Grandma Knows Best
A student startup made not just for profit
It is Thursday afternoon. One of the classrooms on the second floor of AUBG Main Building is full — but there are no students sitting there. The computer lab is full of pensioners, closely looking at the screens in front of them and thoroughly clicking and typing something in. They all became a part of a free IT training course called Seniors Go Digital.
Seniors Go Digital is a collaboration between an AUBG students’ startup Grandma Knows Best, traditional Bulgarian jarred food cooked by grannies, and Euni Partners, a non-governmental organization, which promotes social entrepreneurship and also aims to help vulnerable groups within various projects. “It was a very lucky coincidence. They found us for a totally different reason. We offered to support Grandma Knows Best in the process of the creation of their social enterprise. And then we said, ‘You know, there is such an opportunity for grannies. How about combining effort and do it together?’ And now it is lovely to work together. I hope this is just the beginning,” said Ilina Yakova, director of Euni Partners.
Maksim Lezginov, an AUBG senior and a co-founder of Grandma Knows Best, is also looking forward to the development of social entrepreneurship in Bulgaria. The startup is concentrated mainly on the social aspect: by buying their product, one is investing some money into the development of social projects for elderly people. Maksim admits that the brand is entering the market at the right point. “People are interested, but there are not many companies out there who are into social entrepreneurship. It would be better if more companies were doing it. Even if our idea gets copied, I will be happy because it will bring benefits to the society,” he says.
The idea of the startup came up to the team of enthusiasts as a group project for an entrepreneurship class. Even though at the beginning of the creation process, students were mainly thinking about the ‘supply and demand’ kinds of issues, they eventually got to the point of combining business and social missions into one thing. Maksim explains that the labor market is no longer interested in hiring elderly professionals. “Grannies actually have lots of valuable skills. A lot of grannies know how to cook, as in Bulgarian society, they are the ones who often cook for the whole family. And we realized that grannies are also looking forward to the sources of extra income, but people tend not to hire them. Unfortunately, employers see grannies as inferior labor. And I am not afraid to use this word!”
The public picked the idea positively. The AUBG Marketing Department posted a story about Grandma Knows Best on the official 40,000-like university page on Facebook. A Bulgarian newspaper Treta Vazrast also published an article about the startup supporting seniors. Maksim says that the team is now pushing hard to establish a constant supply as there are many potential customers ready to purchase, “The first thirty sample jars where sold out within 24 hours. So many people just keep asking me, ‘Can we, please, buy it?’ It seems like Grandma Knows Best is maybe a little bit overhyped, but it is good. People seem like they want to support grannies by buying their foods.”
Maksim adds that Grandma Knows Best is entering the stage of rapid development. The team of AUBG students just got a $5,000 funding from Elevate, an AUBG Startup Accelerator Program. Five students are working on pure enthusiasm, not receiving any income from their project so far. “It is crazy. I am a bit anxious because I do not want to let people down. Expectations are really high. And what people do not realize is that it is indeed a really cool idea, but it is so freaking hard to do it… I am just a student, just like four other team members, and we are investing a huge amount of time in this project, even though it is almost a finals week,” says Maksim.
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Viktor Kharyton studies Journalism and Politics at the American University in Bulgaria. He would like to buy some ljutenica made by grannies.
