Waste not, want not | London Business School

Security, stability, sensible … a worker bee! These are words that Olio co-founder Saasha Celestial-One seemingly is drawn to when speaking about her career. It’s a journey which has seen her move from Morgan Stanley, to McKinsey, AMEX and now jointly running an innovative mobile app for giving away, getting, borrowing or lending things in one’s community for free, ultimately aiming to reduce household food waste.

The oldest of six children growing up in rural Iowa where money was tight, it is perhaps unsurprising that security, stability and a strong work ethic proved to be important to Saasha.

“My parents were committed hippies and I grew up in a household without a lot of money and my job as the oldest in the family was to follow my mother and support her ideas for making money.”

One such money-making venture entailed rescuing ailing plants discarded by nurseries. This allowed the family to raise money by holding year-long plants sales.

“I did not enjoy this,” says Saasha frankly. “I just wanted to go to the mall and buy Liz Claiborne designer clothes, and Guess jeans.”

Attracted to the idea of financial and professional security, Saasha soon realised that she would need to study and work hard to make a more prosperous and secure life for herself. “Studying economics and business seemed to be the sensible thing to do,” recounts Saasha.

Having gained a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago, Saasha’s first job with Morgan Stanley in New York provided the financial security she was looking for and allowed her to send money back home to support her family in Iowa.

Offering professional respect, and an environment where strong personal friendships could be forged, the appeal of Morgan Stanley was further strengthened by “unimaginable perks” and, on one exceptional occasion, a $100k bonus.

Living and working near the World Trade Center, the boom times were followed by 9/11 and a “real down market”. Tougher times followed: “It was difficult seeing people lose money and jobs; being stressed, and enduring the personal tragedies associated with 9/11.”

During this time the decision to study for an MBA seemed to be a logical next step, which was prompted by the need to gain extra levels of security and stability. Offers came from both Harvard and Stanford, and Stanford proved to be the right choice (“I fell in love with Stanford”).

In 2004 an offer of recruitment from McKinsey in New York proved to be another “safe bet” choice. This was followed by an opportunity for Saasha’s then partner to study for a Masters degree at Cambridge in the UK, which prompted a move to McKinsey in London. “Very civilized! Wine with one’s lunch on Fridays!”

A desire for operational experience led to a position at AMEX, once again, motivated by a need for security, and being part of a team and adding value, salient factors in Saasha’s professional life.

Thoughts of marriage, buying a house and starting a family eventually led to the next significant part of Saasha’s journey, when a promotion, and the prospects for more travel led Saasha to seek a fundamental change in her life.

“I just couldn’t see how a new-born, the cost of a nanny, long hours and lots of travel was really going to work out.”

Regularly attending a gym where other parents were using the creche facilities evolved the idea that there was a need for flexible, high-quality childcare run by people with the right qualifications and the ability to sell a service to prospective parents. Saasha accepted a redundancy package from AMEX and did well with her new venture – a childcare facility in Crouch End.

Realising that running such a business would be difficult to scale and franchise, but having been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Saasha began to look for new business opportunities.

This coincided with meeting up again with an old friend from Stanford – Tessa Clarke – and a shared mission to eradicate the high levels of food waste in the world, where $1.2 trillion of food goes to waste each year, and 70 per cent of food waste takes place in our homes and three quarters of this waste remains edible. “Food is a carbon-intensive and labour-intensive resource which leads to up to 40 per cent of all food produced each year going to waste. This accounts for 10 per cent of all carbon emissions and 25 per cent of global fresh water supply.”

The origins of Olio began with an epiphany. The idea was first seeded when co-founder, Clarke, moved house and the removal men wanted to throw away all the food. “Tessa wasn’t prepared to do that. We both come from waste not want not families,” recalls Saasha, who questioned why there wasn’t a simple app to deal with the issue – led to the two each investing £20,000. The ambition was initially to attract 10,000 people to the Olio app, which tackles the problem of waste in the home and local community. Olio is a super practical tool, connecting neighbours and volunteers with local businesses, so that surplus food and household goods can be shared, not thrown away.

After a year, the App had 150,000 users and a new, exciting journey for Saasha and he co-founder, Tessa, had begun.

That was back in 2015-16 and by October 2017 the company had raised $2.2 million in funding. Olio’s Series A funding was led by Octopus Ventures, with investors such as Accel, Quadia and Quentin Griffiths contributing towards the $6 million that was eventually raised.

Today, the Olio app has around 7 million registered users in over 60 countries, with the United Nations highlighting the app as a “beacon” for the world. Saasha and Tessa now have an ambition to take their waste-tackling app to truly stratospheric heights, eventually achieving one billion users.

What has Saasha learnt as a leader along the way? “I so much more enjoy leading a team of people than I did in the early part of my career. It’s the confidence that comes with having all that experience under your belt. I genuinely like the fact that I have something of value to share – it’s a lovely feeling!”

Luisa Alemany, Associate Professor of Management Practice in Strategy and Entrepreneurship; Academic Director, Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital (IEPC), spoke to Olio co-founder Saasha Celestial-One in October 2023. The conversation was hosted by the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital (IEPC) at London Business School’s TELL series, now known as The LBS Summit Series.