Fifteen. / Contributor Ten: Yuni Sameshima, Chicory
On Radical Expectation Transparency, Self-Driving Cars, and Forecasting the Future Through Momentum.
Hey, everybody. Our latest contributor to Le Cinq is another awesome friend I’ve known for many years within the startup world, Yuni Sameshima of Chicory! I met him back in my early VC days in 2014/2015 as he was getting Chicory off the ground. I was (and still am) heavily rooting for their success because it taps into an almost-infinite market (the recipe world) and removes one of the biggest boundaries within cooking; actually getting all the ingredients (and even finding healthier options) in the most seamless way. Yuni’s also a deeply thoughtful person and built Chicory to keep learning from the makers out there, and it’s a trait I very much respect and admire.
Enjoy!
Yuni Sameshima is the CEO and co-founder of Chicory, an NYC-based tech firm and pioneer of shoppable recipes. Chicory creates the digital tools to take grocery shoppers from inspiration to checkout in a few clicks. Yuni founded Chicory with his then-classmate, now-co-founder and Head of Product, Joey Petracca, in a dorm room at Colgate University, where Yuni graduated with a Bachelor’s in Molecular Biology. Yuni is a recent Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and an avid global speaker on grocery trends and ecommerce.
A fun fact: I have 2 actually. First, I can get goosebumps on command. It’s kind of my superpower and apparently it’s physiologically impossible! Second, I was born in Japan but my name is not traditionally Japanese. I was born on October 3, 1990, which is the (Y)unification day of East and West Berlin!
(Editor’s Note: +5 points for solid pun usage.)
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on being transparent about my expectations. Whether at home or in the office, I’ve learned that being forthright and transparent leads to better outcomes. In the past, I’ve been ambiguous or assumed that someone had the same expectations that I did, hoping that we would be on the same page. While it may be easier emotionally and in the moment, it leads to more headaches down the road. So I’m testing out radical expectation transparency.
What are you currently excited about?
I’m currently excited about growing Chicory. We more than doubled our size in the last year and it looks like we’re on that same track again this year. We’re hiring for more specialized roles which I never imagined we would have when we first started the company and it’s exciting that Chicory’s rapid expansion calls for new talent. Because we emphasize a positive and fun company culture, it’s always a good feeling when new employees start and are immediately integrated into the Chicory vibe.
What’s a story or article that you're currently thinking about?
I’m not big on articles but I do read a lot of biographies and I’m currently on Ulysses S. Grant by Ron Chernow. It’s a fascinating take on a flawed individual and while I’m only about halfway through, it’s clear that Grant’s behavior mirrors the cyclical nature of human beings.
We all have good days and bad days. Some blame it on Mercury being in retrograde, other times we’re just in a shitty mood. But moods and feelings come and go. We are never the same person day in and day out and Grant struggled with that in a very real way. On the battlefield, he was a strong general and one of the best strategic minds in history. But on other days, he would fall into a dark pit of reckless binge drinking.
We all have our bad habits that we fall prey to but Grant knew that having his wife and kids around helped to subdue his dark side and be the best he could be. And so the question for myself is what are the ways in which I am keeping myself from operating more efficiently? Who are the people and what are the things I should be surrounding myself for optimal Yuni?
What’s a product you’re currently obsessed with?
Autonomous vehicles. The idea of having cars (and other vehicles) drive themselves is so freakin’ cool. It would lead to so many efficiencies, not just in day-to-day life for consumers, but for businesses as well. It’s also amazing that a 7 hour drive might not feel as daunting with a feature like this.
Wild Card: What’s an item you can’t shake your mind off of?
The idea of momentum is something that I haven’t been able to shake for the past year or so. Reading Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan opened my eyes to how much history can teach us about human psychology in organizations. In particular, it taught me how a sense of momentum is critical to the psychological well-being of humans in groups.
Momentum (p) is calculated as p = mv. Mass times Velocity. And that velocity and the feeling of acceleration is critical in keeping people not just excited but at a more basic level, content.
For example, a startup that’s growing quickly has a lot of momentum and, by virtue, people that work there feel excited and feel that they have made the right decision to work there. As there are layoffs, as things stagnate and as things slow down, people begin to get nervous, look for new jobs and question their decision. This loss in momentum can quickly lead to a startup’s demise. This is why it’s so imperative for companies to keep raising rounds of funding. Fresh funding can help build that momentum. For big companies, their downfall will be slower because they have so much mass already. But once that velocity starts to decrease, it’s extremely hard to accelerate and pick up momentum again.
The interesting thing here isn’t just the concept of momentum but that looking at lines of momentum can help us to predict the future. And it doesn’t just apply to businesses. If you examine which nations have momentum and which are stagnating, you begin to understand why certain events have taken place. Take a look at the United States today. We had huge momentum back in the 20th century after WW2 with the technology boom. Now other countries are starting to see greater growth and momentum and it causes unrest in our population.
The coolest part is that you can trace those lines of momentum to see what lies in the future.
~ C O L O P H O N ~
Please send all feedback, both positive and negative, to sumeetshahwork@gmail.com as this project continues to evolve.
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