January 30, 2017

Meet Samad Nasserian of Cozymeal in Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samad Nasserian.

Samad, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I come from a family where everyone loves to cook and appreciates good food. I always enjoyed cooking and this passion for good food even grew bigger when I moved to California from Germany over 9 years ago and experienced the great produce and diverse cuisines here, especially in melting pot cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. At the same time, I have been frustrated may times by experiences in restaurants where often it’s loud and noisy, the quality of the food is only mediocre, and you never interact with the chef., I knew that if I was going to book the chef in the restaurant directly and have him come to my home and cook for me, the food would be much better.

Being a marketplace veteran (I was in leadership roles at JustAnswer and Upwork prior to launching Cozymeal), I decided to do just that by starting Cozymeal. On our site, you can easily find and book chefs for catering, private dining and cooking classes with just a few button clicks. We work with the best local chefs in town and all chefs have to pass our strict vetting process before they can join the Cozymeal platform. We are used by both consumers and companies who book us for everything from team lunches (drop-off catering) to holiday dinners at home (serviced catering or private dining) and cooking classes.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Starting a new company from nothing is never easy. We have had many challenges along the way, but that is what has created the excitement and what makes me even more proud to see how far Cozymeal has come. We are now in 7 cities across the nation and have been receiving rave reviews from customers and the press. In addition to all consumers who love using our catering and cooking class services, we are also used regularly by almost all major companies from Google to Facebook to major banks and consulting companies.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Cozymeal – what should we know?
Cozymeal connects food lovers with local professional chefs who offer cooking classes, corporate team building activities, and catering experiences. With Cozymeal, guests can easily browse a variety of menus spanning a range of global cuisines. From large corporate parties to small gatherings or public cooking classes, events are held at either the chef’s place, the customer’s place, or at unique local venues. Cozymeal launched in 2014 and is currently servicing the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, DC and Boston with existing plans for expansion.

I’m very proud and grateful to hear from both consumers and companies how easy it is now to find and book a high-quality chef through Cozymeal’s platform. They often wonder “Why didn’t we have this a few years ago?” We try to make the process of finding and booking a catering, private dining or cooking class experience as easy as calling an Uber while ensuring a high-quality experience. Also, we are of course proud that through our platform, we have enabled chefs to make a good living and offer a better alternative for them than working in restaurants.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
There are a lot of people who helped us get where we are now and deserve credit for this. From our investors and my mentors, who believed in me and the company especially in the early days, to my team members who work hard in ensuring that every experience booked on Cozymeal is a success to our chefs who make our catering and cooking class experiences possible. If I had to list each of these people, we would have a very long list!

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