Episode 63:
From Football to the Food Business, with Shane Jones
From Football to the Food Business, with Shane Jones
Shane Jones
Shane Jones is the Co-Founder at Fooda, a Chicago, Illinois-based workplace food program that brings a different pop-up restaurant to serve as the office lunch vendor each day. Shane and his team scour the streets for the best food trucks, trendy restaurants, and hidden gem mom-and-pop food service businesses. Founded in 2011 with just five employees, today they have more than 450 employees across 24 cities, serving a staggering 75,000 meals a day. Prior to starting his career in the world of business, Shane played football for four years at St. Ambrose University, where he graduated with a degree in business in 2005.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How the idea for Fooda evolved after Shane was tasked by his manager to increase productivity in his workplace
- How Fooda expanded and grew into new markets, going from 20 to over 100 employees in just a few months
- How Shane and the leadership team at Fooda work to keep everyone energized and engaged through an amazing company culture
- Why Shane gets excited when he's interviewing a prospective new employee who has different skills than he himself has
- How playing football at St. Ambrose University made a lasting impact on Shane and taught him skills he brought forward into his business career
- Shane discusses some of the diverse company events Fooda runs to build a sense of teamwork and family
- Why working in food services requires a sense of urgency and an effort to stay ahead of competitors, and how Shane deals with the complexity of his work
- Why employee onboarding is a vital step Fooda focuses on to ensure success for their new team members, and what they do differently in their onboarding process
- Why a sense of trust was critical for Fooda, especially during their period of rapid growth
- What experiences Shane had with coaches during his time in football, both positive and negative, that made a lasting impression on his leadership style
- How Shane and his wife balance their individual successes in their work with their family life
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