When MBJ asked Taiwo “Tai” Stanback what stands out most about her experiences with Youdle, she took time to think — then described the feeling that comes with creating a startup.
“Over a year ago, this was all an idea, but in November when we launched in stores, and it became a reality, that was like, ‘Wow’,” she said. “We have a startup that we built literally from the ground up in Memphis. That’s huge.”
Led by Stanback — co-founder and chief strategy officer — Kontji Anthony, Johnita Anthony, and Aurora Anthony, Youdle brings store inventories into one app, so shoppers can efficiently find what they need. Stanback describes it as the “Kayak of shopping,” and the startup is gaining momentum. Currently, it’s looking to hire in multiple areas.
They do face challenges. Stanback said it’s been difficult to gain funding for their tech startup.
But she’s confident they’ll overcome this, as they seek to further bolster the company and secure $1.8 million in funding. And her confidence comes after a long career — one that’s spanned multiple sectors and vastly different parts of the country.
The Ivy League and Capitol Hill
Stanback was raised in Memphis, in the Bethel Grove neighborhood. From an early age, she knew she wanted to live here. Memphis, she explained, had her heart.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t also prepared to leave for a time.
So after graduating from Ridgeway High School, she swapped the Southeast for the Northeast, enrolled at Yale University, and studied political science.
Once she graduated, Stanback held several different jobs. She worked on the Senate campaign for Ned Lamont, now the governor of Connecticut. She worked for New Haven Public Schools. In 2008, she took a staff assistant position with U.S. congressman Steve Cohen, proved herself, and became a community advisor. She traveled back and forth between Memphis and Washington, D.C., serving as a bridge between the two.
Stanback enjoyed the work and considered politics a passion. Yet as she continued in the role, she began to feel that the government wasn’t doing enough to prepare people for a future that was coming quickly.
In 2014, Stanback left her position with the U.S. House and started a consulting firm in D.C. To earn extra income, she delivered groceries with Instacart on the side — and this experience would help change the trajectory of her career.
Way out west
The start with Instacart, Stanback said, is “when the future of work really slapped me.”
The world, she realized, was changing, and more and more, technology was seeping its way into a variety of industries.
“If you go deep into the future of the work, it’s not just the warehouse jobs that are leaving,” she said. “The top of the funnel is getting smaller and smaller as automation and machines work side by side with humans.”
Stanback started to think about making a career shift and moving to the West Coast, a hub for tech and software companies. But she also knew her credentials wouldn’t get her the type of position she wanted.
“Holistically, I didn’t like to be pigeonholed into anything,” she said. “I wasn’t going to have the experience to get the job I wanted. They would have put me in community relations or public policy … and again, I wanted more.”
So, Stanback decided to gain more training, and enrolled in a 12-week course in San Francisco with education organization General Assembly. After gaining a certificate in human-centered design, she worked as a product management intern with Adobe.
Then, she scored an exciting job — and a lot of experience — with the California startup Robby Technologies, which was developing a self-driving delivery vehicle. Just the sixth hire for the company, Stanback worked as an operations manager, and helped the startup succeed. Robby earned a contract with Pepsi and developed the “snack bot,” which would roll about on college campuses, like a self-driving snack machine. There was also potential in high-rise buildings and stadiums.
But the pandemic stunted Robby’s growth; college campuses, stadiums, and offices were closed.
With Robby’s work paused, and its resumption unclear, Stanback started to think about next steps. She couldn’t see her friends in California, and in Memphis, her father’s cancer had returned.
She decided to leave Silicon Valley and come back to the Bluff City, which had always been the plan — just not this soon.
The return to Memphis, however, would bring another opportunity. And it’s one she’s still capitalizing on today.
'This is data'
Stanback had known Kontji Anthony for years. They had met while she worked for Cohen. When she returned, the two reconnected, and one day, Anthony showed her a popular Facebook page she had created called Product Sightings — where people could post photos and locations of products that were in short supply.
Quickly, Stanback saw its potential.
“Kontji,” she told her, “This is data.”
That conversation helped lead to brainstorming and meetings, which ultimately led to the creation of the current startup, Youdle.
And working in Memphis, she’s noticed advancement in the local startup and tech world — progress that wasn’t necessarily there when she worked for Cohen.
"I left and came back, and I see some infrastructure here. … There’s a lot of potential in Memphis for retooling and technology,” she said. “I’m grateful to be back in a city that’s thinking about those things, and where I can be a part of bringing the city into the future."
