The app saving BILLIONS of litres of water- and still growing...

It has struck me just how many modern startups come with a mission to improve our lives and the planet.

And someone who speaks about this with more passion than anyone else is today's guest- Tessa Clarke, CEO & co-founder of sharing-app, OLIO.

Initially created to reduce food waste by allowing unwanted food to be shared with neighbours near you, the app has grown into something far greater. To date they have over 5 million users worldwide, sharing over 34 million portions of food and saving over 9 billion litres of water.

And that’s just their consumer side- businesses can work with OLIO to distribute leftover goods throughout communities and partnerships with Pret-a-Manger and even Tesco have allowed big business to reach net-zero faster.

In September of this year, OLIO announced a $43m series B round making the founders Tessa and Sacha the most heavily backed female founding team in the whole of the United Kingdom.

This series' partners, Octopus, have a mission to invest in the ideas, industries, and people that will change the world- so it comes as no surprise that OLIO is an Octopus portfolio company, having attracted their attention back in 2018 where they lead OLIO's series A round.

With a focus on true sustainability, education and action, I couldn’t think of a better company to sign off our third series before we return in 2022.

We discuss with Tessa:

-Where the name OLIO came from.
-Why they decided quickly to expand into services beyond food waste.
-How OLIO grew from 1 million to 5 million users during the pandemic.
-The difference between mission-driven founders and ‘mercenary’ founders.
Why the model of consumption is broken and what ‘virgin retail” means.
-The race to net-zero.
-How making OLIO globally accessible so early allowed them to expand into unlikely markets by following the data.
-How they will use their recent $43m Series B to propel OLIO forward.
Why they are hiring for a Head of Customer Insights and Head of Product -Design and what those roles actually do!
-What harnessing gamification can do to spark sustainable action.
Their amazing partnership with Tesco and how it took 3 and half years to achieve.
How they were remote working before it was cool and why no one believed it could work.
-Recruiting not just for mission fit but for mission obsession.
-Books that inspired Tessa’s journey: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries & Capitalism vs the Climate by Naomi Klein.

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