A coffee with… Nicolás Escasany, Customer Success Officer at LetsCook

Nicolás was born in Argentina and has been living in Spain since 2016. He is an industrial engineer and, in 2018, he graduated with an Executive MBA from EADA, Barcelona. He has worked as a commercial controller and in the marketing area in leading multinational companies in the durable goods sector. However, he has always had an entrepreneurial streak. Since his university days, he has developed several projects with friends and colleagues, which allowed him to explore the world of value creation.

At the end of 2018, he founded LetsCook together with his partner, friend and fellow master’s student, Gustav Johansson. Since then, they have been on this exciting journey for more than five years, facing various challenges and celebrating numerous successes.

Empack: Nicolás, tell us a bit about LetsCook and your role in the company.

Nicolás: LetsCook is a Barcelona-based startup specialising in recipe kits. We are dedicated to sending ingredients in exact quantities along with their recipes so that you can cook at home without complications. In many households, the same question arises every day: “What’s for dinner? Without realising it, we end up buying and cooking the same thing every week, limiting ourselves to the 5 or 6 recipes that we know and that fit the usual ingredients in our pantry.

At LetsCook, we have simplified this process. All you have to do is log on to our website, choose the plan you like best, specify the number of people and select the amount of food you want to cook.

We deliver the kits once a week, usually between Tuesday and Wednesday. You keep them in the fridge and, when you want to cook, you have everything ready. Simply scan the QR code and follow the step-by-step instructions. In about 30 minutes, you will have a healthy and delicious dish prepared with your own hands.

As Co-Founder of LetsCook, I am responsible for marketing, customer service and logistics. My day-to-day work focuses on being attentive to the needs of our customers, answering their questions and resolving their queries. I greatly enjoy seeing how LetsCook integrates into the kitchens of so many households, discovering what they like best and how we can improve to continue growing and reaching more families.

Empack: After your first steps since 2018, what is LetsCook’s commitment to sustainability?

Nicolás: LetsCook has always had a firm commitment to sustainability, which today has become one of our differentiating pillars compared to the competition. All the decisions we make at startup management level have sustainability as a central consideration.

Our customers recognise our efforts to minimise the use of plastic and package ingredients as sustainably as possible when they receive our kits. One of LetsCook’s most notable innovations is our reverse logistics of glass jars.

Many of our liquids are packaged in glass jars to ensure quality and minimise environmental impact, as everything is recyclable. The revolutionary thing about this system is that the glass jars can be returned to the delivery driver the following week when he delivers the new order. At our facility, we clean, sterilise and reuse them up to five times.

We make great efforts to reduce the use of plastic, although we have not yet found perfect solutions for certain ingredients, such as animal protein or fresh herbs, which require plastic packaging for proper preservation.

In addition, we provide our customers with a recycling guide that shows how to handle each packaging component responsibly.

Empack: In this line, what do you think are the biggest advantages of having fairs like Empack and Logistics & Automation, both for the commitment to the environment, as well as for our industrial fabric?

Nicolás: Packaging represents approximately 7% of LetsCook’s costs. We have more than 100 SKUs for packaging alone, including different types of biodegradable bags for vegetables, medium paper bags for dry ingredients such as rice, noodles and couscous, as well as small paper bags for spices. The volume of bags used in kits and boxes for long-distance shipments is also critical.

This is why attending trade fairs such as Empack and Logistics & Automation is extremely beneficial for us. Having the main suppliers together in one place saves us time and helps us to close gaps. I find that face-to-face contact is much more efficient than virtual contact; the big deals are done face-to-face, and Empack is a place that facilitates these valuable opportunities.

We attend every year to meet with our existing suppliers and to meet new suppliers who can help us continually improve the value we offer. In addition, we believe that Empack is at the forefront of new technologies, and it is always interesting to learn and identify innovations that we can implement in our business.

Empack: From your point of view Nicolás, what do you think will be the 3 key points that mark Empack’s success?

Nicolas: In the field of packaging, several aspects are crucial and constantly evolving. Sustainability and the use of environmentally friendly materials are trends that are becoming increasingly important and will continue to deepen over time. Both consumer demand and government regulations are driving companies to reduce their environmental impact and adopt more sustainable practices.

On the other hand, I wanted to highlight a distinctive attribute of LetsCook: our reverse logistics of glass jars. We strongly believe in the circular economy and the long-term value it brings. Companies that adopt this approach will not only be contributing to the environment, but will also enjoy a clear competitive advantage. The implementation of this system involves not only packaging design, but also the optimisation of logistics processes.

Furthermore, packaging technology will play a crucial role in the future. The emergence of smart packaging, capable of interacting with consumers and guaranteeing the freshness of food, will be a growing trend. The integration of technologies such as QR codes, RFID tags and sensors embedded in packaging will enable better traceability and product management, thus improving consumer experience and supply chain efficiency.

Empack: As entrepreneurs, what advice would you give to young talents who are starting out in the packaging industry?

Nicolás: I firmly believe that the most important thing is people. Who you surround yourself with, whether they are partners, associates, investors, mentors or fellow travellers in this venture, will make the difference. In the end, they are the ones who will advise, help and improve you along the way, and that is the most valuable thing.

In parallel, it is crucial to focus on the customer problem that the entrepreneur wants to solve. It is essential to become an expert on that problem and to deeply understand the customer. Once the problem is understood, different solutions should be considered. It is important not to fall in love with a single solution. Launching an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) as quickly as possible allows you to get it wrong quickly and cheaply. Listen to a lot of customer feedback and iterate the solution until you reach the ideal balance between what solves the customer’s problem and what you can offer to make it scalable.

Share this article