Name: Luigi
Role: Founder/CEO of SportsTribe
What: Startup in The Hague
This week we spoke to Luigi, one of the members of the Impact City community.
Surrounded by food
“My name is Luigi, CEO and founder of SportsTribe. Born and raised in Italy. I grew up in an environment constantly surrounded by food. This was also the key to keep my health while sustaining my strenuous sports activities. I am an endurance athlete attracted by any activity that requires more than 2 hours of effort. As every passionate athlete knows, the bond between food and performance is so strong that you can’t have one without the other. Surprisingly, I realized there were no options on the market for active people to comfortably and quickly eat healthy at home. I then started SportsTribe in The Hague to provide tasty, energy and nutrients packed food delivered to our homes. “
![delivery-box]()
No time to cook healthy food
Strenuous training, family commitments and long working hours sometimes don’t leave any spare time to cook healthy food.
“On the other hand, if you have ever checked for ready-to-eat or home-delivered meals, you probably have quickly realized that everything was reduced to frozen industrial processed food or junk food from the nearest Toko. No balance in nutrients, no freshness, everything is precooked/reheated and kept for days, a lot of taste pushing additives, a lot of preservatives and coloring. As a certified nutritionist, I created a menu where none of the nutrients are lost in meal preparation . At SportsTribe we do not cook in advance and we only steam or grill. We also use raw and additives-preservatives-coloring free ingredients as much as possible. When you open the SportsTribe delivery box in the comfort of your home, you will only see the brightest and freshest colors of nature!”
Create a network of kitchens
“SportsTribe goal is to create a network of kitchens delivering healthy energy and nutrients packed food to all “Sporters”. Our philosophy is to reuse existing infrastructures making them more efficient and profitable. This is for SportsTribe a key part of the business model as it reuses and recycles otherwise neglected public services. The Hague has many sports accommodations and community centres in the neighbourhoods which could eventually be used as SportsTribe kitchen in the future allowing the community to directly engage in healthy food provisioning. Based on recent municipal statistics, more than half of The Hague’s citizens are active, but in our opinion they still don’t have access to healthy home delivered meals. SportsTribe potentially relates to half of its population.”
How does Sportstribe source locally?
“Sportstribe sources locally on two different levels: one is the use of products that are produced nearby and the second is to use products bought nearby. in any case, we are always giving back to the local community. We also preferably use ingredients produced in Holland and in-season.”
What is the impact of Sportstribe on public health?
In Holland, 11 million of people train on a weekly base. Nobody was offering them the chance to easily eat at home with their families without the stress of knowing what to eat and how to prepare certain foods to keep nutrients intact or simply what to buy daily at the grocery store. Opening more SportsTribe pick up outlets will allow for wider and healthy eating habit.
“Many kids are training too, but a lot of them are still not eating properly; this could change too! The impact on public health could be substantial by gradually changing the approach to food preparation.”
Passion
“Passion for food and sport: Simple as that.”
SportstTribe is not, nor wants to be an industrial producer; making and delivering nutrient packed food is our humble business mission. We are driven by passion and care for the effort that every Sporters puts in his or her training!”
What is your dream for the future for Sportstribe?
To open additional outlets and to provide every day more families with the right nutrients by expanding our SportsTribe concept while using existing infrastructure sustaining local stores.
Do you have an advice for other startups
Expect half the revenues and twice the costs…
Keep believing in yourself and, when you are about to give up, take a deep breath and keep going…just like in a hard workout!
Looking for contributors
“I am looking for people who believe in our mission and energy and want to contribute with passion to a healthier community.”
Challenges
Challenges come by growing while still keeping our high quality standards. But as any other athletes…we do love our challenges!
The biggest challenge I’m facing at the moment is connecting with institutions and private entrepreneurs to build a SportsTribe network. My business model requires a small-size kitchen network. For example, at least 4 kitchens would be needed to supply the demand in Den Haag. Finding entrepreneurs or institutions who believe in the concept with a great love for sport and health is key to a strong and successful SportsTribe distribution network.
Impact City
“I believe Impactcity is a great platform that allows sharing and learning about innovative ideas and businesses.”
Innovation is key to progrees and development, impactcity is connecting all dots towards a brighter future.
“As a young entrepreneur I am well aware of all the challenges of a new start up. Thankfully Impactcity provides support to hard workers to fulfill their dreams for a better Den Haag.”
Where to find SportsTribe
SportsTribe is closed and reopens at September 3rd. You can find and order a package of healthy food at:
The post Sportstribe: tasty, energetic and nutrients packed food delivered in Den Haag appeared first on Impact City The Hague Innovators.