Your What & Why

Q1. Briefly, what does your business do, and what is its purpose?

My brother Toby and I co-founded Appetite in 2023. It began as a mobile app that allowed people to track, save and share their favourite restaurants around the world.

It has since evolved into a restaurant discovery, planning, coordination and booking tool. The experience is built around people’s personal networks because where your friends choose to eat is often a strong indication of where you might want to go too.

There is also an important purpose on the restaurant side. We saw too many excellent venues struggling with empty tables and insufficient footfall. We wanted to build something that could help restaurants attract more customers, fill more seats throughout the day and remain open.

Your Spark

Q2. What originally sparked the idea to start the business?

Toby and I are both enormous foodies. We have always spent a lot of time talking about food, where we should go next and what our next meal should be.

However, the journey from discovering a restaurant to organising a visit and making a booking was extremely fragmented. We wanted to create one product that streamlined that entire experience.

That was how Appetite began. The product has evolved considerably since then, but it started with a genuine frustration we both experienced and a shared passion for food and restaurants.

The Challenge

Q3. What has been the toughest challenge you have faced?

Launching a consumer mobile app is not easy. During the first six to twelve months, we were trying to release the product early enough to gain feedback, while knowing that people might not use it because it was not yet good enough.

We had to decide whether to wait or build in public. We firmly believed that we needed people using the product and giving us feedback. The more feedback we received, the more we could refine the experience and encourage additional users to join.

Our focus was on finding a small but highly engaged core audience. We wanted the first 20, 50, 100 or 200 people who genuinely loved what we were creating. Once those users began inviting their friends and recommending Appetite, the product started to spread.

Finding that initial audience took around six months. The challenge was identifying the people who connected with the product, the brand and what we were trying to achieve.

Your Advice

Q4. What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs and business leaders?

My first piece of advice would be not to launch a consumer mobile app unless you are prepared for how difficult it can be.

If you do enter that space, you need to be determined, ambitious and willing to do things differently. Technology and artificial intelligence now make it possible to build an app extremely quickly. A technical head start that might once have lasted six months or a year can disappear almost overnight.

You therefore need to be bold and distinctive. People must connect with your business and want to be part of the brand. When customers genuinely love what you do, they are far less likely to move away, and that loyalty becomes an important form of defensibility.

Your Highlight

Q5. What achievement are you most proud of, and why?

We have scaled quickly on the consumer side and now have hundreds of thousands of people using Appetite, which is a significant achievement.

However, I am most proud of the impact we can make for restaurants. More and more good venues are closing, and restaurants are an important part of the heartbeat of our neighbourhoods and communities. They are places where people meet, connect and spend time together.

One of our latest projects is called Neighbourhoods. It brings together great local restaurants with the people who live nearby and encourages users to dine locally. That is better for the environment and, most importantly, helps restaurants attract the customers they need.

Helping more restaurants remain open is something the whole team feels extremely passionate about.

One Piece of Wisdom

Q6. What one piece of advice would you share with your younger self if you were doing it all again?

I would tell myself to take good risks rather than unnecessary ones.

At the beginning, we experimented with many different marketing ideas. One example was our own version of The Great British Bake Off, involving influencers wearing Appetite-branded aprons. We expected it to go viral, but it did not.

We had invested a great deal of hope in that campaign, so the outcome was disappointing. Looking back, we should have researched more carefully, understood what was already working and assessed the likely return before committing.

That does not mean avoiding experimentation. When an idea is affordable and you can absorb the cost of getting it wrong, you should try it, make mistakes and learn. The key is understanding the level of risk before committing significant time or money.

Ignition Journey

Q7. What led you to work with Ignition Law?

At the beginning of our journey, we wanted a start-up-friendly law firm that understood both where we were and where we hoped to go.

Some of the firms we spoke to felt too corporate. We wanted a partner that could support us from our early funding rounds through future growth, including seed investment, later rounds and potentially an exit or IPO.

We also needed a team that would guide us without making us feel uncomfortable when we did not know the answer to a question. It was important to surround ourselves with advisers who had helped other businesses move from start-up to scale-up.

Ignition understood that journey and has delivered the kind of relationship we were looking for.

Legal Support

Q8. How did Ignition support you through this, and what difference did they make?

Ignition has been part of our journey since our pre-seed funding round and has supported us through three funding rounds.

The team has helped with a wide range of legal questions as the business has grown. We are now considering expansion into South Africa, and it is valuable to have people we can use as a sounding board when discussing new markets, local requirements and the issues we need to consider.

Ignition is also proactive. The team does not simply wait for us to ask a question; it highlights when documents such as our terms and conditions or privacy policy may need to change.

That matters because founders do not always know which questions they should be asking. Ignition has been able to guide us proactively while also listening and responding when we need specific support.

The Experience

Q9. What do you value most about working with Team Ignition?

I value having a relationship where we can ask anything and never feel that there is such a thing as a stupid question.

The team is friendly and approachable, and we never feel hurried out of a conversation. As a young and energetic start-up, we wanted advisers who understood our personality and did not make serious legal advice feel unnecessarily formal, boring or transactional.

We can discuss the business, what is happening in our day and even football before getting into the legal issue. It feels like a genuine relationship rather than a conversation measured only by time and billing.

Keeping Motivated Beyond Work

Q10. What keeps your spark alive, inside or outside of work?

Food has to be the first answer. Every day, we are talking about restaurants and trying new places with friends, family and colleagues.

More broadly, I am motivated by the opportunity to make a positive impact. There is a great deal of negativity in the world, and people can forget the importance of enjoying themselves and spending time with the people they care about.

We see that particularly among people aged around 20 to 35. They want to go out with their friends, partners and families and have a great experience.

If Appetite can make it easier to find somewhere, organise the visit, enjoy the experience and then recommend it to others, we are helping make the world a slightly more enjoyable place. Making it easier for people to spend quality time together is what excites us.

Sharing Knowledge

Q11. What book, video, Ted Talk, quote or single piece of advice can you share with our SME Community?

The most important lesson I have learned is to talk to everyone and listen carefully. You can learn something from every person, whether they are the most junior or most senior member of your team.

If you do not listen to your employees, there is little point in asking them to work with you. Listening is essential.

For founders raising investment, I would also encourage confidence. There can be a fear around speaking to high-net-worth individuals, private equity firms or family offices, but everyone in the room is human and no one is inherently better than anyone else.

Be yourself, be personable and focus on building meaningful relationships with people from different backgrounds, sectors and walks of life. Being kind, approachable and willing to listen will take you a long way.

I should add that my wife still tells me I do not always listen at home, so the advice applies to me too, listen to your colleagues, listen to the people around you and always listen to your wife.