Ali Kothari is still a student at Northeastern University but that hasn’t stopped him and his co-founder, Johnny Fayad, from founding New Grounds Food. After getting tired of not having time to make breakfast or coffee in the morning before class, they had an idea to create a way to eat their coffee. Thus, their product, the CoffeeBar, was born.

In this episode Ali shares amongst other things:

His secrets to Kickstarter success

When he realized they had a strong idea

Northeastern’s IDEA Accelerator

Getting to a shelf-ready product

Mistakes made early on

How they got their product on the shelves

Why they partnered with the Chain Collaborative

How starting a company was different from what he expected

Links from the Episode:

Mosaic at Northeastern

Kickstarter

WeWork

Jaho

Ogawa

Starry

Unreal Candy

New Grounds Food on Twitter

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Get in touch with feedback, ideas, or to say hi: nic {AT} startupbostonpodcast [DOT] com

The Startup Boston Podcast takes you inside the world of Boston startups, featuring interviews with Boston-based entrepreneurs, investors, and influencers. During each episode, someone involved with Boston startups will share their experience, advice, thoughts, predictions, and challenges with listeners. No industry or topic is off-limits as guests share their first-hand experience. Guests range from Kickstarter successes, to angel investors and venture capitalists, to SaaS founders, to product team experts and beyond. I believe that each person has a story to tell and we each can learn something from the experiences of others. Whether you are a founder, work at a startup, are an investor, interested in joining a startup, or are just curious about startups, you will find something here for you. This podcast is an attempt to help share those stories.

This is the first episode and it’s different than the rest of the podcast episodes. Normally, for each episode I interview someone. However, today is kinda like a teaser episode or a trailer, where I’ve taken about a minute of some of my favorite pieces from each of the first 15 episodes and put them together. Going forward for the next 8 weeks I’m going to release 2-3 episodes every week and each episode is roughly 30 minutes to an hour. After those 8 weeks I’ll be releasing one episode every week. 

Before we get going I first need to say a huge thank you to all 23 people who have recorded an episode with me and everyone else who has agreed to an interview. It really means so much to me that you’ve allowed me, someone you didn’t know, and someone who had no previous podcast content for you to listen to, to interview you. It means a lot to me and this podcast wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for you.

You can find all show notes for the podcast at startupbostonpodcast.com and if you have any feedback, ideas for guests or just want to say hi you can reach me at [email protected].

Lastly, feel free to follow the podcast on twitter @startupBOScast.