Abhi Ramesh
Founder & CEO, Misfits Market. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestorLinkedIn ↗misfitsmarket.com ↗
Abhi Ramesh founded Misfits Market in 2018 to tackle food waste and lower grocery costs by delivering surplus and cosmetically imperfect produce directly to consumers. Under his leadership, the company expanded into a nationwide online grocer, achieved unicorn status, and acquired rival Imperfect Foods in 2022.
1shows
1appearances
18statements
4resolved
3supported
1contradicted
75%fully supported
Everything Abhi Ramesh said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Founders Should Hire for the Current Stage, Not Three Years Out
“I actually ended up hiring folks that were right for the stage that we were in today, not for the stage that we'd be at in three years. There's pros and cons doing that, and I think for me, I needed someone that could do the job, not someone who could sort of …”
Founders Must Honestly Identify Their Fundamental Underlying Business Operations
“You have to be very honest with yourself on what business you actually are in. Because with us, right, with misfits, it's easy to say, oh, we're e-commerce, we're, you know, grocery, we're, but fundamentally, we're an operations and logistics business. And bei…”
Test Prep Parents Preferred Top-Scoring Tutors Over Standalone Software
“Given who our customer was, you know, like a high performing student with, you know, parents that they want to figure out a way to get their students to get great scores. They didn't want to just pay for software. They wanted to look a, so a kid who got 2400 o…”
AI and Contracting Tech Hiring Severely Threaten Coding Bootcamps
“I think it is definitely under threat because of AI. I also think it's under threat because software engineering hiring has just has shrunk. Those roles are just, there are a lot fewer of them now, and then I also, yes, definitely think the self-serve tools ha…”
No Market Price Existed for Cosmetically Imperfect Produce Before Misfits Market
“Things have changed a little bit now, but at the time, there was really no market for these items, and so there was no such thing as a market price.”
US Landfill Methane Emissions From Food Waste Far Outstrip Aviation Emissions
“10% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U S comes from methane produced by landfills, which is, which are filled with food waste. It's an order of magnitude higher than what's produced by planes.”
NJ Governor Intervened to Deem Misfits Market an Essential Pandemic Business
“For a moment in time, you know, the authorities actually said, you're not, you know, you guys have to shut down. I actually got in touch with the governor's office in New Jersey. The governor of New Jersey had to actually kind of, like, step in and say, no, no…”
Ramesh: Third-Party Logistics Is Built for Ambient Widgets, Not Fresh Food
“Third party infrastructure is still designed for ambient widget delivery. It's not designed for food.”
Misfits Market Generates Mid-Nine Figures in Revenue and Reaches Profitability
“So we've we're pretty much there now. The business is mid-nine figures in revenue and growing at a decent clip.”
Founders Struggle to Hire Software Engineers Without Knowing How to Code
“In trying to build the software product for Altair Prep, I realized how hard it was to hire engineers to speak their language, unless you actually knew how to write code.”
Horizons Bootcamps Returned Hundreds of Thousands to Venture Capital Investors
“There was a period of time where we actually took on a few 100,000 dollars of external capital. We returned it two months later, the entire amount, because we looked at the type of businesses was, and we were like, this is not something that can withstand vent…”
Misfits Market Initially Sold Organic Because the USDA Listed the Farms
“Cause we actually started the business only doing organic produce. In part, I think it was because, you know, I thought that starting organic would kind of give us more of the quality credibility, but the real answer is there's not a list of all conventional f…”
Misfits Market Spent $1,500 Daily on Facebook Ads Before Outside Funding
“I got to a point where I was probably spending about You know, 1500 dollars a day on paid ads on Facebook and bringing in a hundred customers a day.”
Angel Investor Wired $150,000 Before Misfits Market Was Officially Incorporated
“He offered to put in the first check, almost like a no questions asked and he wrote a 150,000 dollar
Investment into Misfits.
There's no corporate entity.
There are no documents.
I opened up a Bank of America account and he wired a 150 K into it.”
Misfits Market Mixes Rescued Goods With Regular Inventory for Basket Consistency
“Today, when you look at our assortment, we have 1200 different items. Not every single one of those items are rescued or opportunistic. We offer some that are kind of like regular items just to make sure that we can fill the basket and there's consistency.”
Misfits Market Executes Over 70% of Nationwide Deliveries Using In-House Drivers
“And so today with imperfect we acquired a fleet of about 400 vans and we're doing our own deliveries with our own drivers, own vans and trucks for about 70%, 70 to 75% of the deliveries that we do nationwide.”
Online Shopping Accounts for Only 12% to 13% of US Grocery Spend
“The stats are a trillion dollars a year in the U S of grocery spend of that trillion dollars, 12 to 13% is online today.”
USDA Maintains Extremely Specific Cosmetic Grading Tiers for Fresh Produce
“They're actually like extraordinarily specific specifications that the USDA puts out for every item, bananas, apples, oranges. There is strict guidelines on, you know, what falls into what tier. If you look at apples, for example, there's extra fancy, fancy, Y…”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Abhi's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Misfits Market | 1 | 18 | 75% 3/4 | full record on How I Built This → |