"I couldn't cook! I started an Internet Company but had no money and couldn't code!" — Mengting Bönsch

Mengting Bönsch is the co-founder and former CEO of Kitchen
Stories, a global cooking platform with over 22 million users.
Kitchen Stories was initially bootstrapped for several years by
Mengting and Verena Hubertz, who is now part of the SPD
parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, Mengting is now an
investor and founder of a healthcare company called Leni's Lab.
They had no programming or even cooking skills when they started
building Kitchen Stories, which makes their story extremely
unique. It quickly became a leading cooking platform in 150
countries and even caught the attention of Apple CEO Tim Cook,
who visited their Berlin office.This episode is hosted by Nour
Idelbi and Ahmad Zandnia.





Timestamps:


0:00 Intro – Welcome to Roots 2 Disrupt Podcast with Mengting
Bönsch


1:03 Meet Mengting Bönsch – Co-founder of Kitchen Stories


1:38 From China to Germany – How immigration shaped her journey


3:35 Biggest Challenges as an Immigrant Entrepreneur


7:45 How Kitchen Stories Started – From a crazy idea to reality


11:00 The Initial Struggles – No money, no coding, no cooking
skills


14:11 Breaking into the Startup Scene – Feeling like an outsider?


16:29 How Apple CEO Tim Cook Discovered Kitchen Stories


18:15 Funding Struggles – Convincing investors without a network


22:36 How to Get Early Users – Growth hacks that built 22M users


28:08 The Power of Design – Why UX & details made Kitchen
Stories win


31:45 The Role of Female Founders in Tech – A different
perspective?


34:38 Scaling a Startup – From Berlin to a 150 other countries


37:50 How Kitchen Stories Built a Global Community


42:05 Life After Kitchen Stories – What’s next for Mengting?44:45
New Startup: Leni’s Lab – Solving a big problem for parents


50:52 Fundraising Advice for Founders – How to win investors


55:45 Final Thoughts – Key lessons from Mengting’s journey





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Music: BensoundArtist


Lunar Years


License code: WNLILNYY3YFTR1VJ





#StartupSuccess #KitchenStories #Entrepreneurship #FounderJourney
#TimCook #WomenInTech #StartupGrind #ProductDesign
#ImmigrantEntrepreneurs #BusinessGrowth #FoodTech #StartupAdvice
#roots2disrupt