SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Ep 370: $120k 2015 Revenue, Private Chefs for Elderly with Kate Toews of Chefs for Seniors
29 Jul 2016
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per top. Five and six million. He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark.
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She's raised a million bucks and does $40,000 per month in her marketplace revenue for Class Notes. Top Tribe. Good morning to you. Our guest today is Kate Taves. She is ex-McKinsey, has a Haas MBA. She's a foodie and a mom of three. She's hiked part of the PCT alone and once bartered her way into Uzbekistan by taking a picture of the border guard. Kate, are you ready to take us to the top?
I am.
So much to talk about in that very short bio. So first things first, we'll get into the mom aspect of your life. We'll talk about Uzbekistan. But first, tell us what your business is and how does it make money?
Yes, I am CEO of Chefs for Seniors. We make money by helping older adults with meals at home. So as many of us age, it gets harder to get to the store, cook for one, heavy pots. And we put a professional chef in the home. It's like Uber for chefs, but we have mission very, very core to who we are. So we are also combating loneliness. We're a friendly face.
We're the reason our clients get up in the morning, put their makeup on, come sit in the kitchen, chat with us. And we make meals for the whole week.
I love this. This is just great because there's so many people trying to solve just the lonely problem, but food seems to just be the perfect way to do that. And I love that you've got that focus on your mission. It's good for your soul.
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Chapter 2: What is the business model of Chefs for Seniors?
Yeah, I know. It's a great thing. It's a great thing. They've been incredibly helpful, super, super good guys.
Um, so you did the standard one 25 at 5%.
Yep.
That's great. That's really great. What will you guys do? You think in 2016 total top line revenue?
Um,
That's a great question. What's your goal?
I know our goal is north of 300. I'm hoping to significantly beat that. That's great. That's really, really great. And it looks like your team right now is four people kind of full time. Then you have the chefs you pay, right? Correct. That's great. And what is average revenue per user on average?
On average, about 7K a year.
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Chapter 3: How does Chefs for Seniors address loneliness among the elderly?
And again, so, you know, we don't have a ton of customers right now, but we keep them and they're pretty sticky. So we get a lot of juice out of each of them. Is that how they pay? Do they pay on annual contracts or do they pay monthly? They pay monthly right now. There is no contract right now. We're playing with a couple of subscription models.
And, you know, to be honest, it kind of doesn't matter because of how sticky we are. We end up with essentially a subscription. So we haven't felt the need to push our clients into it.
Yeah. So what are you guys doing as of last month? Call it we'll call it May 2016. What was monthly recurring revenue? 16,000. Hey, you know, on 65 customers, that's great.
That's not so bad.
No, that's wonderful. That's really wonderful.
So you've got some big partnerships that are going to convert in the next two months. So we've got one planning for GoLive July 1st, another we're planning for July 15th. So each of those will be big infusions of...
customers yeah help me I'm doing something wrong math here you said you did 16,000 MRR you said your ARPU was 583 but if I do 16,000 divided by the 65 customers I get $246 per month which is different than 583 where's my math wrong
Correct. We have about half of our client base is on a legacy pricing model. And it's different. Yeah. So kind of as of about six months ago, we're at an average of three services a month at 150 per user. So it's an average of $450 top line per user per month. But that's for all of our newer clients. We have not converted all of our older clients.
That makes good sense. And what does it cost you? What's your customer acquisition cost to acquire a new customer?
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Chapter 4: How many customers does Chefs for Seniors currently serve?
And it's actually a huge benefit, I would say, for our client base. You know, you could not ask for a more like our brand is all about trust. Right. We're serving such a vulnerable population. And we are as a team just kind of incredibly like we just breathe, live and breathe that. Right. And so the family aspect of that is actually a really big deal for our clients.
Is the hardest part in terms of expansion signing up local chefs that are qualified?
Yeah.
