Featuring Tessa Clarke, Co-founder and CEO of Olio.
This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO of Olio, a free app on a mission to tackle waste in homes and local communities. Since its launch in 2015, Olio has grown to over 8 million users who have collectively shared more than 130 million meals and prevented 300,000 tons of CO2 emissions. Tessa discusses how waste has become endemic across society because environmental and social impacts are not factored into business models, making it often more profitable to waste than to prevent.
The conversation explores how Olio catalyzes behavioral change by tapping into the primitive human instinct to share precious resources rather than throwing them away. Tessa explains that while most people assume demand is the biggest hurdle, the real challenge is encouraging people to take a few seconds to share an item rather than binning it. To address large-scale surplus, Olio utilizes 100,000 food safety trained volunteers through their “Food Waste Heroes” program to collect unsold food from major retailers like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Iceland for redistribution to neighbors.
Paul and Tessa also dive into Olio’s growth strategy, which relies heavily on organic word-of-mouth and a network of 50,000 ambassadors who perform hyperlocal marketing. Looking ahead, the company is shifting its focus toward driving demand within the student community and pursuing “surgical” international expansion by partnering with flagship retailers in markets like Singapore. Tessa reflects on her leadership journey from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of showing up authentically and balancing IQ with high EQ to build a truly impactful mission-driven culture.
Find more about Olio here: https://olioapp.com/business/
Follow Tessa Clarke here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessaclarkeolio/
