Alex Darko is the founder and CEO of Menufinder Africa, a curated food delivery app operating in Ghana. Adrian and Alex discuss the ins and outs of the food delivery industry in Africa, focusing on how Menufinder Africa differentiates itself from Billion Dollar competitors such as Bolt Food and Glovo.
We delve into the importance of customer satisfaction and go into detail about the delivery radius and the challenges faced when customers request deliveries beyond that. Alex also mentions the possibility of introducing a menu finder plus type subscription to increase the delivery radius. The conversation takes an interesting turn as they discuss the concept of cloud kitchens and how they can revolutionise the logistics and timing of food delivery. Alex gives examples of successful cloud kitchens and talks about the potential for expansion in other areas. Adrian emphasizes the importance of branding and covers the recent success of Menufinder Africa, onboarding more restaurants and experiencing a significant increase in revenues.
Show Notes: https://thesoundofaccra.com/menufinder
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Website: https://www.menufinderafrica.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menufinderafrica/
Download on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.menufinderafrica&pli=1
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Timestamps
00:00:00 Welcome to Sound of Accra podcast, featuring Alex Darko.
00:05:15 "Small niche company with excellent customer service."
00:08:30 Sales background shapes outcomes, making people happy.
00:09:31 Growing brand dominates Africa with recent success.
00:13:52 Restaurant partners in East Legon, Cantonments, etc. Advantageous for merchants with multiple locations.
00:15:48 A customer-centric approach with limited resources.
00:20:08 COVID changed perceptions.
00:23:57 Market revolution: On-demand delivery startups in Africa
00:26:34 Expensive smartphone market trends and cloud kitchens.
00:30:24 Build a sustainable culture and solving real problems.
00:32:36 Links, references, nuggets
Topics covered in this session:
- Importance of aligning all aspects of the business for customer satisfaction
- Delivery radius and potential introduction of a subscription service in Accra
- Advantages of multiple restaurant locations
- Affordability and popularity of smartphones in driving food delivery usage
- Competition in the food delivery market and the potential use of cloud kitchens
- Importance of covering every touchpoint to echo the brand
- Recent success and growth of the company without significant investment
- Opportunities for startups and companies in the on-demand delivery sector
- Impact of COVID-19 on remote work culture and online services
- Market climate and opportunity for on-demand delivery startups in Africa
- Experience of starting a business and putting oneself in the customer's shoes
- Financial limitations and the inevitability of being wrong in a startup
- Importance of customer experience, longevity, and building a culture
- Relying on data to evaluate features and necessity
- Unique approach to customer service and focus on customer satisfaction
- Challenges of rapid expansion and cost-saving in the food delivery industry
- Observations on the local economy and rebounding prices
Looking into the future, Alex expresses excitement for financial investments and partnerships in 2023. We touch on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the on-demand delivery sector, highlighting the rise of remote work culture and the demand for online services. They discuss the market climate and the opportunities available for startups in Africa. Throughout the episode, Adrian and Alex stress the significance of the customer experience, sincerity in delivering the message, and the need for constant evaluation and adaptation. They acknowledge the challenges of starting a business and the importance of building a strong culture. In conclusion, this episode provides valuable insights for listeners interested in the food delivery industry in Africa, the challenges faced, and the strategies for success. So join us on The Sound of Accra Podcast as we dive deep into the world of curated food delivery and entrepreneurship in Africa.
00:00:00
Hey, everyone. I go by the name of Adrian Daniels. Welcome to the Sound of
00:00:03
Accra podcast. If this is your first time listening, this is the show where we
00:00:07
speak of top Ghanaian founders, entrepreneurs and creators worldwide with
00:00:11
the aim of leaving you behind with meaningful takeaways that you can apply in life,
00:00:15
business and career. For today's Show Notes, I want you to head over
00:00:19
to the Soundofaccra.com/ menufinder. That's
00:00:22
the Sound of a Accra dot com forward slash menufinder. That's M-E-N-U-F-I-N-D-E-R.
00:00:26
We'll have the
00:00:29
show notes link on the display. If you're watching on YouTube. And we'll have
00:00:33
the link to the show notes on the podcast player or the YouTube player.
