Throughout the 21st century into the modern era, technology has and continues to pave the way for countless innovations, and numerous to come. In this day in age a great idea along with the proper resources anything is possible. Changes are happening in our world more often over each passing day. Each day, young innovators are making strides toward building a brighter future through modern technology, accompanied by relentless imagination, and a burning desire for creating a better tomorrow today. For ASU senior Ricky Johnson and ASU alumnus Brandon Caffie, their story is not much different.
Founders of the local startup, Frenzi, birthed right on the ASU (Tempe) campus, the two Sun Devils developed an app allowing tracking of domestic food supplies on a daily basis, to generate extra traffic for restaurants in time of slow business. The idea was brought about at an out of town donut shop, while Ricky Johnson was on a trip visiting his girlfriend. “We went to a donut restaurant,” explained Johnson. “At the end of the day, they have tons of donuts that they haven’t sold. The shop used to put all the extra donuts in bags and throw them in the dumpster until the community, including its city college, found out and knew better than to not capitalize on the donut opportunity. At their community college, the kids go to the shop, bring the donuts back, and eat them.” said Johnson. This sparked the idea to help restaurants better market excess produce items, limiting the amount of food wasting, and increase profit. With the help of Frenzi, both deal seekers and overstocked food discounts can find each other directly with the search of a zip code.
Since, Johnson has developed Frenzi for the iPhone, while co-founder Brandon Caffie, has been expanding its corresponding Android version. Brandon Caffie, a recent ASU computer systems engineering graduate, said, “We have it set up right now on a local basis, so it’s currently operating per zip-code.” The user inside a specified zip code radius receives notifications from nearby restaurants regarding excess food supply deals throughout the day. Frenzi now aspires to expand its reach and extend the app to all three major Arizona universities (ASU, UofA, NAU) than nationwide. With Ricky Johnson well on his way to joining Brandon Caffie in acquiring his computer systems engineering degree at ASU, the sky is the limit for the two young local founders of Frenzi.
