Budget Bites - Saving the World with a Killer Deal

With the United States producing an astounding 120 billion pounds of food waste each year, it brings to question what can be done to reduce such excess. Jimmy Watson saw this problem as an opportunity to cover the large gap between production and consumption. 

 

The inspiration for Budget Bites began while serving his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Mexico City. During his time there, he fell in love with the food and the culture surrounding food. Since then, he had wanted to start a restaurant of his own, but finding it impractical, he diverged into pre-medical. However, it didn’t take long for his love of food to over take the anguish he felt working on something he wasn’t passionate about. 

 

Jimmy opened up a small restaurant called Bun Boiz which is an Asian fusion of steam buns. It was this experience that really narrowed down the idea behind Budget Bites. He finally understood first hand how much waste even his own restaurant produced. Budget Bites gives restaurants the opportunity to sell the food before they go to waste at half price. In this way, the restaurant owner is still able to sell their products while the customer can take advantage of discounts, and Budget Bites creates an incentive for both owner and customer to reduce food waste. 

 

Jimmy’s goal for Budget Bites is to impact food waste in a positive way while creating a good community surrounding it. He hopes to reach college towns all over the U.S. but also provide people with the opportunity to be able to eat out, especially to those who typically cannot afford it. 

 

As a tenant of the Business Resource Center, Jimmy admires the opportunities he has such as business resources, access to advisors, and admires the affordable office space he has. Such resources can have an impact on a start up. He also loves that there are other entrepreneurs working on their business and more importantly, that they want to see each other succeed regardless of the competitive nature. With Jimmy’s willingness to learn, he’s made some good friends at the BRC that have given him advice, finding a community of entrepreneurs.

 

Word of advice for starting your own business:

“Surround yourself with really amazing people that can compliment you and do things better than you.[...] You are able to do more and just be more than you could be on your own.”

         - Jimmy Watson