Grocery tech firm Chicory takes consumers from recipe to checkout with just one click.
As Colgate seniors, Joey Petracca ’13 and Yuni Sameshima ’13 found themselves across the table from two of the most powerful people in the world. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, and Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of Chobani, were the featured guests at the 2013 Thought into Action luncheon for young entrepreneurs in the student incubator program.
Petracca and Sameshima hoped to walk away with a few new contacts for their fledgling concept: technology that would meet consumers online where they’re browsing recipes and automatically populate a shopping cart with the ingredients they’d need to cook the dish. All the consumer would need to do is click.
“I’m sure my voice was four octaves too high — but we ended up raising $30,000.”
— Yuni Sameshima
“We looked around the room, and we looked at each other, and we were like, ‘This is a big opportunity,’” Sameshima says. Just before Colgate’s then-President Jeffrey Herbst could take the stage, Sameshima claimed the mic. He introduced himself and Petracca, gave an overview of their concept, and invited potential investors to meet with them.
“I’m sure my voice was four octaves too high — but we ended up raising $30,000 that weekend,” Sameshima says. “That funding allowed us to kick-start Chicory.”
Their boldness paid off. In the eight years since, the New York City–based company has facilitated more than $50 million in grocery orders each year and earned the partners a spot on the 2020 Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.
Sameshima, originally from New York City, and Petracca, from Irvine, Calif., met by singing a cappella together in the Colgate Thirteen. They were drawn to each other by their shared sense of humor, which has been vital to their success as they’ve weathered the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Although neither has a business background — Petracca was a history major and Sameshima majored in molecular biology — they credit Colgate’s liberal arts education for endowing them with “critical thinking, problem solving, and thinking holistically,” skills integral to their career, Sameshima says.
But why start a company in the first place?
“It was a cultural moment,” Petracca says. With the rise of Facebook, publications covering start-up culture, and young entrepreneurs launching companies, the duo “felt empowered that we could pursue this path. We started brainstorming.”
As foodies, Petracca and Sameshima noticed a growing trend of online grocery shopping with new companies like Instacart and Blue Apron. At the same time, food blogs, recipe sites, and digital versions of publications like Bon Appétit were taking over the internet. The partners saw an opportunity to capture those consumers by “making those recipes shoppable.”
Petracca and Sameshima connected with existing food content creators like Delish, Taste of Home, and The Kitchn to embed Chicory technology in their sites. To facilitate the sales side of the platform, they built a retail network that includes nearly every major grocery retailer in the United States.
Chicory’s “Get Ingredients” button is on recipes in their network of 1,500 food sites. From this button, customers can add the recipe’s ingredients into the online cart of their preferred retailer. Chicory also monetizes this technology through digital ads that run within recipe content across its partner sites, and by licensing software directly to brands, agencies, and retailers to power shoppable content.
To build relationships with vice presidents and CEOs of major corporations like Kroger and Stop & Shop, the duo again took a bold approach. They turned their perceived disadvantage — youthful inexperience — into an advantage. E-commerce is disrupting legacy businesses, Sameshima points out. They are the ones at a disadvantage, and Chicory offers a solution. “The VPs and CEOs want a fresh perspective,” Sameshima says. “It’s about building trust, showing you’re smart, competent, thinking critically about their business, and that you’re serious. That’s how you ultimately earn respect.”
Mic drop.