Vinder - List, Discover, and Buy Ultra-Local Produce

How I Serve

I search for emerging companies, technologies, disruptive technologies, 

innovations, start-ups and up-starts. I’ll look to match potential problems… 

e.g. “plastic pollution” to solutions… e.g. 3D Printer for recycled plastic waste…

for potential venture capitalists, angel investors, and online funders. 

I’ll also highlight a variety of topics including funding success stories, 

the environment, housing, medical, artificial intelligence, science, 

aging populations, disabled populations, social entrepreneurs, philanthropy, 

and topical news. I’m always searching for great people innovating, 

inventing, and doing, great things.

The 411: Investment Opportunity - Neighbors Feeding Neighbors


Found on: - https://wefunder.com/vinder
                     veggievinder.com

Neighbors Feeding Neighbors

As an online farmers market for home gardeners, we help people easily buy and sell homegrown produce with their neighbors. This not only incentivizes home gardeners to grow fresh, amazing fruits and vegetables but opens up communities to more personal connections. We keep those relationships personal by allowing those connections to form organically, taking only a 20% transaction fee on the buyer side. So far, this has resulted in a 90% retention rate for growers and 77% for buyers.

Sam Lillie

Founder/CEO

Sam started Vinder by knocking on the doors of his neighbors and selling/delivering on his bicycle.

The Story of Vinder

Why you may want to invest

1	Online beta marketplace organically grew to over 90 cities in 19 states in 4 months.
2	Winners of the 2017 Silicon Valley Business Plan competition.
3	Average order size is $15.88.
4	Our mobile app, which goes live on Android + iOS on August 21, has 700+ pre-registered users.
5	Retention rate for growers is 90% and 77% for buyers.
6	CEO Sam Lillie was named the Young Entrepreneur of the Year by Jefferson County, Washington in April 2018.
7	Graduate of the MassChallenge Business Accelerator.
8	Sam started by knocking on his neighbor's doors, and in the first 3 months of business, hand-delivered over 300 lbs of produce on his bicycle.

Our Ambition

Bring the now-global food system back to the local community by connecting local gardeners with their neighbors. Already in 90 cities in 19 states, we've grown completely organically through word of mouth and demand, proving our market on a nationwide scale. With a new mobile app on the way, our ambition is to be the largest homemade grocery in the country, one that relies on communities and neighbors without needing any inventory or delivery vehicles.

Vinder is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and buy local produce. We connect home growers who have an abundant garden with community members looking for local produce. We're here to create a transparent agricultural system that informs consumers about who's growing their food, how it's being grown, and where. Vinder makes it easy to buy ultra local food, boost your community's economy, and promote sustainable agriculture.

Let's Make Produce Local Again

In the modern age, grocery stores source fruits and vegetables from all over the globe. Unsurprisingly, our produce just isn't as fresh anymore. The solution? Vinder. 

We allow users to easily buy the freshest produce possible by connecting home gardeners to their neighbors through an online marketplace. Gardeners post their produce, then neighborhood buyers purchase and handle the pickup and delivery. We take a 20% service fee from the buyer, keeping gardener costs low to encourage a market full of diverse, interesting, local produce.  

Vinder Creates Value for Both Buyer and Gardener

For home gardeners, using Vinder is a no-brainer. Instead of just enjoying the fruits of their labors themselves -- or, worse, letting excess fruits and veggies go to waste -- they now have an easy-to-use marketplace where buyers are actively clamoring for the same produce they'd be growing anyway. We encourage a diverse set of crops by not taking a service fee, encouraging home gardeners to connect to as many of their neighbors as possible. Now that they can sell on Vinder, many of our gardeners have even said they plan on increasing their garden sizes. 

Our buyers are generally between 25 and 45 and work full time. They are people who prefer organic produce but might not have the money or time to source that produce. Instead, they use Vinder, sacrificing a small 20% service fee to eat food they know was grown in their neighborhood. Rather than supporting huge grocery store conglomerates, they get to support their neighbors while eating fresher food. It's a winning relationship for our users, which we know because right now, we have more buyers than growers. 