00:00:37
Also, whilst you're watching on YouTube, please give us a like, leave
00:00:41
us a comment, let us know what you think of this episode, and please do
00:00:44
share with friends. If you're listening on Apple and Spotify, a five star review
00:00:47
is very much appreciated. So today I'd like to introduce our guest
00:00:51
for the show, Alex Darko. How you doing? Yeah. Alex
00:00:55
Darko Alex Darko, my man. Nice. He is the founder of
00:00:59
Menu finder Africa. And Menufinder Africa is a curated food
00:01:02
delivery platform that partners with the best vetted, restaurants and
00:01:06
food vendors to provide an easy way for you to discover and order
00:01:10
quality food. They help people find the food you want, in
00:01:14
other words. Right. That's the easiest way to put it. That's it. Alex, I've been
00:01:17
a fan of what you've been working on for quite a few years. Congrats. Thank
00:01:20
you. Is it five years or so? It's not. It's not an
00:01:24
easy thing. No, it's not. It's not. Thanks very much. Yeah, man. I'm happy New
00:01:27
Year to you, my guy. You too. How are you doing? Good,
00:01:31
man. We're all
00:01:33
energized, I'll say, ready for the year. January is already
00:01:37
gone. We're deep in the momentum. Ready to
00:01:41
go what's? Many final working on that's
00:01:44
new. I think for us, we started
00:01:48
off kind of like as a restaurant
00:01:52
directory, and we transitioned into food delivery only a year ago.
00:01:56
So this is our first year, 1st December,
00:01:59
all of that doing delivery. It went well. Thank
00:02:03
God that it did go well. Our revenue
00:02:06
is on the rise each month, so things are
00:02:10
heading in the right direction. So really what we're trying to do is look
00:02:14
at the ratio of expansion versus improving the
00:02:17
quality of everything we have. We don't want to expand so much that we're everywhere,
00:02:21
and then the quality of the service is also not going with it. Very
00:02:25
good point. That's a very good point. Because some people get too
00:02:28
quantity growing, but not improving the quality at the same time.
00:02:32
Some people get carried away with quantity. Over quality and is really important as quality
00:02:36
over quantity. That's our motto. It seems to be that way
00:02:40
because I've used bulk food
00:02:43
globo, all these apps, Jimmy, and essentially
00:02:47
what's happened is that I've seen so
00:02:51
many food choices, and it's hard for me to choose what
00:02:55
is what and very difficult for me to choose
00:02:58
which one is what. And even though
00:03:02
I'll see, like, top rated reviews ones and this, and I'll look at it and
00:03:06
I'm still not sure which one I go for. Is
00:03:09
it whatever you understand?
00:03:13
We're trying to actually be able to address and service people like
00:03:17
yourself because we want to do it so that every option on our app
00:03:21
is solid. It's good quality option. So then it's really
00:03:24
about, okay, what do I feel like eating? Not do I trust
00:03:28
ordering from this place? So we're trying to eliminate that side. So it's just about
00:03:31
personal preference because. You'Ve already bet the vendors. Exactly. It's just
00:03:35
now it's just faster. Enjoying it. I heard you're. Quite a foodie, isn't it? Oh,
00:03:39
no, food is right up my street. Really?
00:03:43
It's no surprise.
00:03:48
Oh, my gosh. Yeah,
00:03:55
just is she gone? Okay, just quick, quickly, just go over
00:03:58
there, please. Thank you. I should have told you
00:04:02
to stay out, actually. All right, cool. Let's continue
00:04:06
that bit out. Yeah, man.
00:04:10
Let's talk about menufinder. Right, so just quick elevator
00:04:14
quick elevator pitch. For those that don't know about Menufinder, I know I
00:04:18
introduced it, but on here, like, your elevator pitch. So
00:04:21
Menufinder is Africa's first fully
00:04:25
curated food delivery app. So basically, we're making sure that we got the
00:04:29
best handpicked
00:04:33
restaurants for discerning foodies that appreciate good
00:04:36
quality food. So it's not necessarily obviously usually it kind of links
00:04:40
with a certain price point, but it's not necessarily so
00:04:44
you've got a mixture of Mexican, Italian, local foods,
00:04:48
all of that stuff. But we're trying to get the best of the best. So
00:04:51
it's like, you know that you've got, like, a quality choice where from the
00:04:55
experience of browsing, finding your food, the images you see, the
00:04:59
whole customer experience, the delivery, the rider, everything is like, yeah, this is
00:05:02
premium. This is what we're trying to do. I love that, man,
00:05:06
because there's just so much choice, and sometimes I don't know which
00:05:09
app to trust. But the more I hear about Minifinder, the more I just want
00:05:13
to use that uninstall the other ones. It's funny because we actually
00:05:17
get a lot of people who have come as a result of
00:05:20
uninstalling because, look, we're a
00:05:24
smaller niche, isn't it? Company. So we can
00:05:28
kind of exactly. And it's very niche, so we can address things
00:05:31
differently. Our approach is different. Number one, you can speak to us on the phone.
00:05:35
We have customer service team that you can speak to with Bulk
00:05:38
Global, and the rest is difficult to speak to someone.
00:05:42
And when they do, sometimes a bit out of context, food may not arrive and
00:05:46
things like that. We don't do any of that here. Absolutely. I told my team
00:05:49
that if we can't deliver one meal, we should stop.
