Case study: Entrepreneur keeps his startup cooking after COVID layoff
Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a series of profiles of aspiring entrepreneurs who have joined IncBuilders to overcome obstacles in their paths to success.
It’s been a year and half since Ahmad Saleem started thinking about a food app. He loves food, he is passionate about it, and he takes time to cook for himself and his girlfriend.
During his journey to become a better cook, Saleem has become more familiar with different cuisines and an eclectic assortment of influencers on various social media platforms. Along the way, he’s sought out innovative foodies who may not have a mass-market reputation or a TV show but are crafty and creative.
Saleem has also learned some tough truths about the distribution of food in the United States. Thirty percent to 40% of the U.S. food supply ends up in landfills. He wanted a way to help food lovers like him cook some unique dishes with whatever ingredients they have in their shelf or pantry so we have less wastage.
Combining his passions, Saleem hatched an idea for a new product: Shelf-Life Chef. “The app allows you to pick recipes you would want to eat based on what you have available in your fridge,” he told IncBuilders. Users can enter what they’d like to eat or simply list all available ingredients, and the app will automatically suggest dishes they can create with the materials on hand. Saleem is working with the influencers he admires to source recipes.
Shelf-Life Chef “keeps things interesting in the kitchen, and it also manages waste,” Saleem said.
While he continued to research his idea, Saleem couldn’t find time or resources to bring his idea to reality. Finally, one of his friends suggested he join IncBuilders, a venture collaboration platform that helps entrepreneurs tackle early stage hurdles and launch their ideas quickly and cost efficiently.
But wait: As soon as he joined IncBuilders, the world was hit by COVID-19, and Saleem lost his job.
“I was dispatching full time for a trucking company. I was working about 60 hours a week,” he said. “It became harder to move trucks when the pandemic first struck and I was putting in more hours to make sure my drivers had work.”
Now what? Sit on the sidelines and cry over spilled milk — or see this as a new opportunity finally to do something that he always wanted to?
Obviously, we wouldn’t be writing about Saleem if he hadn’t kept trucking in the face of adversity. Through IncBuilders, he connected with Tristan Jackson, who became his co-founder and lead developer. Via IncBuilders, the pair also recruited four students to do free market research and app development in exchange for course credits.
Saleem and Tristan said they hope to deliver a Minimum Viable Product by May.
“I’m really excited,” Saleem said. “When I joined the platform, I really didn’t know what to expect — all I knew I was getting into was a place and a space that would help me get to where I want to be.
“I feel like I’m in a really good place with really good people who are better at things that I have no idea about — all coming together to make something that ultimately make something that we can be very proud of.”
Has Saleem inspired you enough to join his team in whichever capacity you can, or he has inspired you to finally work on that idea that has not seen any light of day yet? Get to know more about Saleem’s startup or do something about yours at https://IncBuilders.club
See Saleem’s video below.
Cheers!
