Founders Everywhere: Louise Fritjofsson
Louise Fritjofsson is the co-founder and CEO of Martie, the online marketplace for surplus and overstocked foods and household goods.
Welcome to Founders Everywhere, where we highlight the incredible people behind the companies we’ve backed at Everywhere Ventures, a global pre-seed fund supported by a community of 500 founders and operators.
Did you know 30 to 40% of foods that are being produced go straight to landfills, despite being perfectly fine to consume? While many brick-and-mortar stores are carrying these surplus and overstocked goods, Martie is the first to offer them in an online marketplace. With Martie you can enjoy up to 70% off on your shelf-stable groceries and household items, benefiting both your pocket and the planet.
Co-founders Louise Fritjofsson and Kari Morris are both seasoned entrepreneurs; Martie is Louise’s fourth company and Kari’s second. Their skills complement each other well. Louise brings expertise in building tech and e-commerce companies, while Kari has a background in building and selling CPG brands. They both have a passion for creating businesses that make a positive impact on people’s lives and the environment. Louise is originally from Sweden, but moved to California over a decade ago. She shares more about Martie and how they’re partnering with a wide range of top brands to deliver goods right to your doorstep.
Why Martie and why now?
Our initial idea was to build something big in the food industry with the vision to make people healthier. During this process, we encountered issues with surplus, especially with seasonal products. This led us to the realization that a significant amount of food goes to waste. We saw an opportunity to create a modern, accessible platform for surplus food that brands would be proud to be on. Our platform offers these products at substantial discounts, helping to reduce waste and support household budgets.
What is Martie’s North Star?
We focus on sustainability and affordability. We've saved millions of pounds of food and products from landfills and that translates to reducing carbon emissions. Not only do we have a positive impact on the environment, but we also offer the cheapest alternative when it comes to shopping staples for your family. We’re driven by the fact Martie is making a difference in families’ lives by allowing them to get better products at affordable prices.
What’s on the horizon for Martie?
We're expanding our inventory to include beauty, skincare, and home goods categories, with partners like Shiseido, Lancome, Kitchenaid, and Dyson.
Our tech team is developing an AI-based system to manage our inventory more efficiently, increasing our SKU offering from 500 to 1000.
We're planning to open more warehouses to reduce delivery times.
What have been some of the greatest challenges founding Martie?
One of the biggest challenges with rapid growth (we’re growing 20% month over month) is dealing with bottlenecks. For example, a successful PR piece can dramatically boost sales, but this can overwhelm our shipping capacity, leading to delays. Managing these fluctuations while controlling costs is tough. Today’s market demands we grow sustainably and profitably, making it crucial to balance staff levels and cash flow effectively to avoid losing sales and increasing burn rates.
Why the name Martie?
The word “mart” is another name for “market”, or “shop” and Martie rhymes with “smartie” and there’s no smarter way to shop than Martie.
Any advice to other founders?
My advice to everyone is to always give more. It's a gift to be able to give, so you will always win if you give more. I've learned that giving generously without expecting anything in return leads to greater happiness and success.
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