We've Grown to 90 Cities Organically

We started out of Port Townsend, Washington. Our founder, Sam, went from one small order to delivering more than 300 pounds of produce on his bike in just three months. In 2017, we were still focusing on our one location with our beta testing, but users around the country just started using our marketplace. Without an ounce of marketing, we grew to over 90 cities in 19 states in 4 months

Now, with some momentum, we're launching an app on August 21 that will make it even easier to interact with our online marketplace. We're imagining a future where Vinder becomes the largest homemade grocery distributor in the country. By relying on communities and neighbors and not requiring any inventory or delivery vehicles, we can help create a more sustainable food ecosystem.

WF: What is Vinder? 

LILLIE: Vinder is an online farmers market for home gardeners to buy, sell, and trade with their neighbors. Our goal is to revolutionize the food system and become the world's largest neighbor-made grocery store with zero inventory and zero delivery vehicles.

WF: What led you to start the company? 

LILLIE: I graduated from San Jose State University in 2015 with a degree in international business. Then, I hiked from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. It was a solo hike, so I needed time to readjust to society. I ended up in a small town on the Olympic Peninsula called Port Townsend, Washington, and decided to live there for three months while I applied for jobs in Seattle. In the meantime, I was working behind the desk at a gym in Port Townsend, filling water bottles, folding towels, and changing 16 trash cans a night.

I applied to 106 jobs and got one offer, which was cold calling eight hours a day to sell background check technology. I turned it down. I then went to the business resource vendor and asked what kind of resources they had. They suggested that I come back for a Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce meeting, so I did.

There was a group of about 20 community members between the ages of around 25 and 65 having a roundtable discussion about the positives and negatives of the town. The biggest negative that came up over and over again was the fact that it's a service industry area. It's a town of 10,000 people where the average age is 57. Most people were working two to three jobs to make ends meet, so their schedules weren't allowing them to take advantage of the town's farmers market. It’s held twice a week, on Wednesdays at noon and Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They were talking about how they would love to be able to access the local organic produce that was available, but they couldn’t afford it, and they didn’t have the time to go to the farmers market. So, they had to resort to buying really low-quality produce. This was a big problem for them.

I started thinking about it, and I asked them, if there was a service that provided access to organic produce all the time for a reasonable price, is it something you guys would use? Everyone in that meeting said yes. So I said, okay, I'll figure it out. I had a whole lot of time. I didn't have any money. 

I walked home from the meeting and I saw apples growing in trees and kale growing in front yards. I wondered why we couldn’t just buy produce from our neighbors? To me that sounded reasonable and logical. There seemed to be a surplus, as there were apples in trees and on the ground going to waste. I walked up to a door, knocked, and said, “Hey, my name is Sam. I happened to walk by and see you had a bunch of apples. Have you ever thought about selling them?” They wanted to know what the heck I was doing in their yard, and I told them to bear with me for a second, because I had an idea. I asked them if they would be willing to sell their apples if I could find someone to buy them. They said sure, because they couldn’t eat them all. They were just rotting on the ground and getting eaten by the deer. I said, “Okay, well, I'll be back.” And I started knocking on more doors.

When I was at work, behind the desk at the gym, I would ask everyone who walked by if they wanted some fruit or veggies. My first sale was actually a pound of cherries out of my mom's cherry tree. I climbed into that cherry tree, hand-picked a bunch of cherries, and put them into a ziplock bag. It weighed exactly one pound, and I sold it to a member at the gym for six bucks. It was a dollar cheaper than a smaller bag of cherries at Safeway, which was a mile from where the customer lived. I gave my mom five bucks and I kept the dollar. That was 20% right there and that's how I came up with the business model. I incorporated the next day. That was July 11, 2016. Within three months, I had hand-delivered about 300 pounds of produce on my bicycle. Mark, our CTO, was actually one of my first customers.

Sam Lillie

Founder/CEO

Sam started Vinder by knocking on the doors of his neighbors and selling/delivering on his bicycle.

 

Mark DeJarnatt

CTO

Mark was one of Vinder's first customers. He has over 18 years of management and web dev. experience