Meet
Disha Gulati
Investment Opportunity : Seed stage in the process of raising a $1.5M round with a $5.5M cap
At a Glance
Company Here Here Market
Year Created 2021
Mission Curate the largest community of chef-driven and independent food brands. Empower them to build profitable businesses by leveraging our proprietary data-driven performance tools, access business services at scale, and expand via off-platform distribution channels.
Target Markets/Audience * Individual Food Enthusiasts and Corporate Gifters: * Recreating Restaurant Experiences at Home * With Uniques Diet Preferences (Gluten Free, Keto etc) * Values and Mission Driven (Local, Female Founded, Black-Owned) * Creators: Chefs, Restaurants and Curated Food Artisans/ CPG companies
Website hereheremarket.com
Background:
What makes Disha unique?
Growing up in Dubai, known as "the melting pot of the world," Disha developed a passion for exceptional food and culinary adventures. The diverse cultures and cuisine of the expat-rich city shaped her palate from an early age. Coupled with her background as the Head of Global Analytics for a leading CPG company, she possesses the passion and skill set that makes her ideally suited to serve Here Here Market’s mission. In building Here Here Market, Disha and her team are paying homage to the incredibly wide spectrum of diverse culinary talent and amplifying their reach so that the world can share and experience their creations!
“In building Here Here Market, we are paying homage to the incredibly wide spectrum of diverse culinary talent and amplifying their reach so that the world can share and experience their creations!”
The Problem:
What Disha is trying to solve
Shifting customer preferences and social media have put more and more chefs and food artisans at the forefront of the retail landscape. However, most chefs/early stage food entrepreneurs do not have the skills or resources to successfully enter a highly competitive, unit economics driven retail landscape. They need a vertically focused platform to gain exposure, test their products, and access growth opportunities in the retail sector.
Additionally, retailers face challenges in discovering and accessing popular brands along with their sales data. And consumers lack a dedicated space to discover new and up-and-coming food brands.
Q&A
We sat down with Disha to talk with her about how she got her start as a founder, what her seed funding stage has been like, and how GET Cities has helped.
What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
I'm an entrepreneur who started a company later in my career. Prior to founding Here Here Market, I worked as a management consultant and the Head of Global Analytics for a major CPG company, Mondelez International. While this was a valuable experience, I aspired to make a meaningful impact and serve people through my professional career. I recognized that to fulfill this goal, I had to start something of my own. Additionally, during my time in the CPG industry, I witnessed the rise of direct-to-consumer brands and their significant success. Recognizing this opportunity, I decided to leverage my background in data and analytics to help emerging and chef-driven food brands grow and scale profitably.
How did you come up with Here Here Market?
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic being a very dark time for us all to go through, it really did lead to the conception of Here Here Market. We saw so many of our restaurant partners and chefs struggle with the turmoil their businesses endured during this time, and how they had to turn to creative solutions to survive. On a personal front, I missed connecting directly with my local food makers and artisans, and experiencing the richness of the world through the lens of food, especially when I traveled. Something had to be done! On a more practical level, I learned that each year nearly 30,000 new brands are launched, yet 75 to 95 percent of those brands fail because the creators don’t have the marketing, positioning and distribution horsepower that big companies have, even though their product in many instances is more interesting and appealing to the end consumer. Additionally, only two percent of consumer spend on food products reaches small businesses. So, even though 9 out of 10 consumers want to support small businesses, they lack convenient channels for discovery of and access to them. At Here Here Market, we’re redefining restaurant-to-retail with a marketplace created specifically for culinary creators to sell shelf-stable, packaged products, assisting from product ideation and development to sales, with a platform that supports them with insights, finding product-market fit and growth through proprietary technology so culinary partners can focus on what they do best…make food. In fact, one of our favorite hot sauce creators did not have a product at all to sell outside their restaurant until we approached them with the idea. If you’re ever lucky enough to find yourself in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, you have to treat yourself to a meal at S.K.Y, an innovative spot that makes unique but approachable dishes. When our team tasted their hot sauce, we knew it’s something others would want to use to take their meals to the next level—and have the taste of S.K.Y at home. Working closely with the S.K.Y team, we helped with the development, bottling and distribution process. Now, this sauce is a top-seller condiment on our platform.
What milestones are you most proud of?
