As an African American entrepreneur, Julia’s professional focus is on building successful businesses in the food industry that provide great jobs to the communities in which they operate and great food to the people that they serve. After graduating from Stanford Business School, Julia joined Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, working on such brands as Shake Shack where she worked for the company’s future CEO, Randy Garutti.
Prior to founding Zume Pizza, Julia lead the management team of Harlem Jazz Enterprises as the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, where her team won Best New Restaurant in America in 2014. She is still part of the ownership team that oversees the operation of two restaurants in Harlem: The Cecil, an award-winning Afro-Asian Brasserie and Minton’s an historic jazz supperclub.
In 2015, Julia co-founded Zume Pizza, Inc where she served President. Zume Pizza is a technology-enabled food company whose mission is to make healthier food fast and accessible to every single person on earth.
Based in Mountain View, Zume Pizza has created a team of humans and robots that work collaboratively to create the safest possible environment for food production. Through its investment in automation, Zume Pizza is able to source 100% of its ingredients from local farmers that use sustainable agricultural practices and ethical farming methods. Unlike most food delivery companies, all of Zume’s workers are employees of the company with fully subsidized health insurance. Zume’s pizzas have no added-sugar, and on average contain 40% fewer calories, half the fat and half the cholesterol of competing pizza companies.
“For me, the question has always been, how can we reform our food systems so that they work better for people and work better for the planet?” Collins said. “That’s been the thread that has connected all of my work in food. It’s always been how can we change the existing infrastructure and the ways of doing business so that we create better outcomes.”
https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/12/zume-co-founder-goes-from-pizza-to-climate-friendly-food-with-2-7-million-in-funding/
The startup uses automated machines, like a sauce-spreading robot named Marta, to make pizzas via an assembly line, slicing the pizza making process down to just one human worker to spread toppings and do a quality control check. Zume Pizza says the speedy process cuts delivery times down to five to 20 minutes to customers in the Mountain View area.
Julia Collins, Co-founder and co-CEO, Zume Pizzeria, discusses her pizzeria in Silicon Valley, which uses robots to make pizza.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHCWKoeUImE
https://www.crunchbase.com/person/julia-collins
https://www.inc.com/anna-meyer/how-this-female-founder-raised-425-million-for-an-automated-pizza-business-that-delivers-to-silicon-valley-in-5-minutes.html
https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/12/zume-co-founder-goes-from-pizza-to-climate-friendly-food-with-2-7-million-in-funding/