We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erica Tuggle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Erica, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I have always had an appreciation for great, homemade food and always tell people that my mom spoiled my siblings and me in that way when we were growing up. She’s an incredible cook, and made sure we were well fed by her home cooking. I wanted the same for my family once I started having kids, but quickly realized that the demands of my career didn’t allow me much time for cooking. Regardless, I squeezed it in wherever I could. If I was traveling one week, I was up until 1am making meals before departing. If it was just a regular busy week, I was spending half of Sunday meal prepping with my “sous chef” (aka my husband) and missing precious time with our children. It was the worst! And if we didn’t meal prep, that was the worst case scenario where we spent everyday of the week trying to figure out “what’s for dinner?”. So I started talking to other moms to get any advice for how to ensure we weren’t eating horribly despite my limited time to cook every meal. Some moms shared that they were hiring people to make their meals, but they were never hiring highly skilled talent. It was always a nanny, neighbor, or even a college student who got a recipe book and a credit card and made dinner happen! I loved this model but quickly learned that it’s hard to find these cooks and a lot to manage ongoing. That’s when the idea for Cookonnect was born. I saw a massive opportunity to solve one of our greatest challenges when it comes to meals. Most of us prefer a fresh, nutritious, homemade meal (especially for our families) but don’t have the time, skill, or desire to prepare one. So what if we could all have a personal chef? It sounds crazy but I set out to develop a model to make this more possible. When I started socializing the idea I got really excited by the “oh, I need that!” responses. Then, when I spoke with potential cooks and learned about their interest in more flexibility, independence, and learning, I got even more excited. There is value to be created on both sides of this marketplace and I am thrilled to be developing that.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

My entire career up until launching Cookonnect had been about driving growth, engagement and relevance for huge brands. We’re talking about household names like Yoplait and Coca-Cola that required big, scale ideas and efficiency to drive profitable growth. However, I quickly learned that when you’re building a brand from scratch the required approach is very different. While some of what I had learned transferred – the importance of consistency, listening to your customer, etc – there was a lot that didn’t. As I talked to other entrepreneurs and read literature like Paul Graham’s Do Things That Don’t Scale essay, I quickly learned that I had to think small and at times suspend my focus on efficiency, at least at the beginning. In the early stages, it’s about gaining your users so you can learn from them. While I need to have big vision, I need to use small, highly targeted actions and sometimes inefficient actions to drive users and usage.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients for us is organic referrals. When a customer has an awesome experience with us and shares that with a friend or family member who also needs a better option for weekday meals, those people typically convert to a paying and repeat customer. Our customers know best who in their lives can benefit from using Cookonnect so they do the best and most accurate prospecting for us! Add on top of that the fact that they are a trusted source for the people they refer and that makes it even more powerful. The organic component of this is critical as well, as you could imagine. We focus on delivering excellent, shareable experiences in our everyday offering for the benefit of our customers and cooks and simultaneously as the best path to driving growth and organic referrals.

Contact Info:

• Website: cookonnect.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cookonnect/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cookonnect/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cookonnect-inc

Image Credits
Jeffrey Dansby, Seniah Martin, Marc Andrew Stephens