Cooking a fancy dinner eats up time. When time is short or cooking enthusiasm lower than appetite, the two options used to be: home delivery or dining out at a restaurant. Home delivery works for pizza and simple dishes, but not for anything fancy, let alone for multiple courses. And going to a restaurant takes the home coziness factor out of the equation. Enter Geneva-based start-up Qozy, who send a professional chef to spoil you at your Berlin, Geneva or Milan home. Launches in London, Paris, Zurich and major German cities are planned for this year.

Entrepreneurial biography

Founder Stephane Berdugo was 22 when he and his brother took over their parents’ real estate company in Geneva. Later, he completed his Master’s degree in real estate and launched his own real estate fund. But houses are immobile and Stephane found himself looking for a more dynamic kind of entrepreneurship. He wanted to create something new.

Starting up in Berlin

That’s why in 2013 Stephane moved to Berlin, a city he says is the best place to start up in Europe: young and open-minded people all around, living expenses still low. Born out of the two insights that people like to meet physically and not only virtually, and that people like to share costs, Stephane founded a social culinary adventure platform where people could meet up to cook or share a meal at their home – and share all the costs of buying groceries. It worked fine except everyone wanted to participate only and not host a social dinner at their own home.

Lean start-up with home dinner concept

Stephane thus changed his business concept to give a second life to home dinners minus the time-consuming preparation and cleaning-up procedures. Working weekends and nights, he created Qozy with a perfectly lean approach: hitting and iterating the marked fast, getting live feedback from customers and improving the already-proven concept along the way. As customers pay in advance, revenues come in quickly enough and pay for the expenses.

Simplicity on the menu

For 1–7 hungry foodies Qozy sends one chef, who also serves as the waiter and later as kitchen cleaning personnel. For 8 or more, a dedicated waiter and assistant accompanies the chef. Customers can book their home dinner until noon for the same night. Qozy serves a fancy 3 course meal that costs around € 35 per person. That’s less expensive than a fancy restaurant. And simplicity is always on the menu: it’s only a few clicks to place your order for everyone.

Team structure

The self-funded Qozy team consists of CEO Stephane and an active investor and consultant who remains in the background. The third partner is product manager Stefano. He came in later as a co-founder – shares in return for cash. Their development team has three part-time workers in charge of technology and web design.

Smart money

Stephane had some contacts in the tech scene, talked to business angels and some VCs. Direct introduction he finds is vital to get access to high-profile BAs and VCs. Qozy received around 15 to 20 such intros. Stephane says that they look first and foremost for team and traction – dynamic development and growth driven by a strong team is key. The founder explicitly went out looking for smart money from Europe, from BAs and VCs who know the markets that Qozy want to enter.

Lean sourcing – synergies with the offline world

Stephane is a seasoned entrepreneur, but no restaurant veteran. That’s why he teamed up with a Geneva-based family who owns several high-profile restaurants and know the market (and all marketplaces in Geneva) by heart. This approach serves as a model for other cities: Qozy operates like a decentralized restaurant using the infrastructure and cuisine expertise by established local restaurants. This way, the restaurants can monetize their kitchen equipment also during low hours or when they would be closed anyway. In return, Qozy receives access to tested supply chains as well as kitchen workspaces for food preparation and internal staff training – without having to invest in rooms and equipment.

Lean marketing

As Google ads didn’t convert enough to new customers, Stephane decided to reach out for partnerships as an alternative to buying customers the random way. Corporate partnerships, for instance: Qozy approaches large companies and offers their staff discounts on the first home dinner, or for team building events. Journalism, for instance: Qozy approached the “I heart Berlin” blog and together with them set up several dinners at their headquarters. The blog crew offered their readers discounted dinners combined with meeting and greeting the blog team behind the scenes. Of course, the events appeared on the blog and exposed Qozy to new potential customers.

Lean everything

Using existing market forces for free (granting only discounts) instead of paying for massive advertising is what Buildership calls the lean sailing approach. It is ideal for all bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Entering a dialogue with your (potential) customers is free market research. Entering partnerships with existing businesses and using their infrastructure saves on investment costs and reduces risk. Entering partnerships with media whose audience fits your customer profile saves on marketing expenses. It goes without saying that word of mouth is particularly important for culinary enterprises.

[March 2015, image credits © Qozy]