Shortly after joining IDEO, Justin co-led the firm’s effort to explore what data science would mean for design thinking, a project that culminated in IDEO’s acquisition of the Chicago-based data science firm Datascope Analytics in 2017. Post-acquisition, he co-led the integration of Datascope into the Chicago studio and the expansion of data science as a capability across IDEO. In its first full year, IDEO’s data science discipline exceeded its revenue target by 30% and maintained 100% employee retention fo
Before coming to IDEO, Justin was the founder and CEO of Food Genius , a foodservice data and analytics startup that was acquired by USFoods in 2016 , where it continues to operate it as an independent business unit. Customers included USFoods, McDonald’s, Safeway, Coca-Cola, and Kraft. Food Genius was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s “100 Brilliant Companies” list and received both a Chicago Innovation “Up and Comer” Award and a Core77 Design Award .
He has been featured on/in NPR’s Morning Edition , Newsweek , The Washington Post , Inc . , Restaurant Business , QSR Magazine , and Nation’s Restaurant News and has been a featured speaker / presenter at the National Restaurant Association Show, the Restaurant Leadership Conference, FARE (Foodservice at Retail) Conference, the Food Leaders Summit, NRA’s Innovation Summit, SXSWi, the Produce Marketing Association , and CUSP .