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Interview: Gourmet Society PH Founders Share Insights On The Philippine Start-Up Scene
Gourmet Society PH Founders Share Insights On The Philippine Start-Up Scene
For most people from the outside world… outside Philippines, that is… I’m
throwing a dumbfounded expression when I say that the start-up scene in Manila, Philippines
is starting to rock like a diamond in the rough. It’s opening and growing up to be
vital, resilient, and inexhaustible. Yes, true story. And though I can’t
completely vouch that it will be the NEXT BIG THING anytime soon, I know it’s
going to happen in this (my) lifetime. Yes, true story.
I know I’m at a completely different layer of "start-up", since
I have been working for start-up / project teams in Fortune-500s-slash-MNCs-all-my-life, I’m still a religious
follower of all the people who are a part of the start-up scene – doing their
part, playing their role, living the dream.
With that said, I’d like to usher in this really cool food-tech rock stars who’ve been reveling into this start-up
frontier that may be of interest to you. A special shout-out to the creative director, together with the
rest of her team, for helping to share some intuitions and insights on what’s
it like to be part of a Philippine start-up company - the Gourmet Society PH.
Gourmet
Society Philippines is not just an
additional headcount in the Philippines’ start-up scene; it’s one of the very
few that completely understands what it’s like to live in a food-driven culture
– appreciates that food is a universal
language, just like any Filipino.
Gourmet Society PH is all about redefining
restaurant privileges not only
through discounts, and collaboration
projects with restaurants, but also by ensuring
an unforgettable dining experience. They’ve got more than a mouthful of
impressive restaurant list. As a member, you will get 20% flat-out discount at
all partner restaurants, no minimum spend required – “generosity buffet” over
here, yes.
Enjoy the interview!
*****
For the first set, the answers are from the
Gourmet Society PH’s Founder and Chairman Aidan Bishop
Bowdy: What inspired you to start Gourmet Society PH
and actually do it in the Philippines?
Aidan: I was in London and my
auntie gave a gift to my brother, which was a restaurant privilege card.
This sparked my imagination as to the possibility of doing something similar in
the Philippines. When I came back (home) to the Philippines I started to
look into the market potential and quickly discovered that the opportunity was
a big one. Filipinos love to eat
out and love discounts - a privilege card giving both seemed like a natural
combination! Starting something like this in the Philippines has not
been without its challenges but it has been an incredible journey to date and the best part of it is that we are just
really starting to scratch the surface of where our company is going so
watch this space!
Bowdy: What are some of the characteristics of people
that have been successful at your company?
Aidan: Attitude. Quick to
learn. Creative. Persistant. Adaptable. Results
orientated. These are some of the traits that we look for. It takes
a certain type of person who can work (and thrive) in a startup environment.
There is no place to hide and we don't have the same infrastructure as a big
corporate. So it is definitely not
for the faint hearted but there are so many life lessons that can be learnt
in a startup so a sense of fun is always a welcome personality trait! I
almost forgot to add that there has to be an absolute and undeniable love of
food to work in Gourmet Society :)
Bowdy: Any advice you would share with other
entrepreneurship enthusiasts?
Aidan: Having
an inquisitive mind is essential and always trying to understand how things
work and how they can be better can give birth to some great ideas.
However making ideas happen is all about the execution - this is the hard
part! If I was to travel back in
time and do this again I would have looked to start in a far more simplistic
way. I would suggest the importance of getting something out there
first and adapt then maybe you can write your own story.
The other half is from the CEO and Co-founder,
Joost Boer
Bowdy: How would you describe the culture in Gourmet
Society PH?
Joost: As is the case for many startups, we're building a flat, open, non-hierarchical culture. The
atmosphere is light and casual, though we're obviously driven by a sense of
urgency. At the end of the day, we've got a company to build and that requires
hard work.
An attractive element about Gourmet Society's
culture is it's strong focus on learning. As a team, we continuously strive to become smarter, faster and
better. It's interesting to see Gourmet Society beefing up every day - through
striking partnerships with restaurants, sharpening up in it's marketing or
improving its website and apps - while simultaneously seeing the individuals
making up the company also grow.
Both these things - the visible growth of the company and the
growth of the team - are important factors, which in a really positive way feed
back into the company's culture. Couple that with good bonds between the team
members and you've got yourself a strong company culture.
Bowdy: What are the most interesting challenges in
industry of your start-up?
Joost: Our company hinges on a two-sided business
model: Traction is
required both among restaurant partners as well with consumers. I believe this
type of business to be among the most challenging types of business out there,
as there's not one but two groups of incredibly important stakeholders which
have to be kept happy. Basically, users need a sufficient supply of restaurants
to choose from and restauranteurs need to see a sufficient amount of Gourmet
Society members visiting their venue.
Joost: I can't speak for the entire Philippines, but the startup scene here in Manila is pretty
vibrant. I think that Manila is more and more shaping up to become a really
important startup hub in Asia and there are some really interesting ventures
rising up. Examples coming to mind are PawnHero.ph (which is overthrowing the century-old
brick-and-mortar pawnshops who charge outrageous interest rates) and FourEyes.ph (which sells fashionable yet affordable
eyewear online, and donates a pair of glasses for each pair sold to Filipinos
unable to afford eyewear). Generally
speaking, there's quite some optimism going on in the startup scene here and
that's what makes it nice to be a part of it.
Less attractive facets of the startup scene are mostly tied to
external factors which are similar for many developing nations: loads of red
tape, a lack of proper infrastructure (e.g. painfully slow internet) and life
just moving forward a tad slow in general (e.g. public non-working holidays
appear to creep in several times per month) - which can be challenging when
building a company.
As for the funny, well, Filipinos are definitely a fun-loving people and often have a
great sense of humor. So there's plenty of fun to go around. :-)
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