Flashfood: The Magic of Commitment

Josh Domingues had accomplished what countless young entrepreneurs long to achieve: founding a promising company that aspires to make the world a tangibly better place. Shocked to learn that international food waste cumulatively amounted to the world’s third largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, he founded Flashfood in April of 2016 as part of a mission to drastically reduce food waste. A once-aspiring professional hockey player with no direct industry or technical experience, Domingues was hardly the top pick to solve the crisis. Nevertheless, he set his sights on grocery stores, figuring them as not only substantial contributors to the food waste epidemic, but also practical sites to produce value for consumers, particularly those most in need. His vision driving him relentlessly onward, by November of that year, he had a working app and had secured a pilot with a specialty grocer in Canada.
By mid-November, however, the dream quickly seemed to be slipping into a nightmare. Only partway through the pilot, everything was already in chaos. A lack of in-store coordination, a yet-clunky app, and an increasingly irritated district manager spelled growing disaster for Domingues. Did he pull the trigger too early in launching this venture? Maybe he should have built a more solid financial nest egg? Should he really have done this alone, or was entrepreneurship more of a team sport? To make matters more complicated, Domingues was beginning to see interest—and actual financial investment—from other sectors. Maybe he should switch to the restaurant industry, or even partner with a farmer in developing a direct-to-consumer model, and jettison grocery altogether? Despite his inspirational vision, the road that lay ahead of Domingues remained fraught with uncertainty, if only his commitment could see him through.