An Irvine-based tech company is seeking to raise a seed round of $1 million to officially launch and scale growth.
Yummi created a lifestyle app that enables users to keep an interactive food diary to record and organize everyday food moments. Users can post photos to log what they eat, drink and cook.
Posts called “foodprints” are tagged with locations and can be easily recalled anytime, anywhere using a geolocation search feature.
Founder Pete Wong said that unlike Instagram, which focuses on sharing and the “social pressures of getting validations,” Yummi provides inspiration by viewing another’s food experiences, all in one place.
The ex-Google employee spent the past decade working in China. The company has so far been self-funded.
New Boutique
Newport Coast-based e-commerce site boutique Silver & Gold Boutique sells women’s clothing and accessories, such as jewelry and shoes, curating items from around the country, including clothing markets in Los Angeles and Dallas.
It’s the brainchild of 24-year-old Jacqueline Bridgford, who attended the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising’s downtown Los Angeles campus and knew she wanted to start her own company.
The boutique launched with a maximum price point of $88 and elevated that to $150.
Bridgford tries to keep up with the latest trends, seeking pieces that are chic and wearable but don’t cost a lot. The 18 to 35 female demographic comprises the majority of customers. But a lot of older moms also frequent the website to shop for their daughters, she said.
The boutique also stages pop-up shops. She’s hosted more than a dozen across Southern California, including one at the University of Southern California to present her spring/summer collection to more than 200 sorority members.
The next two pop-ups will be Aug. 12 and 26 at Woodbury Town Center in Irvine as part of The Lemon Grove Market, an assortment of 40 businesses selling handmade or natural items, including niche bakers, clothing boutiques and fresh produce.
Bridgford has self-funded the company with her savings.
Electric Bikes for Sale
A company that manufactures premium electric bikes sells them through an online store, although it also takes walk-in customers.
Newport Beach-based Electric Bike Co. founder Sean Lupton-Smith self-funded the company with $1.6 million.
He said he’s worked on the concept for six years with no compensation. After retiring from a restaurant career in Atlanta, he wanted to make a philanthropic contribution and help supply under-privileged South Africans with affordable transportation to and from work, schools and hospitals. He saw the evolution in electric bikes as an ideal avenue to pursue, “especially with solar-powered charging and the incredible advancement in energy storage.” He’s targeting mainly South Africa to start.
Lupton-Smith also invested more than $250,000 in China-based Turnlife, a lithium-ion and solar panel manufacturing company with a sales and marketing team in Newport Beach. And he said he plans to invest between $500,000 and $1 million in Turnlife over the next few years.
He differentiates his company from other electric bike manufacturers, such as Fountain Valley-based Pedego, by the batteries Electric Bike Co. manufactures with Samsung’s 33g and 29e lithium-ion battery cells. Electric Bike is an authorized and certified Samsung battery pack manufacturer.
Electric Bike sells its bicycles at about 40% to 50% lower price tags than Specialized and other high-end brands, he said, because it doesn’t need “costly” retail overhead and third-party markups.
Restaurant Matchmaker
A Mission Viejo-based company launched a career website connecting restaurants with job seekers in the fields of food, beverage and hospitality.
CHOPS Jobs Inc. was created by recruiting veteran Stacy Sato, who has 25 years of experience in the employment and education industries. In 1999, she founded Career Giant, which she says was Hawaii’s first career website. She was most recently co-owner of CulinaryLab in Tustin.
CHOPS Jobs also offers interactive content for employers and job seekers; articles providing insight from industry professionals and tips for job seekers; and other resources that include in-depth industry statistics, upcoming networking events and job fairs, and links to additional resources for culinary and hospitality workers. Sato plans to expand opportunities on the website into Los Angeles and San Diego counties.
CHOPS Jobs is intended to meet the state’s growing need for hospitality professionals. A 2017 National Restaurant Association study concluded that restaurant and food service jobs account for 10% of California’s employment. The state’s 70,000 restaurants employ approximately 1.7 million people, a number that’s projected to jump about 11% by 2027.
CHOPS Jobs is offering a special buy-one-month, get-one-free offer to first-time customers until Aug. 10. It costs $50 for one job posting for 30 days; $225 for five job postings for 30 days; and $400 for 10 job postings for 30 days.
