Founder Spotlight: Kory Zelickson (Vejii)
Meet Kory Zelickson
Company:
Vejii Holdings Inc.
Vejii is an e-commerce marketplace where customers can access thousands of vegan products, many of which may not be available through local stores from top and local brands, with a friendly shopping experience.
Startup Stage:
Public (IPO)
Location:
Kelowna, Canada
When did you launch the business?
2020
What led you to where you are today?
My background has always been in e-commerce and marketplace models. I'm also vegan as is my whole family. We have three young children and always found that we'd have to shop at different stores to get all of the products we need on a weekly basis. While lots of grocery stores have expanded their plant-based offerings, we really felt that we could contribute by helping to mainstream plant-based products and brands with exposure to our online direct-to-consumer platform and help customers have better access to a larger variety of high-quality products.
What do you wish you knew before embarking on your entrepreneurial journey?
I've been really impressed with the collaborative culture that we've seen within the industry. We're fortunate to be working with a lot of innovative startups and from the founders to industry peers, we're seeing a great alignment. This I realize is not something I wish I had known, but more pleasantly surprised to see this level of alignment and collaboration in an industry with companies small and large.
What is the most difficult decision you've had to make regarding your business so far?
I think that while our goal is providing consumers with access to more plant-based products through our online platform, and in providing fast delivery times, one concern and tougher decision to do this really relates to our own impact as a company on our environmental footprint, and in shipping product across the country. I'm keenly aware that this has a negative impact, and we will certainly be posed with the difficult challenge of maintaining a high level of delivery service, while at the same time reducing our carbon footprint. We do have a plan for this though, and are working on it!
What can you help the VEGPRENEUR community with?
I've been an entrepreneur for my whole career and am grateful for the knowledge I've gained and experience in working within a startup environment and in scaling businesses. I'm a very collaborative person in nature, and would always welcome the opportunity to help, especially for companies in this space, which I feel are making a big impact not only on the environment and animal welfare but for humanity as a whole.
How can the VEGPRENEUR community help you?
We're growing really quickly and planning to go public. We're driving by the goal to further mainstream veganism by providing better access to plant-based products. Any help we can get on sharing that message and communicating this to our consumers we are grateful for.
Fun fact about you:
I'm from Canada! I love to hike and cook and love making vegan food for non-vegans to prove how dynamic and diverse a plant-based diet can be.
Anything else you would like to share?
Thank you for this opportunity! Lovely community :-)
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