Introducing Komal Ahmad — Copia (Poverty)
Komal Ahmad is the founder of Copia, a startup that tackles poverty by redistributing surplus food to feed people in need. She started Copia in her senior year of college when she met a homeless veteran who hadn’t eaten for 3 days, within walking distance from a dining hall where so much excess food was simply thrown away. Copia is a YCombinator and Fast Forward alum.
I’m not the typical Silicon Valley entrepreneur — I’m not just trying to start a startup. I was trying to solve a problem, and it was an obsession. I had to figure this out. This needs to exist in the world. We don’t have the luxury of failing — the problem is so critical and so solvable — for the first time in human history we can solve this problem.
Tell us abit about yourself and how you started Copia.
I started Copia as a senior in UC Berkeley — I was walking home one day and met a homeless man on the street. His name was John, he was hungry, and as a veteran, he was still waiting for his VA benefits to kick in. He hadn’t eaten in 3 days. Can you imagine going 3 days without food? He served our country only to come home to face another battle — of hunger and homelessness. On the other end, the dining halls in Berkeley have thousands of pounds of leftover food each day.
What I saw was emblematic of a larger problem across the US — over 365 million pounds of food are wasted each day, and there are so many hungry people. In the Bay Area alone, 1 in 4 people are hungry every day. This is a logistics and distribution problem at its core. In a world where so much innovation exists, issues like hunger should not.
Tell us a bit about Copia.
Copia is not the first organization to tackle food waste and poverty. The idea is not revolutionary in and of itself, but we make the process as intelligent as possible, and focus on doing it for profit and for scale. Poverty is an age-old problem, and that’s what makes it the right candidate for disruption. We’re automating the process of solving it — not recreating the wheel.
If you are an organization with extra food, you can tell us how much food you have, and when you need it to be picked up, using our mobile app. Our software matches the nearest nonprofits that need food at that time, and we send people to deliver food from you to these nonprofits. We also provide organizations whose food get redistributed with photos and testimonials, as well as data and analytics around food consumption and wastage. We’re on our way to feeding a million people.
What was one of your proudest moments from the past year?
We had several! One of our success stories was during the Super Bowl last year. It was hosted right here in San Francisco — the event had 14 tonnes of high-quality food. They were in these 4 by 16 refrigerated trucks, and we were able to feed 24,000 people in 2 days. It’s unbelievable and extraordinary to see your dreams come into reality. Some people are like, oh yeah, Super Bowl only happens once a year, what’s the big deal. But many times, even for things like local tech conferences, they’d ask us to pick up their food, and it’s a ton of food — enough to feed 5000+ people. Not only that, it’s good food, like pulled pork sandwiches and more.
What is Copia’s business model?
There are many nonprofits that do great work, but it takes organizations with a true business model to truly scale and achieve their mission. Why can’t we use the same ride-sharing technology over the valley to help solve the world’s biggest problems?
Copia is a for-profit company. We pay couriers on a per-hour basis, and we charge a volume-based fee. Businesses are eligible for tens of thousands of savings by using Copia — we offer inventory tracking, we monitor where the food is going, and generate data and analytics on food waste for these companies. Calling the redistribution of food a donation implies that there is no value in the service. Instead, we are unlocking the value of the food in multiple ways.
Tell us more about when you started Copia. What was a challenge that you faced?
When I first started Copia, I asked the dining hall managers at Berkeley what they did with the excess food. I knew they couldn’t be totally frank. They said they actually could have excess food, but they couldn’t give it away because of liability issues. I felt that that was so ridiculous — these homeless folks were right across the street from you — but you couldn’t feed them. I researched it a little more and learnt about the Emerson Good Samaritan Act signed in 1996, which would actually protect them from liability should they give the food away. I went to the Executive Director of the dining hall, and explained to him that we needed to start donating food. Within 7 minutes of our conversation, we started our food recovery program, and redistributed the food to nonprofits.
It was a great start, but incredibly inefficient. There was one day, he had 500 excess sandwiches, and he called me to pick it up in 2 hours. I quickly got a Zipcar, and loaded 500 sandwiches into it, since we had to get the food to someone as quickly as possible. I started calling nonprofits in Berkeley and Richmond and a lot of them didn’t answer. Throughout this process I kept asking myself, why was it so hard to do a good thing? Where are all the people when you have good food to give them? The moment of frustration while figuring out how to extend the Zipcar reservation was when I was inspired. That was when I realized we needed to figure out a scalable solution
This was my senior year in college. I had planned out my entire life. I would study integrative biology, meet the love of my life, and graduate from medical school at the age of 25. Absolutely none of that worked according to plan, except that I fell in love. Not with a person, but with an idea. I’m not the typical Silicon Valley entrepreneur — I’m not just trying to start a startup. I was trying to solve a problem, and it was an obsession. I had to figure this out. This needs to exist in the world. We don’t have the luxury of failing — the problem is so critical and so solvable — for the first time in human history we can solve this problem.
What’s a common misconception you’ve realized about doing tech for social good?
