Katelyn Keberle with Flash Food demonstrates the business’ mobile app to Joey Eschrich with the ASU Center for Science and Imagination at Jan. 18 Knight News Challenge event at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. Flash Food was recently listed as one of the coolest college start-ups in the nation. (Photo by Molly J. Smith)A banner on My ASU reads “Vote now!” encouraging students to click on a link to cast their vote for a student start-up that aims to get businesses in the food industry to donate their excess food, in this year’s Inc. Magazine's Coolest College Start-ups.
ASU alumnus Jake Irvin, the director of marketing for FlashFood, said they wanted to win the contest for the University. Last year, another ASU start-up, Arizona Pro DJs, won the contest.
FlashFood, an app the team developed to combat food insecurity in Arizona, formed in 2011 as a result of an engineering and community service class project. The start-up has since raised more than $46,000 in competition prizes.
A few months ago, FlashFood applied for Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of the Year but did not place as finalists. Irvin said it was a nice surprise to hear about the Inc. Magazine contest, because they didn't know they were nominated.
Gordon McConnell, assistant vice president for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture Acceleration at ASU, nominated FlashFood and other ASU start-ups when Inc. Magazine contacted him.
“Year to year, (Inc. Magazine) has been more interested in more than for-profit models,” he said. “I nominated FlashFood because of what they do in terms of handling the wastage of food. It seemed like an obvious choice.”
McConnell has known the FlashFood team since its creation, but he has worked with the start-up closely since it joined the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative — an ASU student start-up competition. The initiative has given the team the opportunity to work at SkySong, an ASU facility in Scottsdale, and to receive advice from mentors and experts.
FlashFood has adhered to its commitment and is able to execute a plan, he said.
“Every start-up has a good idea … but executing it is the key,” he said. “FlashFood have a very good team, and they seem to be keen on actually doing stuff, rather than just talking about it.”
Irvin said the Edson mentorship program has been more valuable than the funding they received.
The app, which is in its pilot program, will be launched for the Microsoft Windows market in three months, Irvin said.
“We’re definitely really excited about it,” he said. “I think it’s going to have really widespread social impact.”
Sustainability and global studies senior Mary Hannah Smith, director of sustainability at FlashFood, said the app would work differently for donors, volunteers and recipients.
Smith said the team plans to develop apps for the Android and iOS markets, as well as a web application for those who don’t own smartphones.
The donor creates a profile, and inputs the amount of food they have and their location, she said. Volunteers are on call to accept the donation and are immediately dispatched to pick it up. The app then sends a message to recipients.
“Basically, it would say, ‘If you come to this community center in however many minutes, there will be these many meals available,’” she said. “All of this would happen in 30 minutes to an hour maximum.”
The start-up received $3,500 at the ASU Innovation Challenge in March and last week they won $2,500 at the Rob and MelaniWalton Sustainability Solutions Initiative.
FlashFood has worked with one donor and one recipient charity as part of its app testing, Irvin said.
“So far, we have recovered 300 meals from that one donor, and we’re adding another donor in the next week,” Irvin said.
The team wants the app to apply to places outside of Arizona and the U.S. to create a network of donors and volunteers that would be connected with the closest community centers where meals could be delivered.
“We’ve been contacted by organizations and restaurants outside of Arizona and even outside of the U.S. that want to get on board,” he said. “We’re really excited to eventually give them a solution.”
Irvin said the team was inspired to create FlashFood after researching Arizona's food security, which is the access to enough food to live a healthy life.
According to the United Food Bank, 19 percent of Arizona's entire population and 29 percent of the children in the state do not have food security.
“Doing this research, we found this, and we didn’t think it was right,” Irvin said. “There’s enough food to feed everyone, and we wanted to create a way to make it easier to get this food to people.”
Smith had worked with Irvin at a restaurant before forming the start-up.
“It was really frustrating for us to have to dump meals that were fine to eat,” she said. “We just wanted to find out a way to get rid of the excuses that … managers might have. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for people donating and the consumers.”
Businesses will see benefits from donating food, because they will get enhanced tax deductions, Irvin said.
“If a restaurant or other business just throws their food away, they can only write off for the cost of the food,” he said.
FlashFood is looking to recruit some volunteers to help them with their food transportation in the future.
ASU is the ideal university at which students can become entrepreneurs, because it encourages them to connect with students from other disciplines, Irvin said.
“You can see through the Edson program and through the Innovation Challenge,” he said. “Not a lot of universities encourage students to start their own companies, and ASU does a really good job of doing that.”
Reach the reporter at dpbaltaz@asu.edu or follow her @dpalomabp
