From House Move to 140M Meals Rescued | Olio's Unlikely Story | Tessa Clarke
In this episode of Startup & Scaleup People, Mario sits down with Tessa Clarke, Founder & CEO of Olio, the climate-tech platform fighting food waste through hyperlocal sharing.
Olio has grown into a global community with nearly 10 million users, redistributed more than 140 million meals, and built a network of over 100,000 volunteers helping businesses and local communities reduce waste.
Tessa shares the full journey behind building Olio, from the original idea sparked during a house move, to scaling a marketplace business across multiple countries, managing complex logistics operations, fundraising over $50M, building remote-first culture, and using AI to dramatically increase operational efficiency.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Olio and Its Mission
02:47 The Role of Food Waste Heroes
06:04 Challenges of Scaling a Volunteer Community
08:55 The Journey of Founding Olio
11:49 Operational Complexity and Logistics
15:10 Leveraging AI for Efficiency
17:58 Fundraising and Growth Strategies
21:04 Building a Strong Company Culture
23:54 The Importance of Community Impact
27:01 Lessons Learned and Future Outlook
#Startup #Scaleup #ClimateTech #FoodWaste #AI #Marketplace #Operations #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Logistics #CircularEconomy #Sustainability #RemoteWork #Founder #StartupFounder #TechStartup #Productivity #Innovation #Community #Olio