Wellington Entrepreneurs App hits Number One
Entrepreneur Karin Grices’ amazing start up journey began in 2008 as a Grow Wellington Activate participant. She has now launched the first recipe app ' Fast, Fresh & Tasty', dedicated to NZ users with her business partner Emily Loughnan. Fast, Fresh & Tasty reached number one in the lifestyle category on its second day in the app store.
Entrepreneur Karin Grices’ amazing start up journey began in 2008 as a Grow Wellington Activate participant. Her original business case focussed on delivering high quality, easy to prepare recipes using ingredients that New Zealanders could easily access, recipes that used our measurements, recipes that encouraged people to try new ingredients, and most importantly recipes that were quick to prepare and healthy. Over the course of several weeks at Activate, Karin’s first business plan was developed under the expert guidance of her business mentor Jenny Douche.
The recipe delivery mechanism was originally to be via kiosks in supermarkets, however over time she came to the realisation that a national roll out of kiosks into supermarkets would prove to be an incredibly difficult task, and getting buy in from the supermarkets would be next to impossible on her own.
Determined to succeed, Karin discussed her business case with as many business people as possible. “I took the criticism on board and thanked them all for their time. I have learnt a lot during this start up process, and can honestly say the most important lesson that I have learnt to date is to always listen to feedback and advice be it critical or otherwise!” It was suggested that Karin look at developing a website instead of kiosks, but with recipe websites in their thousands on the internet – her challenge would be how to stand out in the crowd and how would it make money?
“I came to the conclusion that I really needed a business partner with extensive business experience, coupled with a genuine interest in my project to help me move it forward”. By pure chance a designer suggested that she contact Emily Loughnan of Click Suite. “After a lengthy initial meeting, Emily became as excited about my project as I was, and a partnership was formed. I went from being the lone ranger, to having a team consisting of a usability expert, designer, project manager, developer, database developer and most importantly a business mentor par excel lance in Emily”.
After a lot of market research and discussion, the decision was made to ditch the kiosk and website delivery models and turn their attention to the iPhone/iPad market – perfect! A huge gap in the market for a NZ recipe app – check, a large market and ever increasing – check, strong demand for a NZ recipe app – check. All the stars aligned.
So, one year ago exactly, the building of the first recipe app dedicated to NZ users began. Their current client list now includes the following companies;
- Silver Fern Farms – Lamb & Venison
- Rangitikei Corn-Fed Free Range Chicken
- Arnotts – Campbell’s Stocks
- Hansells – Alpha One Rice Bran Oil
- Seafood Industry Council
- George Weston Foods – Bazaar Breads
“Our client list is rapidly expanding, we are incredibly proud of what we have achieved so far! Our business is based on a collaborative business model which allows us to showcase a large number of brands, giving consumers a wide range of recipes and product choices to help them decide what’s for dinner tonight”.
The app itself lets you find recipes, see what to serve with them, create and share shopping lists, and with free seasonal updates, let’s you see what to make with what’s in season right now. You can find out more at
www.fastfreshandtasty.co.nz.
Fast, Fresh & Tasty reached number one in the lifestyle category on its second day in the app store. It just proves that kiwis are hungry for (quality) local food ideas.
Plans are being developed to take Fast, Fresh & Tasty into international markets, where they’ll include local ingredients, flavours and seasonal information and slowly teach the world to cook delicious meals with what’s available around them. “It is an incredibly exciting time for us, watch this space!”