Meet the co-founder of FoodDocs
I am Katrin, co-founder of FoodDocs. I’ve spent the last 20 years of my life in the food industry and I know how challenging this sector is. For the last 5 years, I have been running FoodDocs - a software company that makes the compliance process for food businesses 500X faster, saving time and money. I believe that everything is possible, you just need to believe and work on it as much as you can.
There’s always a lightbulb moment before the beginning of a new venture. What was that moment for you?
That’s a funny story. My co-founder saw me in a dream where I suggested to her that we start a business where you help food businesses to create food safety compliance documents. She woke up and texted me on Sunday morning asking what do I think of this idea to create a programme for it. I liked the idea at once and so it started.
How do you prepare for all the unknown obstacles when running your business? Tell us about your experience prior to launching your business? What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?
Before founding FoodDocs, I was the head of a number of cafes and restaurants, and also I was a food safety consultant freelancer helping food businesses with compliance issues. I saw in my daily life how food companies struggle and spend loads of time and resources on getting and staying compliant. That was the reason why we started FoodDocs - to help food businesses to get and to stay compliant, using AI to systemise the data.
Our mission is to make safety rules easy to follow and all food safe to eat. FoodDocs will be a database where you can find all food safety best practices and a quality stamp for consumers to be sure that ordered food is safe to eat.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far as an entrepreneur?
It took me quite a long time to understand that it’s possible and also necessary to measure all the activities with numbers. Numbers just don’t lie and put you and your team to work on only the right things.
How did you conquer those moments of doubt that so often affect entrepreneurs or stop many with great ideas – what pushes you through?
Our customers and my team. When I have any kind of doubts, I start checking what for our customers are using our software. And a great lunch or a party with my team always helps. These people mean so much to me and always motivate me.
What are your thoughts on failure?
I think no one should be afraid of failure, the most important thing is that people do something and keep on trying. There are so many good news stories in the startup field, like constant fundraising and fast success stories. But the truth is that behind every successful story, there is always a lot of hard work and failings. I just love the phrase that “to be in the right place at the right time, you need to be in the wrong place many times”. Also, keep in mind that the one who does nothing does not fail at anything.
Working with a co-founder can be tricky, so understanding and compromise are important. How have you both found the process of building a business together? What makes it work?
I have run two businesses before FoodDocs with co-founders who had similar personalities to me. I can say that it was fun but not so good for the business in the long run. Today, my co-founder at FoodDocs is a woman who is totally different from me and she loves to solve all those things that I don’t know or don’t want to solve. And I admire her for it. So, as running a startup is really challenging way to build a business, I definitely recommend having a co-founder who is good at things where you are not. This gives you at least a double speed.
What does your business offer its target audience?
FoodDocs helps food businesses to manage food safety rules. Leveraging AI, we make getting compliant 500x faster than the traditional method and allow food businesses to save 20% of their time on staying compliant.
What’s the most common problem your customers approach you with?
Today, the process of getting and staying compliant with food safety rules is cumbersome and bureaucratic. Business owners spend months creating and managing compliance docs, rules are long, complicated and hard to understand and follow. As a result, companies struggle and spend significant resources in order to achieve and maintain compliance.
How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?
First, when getting compliant, companies have two options - whether to spend months scrolling different rules and legislations or to hire an expensive food safety consultant to do this job for you in three weeks. With FoodDocs, businesses can get compliant with the help of software in just one hour (it is 500 times faster), at any time they want and will get a HACCP plan that is editable at any time. Secondly, switching from a paper to a digital system is one of the biggest issues that companies face. Usually, businesses give up when trying to do it. Thanks to AI, FoodDocs sets up your Food Safety Management System in minutes, instead of having long demos and set-up calls.
What plans do you have for FoodDocs over the next two years?
FoodDocs is growing rapidly today in the US and UK. We see that our customers value our product and are hungry for change. In the next two years, we’ll expand our services among small and medium-sized companies in up to 50 business locations. With the help of machine learning, we’ll develop our software further so that it is fully suitable for foodservice and retail companies.
What impact would you like to have on women around the world through your business?
We’re two female founders in a team that is perfectly balanced between genders. I hope that FoodDocs and its founders will help to encourage all women in the world to start doing things that really interest them. I see too many women underestimating themselves and considering themselves as meant only for taking care of their families. Step up, hire a babysitter (don’t think that this will look like you’re weak) and start listening to your thoughts (what you really are, what you like etc). Believe me, you’ll all end up as better wives, mums, daughters, etc!
