Highlights From Interview with Abhi Ramesh: Founder and CEO of Misfits Market

I had the opportunity to interview Abhi Ramesh, the Founder and CEO of Misfits Market, an online grocery store that specializes in rescuing food and delivering it to customers at a discount. 

Abhi first noticed how much food went to waste. Growing up, his family emphasized that wasting food was the worst thing you could do. He noticed that farm, household, and restaurant level food waste is extreme, as well as people being unable to access healthy food. Combining the two issues, Abhi created Misfits Market.

Abhi notes that his vision had always been to fix food waste while bringing food to the customers. Through doing this, the billions of food waste each year that cause global warming, would be reduced.

So far, Misfits Market has raised over 500 million dollars in venture capital, which Abhi describes as time-consuming. His long-term goal is to supply the entire food chain.

Misfits Market started in 2018, and by 2020 they were still a very small startup. Their customer base grew 5x overnight, and so, while the business grew quickly, they faced lots of challenges growing the operations proportionally during the pandemic. He did not expect them to grow as quickly as they had. Now, Misfits Market employs 1000+ people nationwide, and they have their own trucks and equipment!

Abhi’s advice for people who would like to start a company: Resilience is the most important trait. People often believe founders know it all, but success is less about knowledge and more about resilience. 

Overall, I had a great time talking with Abhi and I learned a lot about the sustainable food industry. Thank you, Abhi!