Collin Wallace never set out to find a job, a profession, or a career; he set out to find a calling, and that calling was the food and beverage business. A serial entrepreneur, Collin is CEO and co-founder of ZeroStorefront (formerly EatGeek), a platform for restaurants to connect data, analyze customer information and behavior, and help grow their business. Collin has built four companies since starting his career at age 20, all in the food and beverage business. Three were acquired by EatClub, Amcobi, and GrubHub, where he was head of innovation. When GrubHub went public in 2014 at a $2.8B valuation, only one patent out of the company’s entire portfolio didn’t have Collin’s name on it.
Collin says he’s proud to be part of the 1% of venture-backed companies in the world that are run by founders of color. Now he’s able to serve a customer base that is 29% first-generation immigrants and employs one-fifth of DACA recipients in the country.
His passion is to build innovative companies that solve interesting problems, which happened unexpectedly when the pandemic hit and his customers were scrambling to survive. Collin says ZeroStorefront can help restaurant owners and operators make the transition to the digital economy, andbelieves that with their technology, these owners have a fighting chance to stay relevant, informed, and profitable as their world rapidly digitizes.
From an entrepreneurial point of view, we think he’s doing everything right: being conservative with money in the bank, pivoting to new opportunities, sending out metrics on a regular basis, and systematically exploring customers’ needs.
About Collin Wallace
Prior to ZeroStorefront, Collin Wallace was the Head of Innovation at GrubHub. He previously built four companies: one blew up, and three were acquired by companies like EatClub, Amcobi, and GrubHub. He is also an alumni of Harvard SVMP, Google Startup Accelerator, Techstars, and YCombinator.
He studied Engineering at Georgia Tech and business at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also co-teaches the Startup Garage course at Stanford. He is an avid investor and mentor for startups, including PayJoy, Landed, Postcript.io, Skill-Lync, Taali, Hello Ava, AssetClass, Motion, PostureHealth, Moons, Homebase, Robinhood, Grab Taxi, and others. Today, he lives in San Mateo with his amazing wife Doris, daughter Zoelle and puppies Aspen & Penny.
