👋 I'm Justin Massa. 

I help SMBs thrive with generative AI.

I'm the publisher of AI for SMBs Weekly and the owner of Midwest Quality Consulting (MQC). MQC is the sum of what I've learned from 15 years of helping companies win by innovating with emerging technologies, adapted specifically for small and medium sized businesses. I also serve on the board of the Northern Illinois Food Bank, where I co-chair on the Innovation Task Force, and the advisory board of 1848 Ventures. 

Previously, I was a Senior Vice President at Newlab, where I led business development and consulting, and was a member of the executive leadership team. Before that, I was a director ➡️ partner at IDEO (2015-2023). I led business development for IDEO's North American consulting business from and was a founding member of Helix, the firm's internal DE&I leadership team. My client work focused on venture design with an emphasis on strategy, the intersection of data science and design, and B2B products and services. 

I co-led IDEO’s effort to explore what data science would mean for design thinking, a project that culminated in IDEO’s acquisition of a data science firm in 2017. After this acquisition, I co-led the expansion of data science as a capability across IDEO. In its first full year, IDEO’s data science discipline exceeded its revenue targets by 30% and the discipline would have 100% employee retention for 3+ years. 

Before joining IDEO, I was the founder and CEO of Food Genius, a foodservice data and analytics startup that was acquired by USFoods in 2017, where it continues to operate it as an independent business unit. In 2019, Food Genius was responsible for driving more than $150MM in incremental sales for USFoods.

Food Genius served nationally recognized restaurant chains, convenient store and grocery retailers, consumer packaged goods manufacturers and food distributors such as Dine Equity, Kraft, Unilever, Reinhart Foodservice, and Safeway. Food Genius received a Chicago Innovation "Up-and-Comer"​ Award, a Core77 Design Award, and was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s list of 100 Brilliant Companies (2013).

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photo credit: Nico Zurcher