00:05:54
We have to find a way to do it. If you get accidents, you
00:05:58
get this. All sorts of things can happen, but we have to find a way
00:06:01
to appease the customer somehow so that they're satisfied. Don't
00:06:04
leave them thinking this was a waste of time. You can never do that.
00:06:08
I love your mission and what you're trying to do, because I remember when
00:06:12
Portugal was playing Uruguay in the World Cup, I ordered boat foods. I think
00:06:16
KFC, me, my dad, I ordered boat food. Right.
00:06:19
And I think, whatever reason, I don't know if it's a holiday or
00:06:23
people watching the game. Actually, no, it was Ghana versus yoga.
00:06:26
Sorry. So I think it's a holiday or people
00:06:30
just too so focus on the game during the game. And I'm like, afterwards, I
00:06:34
realized I shouldn't have ordered during the game because people are going to be watching
00:06:36
the game and not carrying bought food. They got to help me. We pay, but
00:06:40
didn't get our money back. Tonight a few days later, and it was just a
00:06:43
nightmare. Frustration. Frustration. Yeah. End of day, I
00:06:47
always tell people that, look, when people order food, either they're
00:06:50
hungry at that moment or they know they're about to be. Either way, they don't
00:06:54
have patience. This guy, food fight. You have to
00:06:58
put yourself in the customer's shoes when you've ordered food and you don't know what's
00:07:01
going on, how do you feel? So just translate the same thing and be
00:07:05
a bit empathetic towards absolutely. Because I was trying to speak to them
00:07:09
and I can only speak to them on Chat. It was like I can't even
00:07:12
call them. It was just so frustrating. Speak to some restaurant I need to pick
00:07:15
up who's the middleman. It's a joke. It's an
00:07:19
absolute joke. Exactly. Okay. And I want to know many find
00:07:23
that Africa, right? Many find Africa. Why is it many find Africa? I mean, you
00:07:27
have other restaurants across Africa? Not yet, but is
00:07:31
that the plan? Definitely. The plan is really to be in every available
00:07:34
serviceable, African market as the leading food
00:07:38
delivery choice. So that's the plan. The idea. I
00:07:41
mean, they're all there in my head. They've been in my head for the different
00:07:45
markets. But I always think about a
00:07:49
situation where if I fly to Lagos or I go to could
00:07:53
be anywhere. Tanzania, Irish, wherever. If I land, I should be seeing menu find that
00:07:57
I should be greeted, gifted with a free delivery, free meal to your
00:08:00
hotel or wherever you're staying. Just a seamless
00:08:03
transition from if you're an existing customer or a
00:08:07
new customer. But that is the place you see the branding. You should
00:08:11
feel it should get a good experience, good rating, good prompts. And then you
00:08:15
think, you know what? I want to try this again. That sounds like the perfect
00:08:17
customer journey. What in terms of your past
00:08:21
experience or whatever knowledge has got you
00:08:25
to make many find a disgrate. What drives you to make it this
00:08:29
great? I like seeing people happy, man. I like
00:08:32
seeing people happy. But I had a strong background
00:08:36
in sales. So just the psychology of
00:08:40
sales. What makes people buy things? Why do they buy things? What makes
00:08:44
them happy? Are they happy? Can you predict those outcomes?
00:08:47
Can you shape those outcomes? Can you reverse from someone
00:08:51
who's completely livid to leave them leaving the shop or
00:08:55
wherever, smile. And I've been able to do that in different situations.
00:08:58
Just taking all of that and then bringing that same work
00:09:02
ethic into this same business so that it translates
00:09:06
from the executives to ground staff to
00:09:10
riders, and riders in particular, because you can do
00:09:13
everything right in the office. The touch point for the customer is
00:09:17
the riders. Obviously, they may speak to someone, they may not speak to anyone during
00:09:21
the process, but they're going to speak to the rider or engage the
00:09:25
rider to pick up their food. So if everything is excellent and then it just
00:09:28
flops there, then there's no point. So, Hunter, translate all the way through. You're going
00:09:32
to cover every touch point I got to cover because it all kind of
00:09:35
like echoes your brand and what you're trying to do.
00:09:38
Very important, very important. But I think in terms of you
00:09:42
trying to dominate Africa and get there, I think you're going to get there, man.
00:09:45
And I think there's some very good recent news in terms of how you're getting
00:09:49
there. I mean, this is your LinkedIn post. In 2022, we began delivering
00:09:52
free restaurants in one area of Accra East Legon. By the end of the year,
00:09:56
we had onboarded 30 more restaurants, delivering in six more areas of
00:10:00
Accra. As a result, our revenues increased by nearly
00:10:03
2000%. Same.
