Tarryn Gorre, Co-founder of Kafoodle, won the Startup Summit Competition in 2017. As victor, she secured a fully funded space on the 2018 FutureX Silicon Valley Accelerate programme alongside a talented group of fellow tech entrepreneurs.
Tarryn spent 12 years working as a hospitality consultant for large organisations, focusing on food trends, profitability and how to use technology to assist businesses in reaching targets and ambition. In 2014, she founded Kafoodle, providing innovative software within the contract catering, hospitality and healthcare space.
The Silicon Valley Accelerate programme connect entrepreneurs with senior leaders, investors and key players within the Silicon Valley ecosystem, giving them unprecedented access to the inner workings of the world’s tech capital. "I was really excited to meet all the incredible founders and businesses that were succeeding in the environment out there. I wanted to get advice from them around running a business and building scalable tech,” said Tarryn.
The 2018 cohort spent five days in and around San Francisco, where they met with representatives from companies including Google, WSGR, Rocketspace, Silicon Valley Bank, Facebook and Pivotal. "Google Campus was pretty incredible and being there with like-minded people was a moment I will never forget," said Tarryn, explaining one of her standout moments from the programme.
The SVA programme has a thorough selection process, keeping the groups intentionally small and allowing the delegates to get value from each other. Commenting on her cohort, Tarryn said: "Everyone in the cohort was rooting for me to excel and do well, and open to supporting me or sitting down and giving me advice."
Since joining the SVA programme, Kafoodle has sold to the NHS in the UK, developed two new products and tripled their revenues.
This April, as the 2019 cohort head out to the US, it will be a year since Kafoodle, along with thinkWhere, Novosound, Miigen, and Dooey went on the SVA programme. Since then, Kafoodle has sold to the NHS in the UK, developed two new products and tripled their revenues. "We've also validated our international market and created a much more targeted plan in regards to what we’re doing and how we’re doing it," said Tarryn.
To those interested in going on the programme, Tarryn says: "If you are thinking at all about the US market or want to learn a bit about how Silicon Valley works, you have to go. It's the most rapid validation you will get as to whether a) you want to expand to the US and b) your product/idea is worthy."
Want to find out more about the Silicon Valley Accelerate programme? Click here to read the info pack and apply.