Food Genius founder Justin Massa ? has stepped away from day-to-day operations at the 5-year-old startup, which offers data and insights into the food-service industry. On Tuesday, he began a full-time position in the Chicago office of design consultancy IDEO.
In January, Massa ceded the role of CEO at Food Genius to Jason Felger, a co-founder of the I2A Fund (now Chicago Ventures) who also worked on new business at Redbox. Felger joined Food Genius in August 2014 as COO, after years as a mentor and investor in the business.
By early 2015, Food Genius was shifting away from a focus on dashboards and reports based on scraped menu data — Massa’s domain — and toward a data-as-a-service model, which Felger was overseeing.
“I was a little extraneous,” Massa said.
By May, Massa decided to leave his full-time role at Food Genius while remaining a shareholder and active board member. Massa said he had to set his pride aside and recognized that replacing himself was the best thing for the company.
“My own skills and passion very much lie in bringing something from zero to one,” Massa said. “After getting to work with Jason for three or four months, it became very clear to me that his skill is bringing something from one to 10.”
After a summer spent traveling, spending time with his daughter and working three days a week at IDEO, where in 2012 Food Genius was a startup in residence, Massa said he is excited to dive full time into a role where he can explore design as it relates to data. He said he’ll also do some projects related to business strategy and, of course, food.
Massa said friends and colleagues were at first surprised by the news of his departure but quickly understood it. And Felger was no small part of that.
Owen Shapiro, a board member and investor at Food Genius and president at market research firm Shapiro + Raj, said Massa’s departure was a “natural progression.” As Food Genius now moves to scale aggressively, Shapiro said he feels positive about the company’s future with Felger at the helm.
“Justin had really provided the vision and the main ideas and developed the original insights that formed the basis of the business,” Shapiro said. “The skill set that Jason was bringing in was what was needed at the time.”
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Felger said economic considerations influenced Massa who, as a shareholder, was more interested in share value than salary. He added that it was in Food Genius’ best interest to cut expenses.
“If we had infinite resources, it would be great to have (Justin) around the office,” Felger said. “But most early-stage companies don’t have that kind of luxury. I don’t second-guess the decision whatsoever.”
Massa said he is excited to do what he does best.
“IDEO is pretty much an entire business about bringing things from zero to one,” then handing off to someone else to operate, he said.
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