From Sweet Potatoes to 9 Million Users: Dan Sherrard-Smith Highlights Olio’s Journey

In a recent LinkedIn post, Dan Sherrard-Smith highlights the remarkable journey of Olio, the food-sharing app, and its co-founder, Tessa Clarke. Sherrard-Smith uses Clarke’s personal experience with a small surplus of groceries to illustrate the powerful origins of the now-global platform.

The narrative begins with a seemingly simple domestic situation: Clarke, while moving house, found herself with leftover food items, including six sweet potatoes, a cabbage, and several pots of yoghurt. When the removal men prepared to discard them, Clarke’s background, rooted in a Yorkshire dairy farm, prompted her to act.

“After growing up on a Yorkshire dairy farm, she knew that food is too valuable to waste.”

Sherrard-Smith details Clarke’s initial, unsuccessful attempt to find neighbours to take the food, a failure that ultimately sparked the idea for Olio. What began as a humble WhatsApp group among 12 neighbours sharing items like half a bag of shallots has, according to Sherrard-Smith’s report, grown exponentially.

The Genesis and Growth of Olio

The post emphasizes the scale of Olio’s current impact, citing that the app now boasts 9 million users. Sherrard-Smith points out the staggering amount of food redistributed:

“135 million meals worth of food has been redistributed. 100,000 volunteers collecting surplus from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Pret.”

This redistribution effort has led to significant environmental benefits. Sherrard-Smith highlights that Clarke and her co-founder, Saasha Celestial-One, have prevented an estimated 300,000 tonnes of CO₂, a figure he equates to approximately one billion car miles.

Overcoming Entrepreneurial Hurdles

Sherrard-Smith delves into the personal and professional journey that preceded Olio’s success. He notes Clarke’s impressive academic and corporate background, including a Cambridge degree, a Stanford MBA, and roles at Dyson and Wonga. However, he points out a crucial lesson learned:

The Value of Lived Experience

According to Sherrard-Smith, Clarke spent years searching for the “perfect idea,” initially overlooking the entrepreneurial training inherent in her farming upbringing. He argues that the challenges faced on a farm—dealing with unexpected issues like machinery breakdowns, unpredictable weather, and uncooperative animals—are directly analogous to building a business.

“Every day on a farm is problem-solving with limited resources… You can’t wait for perfect conditions. You fix things with what you have. That’s exactly how you build a business.”

Furthermore, Sherrard-Smith addresses the systemic challenges faced by female founders, noting that less than 2% of UK equity investment goes to women. Despite this hurdle, Olio managed to raise approximately £34 million by maintaining a sharp focus on the problem they aimed to solve—the global issue of food waste, which Sherrard-Smith quantifies as one-third of global food production, valued at over $1 trillion.

The Social Impact of Sharing

Beyond the environmental gains, Sherrard-Smith emphasizes the profound social impact of Olio. He reveals that user engagement goes beyond mere food exchange:

Two out of three Olio users report making new friends through the app, and 75% indicate that sharing has positively impacted their mental health. Sherrard-Smith concludes by echoing the sentiment that Clarke is a “beacon for the world,” underscoring the inspiring nature of her entrepreneurial path and Olio’s mission.