Introduction
It’s easy to pick up your phone, open your favorite delivery app, and get a meal delivered to your home in minutes. The options seem endless. But how many of those options are vegan, gluten-free, and made from whole food ingredients?
Uncooked is striving not only to democratize access to healthy food options, but also to maintain community and sustainability. The restaurant serves whole-ingredient, gluten-free, plant-based food at physical locations and via delivery. In this interview, we spoke to founder and CEO Jeremy Jones about his mission of democratizing access to healthy food.
Note: This interview was conducted over phone and email. It has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
What inspired you to take the leap and start this company?
We’ve always wanted to start our own company and prove to the world that running a conscious business is not just possible, but also ultimately unlocks the power of wealth creation.
What does the competitive landscape look like, and how do you differentiate?
The competitive landscape falls into two buckets. One is a very cookie cutter approach to health and wellness. The second is a very exclusive, extremely concierge approach to health and wellness. Both are focused purely on the individual and consumption. We take a more holistic approach to health and wellness, marrying community, branding, approachability, and inclusivity with a premium product that delivers on taste, nutrition, and visuals.
What are your distribution channels?
We currently distribute via our own retail stores, two premier grocers in Chicago, online and app delivery in the Chicagoland area, and third party. We are raising capital to expand that reach via licensing agreements and shipping partnerships and to open new distribution channels via partnerships and company-owned stores.
What sustainable practices do you implement in your operations?
We are a zero waste institution, with all of our packaging being either compostable or made from fully recycled materials. We use kelp noodles, which sequester carbon while they grow. In addition, we do not use any red meat or other highly carbon-emitting products and we source as local as possible.
How do you intend to use the money you raise this round to scale the business?
We are raising capital to expand our distribution to additional states, license our name to hotels and resorts, grow our digital presence, and build out the ability for people to subscribe to our food and juices and get them delivered weekly.
What do you want potential investors to know about you and/or your company?
We’ve navigated the hardest time our business will face and have done so while continuing to grow top line revenue. We are not just mission driven but ruthlessly focused on running a profitable, enduring, and conscious company. Our business truly lies at the intersection of passion and purpose, and any investor is placing a bet on a winning team and a winning business.
As you think about the business five to 10 years down the road, what do you see exit opportunities looking like? Have you set any future goals for the company?
As we look five to 10 years into the future, it is key that we control our own destiny. How we do this from a business standpoint is by continuing to prioritize a dual pronged approach of profitability and growth. We want to be able to have the option of either going public, selling pieces of our business for liquidity, acquisition, or continuing to generate enough cash flow to pay dividends.
We’ve set a goal for 2023 to open a new market, as well as open two additional distribution channels and two new locations. We plan on reaching $15 million in revenue by 2024, which would make our current valuation a steal.
We look forward to seeing where Jeremy and his team take the company. Uncooked is currently raising on Republic.
