Valentine “Val” Osakwe: CEO at Peep Connect in Kansas City
This is the fifth in our #EVOLve Series with one of our @posi2ive community members. Val has been active in our weekly *VC Impact* community roundtables on Twitter Spaces [each Friday 3:30pm PT]. In this self-paced and self-authored interview series, we ask impact Founders / Investors what they are doing to change the world, and why they’re motivated to focus on their area of impact. Hope you all enjoy!
My co-founder and I have a bet going which helps us keep ourselves accountable — anyone who misses working out pays the other $10.
Twitter: @valoderah
The Interview
Top Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): 2: Zero Hunger, 8 Decent Work / Economic Growth, 9: Industry / Innovation / Infrastructure, 10: Reduced Inequalities
Impact verticals your venture focuses on: Diversity / Equity / Inclusion (DE&I), Social Impact, SocialTech, Web3
Please share what you’re building, your professional background, and what inspired this venture.
Our mission is to help restaurant owners to drive sales and boost customer retention by creating a five star experience for their customers.
We started Peep because we have witnessed how hard it is for small businesses to build brand loyalty and engagement in an ever changing digital world. As children of small business owners, we believe that our first-hand experience of the landscape can help us tackle this in a unique way.
What’s the impact focus of your venture? And how do you plan to measure impact?
If every single American spent $10 in their local scene. These $$ go a long way to support the local economy by creating over $3 billion that go back to supporting these communities. Especially underserved communities. It not only changes the lives of the business owners but also the community.
What’s driving your impact focus?
What’s driving our impact focus today is currently the amount of tips we’re able to generate for servers, and the amount of donations we are able to give to business owners. We believe that while every person may not be able to give an extra $10 for every purchase, an additional $2–3 can keep many businesses and their employees in a lucrative state. This in turn can help the business to increase their output, and higher top-notch employees in a market where labor is hard to come by.
What are some obstacles standing in the way of the impact you have planned?
Fundraising.
How do you stay motivated?
Having conversations with our customers and future customers. Being able to learn more about them, their problems, and how our solutions can/will/are change their lives is what wakes up every morning. We’ve driven up to 200+ miles just to speak with clients and validate our product.
Tell us about your market, customers, and team.
Spending at brick-and-mortar establishments are down more than 32% due to the lack of a personalized experience for the consumers in-store, something most e-commerce retailers and 3rd party delivery companies deliver on. So at Peep, with our founders 15+ years experience in the SMB/Restaurant space we’ve decided to provide these experiences for medium-sized restaurants.
Currently, 2/3 of every customer who walks into a restaurant or brick-and-mortar establishment, chooses not to opt-into reward programs because of the difficulty to earn and the efficient and personalized experience… We believe that as NFT wallets become more accessible we can apply real world applications to them by creating non- and semi-fungible tokens that act as rewards when people shop at our restaurants, and have varying degrees of access and can be resold (p2p) via a marketplace.
This will enable us to create a 5-star experience for every customer who walks into a Peep restaurant, and give them something to look forward to the next time they are looking for a place to eat, while also giving businesses a way to get more money from a customer at the onset, in return for a future price.
How do you keep yourself healthy — e.g., mentally, physically, emotionally?
I work out, a lot. It is a good place for me to get my mental state right. Actually, my co-founder and I have a bet going which helps us keep ourselves accountable — anyone who misses working out pays the other $10. Furthermore, we speak with a founder coach which has helped us tremendously.
What are you currently educating yourself on?
Web3. I feel a lot can be accomplished with Web3 and and NFTs. Especially bringing it to everyday loyalty application without making it so technical.
What books, podcasts, or newsletters should our community read — to better understand your area of impact?
Crypto Theses for 2022: https://messari.io/pdf/messari-report-crypto-theses-for-2022.pdf
What do you do outside of work, that you like to brag about?
Cook. I think I can give Gordon Ramsay a run for his money, Hahaha.
How can the @posi2ive community support your efforts? (*Not public solicitation, nor securities offerings)
Intro’s to possible connectors, investors and Angels looking to invest in Web3 and Consumer.
Copyright 2022, all rights reserved. If you’re a Founder / Investor focused on VC Impact, we’d love to invite you to share your story here with the posi2ive community.
