Social Impact Heroes Helping Our Planet: Why & How Daniel Abrams Of Recelery Is Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Invest in yourself. A startup is expensive both in time and money, and a founder must be willing to make both financial and time commitments. As a self-funded startup, and as a founder that has continues to work as an attorney full time while developing Recelery, I have had to allocate my time and resources to make Recelery a reality.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Daniel Abrams, Co-Founder of Recelery.
Daniel Abrams is the Co-Founder of Recelery, a new pantry tracking mobile app that limits food waste by keeping food inventoried and allowing the home cook to sell what they are not able to use. In addition to being a Co-Founder of Recelery, Daniel is a corporate attorney focusing his practice on mergers and acquisitions. A passionate home cook, he developed the idea for Recelery from his personal experiences in not knowing what was in his pantry, tossing out too much untouched food, and never having all the ingredients for a recipe.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. My Dad has a PhD in Immunology and my Mom is a lawyer. As you can imagine, they both stressed the importance of education. Growing up in Philadelphia, I became an avid Philadelphia sports fan and enjoyed tossing around a football with friends after school.
I was fortunate enough to have parents that loved to take us on trips, and grew up going to many of the national parks. We spent many summers hiking in Acadia National Park, and it is perhaps, my favorite.
Growing up, I was very close with my older brother, Michael, who is two years older than me, and we enjoyed many of the same activities. In High School, I followed Michael and joined the rowing team, and we ended up competing against each other when attending different colleges.
My love for cooking started out at home, watching my Mom cook dinner, and eventually helping her with the prep. Many of my fondest childhood memories are in the kitchen, cooking with my Mom or grilling outside with my Dad. Food was an integral part of my childhood, and even though both my parents worked a lot, they always made sure to be home for dinner.
You are currently leading a social impact organization that is making a difference for our planet. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change in our world today?
Recelery is a mobile app that is designed to reduce food waste and provide greater access to food. An enormous amount of food is wasted each year due to supply chain issues and the inability to redistribute food.
Recelery has easy-to-use features that allow users to manage their grocery lists and inventory their pantries. Once a user logs a pantry item, Recelery gives the user reminders to consume that food item before it expires. By providing frequent reminders, and visually seeing the “use by” date of an item, Recelery encourages users to consume food before the item goes to waste.
In addition to the pantry management features, Recelery is a grocery marketplace that connects buyers and sellers within a 1 mile radius. If a user bought too much of anything or simply wants to resell an item before it expires, users can easily add items to the marketplace so that neighbors and others in their community can repurchase the item. Recelery’s marketplace extends the supply chain beyond grocery stores, and turns every pantry into a shoppable store.
Another feature of Recelery is the sharing of users’ pantries. By opening a pantry to friends’ and family, Recelery’s pantry share is the first place users will go to see if the item they are looking for is sitting in their friends pantries.
With Recelery, users can shop smarter, live more sustainably, and significantly reduce food waste.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
The journey started five years ago while I was in law school. I had just moved into my first apartment and started grocery shopping for myself. As an avid home cook, I enjoyed buying fresh produce to incorporate into my meals. I quickly learned, however, that I could not cook or eat the produce fast enough, and would end up throwing away much of what I had just bought.
After throwing away far too much fresh produce, I thought to myself, there must be a way to share my pantry items with my neighbors so that I can use the exact amount I need and sell the rest.
I began researching whether anything existed, and realized that there was nothing that fit exactly what I was looking for. Other marketplaces existed, but nothing was geared towards perishable food items, so I decided to create what I was looking for.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
The initial “aha moment” occurred when I did not find anything that fit exactly what I was looking for, but it took years to actually make the leap into building Recelery.
I had been talking about Recelery for years, and I suppose Michael was tired of me talking about it without taking any action, and he encouraged me to reach out to coders to create the first iteration of Recelery. Soon after that, Recelery was born.
Many people don’t know the steps to take to start a new organization. What are some of the things or steps you took to get your project started?
The first thing I did, before even starting Recelery, was I talked about the idea, a lot. I talked to my friends, family, and co-workers, to see if there was any interest. Honestly, even if there had been no interest, I would have still worked to build Recelery because I believed in it.
After talking about the idea and feeling comfortable that people understood the basic concept, I next needed to create a company. There are legal requirements to starting a company. I was very fortunate in having several advantages in starting Recelery. As a corporate attorney, and having a parent who is also a corporate attorney, I had the advantage of knowing how to form a business and prepare the appropriate documents to manage it. But others should consult an attorney early on in the process. Organizing an LLC is not a complicated process and good corporate practices are key as a company or organization grows.
After I formed the company, I started searching to find coders. Initially, I worked with coders associated with a university’s coding club, but as the project progressed, we used Upwork to connect with more advanced coders.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
I was at an inflection point with Recelery. We had good traction with users engaging with Recelery, but I wanted to reach a broader audience. The idea was to incorporate a feature into the app so that users would be able to save money while using Recelery. Eventually, I was able to connect with an entrepreneur who had developed websites utilizing this cost-saving measure, to discuss whether this idea was feasible or worthwhile in growing the user base.
As soon as we started talking, he said “you may not like what you are about to hear, your idea won’t work.” So often in the startup space we are encouraged to take the risk, but this founder’s honest answer was greatly appreciated. It was through this conversation that I was able to refocus my attention on Recelery’s existing food waste reducing features.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or take away you learned from that?
