Only a few moments after clicking submit I began to panic.  After finding  out weeks ago I needed to be in Denver for work, I had just ordered lift tickets and ski rentals for my first ski trip out west to Copper Mountain in Colorado. But as the confirmation e-mail landed in my inbox, I suddenly wondered how the hell I was going to bring all of my ski clothes out with me.  I was scheduled to be in Denver for a work trip from Monday to Thursday, but I would be skiing the weekend before which meant I’d be traveling for nearly a week.  Equipped with just a backpack and a standard carry on bag, I barely had enough room for work and casual clothes, let alone full ski gear.  I turned to almighty Google to address my problem and within a few searches of “ski gear rental” and “ski apparel rent”, I found my answer in the form of a Colorado based tech startup GetOutfitted.

Founded by Stanford grad Julian Flores, GetOutfitted is a ski and snowboard e-commerce site that delivers heavily discounted apparel and accessories rentals right to your door.  Having moved out to Colorado from California 9 years ago, Julian was eager to take advantage of all the great outdoor activities his new home state had to offer.  But time and time again, Julian’s plans to develop a passion for skiing and snowboarding were thwarted by expensive price tags for both apparel and equipment.  He was frustrated by the high  costs associated with outdoor sports, but Julian noticed his wife had rented a designer dress at a discounted price through the mail for an upcoming event.  “She accessed luxury at a fraction of the cost, with no intimidation and a lot of joy,” Flores recalls. “I realized right then, I could do the same for the outdoor sports industry, allowing people like me to get outside and try something, save money, and feel like a big spender.”   Julian quickly built out an online prototype to acquire customer validation and hasn’t looked back since.  

When I first landed on the website, I was impressed with its slick, professional layout and easy to use interface.  After creating an account in a few clicks, I set out to fill my cart by searching through an impressive selection of high-quality gear.  I went with a Dakine Atmos jacket and a pair of Obermeyer Recon pants.  I then scheduled my rental period (the site gives you the option to select between 3/5/10 day rentals) and entered my buddy’s Denver apartment as the delivery location.   GetOutfitted also gives its customers the option to pay extra to get your gear sooner. 

As my ski trip grew closer, I started to wonder if there was a way to track my order to ensure my gear would get to Denver on time for my ski trip.  Fortunately, a few days before I was all set to leave, I got shipping confirmation e-mail from GetOutfitted including tracking details and links to the FedEx shipping status on my items. 

Having started GetOutfitted  just a year ago, Flores, a former founder of a nonprofit consultancy and a Charter School in Colorado Springs, has been managing the steady growth of the e-commerce company thanks to effective SEO and search ad campaigns.  He has also invested considerable time trying to address the challenges faced by those searching for alternatives to current rental options.  Flores has obviously set out to build an experience that aims to please its renters from the moment they make an order until the time they ship the products back (free of charge).   “We track our customer facing-metrics, which are incredibly important to a consumer service like ours.  These include customer satisfaction, delivery reliability, sizing and fit accuracy of the apparel, and referrals from customers.   

When I landed in Denver Friday afternoon, I learned my order had arrived safely and on time, so I headed out with a couple of college friends to enjoy my first ski trip out west.  Both the pants and jacket did a stellar job of keeping me warm and comfortable (I quickly realized that although I might have looked the part, having spent most of my time on the bunny slopes in the Poconos, I was a little in over my head in terms of the quality and difficulty of skiing out west.  Returning the apparel to GetOutfitted was as simple as tossing the gear in the prepaid return envelope included in the box and finding the closest mailbox to drop it off.  Despite being sore from head to toe from a full weekend of skiing, I was thankful that I didn’t have to lug around my jacket and pants the rest of the week and back to the airport.  I vowed to return to ski out west at the next available opportunity in order to enjoy the fresh powder as much as this bro.

Flores will be the first to admit that competition does exist in the seasonal yet lucrative business of snow and ski apparel sales; however, the fantastic customer experience provided by Get Outfitted puts them in a position to win out against current alternatives for those heading to the mountains on a budget.  “Few resorts offer apparel out of their rental shops, and none offer the ability to put together a custom, current look that will allow skiers to look and feel great on the mountain,” explains Flores. “We offer a luxury experience for a fraction of the cost, with a fantastic unboxing experience, great customer service and a dead-simple return process.”  With a passionate founder leading the way and a group bent on creating a seamless rental experience from start to finish, GetOutfitted is a great option for anyone looking for great value during their next trek to the mountains.

