Nov 6, 2015 · 26m · 20vc
20 VC FF 20: Shaking Up The Food Industry With Willie Biggart @ Spoonfed
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The 20 Minute VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Willie Biggart, chairman and co-founder of Spoonfed, exploring how the SaaS platform is modernizing the £33 billion B2B corporate catering industry by transitioning businesses from manual paper processes to scalable, system-dependent software.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 22.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 2.2 Guest teaching 1.8 Guest disagreement 0.0 Harry pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 9:41 Differentiating B2B back-office from B2C food tech
Willie gently reframes the host's broad food tech comparison by highlighting how Spoonfed operates in a distinct B2B system niche rather than consumer delivery.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 7:35 Testing the niche market premiseHarry politely pushes back on the idea that catering drop-off is merely a small niche, prompting the guest to detail the full global market potential.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:41 Explaining B2B workflow vs B2C appsWillie educates the host on how B2B catering software requires deep back-office workflow integration rather than just simple consumer ordering interfaces.
Harry holds his own ▶ 11:10 Demonstrating SaaS domain awarenessHarry demonstrates strong guest preparation by citing specific early customer acquisitions like Le Pain Quotidien while probing early SaaS go-to-market challenges.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willie Biggart's Entrepreneurial Journey and Spoonfed's Origins | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Harry sets up the interview by inviting Willie to introduce his background. Willie provides a friendly background monologue detailing his agency exit, angel investing, and how managing a disorganized catering business led to Spoonfed. | |
| Transitioning from People Dependent to System Dependent Business Models | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Harry asks about the key drivers of Spoonfed, prompting Willie to explain the transition from people-dependent to system-dependent business models. Willie outlines the reliability and margin benefits for corporate catering drop-offs. | |
| Analyzing the Global B2B Catering Market Opportunity | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Harry questions whether the market is larger than it initially appears and asks about the broader food tech trend. Willie explains the distinction between consumer-facing B2C food apps and Spoonfed's B2B back-office operational focus. | |
| Customer Acquisition Strategies and Operational Domain Knowledge | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Harry shows strong research by citing specific client wins like Le Pain Quotidien and asking about SaaS acquisition strategy. Willie contrasts targeted rifle strategies and domain expertise with developer-led competitors. | |
| Value of Operator Experience and Social Bite Case Study | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Harry asks targeted questions regarding operator experience, fundraising on Syndicate Room, and financial planning. Willie shares the Social Bite case study and explains their bottom-up financial forecasting approach. | |
| Quickfire Round Ray Kroc Inspiration and Five Year Outlook | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Harry conducts a standard quickfire round. Willie shares insights on Ray Kroc's system focus, leadership advice from Sir John Harvey Jones, and five-year growth targets in a warm and collaborative tone. |
Statements from this episode (15)
Spoonfed is raising a £500,000 round on SyndicateRoom
“They're currently raising a 500,000 round on www.syndicateroom.com”
Spoonfed Handled Over 40,000 Orders Prior to Standalone Launch
“With the software now proven and handling over 40, 50,000 orders, we realized there was an opportunity to create something on a much wider stage.”
Biggart: Spoonfed's biggest competitor is paper and spreadsheets
“Our biggest competitor is actually paper and spreadsheets.”
Biggart: Global drop-off catering market totals £33 billion
“The drop off catering food market globally is thirty three billion pounds”
Biggart: Spoonfed has a £200 million annual revenue potential
“That's two hundred million, ah, annual revenue potential if you work it out on the average value of orders and the number of orders placed.”
Biggart: US corporate catering market is eight times larger than UK
“America is a huge market and it's eight times the size of the UK.”
Biggart: Spoonfed in advanced diligence with major US and UK food retailers
“We're in advanced diligence stage with two major retailers, one in the U.K. Part of a big food services group, and another in America, which they're testing it in New York, but they have a number of branches throughout the world.”
Biggart: B2C food tech is crowded, but B2B catering software has few competitors
“What's interesting with our market is there is a huge explosion of B to C food technology offerings. I'm thinking of seamless. I'm thinking of Grubhub, Deliveroo, Just Eat in the UK big, big technology platforms making it easier for consumers to order their pi…”
Spoonfed was originally built for the founders' own catering business
“Really delicious was our old catering company that, that we sold. So it was natural that they wanted to take, take our system to continue to run the business.”
Biggart: Domain expertise beats developer-led product development in niche B2B SaaS
“Software based on customer needs, from needs that we identified when you ran, when we ran our own catering business. And that's in stark contrast to others out there who have been developer-led and very focused on, well, this is a good piece of kit, someone's …”
Spoonfed helped Social Bite scale catering turnover from £7K to £70K monthly
“They came to us when they were doing about 7000 pounds of corporate catering revenue through five stores four stores in central belt of Scotland it's a social enterprise business aimed at creating jobs for homeless people, so that helps, but they, they've grow…”
Willie Biggart: Spoonfed bootstrapped £400K before raising £250K seed round
“We had bootstrapped, spoonfed ourselves, probably to the tune Murray and I, and a couple of sweat equity partners good creative on the creative side and X-Forto II on the development side to the tune of about 400,000 pounds. And when we had a product that was …”
Spoonfed burn rate will increase from £25K to £35K monthly
“Our burn rate is presently about 25 K a month. It will rise to about 35,000.”