00:10:07
The exciting parts about these numbers is that we've managed to do this
00:10:10
without the significant investment many startups need to scope. That's very,
00:10:14
very true. However, this will soon change. We're excited to start
00:10:17
2023 or more partners committing to financial investment, which will announce
00:10:21
soon. In the meantime, watch this space and get in touch with us if you
00:10:24
like to see more about our growth journey. And this was like this week,
00:10:28
right? Yeah, that post went up from
00:10:32
she. Put that out there. Fantastic. And it's accurately. So we've done
00:10:35
this completely bootstraps, thank you very much. We're busy
00:10:39
fundraising. We've got some commitments coming
00:10:43
in. It's all a process. So once things are finalized,
00:10:46
then we'll make the necessary noise. But we're really
00:10:50
excited to try and really make a polished product.
00:10:55
If you look at our competitors, give me a food that stopped at the most,
00:10:59
I think for whatever reason, they've stopped the food part. I think they're
00:11:03
doing the electronics and Amazon style.
00:11:07
So main competitors, really. Bolt, Glovo, these are all
00:11:10
billion dollar companies. Bolt is from Estonia,
00:11:14
Global is from Barcelona. But these are billion dollar companies
00:11:18
that are coming to take up majority market share. And I don't
00:11:22
feel like that's right. Because Africa, we need to own our market. Yeah. I mean,
00:11:25
our direct comparison is that if, for instance,
00:11:29
every country, these companies are going to go and conscript
00:11:32
maybe 3000, 4000 restaurants. Ours is quality over
00:11:36
quantity. So we may only conscript maybe 300
00:11:40
restaurants, but it'll be 300 of the best. And then we'll layer value add
00:11:44
services on top of that. I love you to enjoy the experience. Again, quality of
00:11:48
a because I think what happens with these
00:11:51
companies, I think they get too
00:11:54
stretched, they get too overwhelmed, and they do. And then they can't deliver. And
00:11:58
then the customer service drips. Leaks. That's the thing. And that
00:12:02
leak kind of goes through all
00:12:06
the people in the value chain. So you've got the merchants,
00:12:09
then you've got the customers of themselves, you got the riders.
00:12:13
So if all of those people start getting unhappy for
00:12:17
different reasons, it destabilizes the whole proposition. So
00:12:21
we've built good relationships with the restaurants. I mean,
00:12:25
how quickly they signed up was like literally within two minutes of a conversation.
00:12:29
Because they've known us for a while. We've done stuff with videography
00:12:32
reviews and other things. They trust us. That's amazing. They trust
00:12:36
us. There's more restaurants. We're adding a Cuban
00:12:39
restaurant this week. It should be quite interesting. Adding a new restaurant. Yeah. New restaurant
00:12:43
this week. So we're trying to be careful and
00:12:47
scale in a way that makes sense. But
00:12:51
we do need to get the right variety. We've kind of seen now how the
00:12:54
system works. We know, yes, okay, we can create revenue. We got
00:12:58
recurring customers. Customer base is growing. Now, what do we
00:13:02
need to offer them? Do we have everything that we need to offer them? So
00:13:05
we're now looking to make sure we do that and things are branded properly and
00:13:09
people feel our presence a bit more this year. I've definitely seen how you're able
00:13:13
to kind of stand out amongst the competition because I think out of all of
00:13:16
them, yours comes across as the most caring about customer
00:13:20
service and the end user experience. And also the
00:13:23
nicheness of restaurants that you have. Like, for example, booker. Right? Booker on your
00:13:27
books. I've never seen Booker, Bolts, Global, any
00:13:31
of these other apps. Interesting. So you're also going for ones that aren't even on
00:13:34
other platforms. So I think for me, the nicheness of
00:13:38
variety and then the end to end experience, that's going to keep me coming back
00:13:41
and back. Thanks. That's good. We'll be pushing to improve that
00:13:44
100% more and more. Absolutely. And speaking of restaurants
00:13:48
and delivery, what locations are you in? The part? So
00:13:52
mainly most of the restaurants are between East Lagon,
00:13:57
Cantonments, or sue. But what it is, we deliver up to 10
00:14:01
km from the restaurant location. So whether it's
00:14:04
Belina, Bella Afrique, we do ten from there means that you
00:14:08
can kind of hit airport side, you can also hit East Legon prime
00:14:12
areas, basically, yeah. So it's anywhere from the
00:14:15
restaurant location, because it's difficult. We get people saying,
00:14:19
oh, can't you just deliver to us?
00:14:25
And it's like, we can't do that, because by the time they'll say,
00:14:29
oh, it doesn't matter, I'll just microwave it. You'll
00:14:33
say that now when the food is taking long, so it's fine.
