If you are a foodie, but hesitant about trying new cuisines or restaurants, Alia El Khatib’s Feeditch app would be right up your alley!
“It is very hard to come across a satisfying food experience, and in the past, I rarely ventured into trying new restaurants or new cuisines,” explains Alia El Khatib, the Founder of a tech startup that recently launched a food and drink recommendation iPhone app called Feeditch. “I was always hesitant about trying new cuisines because I was very cautious about what I ate and where I ate. It came to a point that I couldn’t trust my friends’ opinions on food, because I would end up having a very different dining-out experience than they would.” That’s when Alia decided she wanted to do something about the whole dining-out experience by helping people share their recommendations and experiences socially.
The Beginnings
“I was born and raised in the Gulf, in Kuwait, and then I continued my studies in Lebanon, where I graduated from AUB (American University of Beirut) in 2008 with a BA in Business and Marketing. After graduation, I went to work for a food and beverage distribution company in Dubai for 3 years as a Marketing Executive and Brand Manager. I decided to leave the corporate world early in order to work on a project that I was passionate about and start it from scratch. I started doing my research online, reading about entrepreneurship, technology, different online startups, and internet and mobile trends. The startup world intrigued me and I decided to go into after I left Dubai,” adds Alia.
Alia is a foodie – so the urge for trying out new and international cuisines came to her naturally. “When I was living in Dubai for 3 years, there were countless intriguing cuisines to try out such as Afghani, Asian-Italian fusion, or Emirati. Can you imagine that I left Emirates without trying their camel burger? Why? Because I only came across 1 review about it!” explains Alia. “That was not enough to drive me to have that burger, and my circle of friends also didn’t try it out. So I had no trusted source to push me to try out that unique and famous dish from the Emirates.”
According to her, at first, it was exciting trying out new places and dishes. However, after a while she ended up eating at the same places, as well as ordering the same dishes, as a safer bet. “There were limited user review websites to check for new places and the reviews were long and had no supporting visuals to help me choose where to eat and in specific WHAT to eat,” she adds. “So I started doing my research and it led me to coming up with Feeditch.”
Starting Up
Alia started her in depth research in the summer of 2012 on how to build Feeditch technically first, as well as target market, competition, and global trends. Photo sharing apps and city guides and reviews were booming globally, but in order to obtain an idea of how people search for restaurants online regionally, she conducted a dipstick style research survey based on a 100 respondents.
There was a definite gap in the market with regards to food review websites that catered to the region, and foremost to the Arabic online browser. In reference to online Arabic content, there was only 2 percent of Arabic content online for 5 percent of the Arab population in the world,” she says. “There was a gap of 3 percent to fill. I also believe that there is a need for a search recommendation engine when 39 percent were to some extent pleased with what they ordered at restaurants, and 15 percent uploaded food posts on popular social networks at least once a week.”
Alia started the app’s development in January 2013 and released the first beta application in June with two hired developers. “The team now consists of only me – however, I am currently looking for a technical Co-Founder to come on board and work full time on Feeditch with me. I aim to expand of course once we have proof of concept and funding,” adds Alia.
She says that currently the company is self-funded and she is participating in local competitions in Lebanon to gain exposure and experience, and network with investors in order to be able to pitch for funding. Alia had also applied to an incubator in Dubai. However, since her company did not have a technical Co-Founder she could not move forward with her application. “I plan to apply to 2-4 incubators in the region in the coming months since it is very active now in building the entrepreneurship ecosystem. So I would love to be a part of that,” says Alia.
A Little More About Feeditch
Alia registered her tech startup in Lebanon. She says it wasn’t as complicated as she thought it would be. According to Alia, the USP of Feeditch lies in the fact that the app makes it effortless for anyone to find, post or ‘itch’ (want) a food or drink post. “It will help app users uncover dishes based on their personal taste, as well as discover new and interesting restaurants, bars, cafes, and so on that one would never usually come across,” says Alia. The app is currently only available in Arabic language and Alia plans to launch the English version of the app pretty soon.
“Once we gain traction and create a habit of users using Feeditch as their reference for dishes and restaurants, we plan on releasing special rewards and deals exclusive to the Feeditch community on the platform. We will charge restaurants fees per deal, according to their targets,” adds Alia. “Feeditch won’t be yet another restaurant deal platform. On the contrary, the rewards will be more engaging for the user, tailored to his/her food preferences and location, and restaurants will receive feedback on how well their rewards are doing.”
Tricks of the Trade
“For upcoming entrepreneurs, the most important thing I can advise is to do your research! I am always surprised and shocked when I meet entrepreneurs who for example, don’t know what Foursquare or Instagram is. Even if you are working on a mobile banking platform, you need to have studied every tech startup or online service available,” advises Alia. “I also advise to share your ideas on your startup early on. People always keep it quiet about their startup, afraid of others stealing it. But ideas are endless, its only execution and passion behind it that matters.”
She explains that it is important to start early by talking to friends and sharing it with your target market as well. “Then apply for as many competitions as you can. It is the easiest test to analyse your product/solution theory and discover if your startup is valuable. Go to networking events, visit as much conferences and lectures locally and regionally, and gain as much feedback on your startup and exposure of other rising startups. Don’t get locked up in your workspace, and don’t be afraid of feeling vulnerable when listening to criticism or comments on your strategies and concepts,” concludes Alia.
