YC
Gobble founder Ooshma Garg speaks at Female Founders Conference 2016
@ Y Combinator
04/19/16
Takeaways
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
I founded Gobble to help anyone cook dinner in just 10 minutes, and we invented the 10-minute one-pan dinner kit.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
After raising our Series A, Paul Graham tweeted that I do not give up, which reflects my journey of persistence over five and a half years.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
The startup journey often resembles a curve where you have an exciting launch, followed by a trough of sorrow, and then some wiggles of hope before reaching success.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
In 2010, Brian Chesky of Airbnb shared a similar graph of his startup's journey, showing that many startups experience a similar pattern of ups and downs.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Building a startup feels like a game of snakes and ladders, where progress can be two steps forward and four steps back.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
I started Gobble while managing another startup, and I was working 16 to 18 hours a day, often eating alone and feeling unhappy.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Growing up, I had a tradition of home-cooked meals, which made me realize how lonely and unhealthy my takeout diet was while working on my startup.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
To solve my problem of not having time to cook, I posted an ad on Craigslist for chefs to prepare home-cooked meals, which led to 70 responses in 24 hours.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
What began as a fun dinner hack quickly evolved into a serious business opportunity as chefs brought their culture and pride into the meals they prepared.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
In order to get food for myself, I had to create a system where I could also provide meals for others, leading to the development of a calendar for chefs.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
The business started as a simple solution to my own problem, using email and PayPal, and it organically grew into a functioning business.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Despite not having a technical co-founder, I was able to raise our seed round because I had passion, a market, and proof of concept.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Our startup had a dreamlike start, but just weeks before launch, our first engineer quit, leaving me feeling like I had failed.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
After my engineer quit, I felt lost and worried about the future of Gobble, but I reached out to trusted investors who helped me find a replacement. I learned to code and eventually hired great engineers, but this delayed our launch and was a significant setback for Gobble.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
After launching our first product, we received positive feedback from investors, but I was unaware that we were about to face a long period of struggle.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Just because you launch a product doesn't guarantee customer acquisition; I had to fight hard for every customer after the initial excitement wore off.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
I manually promoted Gobble by distributing coupons in coffee shops and personally following up with new customers to encourage repeat orders.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Despite initial struggles, we showed some growth, prompting an investor to suggest we raise a Series A round, which I eagerly prepared for.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
I made mistakes in the fundraising process, including not meeting enough investors and assuming a deal was done before it actually was.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
I felt crushed after failing to secure funding, but I decided to use our remaining resources to continue pushing forward and meet with customers to understand their needs better.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Customers wanted the ability to order food on demand, leading us to attempt an on-demand service called Gobble Instant, which ultimately failed due to logistical issues.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Even after two failed versions of Gobble, I believed in our mission to provide busy people with home-cooked meals, which kept me motivated to find a solution.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
I took time to reflect on my experiences and insights, which led me to develop a personalized dinner subscription service that ultimately succeeded.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Our new dinner subscription service significantly outperformed previous versions of Gobble, achieving five times the revenue and showing promising growth.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Despite progress, raising Series A was challenging due to increased competition in the food startup space, and we faced another setback in securing funding.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
With dwindling funds and a working product, I was advised to join Y Combinator, which I initially hesitated to do but ultimately saw as a necessary step to keep the company alive.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Joining Y Combinator turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made, especially as we faced severe financial challenges before receiving their support. Starting and running a company as a founder can be a very lonely experience, where you often feel responsible for everyone's future and only you know the reality of the low times.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Y Combinator was a lifeline for us; without it, we wouldn't be alive today.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
YC helped us get back to the basics, which is crucial for founders at any point in their company.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
We innovated on technology and food quality by establishing our own commercial kitchen and hiring an executive chef, which were key moves for our company.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
We learned that customers wanted to cook but lacked the time, so we applied the restaurant concept of mise en place to create dinner kits for families.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Our social media and word of mouth exploded after we tested our dinner kits, leading to significant growth and product-market fit without any marketing hires.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Accept rejection with grace; startups are a marathon, and the same people you may not work with now, you might work with in the future.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
The startup journey is filled with obstacles, but with grit and perseverance, those obstacles can be managed and overcome.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
After raising funds, we aim to expand across the country and enhance our defensibility in the market.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Grit comes from within and is essential for staying the course and improving yourself and your company, rather than comparing yourself to others.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Running experiments is crucial; a company is not just a product but a mission that should be continuously worked on if it is alive.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
Our mission is to create love through food, and we are now able to provide that home-cooked meal experience to millions of families.
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Ooshma Garg
04/19/16
@ Y Combinator
To be a successful founder, you need to have grit, run experiments, and believe in your mission wholeheartedly.