We were lucky to catch up with Anayo Nworjih recently and have shared our conversation below.
Anayo, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
The reality is being a business of color or a women-owned business that needs to raise capital is a colossal disadvantage. Just 1.2% of the record $137 billion invested in US startups in the first half of 2021 went to Black entrepreneurs, and only 2% went to women-founded companies, (https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/something-ventured-funding-to-black-startup-founders-quadrupled-in-past-year-but-remains-elusive/) This is not about working smarter or harder. It’s not about being innovative, creative, or strategic about solving world problems. It doesn’t matter if you have the best startup ideal in the world. It makes me sick just thinking about it and as much as I would love to close my eyes and not think about it when my eyes open the truth is still with me. I have a scaleable startup with great traction, revenue, and partnerships. I’m still a Black Business owner so that alone has made it at least 98% harder to raise the needed capital to grow Cook Casa.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Growing up in the heart of Seattle, food, culture, art, music, and travel helped me develop a sense of adventure, culture, and creativity. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t have all the encouragement from my friends—especially not without the loyal love my parents displayed through thick and thin.
My mother and father were both young black entrepreneurs. My father came to America with just a backpack and a burning desire to create a positive future. My mom would always tell me anything was possible with the right vision and attitude. My father would say Genuis is just persistence in disguise and giving up was never an option. My parents found joy in their lives by creating connections and opportunities for others.
My parents loved to Cook. Food was the glue that held the family together. They used food as a way to communicate love and creativity. When they cooked, It wasn’t just food—the meal was a vehicle for so much more. Eating with my family and friends are experiences that couldn’t be put into words. We would laugh, cry dance and have authentic conversations that would touch the soul. These memories have always stuck with me. We had an open-door policy—neighbors and friends would always drop in and dine with us. My mom is the definition of hospitality, she finds joy in making people happy through culinary experiences.
My love for food and the way it connects people inspired me to create millions of connections and opportunities for other people. This generation is not only concerned with buying a big house and car. More than ever people want to create memories and experiences together. Food is that connection, it’s a way to travel without getting on a plane, it’s the passport to any county and the bridge that connects culture.
Cook Casa creates countless experiences for people and opens doors of opportunity the same way Uber creates ways to make extra money.
Cook Casa connects people who love to cook with people who love to eat. We create shared experiences with culinary curators by sending on-demand Chefs to your location for an elevated dining experience. The Airbnb of Chefs or Uber of Cooks. Cook Casa opens doors of opportunity for people to generate income doing what they love. We bring the restaurant experience right to you. No grocery shopping, no cooking, and no cleaning. We connect families and cultures with food. So far we had over 500 experiences on Cook Casa with over 100 chefs in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego. We will be available in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Scottsdale by the end of the year.
We believe the community is everything. We have worked with over 131 paid interns from underserved communities. Dove Lopez who started as an intern at 16 ended up becoming the director and part-owner of Cook Casa. We have built good traction and amazing relationships. We have partnered with several vacation rental companies and we are creating a dynamic partnership with ICE the largest Culinary school in America. This will give the students the opportunity to get real-life experience while in school and make money doing it. Cook Casa gives the Chefs and Cooks a marketplace grow. Most of the time we go out to eat we never get to see the chef. Some of the best stories are told on the plate now we can hear the story behind the food. Cook Casa is creating relations with larger vacation rental companies to make on-demand chefs and Cooks a norm. Cook Casa is perfect for family dinners if you don’t wanna be stuck in the kitchen, special events, Anniversaries, or just having the neighbors over to impress them with a chef from a local restaurant that has the day off.
Right now we are entertaining the first round of funding from outside investors. We bootstrapped with personal savings and personal connections. In order to scale to the next level, we have to go big. We are currently creating a seamless website and mobile app similar to Turo and Airbnb that can handle millions of users.
The new Cook Casa site will allow 2-way organic reviews, a security check, and much more to insure the user experience is enjoyable from beginning to end.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My life has been a colorful journey of ups and downs. Staying positive, present, and grateful is something I practice daily, I believe stress and anxiety live in the past or future so I like to be in the present moment.
Sometimes, life pulls the rug out from under you. Other times, life pulls the floorboards, wallpaper, and even the kitchen sink from under you. I was married to an amazing person for a decade— She was from Vancouver Canada but her mother was from Portugal and her father was from Trinidad. She had long curly dark hair and the most contagious smile. If I had to describe her in one word it would be kind. She was just as beautiful inside as she was outside. She was the stars that light the sky at night and the sun that gave my world energy and life.
At 28 years young my wife ended up homeless. It took 6 months to find her. I met so many amazing homeless people while searching for my wife daily. Each person had a different story. The people we pass on the road or at red lights are people’s kids, mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. They have names and sometimes mental sickness, substance abuse, or maybe a chain of unfortunate financial events have changed their identity but they are no different from any of us. My wife’s paranoid schizophrenia was undetected until it was too late. Her mother also suffered from mental sickness. Life doesn’t always give us the answers before the test but we are all tested in some way. It’s not the obstacle or adversity its how we deal with them. One of my favorite Authors Ryan Holiday says the obstacle is the way.
Being vulnerable for me is new. The good thing about going to the bottom is you can only go up from there. It took me a long time to get comfortable with my new life. It took even longer to ask my friends and family for the support that I needed. I turned to prayer and faith to help me climb out of the hole I felt I was in. From my experience, I learned, that when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Your mentality is your reality. The more grateful you are the more things you have to be grateful for. The darkest places can create some of the most beautiful results.
Metal sickness is at an all-time high. We speak of the financial effects of the pandemic but I believe the mental effects are greater. Work-life balance is critical. Daily exercise, healthy eating, and making time to be grateful for the blessings. Telling the people I cherish and love is a must daily. Kobe Byrant said we don’t have as much time as we think and if we had a watch that told us how many years or months we had left with would do things much differently. I was inspired by my wife to dream big and create your reality. I learned the biggest risk was not taking one. You miss every shot you don’t take.
Any advice for managing a team?
Being Impeccable with your word and your work, being authentic, honest, having integrity, being passionate about what you do. Being humble. Putting your pride ego aside. Taking action, being effective, looking at your results, and finding a way to track them. Being creative, sometimes things don’t work out how we plan so we have to become an architect.
Attitude is everything. Never giving up on your team is also important.
My mom would say people don’t care how much you know they want to know how much you care.
When you show your team with actions that your care it helps create a positive workspace.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cookcasa.com
- Instagram: offcialcookcasa
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/37183386/admin/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cook-casa-san-diego-3
Image Credits
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