00:14:36
Lines, we're toying with
00:14:40
some kind of potential menu finder plus type subscription
00:14:44
that allows people to increase radius, maybe to a certain degree
00:14:48
for certain restaurants. Also has to depend on how fast of that
00:14:51
restaurant normally prepare food and stuff. Because when they do it in 20 minutes,
00:14:55
it's fine. When they do it in 40 minutes, 45 minutes, 50 minutes,
00:14:59
then you've still got X amount of journey to it, so it can get a
00:15:02
bit tricky. So you can't serve everyone.
00:15:08
The most advantageous
00:15:12
element, I guess, for the merchants is that if they have more than one location,
00:15:16
so, like, we do Feca Tea House and they have a lab branch,
00:15:19
they also have Caramel Lotus, that's the
00:15:23
one, that's the one I love. But they also have lease leg on as well.
00:15:26
So the catchment area is increased by the fact that they have these two
00:15:30
locations. So obviously, as people get more locations, then that will
00:15:34
also help get the spread of their customer base.
00:15:38
What was it like setting this all up? Like seeing other
00:15:41
people going out in Jumia's Bolt Foods, all these people. What
00:15:45
was it like to set up? Was it a long as a whole conversation? Manic.
00:15:49
It was manic and
00:15:56
you really had to kind of put yourself in the customers.
00:15:59
So you're always thinking like, customer service provider customers
00:16:03
at every turn, every instance. What does it mean for us? What does it
00:16:07
mean for them? What does it mean for them? What does it mean for us?
00:16:10
And try and do things objectively as
00:16:13
possible. Because when you build these things at the cost we do, we've done it
00:16:17
bootstraps, we put about $35 ourselves in the whole
00:16:21
platform. That's fantastic. But when you do that,
00:16:24
then you have limited resources. You can't afford to be
00:16:28
wrong too much. But the thing is, when you do a startup, you're going to
00:16:31
be wrong with something, you're just going to make some assumptions that are not
00:16:35
correct and the market is going to show you who it is, whether
00:16:39
you think you know it or not. You think you know it through and through
00:16:42
and it's going to come and show, this is what I actually can't. Swim against
00:16:45
the market. No, exactly. No, you can't always win. Exactly. The market always
00:16:49
wins.
00:16:53
But I think we've gotten better at learning and listening
00:16:56
to the data, because the numbers don't lie.
00:17:00
People's habits are linked to certain things, whether if they're ordering and
00:17:03
ordering ordering, they're having a good experience. So what is causing
00:17:07
them to have a good experience? Is it the food? Is it the user experience?
00:17:11
Customer service? Is it the speed? Is it combination? So
00:17:14
once we dig into those things, you start understanding what is actually
00:17:18
making your customers kind of come back. I think
00:17:22
startups and scale ups and companies. I think data
00:17:25
today is the key thing informing the growth. Informing the growth. Right.
00:17:29
We just talked about 2000% growth. I'm sure data is a big part in
00:17:33
that. Looking at the data, rinse and repeat on what works and maybe strip them
00:17:37
back what doesn't work. Absolutely. Even now we currently have to
00:17:40
do we've been doing any review of some of the restaurants
00:17:44
because there are restaurants that we thought would work,
00:17:48
maybe haven't worked as well. And maybe there are certain things that
00:17:51
need to be added to allow them to work as well. So
00:17:55
it's just assessing. So we can kind of see which ones we need to kind
00:17:59
of keep and which ones we maybe have to review and maybe revisit later
00:18:03
on and all that. But yeah, the data is king. Data is absolutely
00:18:07
king. Yeah. What made you wanted to go into the food? I mean, I know
00:18:10
we talked about your passion for food and customer experience and just
00:18:14
delivering, making people happy, different great experiences. What made you want to go into
00:18:17
food delivery per se? I mean, more the on demand.
00:18:22
I think it was a logical progression from where it started because
00:18:25
originally it was like 2017, it was
00:18:29
Mother's Day and wife, I said, she can't get some
00:18:32
food. So I said to her, okay, have a look and see what they've
00:18:36
got. Meaning check online and see what the menu is. Like she went online, couldn't
00:18:40
see anything. This is here in Ghana. And
00:18:43
so there was a restaurant two minutes up the road. So I said, okay, cool,
00:18:47
we'll just check it on the way. When there was closed. No.
00:18:51
So I mentioned I think Cocoa Lounge and another one, and one had a
00:18:55
partial menu and it was Vida. They didn't have the menu online. And
00:18:58
then she was just laughing. So much frustration. And I said, well,
00:19:02
we're somebody if we're having this issue, someone else is probably having issue.
