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

Kareem, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

We were young, ambitious app developers and loved going to food trucks on our lunch breaks. However, we were sick of waiting in lines and thought it would be cool to build an app that solves this.

Edesia is where food trucks meet technology. We utilize technology to connect food truck owners seamlessly with customers by clicking communities with quality cuisine. We understand the difficulties of operating a food truck and the struggles of people finding and quickly ordering from them. Edesia is a platform that will make it easy for our vendors to make delicious cuisines for their happy customers.

The idea was born out of frustration with not finding a good place to eat lunch while working on our apps during the day. So we did what any millennial would do: we started building an app! But as we grew more experienced at developing mobile applications, we realized there was so much more potential than just providing an app solution for people tired of waiting in lines at restaurants or trucks around town. We knew there had to be more options for these types of businesses – choices that would allow them to grow their businesses by expanding into new markets and attracting customers from all over the world! And so Edesia was born!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Kareem DaSilva, and I am a technology enthusiast. I always had a passion for computers and coding, but I didn’t know how to get started. Fortunately, I found Black Data Processing Associates, which helped me learn about computer science. Since learning how to write simple websites, I’ve been able to work with small businesses and startups on building out their technology.

I wanted to develop software to help enhance the lives of Food entrepreneurs. Edesia was created to address the problem of customers cannot reliably find food truck locations or when they will be open. It is also challenging to see reviews and menus for these businesses.
Food trucks are more than just a trend—they’re an industry unto themselves. The mobile food industry earns $3 billion in revenue annually in the United States alone, and it’s only getting bigger. It’s outgrowing the overall commercial restaurant industry by 5.4%! What’s more, the mobile food industry has experienced an overall revenue increase of 300% since 2014.

Food trucks can be found all over the country, but they’re prevalent in big cities like New York City and Los Angeles. They offer many benefits that traditional restaurants don’t: their mobility makes them easy to find, they have lower startup costs than regular restaurants, and they give customers a chance to try something new without having to commit to ordering an entire meal at once.

But despite their popularity, food trucks still face some unique challenges: they need continuous foot traffic (or at least a steady flow of customers) to make money—and if they park in the wrong place or at the wrong time? They could lose up to $400 per shift! That’s where [company name] comes in: we help food truck owners find the best spots for their businesses using our proprietary algorithm that analyzes location data

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When we started Edesia, we knew it would take us a lot of time to get where we wanted to be—and that’s why we never stopped looking for investors.

We built Edesia at a local hackathon in Memphis, Tennessee. The idea was a simple food truck finder in which you can view the schedule and write reviews. We had to continuously introduce our product to a variety of people who would refer us to people who could take us to the next level. Depending on how the meeting went, we would ask if there knew any angel investors.

If you’re looking for funding for your business, I highly recommend finding someone who knows an angel investor or two who might be interested in working with you!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

You can’t give up.

When building a business, it is essential to stay tenacious and agile. Depending on your industry, things can change overnight. You must stay on top of things to stay relevant in your industry. During Covid-19, a lot of brick-and-mortar restaurants were closing down or moving to curbside or delivery only. large scale food trucks event were also closed down. As an entrepreneur, you must always look for an opportunity. We started dispatching food trucks to neighborhoods and partnering with local food banks to distribute groceries.

We knew that we had to adapt quickly in order to survive this pandemic. It was not easy but we were able to keep our doors open by finding new ways of doing business while still being able to provide jobs and help our community during this crisis.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://edesia.catering/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edesia.catering/?hl=en t
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downloadedesia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edesiacatering
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNkEHOoNpu5uQ9Eej4SRoAQ