Exploring Life & Business with Hunter Rusack of Quokka Kitchen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hunter Rusack.

Hi Hunter, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Kevin (Lunn) and I have been great friends since we met at a small school in Santa Barbara in eighth grade. Going to a small middle and high school means you know everyone well, but we remained close through college and well into our professional careers. After attending Yale University, Kevin headed off to Madison Wisconsin to work for Epic, one of the largest health tech firms in the country. I made my way through the Pacific Northwest, primarily working in the hospitality industry, then found myself at business school at USC.

One contributing factor to our friendship was (and is) a love for athletics; cross country and track and field for Kevin, rugby and CrossFit for me. In 2019, when Kevin came to visit me and attend job interviews in the Bay Area, we found ourselves deep in conversation about the state of the meal prep and nutrition coaching industries.

Clearly a hot market with strong players, there was, however, significant room for improvement. Specifically, meal prep companies were touting the benefits of proper nutrition without delivering personalized meals to their clientele. We thought, to really help people make sustainable progress in their health, wellness, and performance, they would need to be drawn to a service that was built around their goals and that combined the convenience of meal delivery with truly delicious, exciting, and nutritious meals to stick to the plan over the long term. We knew we could fix this, so we enlisted the help of executive chef Julian Martinez. A great athlete and phenomenal chef, Julian rounded out our founding team and was able to guide us through the challenges of opening a commercial kitchen and building a scalable operation.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Pretty much anyone with experience starting a business will tell you how hard it is when you set out on your entrepreneurial journey. Despite this, I’m guessing that most react the way we did, convinced that we have our concept so dialed in that getting up and running will take a lot of hours but should go pretty smoothly. Needless to say, we got our fair share of surprises.

Quokka had only been up and running for about two months when word of the pandemic started to spread. While most look at what we do and say, “the pandemic must have been a huge help since everyone wants food delivered,” it wasn’t as clear cut for us. Nobody knew who we were, and without a massive budget for social media marketing, our main sales channels were going to be gyms and employers. Guess what shut down first? Gyms and corporate offices. We also never had a chance to really test our model, so navigating that while scrambling to get the word out about our service as things shut down proved to be a fun challenge. Regardless, we weathered the storm and kept our doors open through careful spending and a low client turnover rate.

One other surprising challenge has been employee retention. The service industry was hit hard during the pandemic, and unemployment benefits were so good that many service industry employees weren’t interested in working. It’s amazing how many people will accept an interview, then not show up, or work a single day and never come back with zero explanation. We fortunately were able to tap into the UCSB student body to find a reliable source of employees who could now work any day of the week since classes weren’t in person. We’ve been lucky to have a virtually unending stream of quality individuals excited about a part-time job and free food.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our big idea starts with the hypothesis that knowing what to eat is only about 5% of the equation. The other 95% – the part that makes or breaks every attempt to improve one’s nutrition – is finding a way to consistently eat the nutritious foods we need.

With Quokka, we’re eliminating every barrier that keeps the typical person from making nutritious meals part of their daily routine. Quokka generates a personalized nutrition plan for each member and then delivers local, ready-to-eat meals that are tailored to each member’s plan. Members no longer worry about what to eat, how much to eat, or how much time to spend shopping and cooking.

At Quokka, we believe that having the right plan, while important, is usually the easy part. Sticking to that plan is far harder. That’s why Quokka aims to radically improve nutrition for members by making nutritious meals the most convenient, delicious, and exciting option every week.

By helping members develop and sustain great nutrition habits, we help them reach the goals that are most important to them. Whether they are trying to lose weight, gain muscle, manage diabetes, or have more energy throughout the day, Quokka members know they can count on Quokka to provide the nutrition they need for lasting change.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
From a business perspective, Los Angeles has been a great testing ground for us. Fitness, great food, and an active community are all staples of LA, really SoCal as a whole, but especially the coastal towns and cities. As such, people are excited about our diverse and tasty menu and even more jazzed that it will support the hard work they do in the gym.

What do we like least about LA. The traffic. That’s both business and personal. Deliveries take longer in LA traffic, and there are few things more frustrating than the 405 during rush hour.

Pricing:

• 6-week challenge – $14.95 per meal
• Weekly subscription – $16.95 per meal
• Breakfast meals – $11.95 each

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: quokkakitchen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quokkakitchen/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/quokkakitchen/posts/

Image Credits:
Silas Fallstitch (food photos) Austin Rusack (team and peloton photos)