If you use social media and you like food, your screen is probably always filled with pictures of cakes: extravagant layered creations, themed cupcakes, cakes that aren’t actually cakes, and desserts that you know you could never recreate.
But you see it, and you want it....
If your skills - or available time - mean you can't make Pikachu macarons or a giant croquembouche, and you don't have hours to spend figuring out where to buy them, now there's a place for that - the latest in a recent wave of businesses aiming to connect home cooks and small businesses with people that want their food.
GetFoodi is a web platform created by a bunch of engineers in Sydney who want to bring customised desserts to anyone with a sweet tooth or an occasion to plan.
They’re gathering clever bakers and dessert makers on getFoodi, where the sweet stars can sell their elaborate creations and design new desserts for customers - one of the key points is that buyers can work with a seller to create something completely unique.
The three founders of getFoodi - Siavash Sajjadi, Adam Love and Johnson Su - met while working as engineers at app development company Sentia, where they cut their teeth working on major startup apps.
Their plan is to ease the burden for standalone dessert creators who might have previously been trying to manage their businesses through social media or websites.
“There's all these channels of people trying to buy their desserts - Instagram, Twitter, websites - but it's incredibly difficult to aggregate all of that and manage it,” Siavash Sajjadi tells SBS. getFoodi is currently available as a website, with plans to create a smartphone app in the future.
Siavash Sajjadi, Adam Love and Johnson Su: inspired by their work on startup apps. Source: getFoodi
You might recognise some of the creators who are already trading on getFoodi, with Instagram chefs like Andres Fatso and Chelsea Yin on board, and ex-Masterchef contestant Emilia Jackson kicking off the app in Melbourne.
“There’s all this tricky stuff you have to do to run a business, but they just want to make cake!” Sajjadi says.
Pokéball and Pikachu macarons by Sydney's Andres Fatso. Source: getFoodi
Sajjadi attributes a portion of the business’s success to one of their first adopters, Sydney dessert chef Stella Zhang, who helped to bring in new contacts and major funding.
“She has helped us so much along the way, and has been doing so well,” he says.
The getFoodi team aren’t just looking for chefs with huge Instagram followings or big names in the business. If you can whip up a cake that looks and tastes magnificent, they want you too.
“Anyone is welcome,” says Sajjadi. “We’re just looking for passionate people who have a good quality product.”
getFoodi is available in Sydney and Melbourne for now, with plans to take it to major cities across Australia.
And then, global dessert domination? Well, actually, that’s the grand plan.
“We're a really multicultural team, and we're so lucky because of it,” he says. “Johnson is Chinese, Adam is Australian, and I'm from the Middle East.”
“Growing up in Australia but also being multicultural, we just see so many markets available to us, and we understand our audiences.”
