Ask the experts: What do F&B start-ups get wrong?

Whether it’s focusing too much on the tech and not enough on the end user, or attempting to manufacture everything inhouse when a third-party business can handle it, start-ups have much to consider.

But what are the top nine things most food and drink start-up businesses tend to get wrong? FoodNavigator asked the experts at the recent Future Food-Tech event in London, watch above to hear all the advice.

“The time it takes between getting the idea, getting funded and starting production and then getting a product on the market,” said FlyBlast CEO Johan Jacobs. “It usually takes longer than you think and that’s painful sometimes.”

Too much ‘cool’ tech focusFunki Foods CEO Sirli Rosenvald believes there’s “too much focus on the technology” instead of the applications the product value.

This was echoed by Meatly CEO Owen Ensor, who said: “I think there’s a lot we can learn in our area. We need to focus on getting the cost right and getting the product right at small scale and then starting to scale up.

“Then we’ve also got the comms wrong, particularly in food tech. We’re too focussed on how cool the technology is and how clever all this stuff is. What people want to know is, is this safe, normal, tasty and we need to focus on that and not how great and innovative we are.”

Too much excitement about and focus on trends can also be a no-no for start-ups, warned Unseen Bio CEO, Johan Hartman.

“I think we’re doing a lot of things right. But I think a start-up can easily be impressed by a trend and believe that is the answer for everything,” he says.

The user or customer is the key“But they need to be focused still on the virtues of food that taste is king, price, scalability… all those things instead of solely focusing on a trend that is ‘popular’.”

One thing all experts agreed on was a need to focus on the client or the end user, especially early in the process and sometimes earlier than an entrepreneur might expect.

“Many think they know what the industry and their clients want, but they’re meeting the clients at too late a stage,” said Resugar co-founder and COO Ron Livny.  

“They need to meet the clients earlier top make their solutions and ideas suitable for the industry, otherwise it might not work.”