
Tagline
One solution to power your meal prep business
Team
Jon Carter, CEO & Co-founder
Location
Austin, TX
Partnered
2022
Status
Active
Exited
Bonfire Lead
What does Prado do?
Prado is a customizable ecommerce platform for local food-as-a-service companies (e.g. meal prep) to market, sell, fulfill, and ship their perishable products.
Why solve this problem?
I was originally motivated to enter the food & beverage space by the loss of my father to diabetes. Growing up in a food desert I saw firsthand how bad access is to fresh, healthy, affordable food. By chance, I landed in Austin, Texas as an operator at Snap Kitchen. We were making fresh, healthy meals available to people for $10 or less. As the CEO at the time, I would read every customer email. The stories I would hear from families; where a mother, father, daughter, son had combatted or reversed obesity, diabetes and heart disease changed my life. As a technologist, it was clear that technology was key to our ability to impact lives at scale, but a single food & beverage business couldn’t take on the challenge (and cost) of building what was necessary on their own dime. Prado was born out of my unique story and perspective that this was a problem worthy of solving.
Hardest thing about being a founder?
It's a lonely job and all consuming. You need a very supportive network: family, friends, mentors and team to do this job at a high functioning level. I consider myself very fortunate to have that.
Biggest piece of advice for aspiring founders?
Know your why. You won’t last if you don’t have a deep core reason you are doing what you are trying to do.
Most exciting moment so far?
Seeing the people on my team grow leaps and bounds every day.
Why did you choose Bonfire?
Because they get it. Not only in practical terms, backing SaaS based businesses, but also the founder journey. I could not be happier having the Bonfire team as partners.
What’s it like to work with Bonfire?
It’s like being coached by Phil Jackson. Wisdom, patience and the push to be great.
Favorite book, useful tool or app?
The Practice of Groundedness by Brad Stulberg