Many ask, is this a non-profit? No, we’re a for-profit. Only 1 or 2 people have ever pushed back at our for-profit model — 99% say it makes total sense. Some people criticize — you’re making money off other people’s food? No we’re not. We’re providing value at scale, not just locally in your community. We’re trying to solve a problem in a financially sustainable way. You don’t have to do good and be poor. You don’t have to just create CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs. You can use the same types of matching algorithms and technology the valley uses for other things, and apply them to issues like poverty.
What has surprised you about working in the sustainability space / hunger-related issues?
That there’s very few players in the pace. It’s harder to say yes to a problem, than it is to say no, because yes requires action. No just requires complacency, and frees you from responsibility. The biggest reason why businesses don’t donate food is liability. We create ways to protect businesses from liability, and educate them by bashing misconceptions.
My presence in the space is not common and unexpected. As a solo female immigrant founder, I’m a minority. We went into YCombinator and graduated top 8 of our class. But this is not about me, this has nothing to do with ego. This is something that only I can do. I’m doing it because I have the capacity to make this urgently needed thing happen.
Why do you think students or young people have this misconception of doing good means being poor?
Because there’s no examples to the contrary. Everyone uses the classic example of TOMS shoes, but there are more innovative business models than that. It’s funny that the world’s smartest people sometimes end up solving the world’s dumbest problems. If you want the status quo to change, you cannot just throw money at it. It is not that I have a compassionate bleeding heart, I have a pragmatic one. I’ve run a non-profit, and I’ll most likely never do it again. In the for-profit world, everything happens so much faster. I raised in 2 months for Copia (for-profit) what would otherwise take me 1 year. Fundraising is a waste of time, since it’s not mission-oriented or anything.
How do you raise venture capital and convince others that Copia is worth it?
We’re a public benefit corporation (PBC), so we do good by doing well. For us, our company structure allows us to prioritize doing good over doing well. We chose our investors very carefully, and made sure their motivations were not to showcase a female in their portfolio.
What is the future we want in the world? We want to redistribute the most perishable resources. We could redistribute clothing, medical supplies etc. We can become the best platform at redistributing resources, and painting that bigger picture is very important. No one loses with Copia — the businesses, the investors, the community, us.
Their code may be good, but does it do any good?
I tell my employees that you are not here just to create another gadget. You’re here to make the lives of 100 million users better. We’re looking for exponential impact — if you are not making someone else’s life better, then what’s the point? I convinced people to see that for themselves. Their code may be good, but does it do any good?
What was most difficult about starting the initiative / jumping over from your previous career?
We received over 60,000 requests for global expansion, including from places like Germany and Austria. This was a use case I never fathomed when I was a senior in college. I’m trying to figure out a way to scale quickly. It’s going to be different operating in different places. Nuances need to be documented and figured out. Sometimes the driver doesn’t show up, or food isn’t ready to be picked up, and we’re paying this driver. Everyone has their own restrictions (insurance requirements), it’s just a lot of nuances for different customers. We’ve created an inventory management system — it’s now a little bit more work, but in turn you get so much more back in terms of data and analytics.
Best advice you’ve ever been given?
Keep going. You will have your best days, and your worst days. The bipolarity is real. The trick is not getting too high when high, and not too low when low. Obama said too that he was little bit more mellow, and that he doesn’t believe the hype and cynicism. I think I’m very similar in that fashion.
The trick is not getting too high when high, and not too low when low.
What’s an influential read that has changed the way you’ve understood technology?
My favorite book is actually The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. They say that when you find your personal legend, your reason for being, the entire universe will help you achieve it. Because I found my reason for being, I’m youngish when I’ve done it, it worked out.
What keeps you up at night?
So many things — as a founder, you are not just a leader, but you’re also supposed to be a manager. Most people don’t have the chops. I have an incredible amount of respect for Obama, able to do both. He shows you the bigger picture, but is also able to find best talent to support the cabinet. I haven’t had a ton of experience, and the ability to lead takes years of practice to build. Sometimes I fail. I fail at approaching an employee, I could have explained a solution better, I could be better at how I manage my time. How can I do it better? How can I spend my time better? These are questions that keep me up at night.
I also have insomnia so that doesn’t help…
Favorite midnight snack?
I try to avoid it, but I do like cookie dough straight from the freezer. Also, whole pizza straight from the fridge. Will have a box in the fridge. People eat a lot better than I do. Pizza has every food group I need.
What are you currently listening to?
Fan of teeny-bopper and Bollywood music. Bollywood workout station on Pandora is cool. Faster beat music is better.
How can people get involved with what you’re working on?
If you’re a company/event has excessive food or might, connect them with us. Take action. I was a Googler for a hot minute and have seen all the micro-kitchens and restaurants — there is food that is wasted. We also encourage nonprofits to sign up. If you’re a talented, we’re looking for brilliant people to join us.
Everybody has something to offer. With great privilege comes great responsibility. If we’re living in this country at this day, at this time, we are still privileged. And we should do something about it.
