Making Parents Lives Better with Healthy Kids Lunches & How a Porn Site Led to a Big Rebrand - Rebecca Sholiton & Nate Cooper / Wise Apple

Tech In Chicago

Rebecca Sholiton and Nate Cooper are the Co-Founders of Wise Apple(formally Pak'd), a startup that delivers pre-made, customizable school lunches directly to families’ homes.

They just announced their $3.6 million seed round led by Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Levy Family Partners with Chicago Ventures, Greycroft Partners, BoxGroup and Irish Angels also participating. Wise Apple was also part of Techstars Chicago class of 2016 which included previous podcast guests Bright and PartySlate.

Use code "chicagotech" for $20 off your first week or this link for it to be automatically applied.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• The inspiration behind Wise Apple
• How they made their first lunches
• How they collected 300 emails from interested customers on day 1
• The importance of customizations to their business
• The value of hand delivering your orders and collecting feedback
• How they balance healthy and tasty for kids
• How a new porn site led to the name change
• What it was like working with the legendary Red Antler branding agency in New York
• Why Wise Apple won out as the name
• Any concern around going with a name without having the .com locked down
• How influential their Kellogg MBAs have been and whether they think they needed it
• Why starting a business with a bunch of MBAs is a mistake
• How Rebecca and Nate met
• Whether copycats and competitors in the food space is a concern for them
• How their space differs from the meal kit business
• How they arrived at their price
• The value in going through Techstars
• The importance of balancing realistic numbers and unit economics with a big vision
• Why we need more female investment professionals
• Why Rebecca won’t look at resumes unless there are non-white/male resumes included
• The value in having a big anchor tech company in Chicago

Selected Links From The Episode:

• Red Antler, branding agency behind Casper and All Birds
• Carter Cast, Professor at Northwestern Kellogg and Venture Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital
• Troy Henikoff, Managing Director at MATH Venture Partners
• Brian Luerssen, Former Techstars Chicago Managing Director
• Dan Willoughby, Techstars Chicago Director
• Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision

Favorite Books:

• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
• Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall