Our mission

Reduce food waste through automation

Shelf Engine is transforming how grocery stores buy highly perishables.
We help our customers significantly increase profits and drastically reduce food waste in thousands of retail locations across the country.

Our principles

We believe
in a triple win

In doing work that is unreservedly good for customers, consumers, and the environment. Shelf Engine’s impact to date is thanks to our inventive, transparent, and growing team who is committed to these shared principles.
01

Make the
first move.

We're all leaders. Don't wait for someone else to do it. Be bold and take the initiative to get things started.
02

Make better decisions.

Repeated good decisions have a virtuous compounding effect. Treat decision-making with care.
03

Be furiously curious.

Investigate how and why things work the way they do.
04

Commit and deliver.

Deliver the best results, fast.
05

Have empathy.

Seek to understand your teammates and our customers. Reflect what you see, support one another, collaborate — and camaraderie will ensue.
06

Invent solutions.

The answer won’t always be obvious. The question isn’t can it work: it’s how.
07

Be authentic.

Bring your truest self to your work and into all your interactions. Even when things are tough, be respectful.
Served fresh
Read the latest foodservice trends and grocery innovations on our
Off The Shelf blog.
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Our impact

Nothing makes us prouder than the results we’ve achieved for our customers and our planet — and we’re just getting started.

4.5
million pounds of
food waste prevented
in 2021
15%
average gross
margin expansion
5
hours of labor
saved per category,
per store, per week
Our story

There’s got to be a better way… Stefan discovered the problem of food waste firsthand while running Molly’s, a grab & go food company he started in 2009. By 2014 Stefan had grown the company to over 400 regional retail locations, but ordering accurately proved to be challenging. Molly’s food waste was at 28% and was eating into their bottom line.

Hungry for a better solution, Stefan talked to his friend (and Co-Founder) Bede Jordan about the problem. At the time, Bede was working at Microsoft as the HoloLens Principle Software Engineering Lead. With Stefan’s actuarial science background and Bede’s engineering brilliance, they were able to build a model and app to considerably improve perishable food forecasting. The result? Cutting Molly’s food waste in half, down to 13%.

In 2016, Stefan and Bede quit their day jobs to launch Shelf Engine with the mission of transforming the food supply chain by helping grocery stores reduce waste and increase sales through intelligent forecasting. Today Shelf Engine is managing orders for top grocers in thousands of stores nationwide, drastically increasing grocer profits and sales by minimizing shrink and out-of-stocks. Come join us on our mission to reduce food waste through automation.

"There's got to be a better way."
Stefan Kalb, Co-Founder
Shelf life
January 2014

Stefan and Bede come up with the idea of Shelf Engine

October 2016

Shelf Engine is incorporated and moves into first office…in a basement

February 2017

Hire first employee

March 2017

First customer, Metier Cafe

June 2018

Joined YC S18 cohort

August 2018

Raise $4.3M seed round

October 2018

First national client, Whole Foods

February 2020

Raise $12M Series A and launch of the Shelf Engine field team

November 2020

Team reaches 100 employees

March 2021

Raise $41M Series B to further transform the grocery supply chain

September 2021

Team tops 200 employees

Join us

Come be a part of this story. Shelf Engine is looking for people who are passionate about helping us reduce food waste through automation.

View open positions

Let's talk!

We’ll show you how Shelf Engine boosts sales, simplifies fresh ordering, and strengthens shopper loyalty.

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