Localvore Founder Dan White on the Value of Local Food

I’ve always wanted to start my own business, and I wanted to take the risk while I was still young, but I needed to have a few big experiences that gave me the right combination and vision. After working in green businesses for a better environment and then being a part of the Groupon boom, I had the two opportunities colliding into a bigger idea. 

I needed a technical co-founder when I moved to Vermont to start the company here. I met Michael after he responded to my craigslist ad. He shared the same passion and had the experience and skills to help me get it off the ground. Gage was a college friend, and then we both ended up working at Groupon. He surprised me a few years after Localvore was born and wanted to invest and become an internal team member.

Since 2012, our platforms have generated millions of dollars in consumer sales for small local businesses in New England. Through these campaigns, we have featured thousands of local businesses and nonprofits that are both helping communities feed those in need and helping restaurants and local food producers grow. In the past few years (since we became the platform for a food insecurity and restaurant recovery pandemic program the state of Vermont created), we’ve facilitated close to 1 million free takeout orders for more than 20,000 Vermonters experiencing food insecurity and paid more than 100 restaurants $10 million to make those meals.

Our strategy is to attach our consumer subscription service to local hunger relief organizations so people can get rewarded for helping solve this growing problem of hunger in America while also giving restaurants and local businesses a boost in the process.

We are trying to move society into a future where social media and third-party technology companies that create massive scale don’t look like they used to, as brands that aren’t meaningful enough to the conscious consumer. This is why our name is something you can self-identify with and why it has a business model you can get behind. There are no manipulative social media algorithms, no businesses getting charged outrageous fees – just consumers who earn something with their subscription for taking part in feeding hungry minds and growing healthy communities.

I started the company with $10,000 I had saved up after college, living mostly at home with my parents. When I moved to Vermont, I was starting the company in a community I really knew little about and where I knew few people besides a group of friends I had met. I lived with my friend’s mom the first nine months before I got my feet on the ground. There were many challenges along the way, and once we got off the ground and grew for five years, the next part happened. That was the biggest challenge. 

Honestly, this article sums it up perfectly. We almost went through this exact same experience. We just haven’t become worth $700 million…yet.

We want to launch into new markets, like Minnesota and hopefully Boston, and then regionally in the Midwest and New England. We also want to develop the technology and build more social tools the community can use to support each other while creating scale for our freemium services nationwide.

I feel like “local” is something the public should own. That’s why we are doing this Reg CF raise, so more people can participate and be a part of the vision. Then, for an exit for us and our investors, I see an initial public offering as a great opportunity to further expand the community, mission, and business.