A Few Things with Jim Barrood

#115 Atul Sood, CEO, Kitchen United, discusses food industry trends, ghost kitchens, Mr. Beast, AI

Episode Notes

We discussed a few things including:

1. Atul's corporate and entrepreneurial journey

2. Kitchen United's story

3. Industry challenges and opportunities - ghost/dark kitchens

4. Insights/trends relating to retail, food and delivery

5. Lessons learned - importance of relationships/friendships

Atul was previously the  Chief Business Officer of Kitchen United. Previously, he was most Director of Global Business Development for McDonald’s Digital, a business unit formed to help spur technological innovation across the restaurant. In this capacity, Atul forged partnerships across the technology ecosystem – ranging from payment platforms to voice activated ordering to food delivery initiatives – to help McDonald’s build the ‘restaurant of the future’.

Prior to this role, Atul founded and sold a big data start-up in the sales intelligence space. He has also been the turnaround CEO of a company in the Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry, led business development for an enterprise software company, and been an investment banker focused on what was, at the time, a burgeoning e-commerce ecosystem. Across all these roles, Atul has been driven by a desire to hasten the adoption of new technologies and processes for disruptive business growth.

As someone who doesn’t cook (he’s cooked fewer than 5 meals all year), Atul is a firm believer in the growing market in food delivery.

Atul spent much of his life internationally and has lived in 8 countries including Japan, the UK, and Saudi Arabia. Atul graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

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