🚀 Your Weekly Slice of UK Consumer Startups #12

“Homi Kitchen is shaking up the world foods aisles with the authentic Crazy Rich Flavours of Singapore.

In the past decade, Singapore has been thrust into the global spotlight, with its reputation as a powerhouse in Asia for technology, culture, tourism, and even its UNESCO World Heritage hawker food culture. Yet, it is hardly to be found in the world foods aisles.

So with a clear focus on convenient, easy-to-use & easy-to-understand products, Homi Kitchen's mission is to bring the warmth & vibrancy of Singapore’s hawker centres into UK homes.”

“I began working part time on the business almost a year before I left law, although it was primarily operated as a monthly supper club while I was still practicing.

That gave me a long time to experience what working in food could be like, and to consider the move thoroughly before making the jump. As a result, when I finally made the shift, it wasn’t jarring at all. If anything, it felt surprisingly natural!

That’s not to say that I didn’t face many challenges of course - the learning curve since leaving law has been exponential in every way. When I left, I knew very little about branding, marketing, design, sales or accounting (basically, most of the nitty gritty of building any business), not to mention the food industry as a whole. I’ve discovered many gaps in my knowledge in the past year. However my experience as a lawyer has trained me to confront knowledge gaps swiftly & completely.

I would add that I am very grateful to have met many people in the food industry who have generally shared their knowledge & experience with me to support Homi Kitchen, like Bonnie Chung of Miso Tasty, Emily Yeoh of Two Hot Asians, Maureen Suan Neo of Nonya Secrets, Victoria Yang of Pigtoriasecrets, Ming Wei from Rempapa Spice Co… and so many more I regret I can’t name all at once!

There are a lot of truly lovely people in the food industry, and that has made the learning journey much more enjoyable.“

“The value underpinning my mailing list is that I always give exclusive / pre-access to subscribers for special events and promotions. From the very start up to present day, subscribers on my mailing list are always given the chance to reserve spaces at my supper clubs before the public are able to do so.

Similarly, when I launched my Singaporean Hainanese Chicken Rice chilli sauce, I made it available only to mailing list subscribers for 1 week before I opened sales to the public.

It has helped tremendously for building community!

Whenever I have a win in the business, like when Selfridges said they would like to onboard us as a supplier, I share it with the mailing list. So often, I then receive incredibly sweet responses & congratulations from customers whom I now see as friends.

Food in Asian culture is inextricably intertwined with community, and Homi Kitchen was built for community - so growing our mailing list and maintaining that connection with subscribers is essential to the business’s identity. Even on our socials, I sometimes share nice emails from subscribers, to show everyone how important this aspect of Homi Kitchen is to us.”

“Going unexpectedly out of stock… It sounds like a nice thing and it many ways it is! But it happened due to (incredibly) unforeseen circumstances at our manufacturing facility which resulted in production delays. We lost some momentum as a consequence. However I am extremely grateful that we were able to get back up & running not long after as my manufacturers worked double time to mitigate the impact with a minimal viable run. In the “quiet” time, I shifted my focus to increasing exposure for the business in other ways, for example pitching to more retailers and applying for awards for our product.

There is a Chinese idiom ‘随机应变’, which Google will tell you means ’to adapt to changing circumstances’ - but it misses an important nuance in the Chinese version which actually refers to “opportunity”. In other words, with every change in circumstances, there is always an opportunity. So I did my best to view the situation as an opportunity to spend time on other aspects of the business that could support its growth long term.”

“More products! I strategically chose the chilli sauce as my first product because while it is “new” to those who are not familiar with Singaporean cuisine, chilli sauce is well loved as a category by many people. However, Homi Kitchen is about Singaporean cuisine and it cannot be sufficiently represented by just one product or one dish. Frankly, it can’t even be represented by just one ethnic culture as Singapore is such a vibrant & diverse melting pot. So I want to bring out a robust, exciting & more diverse range of products as quickly as viable, to make the brand truly a representation of Singapore on the global stage.”