Listen to the most recent episode of Smart People Should Build Things: The Venture for America Podcast, a play.it original in collaboration with CBS!
In this episode, host Jeremy Shinewald sits down with Scott Reich and Mike Winik, the co-founders of OurHarvest, a startup that works with local farms to bring fresh food directly to consumers at affordable prices. Scott and Mike had known that they wanted to start something together since their days as college roommates. So when the right idea came along, they left their successful corporate careers—in law and investment banking, respectively—to pursue a much more uncertain (but much more rewarding) path. OurHarvest aims to blend the experience of a farmer’s market with the convenience of shopping online—and in New York City, it’s made access to healthy, straight-from-the-farm food even more convenient, rolling out a delivery service powered by Uber. But it’s about more than just cutting out the middlemen. Scott and Mike are invested in fighting food insecurity—the lack of access to enough food for an active, healthy life—a problem that impacts nearly 1 in 6 Americans. For every purchase over $25, OurHarvest donates a meal to a local food bank.
Download the latest episode to hear the Mike and Scott discuss growing OurHarvest, the 24/7 reality of working with fresh food, developing partnerships with established brands like Equinox and Uber—and trading stable, corporate careers for “being hugged by farmers every day.”