Anastasia Hofmann: «It is so easy to actively contribute to more sustainability»

We got together with Anastasia Hofmann, one of the brains behind KITRO. With their technology the team at KITRO aims to reduce food waste in the hospitality industry, thus contributing to more sustainability but also reducing costs for their clients. Their groundbreaking tool is the result of an extracurricular challenge at the École Hôtelière de Lausanne, where Anastasia and her co-founder Naomi MacKenzie participated.

You are the co-founder of KITRO. How was the idea of fighting against food waste born?
I met co-founder Naomi at École Hôtelière de Lausanne, where we both studied hospitality management. During our internships and summer jobs we worked a lot in restaurants. It was during this time when we realized that a lot of food was thrown away and that it was not measured in any way. This raised the question of how, if you cannot measure food waste, you can reduce it. After all, we have so many people around the world who are starving while on the other hand there is so much food being thrown away. This imbalance just does not seem right to us.

Can you tell us a bit more about the concept of KITRO?
The product that we develop is made for bigger hotel groups, restaurant chains and canteens, so it is really focused on the hospitality industry and commercial kitchens. Basically, we give our clients a hardware that automatically measures food waste. You can imagine it like a scale that you put below your bin and every time you throw something away it measures the weight, but it also takes an image of the food. We use image processing in the backend to identify what has been thrown away and we give the customers – the users are usually chefs or restaurant owners – a detailed overview of how much was thrown away, what were the costs, etc. Basically, they receive a food waste analysis to understand how much they have thrown away so they can optimize their processes, reduce food waste and save costs.

As you mentioned before, you met your co-founder Naomi during your studies. When and how did you get connected with the topic of food waste?
We were friends before and then there was an extracurricular challenge on campus where we had to come up with a sustainability and waste management concept for the year 2025 in kitchens or in service. Naomi, another friend and I decided to participate. It was a crazy idea, but we had to submit a two-minute video of that concept. Technologically it was not feasible at all, but the jury thought it was a good idea. We won the competition and a professor was encouraging us to think a bit further. From then on, we quickly started focusing on food waste instead of all kinds of waste because we saw there was a real benefit in it too.

Does the currently hotly discussed environmental climate topic have any influence on your business, like more restaurants coming to you and wanting to reduce food waste?
Yes, definitely. It is actually great timing for us because people are becoming more and more aware of the issue. Customers that said no in 2017 are now coming back and wanting to try our product as they realize that there is also a financial benefit to reducing and managing food waste. This whole awareness that is on the rise regarding environmental issues and climate change forces many bigger corporations to implement strategies and start sustainability departments in their companies. This in turn leads to more potential customers for us because they want to measure their efforts and see whether they are on track with their environmental and sustainability goals.

Have you always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and if yes, why?
It was not really a goal, no. I have done projects in the past, but I didn’t attend a hospitality school with the aim to start a business. My goal was more to work in the hospitality industry, work with different cultures and have a job that is challenging and different every day. It really was more of a chance or luck that it happened the way it happened. But I am really loving it and I see why people would want to have this kind of lifestyle and be their own bosses. It is really cool.

And now that you are an entrepreneur: what is the most enjoyable part of your job?
The fact that I like going to work and that I can work with friends is definitely a big plus. Another one is that I can kind of set my own priorities and timeline and achieve goals on my own terms basically. Obviously, you work with a team, but you have the freedom to prioritize the tasks for your day. This independence is cool, as well as the fact that every day is different and challenging, so there is a lot of variety and challenge included in the job. Lastly, working for a purpose and having a vision that you share with your co-founder and team is extremely rewarding.

But your role also means a lot of responsibility; are you never afraid to fail?
Not really because it does not really make it better if you worry about something. This is actually also the attitude of our entire team: If we fail in something then at least we have tried it and we have given it our best. Actually, we cannot really fail because what we have gained in the past years with KITRO is insane in terms of experiences and network and the people we have met. So even if we fail now it is not a fail at all.

To found and own a company means also to face different challenges. What is the most challenging part for a startup company?
There are a lot of different challenges all the time. I think that makes it very interesting. In our specific case it was really the fact that both Naomi and I started the company without any background in technology. This made it hard as we had to hire someone that we could trust with taking over that part. We had to find the right person. The team in general plays a huge part and is super important. We have a great team now, but we have made mistakes in the past and we have learned from those mistakes.

Did you cooperate with the ETH for the tech part?
Initially, yes. Our first two prototypes were built by an association called Unicorn Labs at ETH. It was started by a few students and they build MVPs for startups.

In your opinion, which key factors should not be missing in a startup?
You have to have fun in what you do because otherwise, where is the point? People always say passion, but you have to keep the fun in it. Having the right team also plays an important role.

How do you reduce food waste outside work, or do you do that at all?
Yes, for sure. I barely, if ever, throw anything away at home. If you pay a bit of attention it is very easy to reduce food waste, especially if you are living in a small household. 40 percent of our food waste actually comes from private households in Switzerland. This is horrible because at this last stage of the food supply chain is when the food has actually had the biggest environmental impact as resources are used in every step of food production. If you then end up throwing it away, you are essentially wasting all this water, energy and labor that was used to produce, transport and prepare your food.

Do you have any tips and recommendations?
Yes, there are plenty. My favorite tip concerns bread, which is one of the most wasted items as it goes stale very quickly. If you have too much bread you can slice it and put it in the freezer and if you have a toaster it is very easy to defrost and toast the slices. It works really well.

What are the next steps for KITRO in 2020?
We are hiring more people and will also be closing another financing round by the end of this year, which will help us get started on the scalability of the product. So next year’s focus will be on automating the processes in the backend and getting ready for scaling up and push sales.