Starting in March, grocery e-commerce company JOKR, which delivers food from its own stores to consumers in 15 minutes, is valued at $ 1.2 billion. It is one of the fastest-growing unicorns in history thanks to its high know-how and unique skills. Aspa Lekka, emphasizes that their success is also attributable to the trust and respect the team has developed.
Speaking to Outliers, Endeavor Greece podcast with media partner Moneyreview.gr, Aspa Lekka explains that the JOKR team already had, among other things, the know-how in logistics and the expertise to develop an application focused on the consumer. Thus, as the market evolved due to the pandemic, with more and more consumers wanting to do their shopping digitally, JOKR took the opportunity to identify areas that remained uncovered in terms of such services.
Within a few months, the company reached operations in a total of seven countries, mainly in Latin America and secondarily in the USA, with a small presence in Europe. At the same time, it maintains at least 200 dark stores, which are managed by JOKR itself, while it employs up to 600 people, excluding those who do the delivery and sorting of products, which is estimated to amount to about 2,000.
It is noteworthy that all employees are full-time with the aim to give everyone the same employment opportunities.
Main idea
According to Aspa Lekka, who among the group of five founders specializes in operations and development, JOKR is trying to reverse the habit of consumers to buy all week shopping together. “You do not need to plan anymore!”, She says referring to the flexibility that one can have, when one can find the materials and products he needs at his door in 15 minutes.
At the same time, 70% of the products that JOKR sells are local. The company tries to give the local suppliers the opportunity to stand out, while making sure that the platform itself is easily accessible to suppliers.
Additionally, one of the goals of the company is to offer a great variety for consumers, so that one can see completely different products on a Monday morning, in comparison to a Saturday night.
The secret of success
Aspa Lekka, who was born and raised in Ioannina, studied there and was fascinated by the new world she met outside of Greece through Erasmus and internships during her student years. She emphasizes that in order to stand out, one must truly love what one does.
You should do it neither for fame nor for money, she emphasizes, quoting the same phrase and for her goal to complete an MBA at Harvard. “Because the goals we set can overwhelm us, in the sense that they require a lot of time, effort, responsibility and energy, we have to do something that really interests us,” she told Outliers.