00:19:06
Then we started kind of got web developer and started
00:19:10
creating a directory of the restaurants and the locations and
00:19:13
the reviews and the menu and pricing
00:19:17
and all that stuff. That's how the curation started. That's how it started. But the
00:19:21
issue there was that a lot of people weren't representing their food very well. So
00:19:25
they had all these dark and dingy pictures on the internet.
00:19:28
So then it was going to make our website look like some I don't. Know,
00:19:32
you don't want that. So because I obviously had a passion for photography,
00:19:35
I do everything from my phone and just taking good pictures. So it started to
00:19:39
look nice. Then obviously it translated into Instagram.
00:19:43
And then from Instagram, I think I needed to
00:19:46
kind of convey something once, and it was easier to say it to the camera
00:19:50
and show the food. So when I did that and took a bite of the
00:19:53
food, people loved it. So then it became like into the
00:19:56
review component. So then it
00:20:00
became doing content for restaurants and things.
00:20:04
The delivery side was always there. People wanted us to do delivery in year
00:20:07
one. Wow. But it wasn't feasible.
00:20:13
I didn't have enough insight or knowledge to be able to even try and pull
00:20:16
that off. I wasn't even prepared to try at that stage because
00:20:20
it would have been too premature. And
00:20:24
then I think we just got to the point where with COVID
00:20:28
hitting and all the restorative
00:20:32
go outside for years, people are still going to eat. And
00:20:35
remember, you eat to survive. You don't eat as
00:20:39
a luxury. What we eat is a luxury.
00:20:43
We eat to survive. That's a necessity. So our job is
00:20:47
to give you the options for what you feel like eating,
00:20:50
because you know you have to eat, but you might as well eat what you
00:20:52
want to eat. Yeah. I always forget
00:20:56
that quote. You need a place to eat, you need a place to sleep.
00:21:00
Yeah, those basics. Now it's all colorful in the options
00:21:04
and how you do those things, but those are basics. Yeah. You're doing a
00:21:07
fantastic job. You've taken a problem
00:21:11
that you've experienced being a part of the experience clearly, and you've
00:21:15
evolved that into an actual solution that you've given to the world, into the market,
00:21:19
to Africa. What country, speaking of Africa, are you thinking of
00:21:22
kind of expanding to next? The obvious one is
00:21:26
Nigeria. It makes sense also
00:21:29
because I used to work for a payments company
00:21:33
and we partnered with the company Interwich over there in Nigeria. So I used to
00:21:37
work in Nigeria, like going there maybe once a
00:21:41
month for about a year and a half. So I got to go around VI
00:21:44
and see some of the places and the restaurant. So the vibe
00:21:48
is ready for the people like us. Big victoria's buzing. Yeah,
00:21:52
exactly. It's quite nice when Fahrenheit blowfish all
00:21:55
these places. Echo hotels and all that.
00:22:01
Exactly. Nigeria, Ivory
00:22:05
Coast, South Africa, east as
00:22:09
well. Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda. We want to get into those places.
00:22:13
I think people there's always room for the
00:22:17
curated nature of things. And I think if you look at the way
00:22:21
because food delivery businesses didn't used to make they made revenue, but they
00:22:25
weren't really making profit until COVID hit. So even the big ones like
00:22:28
delivery. Just breaking email, maybe making a loss. Just that hanging
00:22:32
there, I mean, they burn so much cash because they're expanding to so many markets
00:22:35
and too quick carrying so many overheads and stuff like that. Which
00:22:39
is fine. But I think where people were paying for
00:22:42
convenience before, now you look at the way the economy has gone, people are paying
00:22:46
for like they
00:22:50
were paying for convenience, but now that it's like cost saving
00:22:53
versus convenience, and at the moment, people are choosing cost saving. So if you look
00:22:57
at the west, food delivery and stuff is kind of shrinking a
00:23:01
bit. You got all these big startups that are having to lay off staff and
00:23:04
all of that crunch time people are
00:23:08
spending. But here, although
00:23:11
we've had our issues with inflation, you can see things creeping back up. I
00:23:15
was in a supermarket yesterday and I was looking at the prices of things again,
00:23:19
it's gone back to where it was before. He's gone back normal. It's gone back
00:23:22
no, not to normal, to like to the high. But anyway,
00:23:26
the point is here you've got so many diaspora coming back
00:23:30
and these are people who are prepared to pay for the convenience.
00:23:33
So they're not so much looking at the cost
00:23:37
saving side, they're more looking at, well, we want the thing to work, and
00:23:40
if I have to pay a bit extra for it to work, I'll do that.
00:23:43
Because we all know in Ghana, we have a system that
00:23:46
we navigate. The system isn't really
00:23:50
built, it's just an environment that we navigate.
00:23:55
It lends itself to an interesting opportunity. It's so true, man.
