The Hospopreneurs Podcast

Making sense of customer data can be unbelievably difficult. Today, David Shukri - Client Service Director at Shopper Intelligence - joins the program to discuss exactly this. With over a decade of experience helping retailers and manufacturers navigate data to innovate, David has found himself focusing his interests on the Australian liquor industry - to distill complexity and navigate the noise to generate actionable insights.

For long-time listeners, the name ‘Mancino ’ might sound familiar. Giancarlo Mancino, the company’s founder, was one of the earliest guests on the program - at Episode 11, back in 2017. Now, a key player in the world of vermouth and aperitivos, Mancino is collaborating with EcoSpirits on a brand new low-waste packaging format.

Elena Urbani, is paid to tour the globe and share that news - as Mancino Vermouth’s Global Brand Ambassador. Successful in her own right - having navigated a hospitality career spanning London’s top cocktail bars (Mr Fogg's, Nightjar and A Bar with Shapes for a Name) to a role as Commis Chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant, 'Frog' by Adam Handling - Elena also has a keen interest in philosophy and enrolled in an entire degree in it during the pandemic.

Recorded in the back room of the award-winning cocktail bar, Above Board, we cover a great deal in this interview - and somehow only skim the surface of Elena’s multifaceted interests.

Andrew Taylor and Paul Schulte, Co-founders of 'thepeople_' join the program today.

With over 18 years in hotel development, design, investment and operations, Andrew is responsible for leading the company and overseeing capital raises. He’s a trained lawyer, the Founder & Managing Director of Cre8tive Property - a boutique hotel advisory and development business - and the previous head of development for Starwood and Mirvac - both of which were acquired by Marriott and Accor, respectively.

Paul, who carries over two decades of experience as the owner and operator of dozens of hospitality venues, was previously a director of hospitality group, Keystone and has created market-leading human-centric concepts across Australia and the US.

Together, by reanimating and revitalising legacy properties, they’re activating spaces in new ways, while respecting regional heritage and working with the fundamental belief that dining should be fun.

Co-founded by high school and university mates - Rich Coombes and Mike Abbott - Kaddy, was designed to evolve the antiquated methods of ordering and payment in the beverage industry and operate as a centralised platform to connect venues and retailers - to discover, order, invoice and pay.

Following an $800k angel investor raise and launch in 2019, 2020 saw the business raise another $3.5 million dollars in an oversubscribed round to ultimately list names like KTM Ventures, SpringCapital and Stevan Premutico all on their cap table.

Michael Fox, co-founder of the plant-based meat company, Fable Food Co, joins the program today. The interview was recorded in the depths of The Coronavirus during April, just 12 months after the collapse of Michael’s previous venture, a fashion startup called Shoes of Prey - Michael tells us more about this during the interview.

Since launching on the menu at Dinner by Heston, things have continued to look positive with Blackbird Ventures and Grok Ventures both having backed the business.

They’ve got deals with Woolworths, Marley Spoon and more, so if you haven’t heard of Fable yet, you will soon.