When I first started pitching Recelery to friends and family, I had put together a slide deck describing Recelery and its functionality. I sent the pitch deck around and then did the pitch. My Dad called me an hour later and said that “the pitch went great, except you misspelled Recelery on one of the last slides.” Of all the slides, it was also the one slide that I went back to after the presentation to discuss further, so anyone who did not catch the spelling error the first time certainly was able to see it the second time.
At the time I was horrified, but of all the mistakes I have made working on Recelery, it is the one I can laugh about now and I learned a valuable lesson: “proofread everything.”
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
My parents, brother, and wife are all mentors and cheerleaders. Although my Dad is a scientist by trade, he does business development for a university located in Philadelphia. He continues to provide advice and guidance on how to overcome challenges of growing a business. My Mom, as an attorney, was able to provide guidance on company formation and development, and without the two of them, Recelery would not have been possible.
My brother, Michael, has always been a great mentor and he certainly helped me to succeed. There is no single story about his influence on me, but having him as an older brother paved the way for my successes, and without his influence, I do not know if I would have had the confidence to start Recelery.
My wife, Emily, has been my biggest cheerleader. As you can imagine, she has heard about Recelery for years, but never “admittedly” grows tired of hearing about it. She always provides support, especially on the tough days.
Are there three things the community, society, or politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Recelery is trying to reduce food waste, and to tackle this problem, community/society/politicians can:
- Create awareness of the food waste problem through education. Educational courses can be in a formal setting such as a classroom, but can also be through experiential courses such as growing food in a community garden. By learning about where food comes from and the arduous process of getting food to the grocery store, people will be encouraged to reduce their food waste.
- Establish programs so that the food chain does not end at the dinner table. Food that is unconsumed can be recycled into animal feed and compost. Although programs do exist to accomplish these goals, to significantly reduce waste, the programs should be implemented on a larger scale.
- Fund farming centers within major urban areas to decrease the distance from farm to store to table. With today’s technology, vertical farming allows food to be grown indoors and in major cities. The cost to establish these centers is typically high. By providing funding to establish vertical farms within communities, the supply line from farm to table is shortened, which would reduce food waste.
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
Consumers are attracted to companies that are sustainable and environmentally conscious. By having the right messaging, sustainable and environmentally conscious companies can increase profits. For example, there is a new commercial campaign from Greenfield Natural Meat Company in which it boasts that it is carbon neutral. This type of direct messaging can influence consumers to buy Greenfield products resulting an increase in profits.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
- Seek out mentors for different stages of development. When Recelery was first in development, we found mentors that provided insight into the early stage development of a mobile app. After Recelery reached a stage in development where it was time to market and reach an audience, we found new mentors who were experienced in this area. Each stage of Recelery’s growth had unique challenges, and we needed to seek out different mentors with experience in advising on each new challenge.
- Mistakes are merely learning experiences. I have made countless mistakes throughout the growth of Recelery, but each time I made a mistake, I pushed myself to find the lesson in that mistake. I have treated everything with Recelery’s growth as a learning opportunity, and although mistakes are discouraging, Recelery would not be the app today without those mistakes.
- Invest in yourself. A startup is expensive both in time and money, and a founder must be willing to make both financial and time commitments. As a self-funded startup, and as a founder that has continues to work as an attorney full time while developing Recelery, I have had to allocate my time and resources to make Recelery a reality.
- Just because they love your idea doesn’t mean they will invest. Although this sounds silly, we read about startups that get funded just on the idea alone. It may happen, but far more often, investors want to see a company reach certain metrics before making the investment. It is important to pitch early and often, but I learned early on not to be discouraged if the feedback was “we love the idea, let us know when you are farther along.”
- Don’t be afraid to pivot. The look of the app you first create will not be the final version, and additional features may be required to attract a larger audience. Recelery started out as a WordPress website that was a grocery marketplace. I soon realized that such a platform was not right to accomplish my goals and a marketplace by itself would be very challenging to bring in a large audience. Recelery pivoted to become a mobile application, with additional features such as pantry management, shared pantries, and a grocery list.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
I would tell them that little things can have a big impact on the environment, and society and small decisions each day do make a difference. Not everyone needs to create a movement, organization or company to make the change. Slight changes in behavior, such as walking instead of driving, do have an impact.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” by Wayne Gretzky. With everything, when an opportunity presents itself, I take it. After college, but before law school, I was fortunate enough to be able to live at home, and anytime a job opportunity presented itself, I would take it. I worked in sales, and as an office assistant, a gardener, and rowing coach. As a founder, I took this mentality to launch Recelery. I had an opportunity to work with coders to develop the app, and decided that this was likely the one time to do it. If I did not take the shot to start Recelery, I would have looked back with regret for not going for it.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would love to have lunch with Brad Leone. He is a remarkable chef and YouTube personality who has inspired me to go beyond my cooking comfort level and try new things. His YouTube series also touches on reducing food waste, with episodes mostly on fermentation, which extends the shelf life of perishable food.
With so much experience in the food space, I would love to hear his thoughts on how technology can help reduce food waste, as well as how his travels have influenced his perspective on food consumption and waste in the United States.
How can our readers follow you online?
@Recelery on Twitter
Recelery.com
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Heroes Helping Our Planet: Why & How Daniel Abrams Of Recelery Is Helping To Change… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.