Here Here Market is 2.5 years old, and during these past two years we have on-boarded over 200 creators and 800 products. Also, more than 60 percent of the creators on Here Here Market are women owned businesses and people of color. Personally, as a woman founder, that diversity speaks to me and is something that we have worked hard to achieve on the platform. We have also been proud partners of the James Beard Foundation Awards for the last two years in a row, which has been a huge achievement for a company of our size. We also work closely with World Business Chicago, Choose Chicago and the Hatchery as conduits for local and artisanal brands. Lastly, growth is on our side. We are proud to have built a footprint in Chicago, and we are growing our reach nationally.
What was the most challenging aspect of starting your own company?
Starting a business from a mere idea can be a daunting task. Numerous obstacles lie ahead, and one persistent challenge we face as an Ecommerce business is the management of our unit economics. The escalating supply chain costs and digital acquisition expenses create a moving target that we consistently strive to conquer. What type of support system have you had and what has that meant for your founder journey? It takes a village to build a company, and it is difficult to go at it by yourself. You need a community to prop you up and cheer you on, as well as provide needed resources. The Chicago ecosystem, such as organizations like World Business Chicago and 1871, have been very supportive. Also, Gordon Food Services, our strategic investor, has been instrumental at opening many doors for us. Lastly, GET Cities has exposed us to resources that we didn't know were available in Chicago and beyond.
What has your experience been like overall in the Chicago tech space?
I believe there is strong support in the city for founders, but we need more resources at the seed level. While many organizations in the city support founders, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, we must do more to make progress. Chicago excels in providing educational opportunities and access to resources for founders, but there is still room to help them with growth opportunities. Additionally, Chicago's B2C startup ecosystem has not been historically well-known, and I would like to see this segment grow and mature over time.
What do you think is unique or significant about being at the seed stage in particular?
In the early stages, resources are limited and trade-offs are frequent. It's crucial to be frugal to ensure growth, though it may sometimes be slow. However, the seed stage offers greater flexibility to reposition the company according to market conditions. For instance, during the pandemic, we swiftly adapted our business model to facilitate virtual delivery of food experiences instead of in-person encounters.
What is unique about being a marginalized founder in the entrepreneurial space?
Being a marginalized founder comes with numerous challenges that are often difficult to measure. One commonly cited statistic is that only 2% of venture capital is allocated to female-founded businesses, highlighting the significant funding disparity in this field. However, we need so many more founders from diverse backgrounds. Diversity of individuals brings a diversity of experiences, leading to a broader range of perspectives and innovative ideas. I witness this firsthand in the food industry, where two founders with contrasting backgrounds can interpret the same food product in vastly different ways. Also of note is the outsized focus among founders in our segment on supporting and empowering the next generation of diverse entrepreneurs as they themselves progress. As they say, lift as you climb!
What is one piece of advice you would give to aspiring founders from historically excluded backgrounds?
When deciding to become an entrepreneur, it's important to do your homework and approach the journey with open eyes. For instance, while my corporate experience is valuable, it didn’t always directly translate to start-up success. That's why I spent 18 months immersing myself in the founder ecosystem by working at a startup incubator before starting my own company. Once you've laid the groundwork, it's crucial to find a supportive community within the ecosystem. Surround yourself with people you can lean on, seek advice from, and be honest about your experiences. Additionally, don't forget to consistently engage with potential customers. Avoid the temptation to only interact with them once your product is ready.
What made you want to participate in the GET Seed Founder cohort?
I wanted to participate in the GET Seed Founder cohort because GET Cities brings together so many different organizations in Chicago. Before joining the cohort, I had either not heard of some of these organizations or if I did, I did not know much about them. So it was exciting to be introduced to all of these resources that are available to founders, and now I know who to reach out to when I need help on certain things.
What would you say is the most valuable tool, connection point, or piece of wisdom you have gained from being part of the Seed Founder cohort?
Joining the cohort has exposed me to numerous incredible female founders from both the current and previous cohorts who have been immensely helpful. Many of them are in the same stage of their businesses, serving as great sounding boards and validators. Their presence reassures me that the challenges I am facing are not unique, but rather typical for this stage of the business. Being a founder can sometimes feel isolated, but having peers in a similar stage is mentally and professionally beneficial.
Seed stage in the process of raising a round with a $5.5M cap
Market size for small CPG
9 out of 10 consumers desire to purchase from independent makers yet these makers only get 2% of $100B in food e-comm spend
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