This Pakistan-born entrepreneur is building a promising food marketplace in the US

Pakistan-born entrepreneur and founder of food industry marketplace Foodem, Kash Rehman, initially started his career as a telecommunications consultant. However, in his own words, “it got pretty boring, pretty fast.” Deciding that a career change was needed, Rehman searched for opportunities in other industries.

He soon became fascinated with food distribution. “I fell in love with how food is grown on farms, and the complexities of the supply chain, from production, packaging, and distribution,” he tells Tech in Asia. “I decided I wanted to tackle the last part of the supply chain; when a distributor delivers food to grocery stores and restaurants.”

Rahman caught a “lucky” break when he was offered a job at a small food distribution company based in the Washington D.C. area, despite understanding little about the industry. However, this opportunity gave him a distinct advantage; he had the flexibility to learn all aspects of the business, including marketing, sales, procurement, warehousing, and logistics. Within eight months, Rehman was promoted to director of operations, helping streamline processes and grow sales by 500 percent in his seven-year stint.

“Had I joined one of the bigger firms, my learning and growth would have been stunted,” he says. “This gave me the chance to truly shine.”

Kash Rehman, Foodem founder

Changing the system from within

However, Rehman took away one crucial element during his time at the company. He realized the supply chain was fragmented, inefficient, and costly to scale. Distribution companies were heavily dependent on their sales teams to expand the business. In order to grow, hiring staff is crucial, as the industry was dependent on face-to-face interaction to secure distribution contracts to stores and restaurants. This meant higher recurring costs from salaries, commission, health insurance, and 401K outlay. “It was a very cost-heavy model, ripe for disruption” says Rehman.

The entrepreneur knew that more could be done to add value and reduce costs. He understood everyone involved in the supply chain: suppliers, distributors, and restaurant owners wanted to scale without necessarily having to invest in higher employee headcounts. At this point he conceptualized the idea of Foodem, an online B2B marketplace for the food distribution and procurement industry.

Initially, Rehman was cautious with his idea and wanted to research thoroughly before diving in. As it was still the mid-2000s, American businesses had not yet warmed up to the idea of online procurement and were resistant to change. He also needed a large number of distributors to agree to sell on his platform before pitching the solution to restaurants and stores.

As he spoke to distributors about his marketplace idea, they slowly agreed to come onboard, but only if the costs of securing new business were lower than their existing channels. In order to gain traction and customers, Rehman drastically slashed his commission fees.

Despite having validated his idea with food distributors, a key piece of the puzzle remained unsolved. Would restaurants be keen to work with him? As this was an area where Rehman had no experience, he did what he thought best: buy a restaurant to investigate and learn.

For two years Rehman immersed himself in the restaurant, personally handling procurement and logistics. He noticed stark familiarities. To place orders for fresh produce, he had to call several distributors and compare prices, before settling on one. Furthermore, it was necessary to repeat this process multiple times a week, wasting dozens of hours which could be used to improve other aspects of the business. Convinced that inefficiencies were ripe on both ends of the spectrum, Rehman forged ahead with Foodem.