Zukta

Jan 8, 2020

A technology platform for food trucks to grow their customer base, accept online orders, and provide customers with the best eating experience! The app is capable of creating a digital profile, integrating with popular POS systems, accepting online ordering, data analytics, and algorithm-based recommendations.

My Role

As the co-founder of Zukta, I wore many different hats. I was a product manager, engineer, web developer, data scientist, salesperson, and marketer. I worked with my team to take the app from concept to development. I conducted user interviews with food trucks and consumers to learn about their pain points and create an experience that brings them joy. In addition, I worked with my co-founder to design Figma mockups and write backend API calls.

Product

The app knows where the food trucks are located, real-time menu and prices, and the account information of both the food truck and customer. When an order is placed, it instantly shows up in the food truck's POS system and the customer is charged by the food truck. The customer can change edit their order to their liking within the app. The app handles the entire digital experience for the food truck without any additional downloads or input from the food truck staff.

Origin Story

The original concept behind Zukta came from an ordinary Farmer's Market day at UC San Diego. My friend went to buy from a food truck and immediately turned around because of the long lines. I wondered why food trucks didn't have a platform for online orders as they can be missing out on many customers.I was able to validate my idea by talking directly with food trucks. I asked them about their pain points, need for a food app, and features they would like to see. Through these conversations, I was able to create a mockup of the app and sketch out the customer and food truck workflow.After that, we started developing our app!

Key Learnings

  • As the co-founder, I validated I can work in a fast-paced and scrappy environment where multiple hats to get the job done.

  • I can work with new technologies (Dart/Flutter, ML, AI) without prior experience in writing production-ready code.

  • How to effectively communicate and optimize usage of tools such as Jira and Slack

  • How to approach a multi-sided platform and prioritize features for each side, "When the customer wants X, the business needs Y"

  • Importance of interacting with all users regularly.