Depends on the market. In Florida, our chefs knock it out of the park. In Wisconsin, our chefs are a little bit trickier to find. The hospitality industry is just a lot smaller there. And so it's been more challenging to find the kind of caliber chefs. I mean, we're looking for chefs with a passion for people, right? They have to love what they do. And they do.
I mean, even chefs that find other jobs or want to do part time drop hours, which doesn't happen that much, but it does happen. They won't drop their clients. They say, oh, I need Thursdays to go work at the bakery, but I can't stop with Ruth. Let me just switch her to a new day. It just doesn't ā that relationship is really special.
Yeah. I'll never forget. I used to use a company aggressively called Kitchit. Did you ever hear of them?
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. I've actually talked with a couple of the folks that work there because when they when they folded along with kitchen surfing, I was I had stars in my eyes about how I could get some talent.
Yeah, I was so bummed because I would always travel to cities. And what I would do is I would get a great looking Airbnb to impress people. I want to get together. I'd invite them all over. Then I'd bring in a great chef. And I just I can't do it anymore because I can't find the people to cook. Yeah. Um, so we'll see. Maybe I'm, I'm secretly trying to sell you on going down market a bit age wise.
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Chapter 5: What was the revenue of Chefs for Seniors in 2015?
How'd this work?
Yeah, no, you know, in college I did a lot of work on conflict management. I was a meteor for a little while after college and, uh, And so I worked with AID in Uzbekistan and did some thesis research or in Kyrgyzstan the summer after September 11th, actually. It was 2002. And at one point in time, we needed to go into Uzbekistan and I didn't have a visa.
Chapter 6: What are the biggest costs for Chefs for Seniors?
And, you know, I chatted with the border guards. We didn't speak the same language, but I had a big, big old camera with me and they talked. asked to take a picture with me and they said, just wave me on it. And so I went in for a little while and came back out. I'm not sure. I guess I'm not sure I should publicly say that, but I was only in a little bit. So it's all about making deals, right?
That is great. I love that. What was the deal though? What did the picture have to do with it? Did they want a picture? And if you gave a picture, you got it.
You know, it's still sort of a mystery to me. They certainly were excited that there was going to be some memento that I would have of them. You know, they had big machine guns and all that jazz. And that was kind of my original assumption was that they thought maybe they were going to be able to get an actual copy of it, which obviously never happened. That's hysterical.
Well, that's amazing, Kate. If people want to follow your journey as you continue building this business with the family, where can people follow you and connect with you personally online?
Yeah. Well, I'll just shout out my email. At least that's easy for everybody. It's Kate at Chefs for Seniors. And I've got various social media, et cetera, as well. So.
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Chapter 7: What partnerships is Chefs for Seniors pursuing for growth?
I'm old school. I like to cook. I like, you know what? Like when we do stuff, we like make food in the real world. We're a real service in the real world. It's like paper and pen, right? Literally. We just shot a video. I'm writing handwritten thank you notes to our senior models. I love it.
That's great. Paper and pen. Okay, number three. Yes or no, as you're building this empire, are you getting eight hours of sleep every night or not? I have three children. I never got eight hours of sleep every night.
I'm definitely not still getting eight hours of sleep. I do have dinner with my family every night. That is great. But the sleep is an issue.
And do you mind me asking how old you are? I am 35. 30? Okay, amazing. So 35, three kids, building this amazing business. Take us back 15 years, Kate. What do you wish your 20-year-old self knew?
Save more money.
Save more money.
Why do you say that? Either for the kids or so that I could take less money now, but just save more money.
It's more freedom, right? Yep. Top tribe. There you have it. Save more money from Kate. She's working with...
over 65 in the elderly community again giving them personal loving care via food and one-on-one time via her chefs they just got into 500 startups raised 125 grand at 120k in 2015 revenue and are on track to continue growth just opening new locations in florida and elsewhere kate thank you for taking us to the top thank you it's great to chat
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