Episode 63: From Football to the Food Business, with 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 Additional Resources: Website: www.fooda.com Website: www.fooda.com/careers/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/toshanejones/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/GoFooda