How is your business helping to solve the health, social, or economic challenges created by COVID19?
COVID-19 is driving a permanent shift in workplace norms. Companies, universities, and healthcare providers must prepare for the likelihood of long-term restrictions on access to spaces designed for many people. This will pose a number of unique challenges, including how workers and students will get their meals if they aren’t allowed to congregate in cafeterias and restaurants.Minnow has developed an IoT-enabled food pickup station (called a “Pickup Pod”) that enables contact-free food delivery and pickup. We have also developed a cloud-based SaaS platform that manages ordering, delivery, and pickup, as well as the network of pods. Our platform collects orders from users and sends them to an onsite cafeteria or restaurant. The orders are then prepared and delivered to a network of pods that are located throughout a corporate campus, university, or hospital. Users are notified when their orders are delivered and can pick them up from the nearest pod whenever it’s convenient.
Does your business contribute most to recovery, response, or resilience?
Resilience - we're improving the broader infrastructure for responding to pandemic outbreaks.,Response - we're responding directly to issues caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak.
What is the stage of your product development?
I have a market ready product/service. I have sold to customers.
What strengths does your team bring? Include skills and personal experience with the problem.
We’re an experienced startup team with expertise in hardware design, software engineering, sales, marketing, finance, and operations. We’ve led or contributed to multiple successful exits.Steven Sperry, co-founder and CEO, is a repeat founder who led his first enterprise software startup to a successful exit (IPO). Before Minnow, he was an entrepreneur-in-residence for a startup accelerator. He has an M.S. in Physics from UW.Yona Belfort, co-founder and VP of Hardware, is a mechanical engineer and product designer who spent 8 years designing products at IDEO, the world’s largest product design firm. He has an M.S. in Design from Stanford University.Sean Zhong, VP of Software, is a software engineering leader who has designed and built large-scale, cloud-based distributed software systems at Amazon, Big Fish, and other technology companies. He has an M.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University.Chuck Thompson, VP of Sales, is an experienced enterprise sales and business development leader who was most recently VP of Sales for Apex, a leader in the market for pick-up solutions. At Apex, Chuck sold a $55 million contract to Little Caesar’s for 3,500 in-store pizza pickup kiosks. He has a B.S. in Ocean Engineering from M.I.T.Chris Stanvick, VP of Marketing, is a senior marketing professional who was most recently Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Havas, the world’s second largest market marketing agency. He has a B.S. in Marketing from Northeastern.
What countries do you operate in?
United States and Japan
Is your company headquartered in a US "Opportunity Zone"?
No