Rajesh Karmani really hates food waste.   While studying at the University of Illinois, it was something he noticed on a daily basis, but after researching the topic of food waste a bit more, he quickly discovered the problem was much bigger than he thought.  He soon learned that the average American throws away 20 pounds of food every month. According to the Washington Post, the United States wastes enough food every day to fill up the Rose Bowl.  While 40 percent of the food produced in this country goes uneaten, 1 in 6 Americans deal with hunger on a daily basis.   An entrepreneur at heart, Raj saw opportunity where most saw inefficiency.

 Knowing there had to be a better way to connect the vast quantities of food surplus with the organizations that needed it most, Raj founded Zero Percent with that very goal in mind.  Utilizing his computer science background, Raj set out to build a convenient, safe, and efficient online food donation marketplace helping restaurants move surplus food to nearby soup kitchens and shelters.  “For me, Zero Percent was at the nexus of what comes natural to me, what felt right to me, and what interests me,” Raj explained. 

While Raj was trying to get his company off the ground in Champaign, just a few hours away, a program was being built to help startups just like Zero Percent. Operating out of co-working center 1871 in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, Impact Engine was created as a 16-week startup accelerator offering mentorship, support, and resources to companies addressing societal and environmental challenges.   When Zero Percent was accepted into Impact Engine’s second round of startups, Raj knew the opportunity would serve as the perfect chance to help him learn about his business at a rapid pace.  With the help of Impact Engine, Zero Percent is now working with over fifty nonprofits (Pacific Garden Mission, Franciscan Outreach, and Salvation Army to name a few) and is receiving regular food donations from well-known businesses and restaurants all over Chicago including Goddess and Grocer, Hannah’s Bretzel, and Dimo’s Pizza.  I got a chance to sit down with Raj to hear more about Zero Percent and how he began his crusade against food waste.

Q: Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I finished college in 2005, and I initially started doing some freelance consulting for companies in the UK, Pakistan, and the U.S., so that was my first jump into entrepreneurship.  I got admitted into a PhD program and for a while in that academic setting I got the chance to teach and do research.  I seriously considered pursuing an academic path, but I think during that time, entrepreneurship was aways in the back of my mind, but it just wasn’t getting the right outlet. 

Q: Both you and Caleb Phillips (CTO of Zero Percent) have very impressive backgrounds in computer science, so you have the technology side of the company pretty well covered. What has the learning process been like when it comes to running the business side of things?

We’re certainly learning a lot as we grow. Caleb came from a non-profit background, so he brought a lot in terms of knowing about food waste, food hunger, and non-profit management.  I was about to graduate and I came across this idea that combined my interests in technology, entrepreneurship, and volunteerism, but I knew I still had a lot to learn about business.

U of I has a great incubator program called EnterpriseWorks so we got space and membership there for six months.  It was a way to surround myself with smart entrepreneurs in the area.  As soon as that was ending and my graduation was approaching, we got the offer from Impact Engine and it could not have been a better fit considering it was based in Chicago and had a focus on social entrepreneurship.  They have been great at connecting us with mentors and advisors.  It’s a lot of learning every day, and there’s still plenty more to learn.

Q: When you are trying to get businesses and restaurants to use Zero Percent, how do you convince them to sign up?

Our early adopters are companies where green and sustainability is part of their culture.  These are businesses that have tried sustainability projects before but it did not work for them.  Then, we build upon those experiences and explain our additional benefits, like how these businesses can promote their food donations to their employees and customers.  We also explain the benefits of the data they receive from Zero Percent and the chance to create operating efficiencies and reduce costs such as trash hauling.

Q: With a business like this that depends so much on logistics, what are certain metrics you guys are constantly tracking and trying to improve upon?

At the crudest level we track how many pounds of food are rescued in a day.  We want to grow this from where we are now at 1,500 pounds per day to 15,000.  Doing so will give us operational and business metrics that we can show to potential customers and investors and convey what we do best, which is rescue pounds at the lowest cost, in the shortest amount of time, and in the safest way possible.  This is a hard problem because there are so many variables involved such as time, location, and size of delivery.  The real challenge is meeting those at the supplier side and the need side.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge of expanding this to cities across the country that need it just as badly as Chicago?

The challenge would be how to efficiently reach new donors. Restaurants are busy, time constrained, and cash strapped, so it is about finding more early adopters to help us grow.   We learned a lot in Champaign and Chicago, and we want to take what we’ve learned to help us scale here and grow to other communities.