00:23:59
I totally agree with that. So, yeah, I mean, this leads
00:24:02
me to my next question. So the market climate and opportunity
00:24:07
right now, I think it's an interesting time where, I mean, I think COVID has
00:24:10
probably sparked this in the work remote culture. I think we're an interesting
00:24:14
age for startups scale ups and companies where
00:24:18
people are trying to deliver more and more through the
00:24:22
Internet, on demand food delivery services, on
00:24:25
demand grocery shopping, shout to consume shop. One of my previous
00:24:29
guests, 60 Minutes delivery in a car, apparently,
00:24:32
but there's traffic in a car. We don't know if that's even the
00:24:36
case. And then you have a lot
00:24:40
more digital nomads, people working
00:24:43
remotely, services
00:24:46
online, freelancers working online. We're in this
00:24:49
digital revolution and this startup revolution as well, because more people are obviously
00:24:53
starting startups and even their jobs and they're starting more businesses. You understand this is
00:24:57
not just in the west, but this is also in Africa. People are now
00:25:00
they got more confidence and people more want to be an entrepreneur more
00:25:04
than ever before. So I want to know your perspective,
00:25:08
the market climate and opportunity for
00:25:12
on demand delivery startups in Africa.
00:25:18
What's your overview on that? Because it's an interesting space
00:25:22
that we're seeing. Of course, you had Uber come on
00:25:25
Uber in terms of ordering a ride, hitting, you got Uber, you got bolts, you
00:25:29
got Yango in Ghana and some other ones, right? And then from the food perspective,
00:25:33
you got you and then other players as well. So it's an interesting market and
00:25:36
you still see people trying to enter that market and people even coming
00:25:40
and going and leaving that market. What's your outlook on this whole
00:25:44
I. Think the opportunities
00:25:49
a lot of these things, they work in saturated markets already.
00:25:52
Uber captain all these different ridesharing in
00:25:56
England, for instance. But here, because of
00:25:59
the there are
00:26:04
physical problems that cause
00:26:07
delays and things such as traffic, like the congestion, all of that.
00:26:11
That's why there's so many Okadas bikes and all that stuff. It's just quicker to
00:26:14
weave through the traffic and all of that. So it just makes
00:26:18
it easier for the cost of things is too high to
00:26:22
transportation. It's funny, I was just listening to some guy and he was talking about
00:26:26
how the cost of transportation is higher than the cost of people's rent. They
00:26:29
actually spent in Africa, people spend more on transport, which
00:26:33
is crazy. Yeah, Uber. And it makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. So
00:26:37
expensive now, the opportunities there for anybody
00:26:41
who wants to bring some kind of
00:26:44
convenience and make it easy. Now you've got
00:26:47
the understanding of the education and the literature
00:26:51
for the literacy, shall I say, for people
00:26:54
to be using smartphones by the guy you won't expect
00:26:58
the security guard who's sleeping on the job like that, on the corner like that.
00:27:02
He's there. He's there with iPhone Seven Plus, the crack screen or
00:27:06
maybe a repair screen, whatever. But he's got an iPhone. He thinks yourself
00:27:09
normally you might not attach
00:27:14
someone with his earning power to a device like
00:27:17
that, but people want that. They want they find what they want. That's it with
00:27:21
consumers. So people are used to using
00:27:24
smart people used to say this kind of thing about competition.
00:27:28
What are you doing about global and boats? I said, look, it's fine. Let them
00:27:31
educate the market, man. Let them educate people how to order. Now we'll show
00:27:35
them where they should be. It's all a matter of perspective. I
00:27:39
think there's a lot of room for people. I think
00:27:43
the future of how you even really solve food delivery in
00:27:47
terms of the logistics and timing is really to run it
00:27:51
through a network of cloud kitchens that the merchants have. And I
00:27:54
think so we're looking at how we can maybe own that kind
00:27:58
of value proposition for them to help them lower
00:28:01
cost of expansion. And then so if someone is sitting there, say, for
00:28:05
instance, restaurant called Living Room. Yeah, lovely food. Yes.
00:28:09
We have them on the app as well. They're in East Lagon.
00:28:12
Someone in Kaneshi wants living room. We can't
00:28:16
deliver. If they choose to deliver themselves the restaurant, they
00:28:19
can, but it's at the risk of not knowing whether the food gets there and
00:28:23
all that stuff. If Living Room has a cloud kitchen in
00:28:26
Dansuman now, when you order from Kaneshi, you get your food within 30
00:28:30
minutes, 30 to 40 minutes. And it's piping hot, it's ready,
00:28:34
it's quick and it's easy because and they haven't had to put another
00:28:37
restaurant there, they just had to put Mobile Kitchen. They
00:28:41
can. Produce. If you do that in other areas and then we tie
00:28:45
exclusive delivery to that, then I think that's where yeah. I think this is something
00:28:48
that is quite new, that's emerging.
