout. And it's like, when you think about that sort of, like, tension and how far even in five years I've seen these the retailers come with just globally.

[00:32:55] - [Speaker 1]
I think you'll start to naturally see a lot of things in waste solve almost solve itself because we're quite literally, like, removing the old, like, infrastructure, and that's happening at a greater rate. So I'm actually encouraged by the rate of adoption, but also where we're going to see AI or greater data literacy completely change it because that's where it's breaking down. Like, the disparateness. Like, we talked at the top of the call. Actually, all of these disparate datasets, disparate behaviors inside of a supply chain are the problem.

[00:33:29] - [Speaker 1]
And as businesses start to unify that with their technology so it is working together, that's the holy grail that we'll we'll start to see because the fragmentation is what's not serving anyone right now. And that is how you get in this position where, you know, I'm the trucking company. I'm the grower. I'm the grocery store. I'm the consumer, and they all exist in their own reality.

[00:33:53] - [Speaker 1]
And that is, like, what sort of again, the vision we're sitting at will hopefully bring that together so that we aren't you know, we're favoring the whole, not sort of the silo in terms of the technologies that everyone sees. So you're seeing that happen very, very quick.

[00:34:09] - [Speaker 0]
And as I said a few times, I think your words will resonate with people all around the world. There'll be a lot of people nodding in agreement, a lot of light bulb moments going off. So for people in The US, first of all, they wanna find out where they can, work with you at Flash Food. Where should they be going? How do they get involved?

[00:34:26] - [Speaker 0]
How do they get up and running? And equally, if there's anybody internationally, maybe interested in picking your brains on doing something similar in their own region. Where would you like to point everyone listening to that?

[00:34:37] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. So if if you're looking to just shop with us, pop on to the App Store if you're you're in North America, Canada as well, and you can download the app and you can be shopping right away. Flash food. You you you Google it. Not not you Google it.

[00:34:51] - [Speaker 1]
You you app store it. You play store it. You're gonna find it. On the front of just getting to know and to connect with me, one, you know, our ambitions are to be a global business one day. So, you know, if you believe in this also helping you know, reaching out to your local stores and saying, have you heard of Flash Food?

[00:35:08] - [Speaker 1]
Would you carry it? And then you can just hit me up on LinkedIn as well. And I'm I'm an active responder and listener to to folks because this takes, like, these movements take lots of different people and lots of different minds who are just passionate about it because, like I said, the the bumpier road traveled is often not the one that everyone gets excited to to you know, you have to have okay. You gotta you gotta have the spirit. You gotta be ready to to run through it.

[00:35:38] - [Speaker 1]
And so whenever I get, you know, notes from from folks and and what have you, I'm like, oh, that person that person gets it. So you'll always hear back from me.

[00:35:48] - [Speaker 0]
Love it. Well, I'll include links to absolutely everything there. And I always say on this podcast that technology works best when it brings people together. But what you're doing here, using technology to change the way retail works, remove food wastage, and put it into on people's tables. It's just phenomenal.

[00:36:05] - [Speaker 0]
Really inspiring. I would urge anyone listening to check it out. And if you are a customer of Flash Food, I'd love to hear your experiences too. Come over to my site, techtalksnetwork.com. Let me know what, you do you're doing and how you're making the most of it.

[00:36:19] - [Speaker 0]
But more than happy, just thank you for taking the time to share your story today, Jordan.

[00:36:23] - [Speaker 1]
Yeah. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Neil.

[00:36:25] - [Speaker 0]
I think one of the things that struck me most about today's conversation is just how solvable this massive problem feels when the right technology is applied with empathy and intention. And, yeah, we talked about how surplus inventory can become a growth lever for retailers rather than a lost line on a balance sheet. But we also explore how shoppers are far more practical and price aware than many supermarkets often assume. So I, for one, enjoyed looking at how AI and unified data can finally bring visibility to patterns that used to be hidden in spreadsheets and back office systems. And at a time where food waste and food insecurity should not be rising in parallel, I think that's something we can all agree on.

[00:37:14] - [Speaker 0]
I think it shows that the systems out there need better connections. So platforms like Fresh Food, I think they're showing that when technology is used to align incentives across retailers and consumers, you can create value. You can reduce risk and put nutritious food back on dinner tables. It really is win win all around. And as I said a few times there, kudos to Jordan for not just getting frustrated or angry at the scale of a problem, but going out there and doing something about it.

[00:37:47] - [Speaker 0]
And I think at a time where AI and technology is creating so many different opportunities, if there is a problem that really frustrates or angers you, maybe this could be your true calling to go out there and do something similar. I think the one of the beauties of AI is you can start a business from scratch by putting in what annoys you, how to how to build a business, how to go about it. There are so many different tools out there that can literally help you every step of the way. And I hope somewhere in the world, in the 165 countries that we're talking today, that Jordan's story will inspire you to follow in her footsteps. But over to you.

[00:38:28] - [Speaker 0]
As you think about the power of technology in your own industry, are there any overlooked efficiencies hiding in plain sight that could be turned into an opportunity with the right digital infrastructure? Let me know. Techtalksnetwork.com. Send me an audio message. DM.

[00:38:46] - [Speaker 0]
Connect with me on socials. Browse through 4,000 other interviews that hopefully will inspire you too. But I have taken up far too much of your time today, so I'm gonna walk off into the sunset once again. But don't worry, I'll be waiting in your podcast feeds bright and early tomorrow morning with another guest. Thanks for listening today, and I'll speak to you then.

[00:39:04] - [Speaker 0]
Bye for now.