Demo Day & Interview with Snackpass Founder/CEO
Come listen to Batch XIII pitch at Demo Day!
Register for Demo Day on December 9th 6-8pm at The House to see our companies pitch, hear Founder/CEO Kevin Tan talk about building Snackpass, and network with entrepreneurs and students in the Berkeley community. We hope to see you there!
Flipout is a mobile app where users can make sports predictions against friends on games (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, NCAA), see live sports scores, and win real rewards for free, without the traditional risk of sports betting.
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TuringCerts is a smart citizen identifier network focused on educational innovation. They are an all-in-one-place repository for certificates that guarantees integrity and expedites verifications for job seekers, enterprises, and universities.
Interview with Snackpass Founder & CEO, Kevin Tan
Snackpass is a mobile app that lets users order takeout and skip the line. Ever since launching in Berkeley, Snackpass has developed a cult following from dedicated fans who “Snackpass” breakfast, lunch, and dinner. With Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, and many other food delivery apps in the market, it can be hard to understand what makes Snackpass so special. The secret lies in the social features of the app, which allows users to unlock discounts with friends, send gifts, and collect points. By integrating social + food, Snackpass has baked virality into its platform.
Snackpass is hiring - roles in product, operations, engineering, and more!
and more…
Q: What were the early days of Snackpass like?
Kevin: “It was definitely tough as a business — we were a little overwhelmed because we didn’t have any funding. Especially when we launched, 40% of the campus started using it in the middle of 2017 and it kept growing and growing, and we had to build a bunch of things really quickly — like having a tablet in the restaurant for ordering, a ticket printer, etc.
One time, we were overrun by the entire football team ordering at once — so they [cofounders] were in the back washing blenders so that the employees could keep taking orders. There was also one really popular restaurant where, because it was so busy, we were in the back handing out sandwiches and calling out names. We eventually figured all that stuff out but it was definitely tough in the beginning — and it still is tough.”
Q: What has been the biggest challenge so far?
Kevin: “The biggest challenge at the moment is the transition from building a product to building a team. It is definitely a different muscle; building a product is like locking yourself up in the room and coding all day, talking to your users, or building something for yourself — you know exactly what you want to build, which is great for the invention aspect. But what I think we have right now is this product market fit in several markets; so now we want to scale it and bring Snackpass to 100 campuses and right now we’re at 11 campuses, and that takes a huge team.”
Q: What is the long term vision for Snackpass?
Kevin: “There are two angles — first, anywhere there’s……
Exciting events happening in Berkeley
Dec 4 - Techfair at Berkeley
Dec 9 - Free Ventures Demo Day :)
Dec 11 - E@B Fall 2019 Final Demo Day
Dec 13 - SCET Collider Cup V
Feb 8 - TEDxBerkeley 2020: Moonshot
March 3 - TC Sessions: Robotics+AI 2020