Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Vitiello.
Daniel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The idea for Cooklist started in 2013 when I learned about the multibillion-dollar data broker industry that compiles personal data of individuals and sells that information for a profit. In most cases, there is no transparency or control over how data is being used or who is using it. As we move into an age where our personal data has more and more influence over our lives, it became clear to me that the industry is not operating in a sustainable way.
I believe that personal data should be treated as an asset that individuals have ownership and control over in the same way that financial assets are managed. The problem was that tools did not exist to collect personal data from the companies where it is created into a central place and do useful things with it.
When I tried to get a copy of my purchase data from my Safeway loyalty card, I was told that the only way to access it was to mail in a $1.00 check and a handwritten letter with my loyalty card number. I did as requested and a few weeks later I received a large stack of papers with all my purchases printed out. At this time, I realized it wasn’t going to be feasible to build a service around getting data through the mail.
Shortly after that, we started a company called Handground that designs and manufactures coffee grinders with my co-founder, Brandon Warman. We raised funding through a Kickstarter campaign and Handground has now gone on to become the best selling product in its category.
A few years later, I was thinking about an idea for a smart convection oven/microwave as a side project. While researching how to use technology to make cooking easier, I discovered that retailers are finally making customers in-store loyalty card purchase data available online. After this realization, I put together a 99 question survey about people’s grocery shopping, cooking and eating habits to help determine what the most useful application we could build using the data.
The results were clear that a service which shows recipes you can cook with the groceries you buy was the idea that people were most interested in. Over the next few months, I worked nights and weekends to build out the first version of Cooklist as a web app. The goal was to test if people would actually connect their stores and to gather feedback on the usefulness of real-time recipes.
The first version was released to beta testers in September 2017 and was a success. The results from the initial testing gave us enough confidence to believe we had validated the core technical and business assumptions to pursue the idea as a business. In January 2018, Brandon and I incorporated Cooklist and began completely rebuilding the product from the ground up as a native mobile experience.
Since then, we launched Cooklist for iOS and Android and were accepted to participate in the Techstars Retail program in partnership with Target which is where we are today.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Before Brandon and I started Handground we were pursuing another startup that was focused on building software for accounting and reporting non-financial metrics for sustainability assessments. We were trying to sell to slow-moving agriculture companies with long sales cycles and didn’t have a clear vision of the problem we were trying to solve. After a few months of struggling, we ran out of runway and closed the business. We went back to a blank slate to look at other business ideas which ultimately lead to Handground.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Cooklist story. Tell us more about the business.
At Cooklist, I focus on all aspects involved with building a great product. This starts with doing research into the fundamental pain points and psychology of the problem we are trying to solve. The results from that guide the architecture of our systems and features required in the app. Once we’ve gathered data on our core assumptions and iterated on the designs with feedback from beta users, I write the code to bring the product to life.
Cooklist is the only service that connects directly to the store’s user shops at and automatically brings all their in-store purchases into a digital pantry. This is superior to all other recipe apps because we can show our users the recipes they can cook with the groceries they already have. We also keep track of how old each product is and help households cut down on their food waste.
I am proud that we are building tools to help individuals collect their data and create value for themselves with it. Additionally, we are working to help households eat healthier, save money and reduce food waste.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least about our city?
Dallas is where I was born and raised. My favorite thing about it is that my family is here and the thing I wish it had is mountains or beaches close by so that it would be easier to escape into nature.
Success:
Our mission at Cooklist is to, “Eat Intelligently.”
I like to think about it like imagining what life would be like if you had a full-time personal chef, personal shopper, and a nutritionist. We want to build the intelligence of these roles into Cooklist, so that it can anticipate users needs and help them reach their dietary and monetary goals.
Ultimately, I will feel successful if we are building tools that help individuals take control of their personal data and use it as an asset that creates value for them. I think one of the most important problems to work on right now is reducing the rate of metabolic disease that causes over one million deaths in the US every year and costs our society one trillion dollars in healthcare expenses.
We can prevent these diseases and associated costs with a change in diet and I believe Cooklist will help make it easier for people to make that change.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cooklist.co
- Email: hello@cooklist.co
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