Julia Collins is a

food tech ''Food Tech'' is a television series on the History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture b ...

entrepreneur who has spent her career building food companies, including Zume Pizza where she became the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company.

Early life and education

Collins was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California. She earned her Bachelor’s from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 2001 and her Master of Business Administration from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 2009.

Career

Collins first started in the New York restaurant industry, co-creating a restaurant chain, Mexicue in 2010 and serving as director of Murray's Cheese in 2012. In 2015, Collins helped develop Zume Pizza as a co-founder with Alex Garden. Zume Pizza is a robot-powered pizza-making business that uses robotics and automation to create pizza. As of 2018, the Zume Pizza is worth 2.25 billion. Through Zume, Collins became the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company. In 2019, Collins also founded Planet FWD, a carbon management platform for consumer brands to help understand their carbon footprint. Some of the major brands Planet FWD has worked with are:

Clif Bar Clif Bar & Company is an American producer of energy foods and drinks. The company's flagship product, Clif Bar, was created by Gary Erickson and Lisa Thomas. The company is based in Emeryville, California, and was privately held until 2022 when ...

Blue Apron Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. is an American ingredient-and-recipe meal kit company headquartered in New York City, operating its services exclusively in the United States. It offers weekly boxes containing ingredients, which also includes suggeste ...

, Kashi,

Numi Organic Tea Numi Organic Tea is a privately owned triple bottom line social enterprise based in Oakland, California. Numi is known for its assortment of organic and fair trade certified teas and herbal "teasans". The company was founded in 1999 by brother ...

. They also sell their own brand of carbon neutral snacks called Moonshot Snacks, with a focus on regenerative agricultural practices, local suppliers and recycled packaging.

References

{{Authority control Living people Stanford University alumni Harvard University alumni Businesspeople from San Francisco American technology company founders American women company founders 21st-century American women Year of birth missing (living people) American technology businesspeople