I was a terrible cook and now I’m running my own meal delivery business at uni

Bicycle food delivery is a hot business right now. If you haven’t seen someone zooming around a major city with a big box on their backs, you’ve definitely been living under a rock – hi there, good to see you again.

Even thinking about the logistics of running a business like that makes our head hurt, so imagine trying to juggle a degree whilst delivering incredible food like teriyaki salmon and chicken katsu curry to people all over campus. Impossible right? Actually no, it’s not – not for Leyth anyway.

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So Leyth, have you always wanted to run your own business?

Honestly, If you would have asked me a few years ago that I would be my own boss running a food company, I would’ve laughed in your face and said, “You. Are. Crazy.”

I actually started uni studying Business Studies, but it wasn’t pushing me enough – it was just sitting in lecture theatres, absorbing data, which is just not the way I learn. I’m more of a get out there into the real world and do things kind of learner – so I switched to Entrepreneurship. It wasn’t especially driven by the desire to run my own business, I just wanted to be more proactive and learn more about my own capabilities.

So tell me the origin story of Pelico? 

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So in January of 2015, my co-founder Alex sat me down and told me about an idea he had, but that plan didn’t work out. A few iterations and seven months later, we launched a one day a week pilot in January 2016, delivering, freshly cooked meals at lunchtime and dinner. Now a year on, we operate five days a week doing about 60 covers a day for a customer base of around 500 – and that number is growing by about 5-10 per cent per week.

The food you guys cook up looks delicious – why did you opt for the healthy food option rather than doing something like burgers?

Well when we were working on the business model, we were spending hours in the library, sometimes not leaving until past 10pm and all we wanted was some good quality food. Not pizza, not a Chinese, just tasty food that’s good for me – and there were absolutely no options, which irritated me. I also strongly believe you are what you eat and the healthy food market has never been better, so it all came together quite nicely.

Can you cook though?

Absolutely not. I have no cooking ability whatsoever. Zero. Luckily our head chef is excellent. When he’s not cooking for customers he’s constantly developing new recipes.

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Obviously you’re main competitor is Deliveroo – how’s the competition?

We are at a really early stage still. Where we operate on campus, they don’t – however in the next two months we are looking to build our second kitchen in the city, so we’ll be going head to head with them more.

Deliveroo has definitely raised awareness and recognition of bicycle food delivery. However, they’re a middleman logistics service, so the fact we control everything, from food to delivery, is a huge bonus – yes it can slow us down in many ways, but we are constantly designing new dishes that are perfect for delivery. We are really optimising food temperatures and quality, and all of this for under £6 a meal puts us in a really good place in the market. 

So what’s it like running a business at uni?

Well I definitely could have chosen an easier path, but honestly there is nothing I’d rather be doing, I absolutely love it. The fact that my course (Entrepreneurship) fully facilitates the development of my business in regards to mentorship, guidance and giving me help with business develop and strategy insights has been invaluable. 

The social life has its ups and down –  I’ve got some really close friends who I live with, they run a lot of nights and are quite big DJs in Bristol so if I ever feel like doing anything, it makes things fun. 

I’m also not currently taking a salary – neither is my co-founder. We pay all of our staff on an hourly basis, but at the moment we don’t pay ourselves. But I’m in this for the long-run – I see it as a marathon, not a sprint.

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The Pelico leadership team

That’s a nice way of putting it. Surely there are a few perks to being the boss?

Well, obviously running a food company means I’m rarely ever hungry – a lot of the money I’d usually spend on feeding myself is covered which is cool.

Obviously there is a lot of financial knowledge that goes into starting a business – did you have any prior?

No, not at all and I think that’s been a massive problem. As a startup, we are now gearing up for our first round of funding and the biggest thing an investor will say is, “What are your numbers?”

I’ve had to go and research stuff in accounting and finance and really try to educate myself around how to manage my numbers. In the early stages you don’t really think about it – when you’re trying to get an idea off the ground, your biggest worry is “will this make money?” Now I’ve got to manage payroll, supply inventory and understand what comes in and out of the company every single day.

All of this is so important because at the end of the day, an investor is going to say “Yes, I love your business, but does it make money? If I give you a million pounds when am I going to see ten?”

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So you think it’s important to have some kind of financial understanding?

Without a doubt – it’s imperative to my own development as a founder to educate myself in accountancy and finance. Understanding your finances is probably the most important foundation to any business, and a lack of is the number one reason why small business fail. It’s a problem that needs solving – I feel very under-educated in that area.

What’s the most important piece of advice that you’ve learnt that you think should be passed onto someone else starting out?

Being persistently persistent is the key to success – my mum told me that like two years ago and that just rings in my bells. Bad stuff can happen every single day but if you persistently never give up you will 100 per cent achieve where you want to get to. That’s the game!

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