00:28:52
I think the right terms, like dark kitchen. Dark
00:28:55
kitchen. People like Mr. Beasts with his Beast
00:28:58
Burgers, people like that, they've gone into that. I mean, even in England even in.
00:29:02
England, it's all hark grill. Yeah. Park Grill services a quarter
00:29:06
of London's deliveries. Wow, they've got
00:29:10
a huge, loud kitchen. That's why I never fly came. This.
00:29:15
Whether I go to Tim Hortons, have really nice hot dogs.
00:29:22
I'm not much of a foodie, but I do like certain
00:29:26
yeah. So it's an interesting time that we're here, man, honestly. And I think there's
00:29:30
opportunity for us to capitalize. There is definitely taking opportunity. And I can see
00:29:34
from some of the terms and the words they're using and some of the stories
00:29:37
that you've shown, definitely growing in maturity in this market, man. So I'm looking forward
00:29:41
to the next five years. Yeah. Africa should
00:29:44
be exponential growth. And speaking of which, 2023
00:29:48
plans. Plans really are to
00:29:52
secure investment, really raise
00:29:55
funds at the beginning tip of the year,
00:29:59
raise further through the end of the year, but really put money in the tech
00:30:02
operations and marketing. Really want to make sure that people see us and feel
00:30:06
us everywhere. And anytime they think food, they just
00:30:10
see red and then they think menufinder. That's all we have to achieve. I love
00:30:13
your vision, honestly. I'm excited for your vision. Thank you. Any
00:30:17
tips for those that want to get into this space or similar startup
00:30:21
on demand? There's
00:30:25
room. Just think about
00:30:28
what you really want the customer
00:30:32
or your end user to experience.
00:30:37
Think about the longevity of it. Do it
00:30:41
as something that you can sustain. Build
00:30:44
a culture around it so that it's not just you, it's your employees and your
00:30:48
team and everyone that sings the same song. So when they ask
00:30:52
questions or they experience people from Menu, vander or
00:30:55
wherever, it's the same story that people are singing. The customers are
00:30:59
saying same thing, the merchants are saying the same thing, the riders are saying employees
00:31:03
are saying the same thing. Because once this is
00:31:06
sincere, then it will last. And just make
00:31:10
sure it's solving a problem. Make sure it's of solving a problem
00:31:14
that is a real problem, not just something that's nice
00:31:17
to have, because sometimes you can easily do that, and we've been guilty of doing
00:31:21
that in some of the features within the app or something
00:31:25
to be there. But do we need it? There are people using it. Look at
00:31:28
the data. Again, back to the data. Yeah, it's important to have the right features
00:31:32
in your roadmap. Otherwise it just becomes a nice
00:31:36
but. I think also just take your time and take your
00:31:40
time to survey the market and understand it. As I said, people wanted us to
00:31:44
do this in year one. We've done it in year five because it
00:31:47
made sense, not just the financial sense,
00:31:51
but it made sense for us to understand how we could put this together.
00:31:55
We built the relationships. We understand the market. We know a
00:31:59
lot of things that we didn't know before. So, yeah, take your time,
00:32:02
and then you'll be able to figure it out. Alex it has been fantastic conversation.
00:32:06
Most startups I know fail in the first three years. Not
00:32:10
only do they first fail in the first three years, you've launched a startup based
00:32:13
out of Africa and you're on year five. And it's still going. Still
00:32:17
going, brother. Thank God, man. More props to you. Thanks so much. More props to
00:32:20
you. Appreciate. Where can everyone find you? We're on Instagram at
00:32:24
Menufinder Africa, but I warn you that your mouth will be
00:32:27
celebrated. You can download our app
00:32:31
menufinder africa on Google Play and App Store
00:32:35
as well. Fantastic. So we'll have all of the links, references,
00:32:39
and the nuggets that me and Alex have shared for this episode.
00:32:42
So for that, once again, you can head over to www dot the
00:32:46
sound of accra dot com forward slash menufinder. That's thesoundofaccra.com forward slash menufinder.
00:32:49
That's M-E-N-U-F-I-N-D-R have
00:32:52
the link in the podcast in
00:32:55
the YouTube description. And yeah, please do give us a like, let us know what
00:32:59
you think of this episode on your way out. And please do leave us a
00:33:02
review on the podcast platforms, whether you're listening on Apple and Spotify, et cetera.
00:33:06
So, yeah, Alex, thank you so much. Thanks so much. You guys are doing a
00:33:10
great job, man. Thank you for trying doing this Africa, man. Thank you. Thank
00:33:13
you. And we'll see you in the next episode. Thank you, guys. Bye
00:33:17
bye.