Meet Digby Vollrath, Co-Founder of Feast It

Feast It are the UK’s leading events planning platform - allowing you to choose from over 100 handpicked street food caterers, mobile bars, florists, photographers, marquees, staff and more. They’ve got high standards and accept nothing but brilliance, only taking on around 1 in 10 suppliers to the platform. Discover more about how they built themselves up from scratch, have successfully navigated the recent COVID challenges, as well as planning for expansion in the future.

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Can you tell us a little more about your role with Feast-it, including how and why you got into the start-up industry?

I am the co-founder and CEO of Feast-It so my role is essentially to do everything that others don’t do – mainly fundraising, legalities, the 3-4-5 year horizon growth ambitions, and shaping the universal vision long term.

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In terms of my background, I have always worked in events, starting in the states where I worked across LA, Atlanta and Orange County on over 200 events before moving back to the UK and joining a festival start-up from series A to B, managing business development for the US and Europe.

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This gave me a taste of the start-up world and helped me to understand the ins and outs behind the scenes including funding cycles. However even when I was at university I ran a music blog and was travelling around reviewing festivals. I’ve always loved live events – spaces where people congregate and go to create memories; they’re a conduit for some of the most exiting experiences of peoples lives. This is why I launched Feast-It.

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How has FI adapted to the changes instigated by the COVID closures?

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We are certainly the industry that has been hit first and hardest by COVID, with a 99% drop in sales and no other industry universally banned globally.  

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In terms of the adaptations we’ve made to accommodate this, we are lucky that our investors believe in us, and that they are looking at the business and industry’s 10 year horizon long term. Millennials are the largest bracket that spend the most on events, and along with Gen Z and X they fundamentally value experience over possessions more. This is not a trend we see being reversed by COVID, and the demand will always be there.

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In order to address the more immediate concerns, we have had to pivot to virtual events, but are nearly hitting the volume of sales we were doing last year, and have also recently closed a round of funding to secure our bank balance. We initially planned to scale the team, however we are trying to take the recent events as a blessing and see the opportunity to slow down and focus on the product. Removing revenue as a main concern allows us to focus on the fundamentals, and think about what we need to offer in future.

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Will any of these changes be permanent fixtures?

Virtual events are here to stay, but not in the demand that they are now. However for industries where people were forced to travel as opposed to desiring to, such as trade shows, conferences and awards ceremonies, I think we will see virtual options becoming a more permanent fixture.

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What advice would you give to start-ups and businesses moving forwards?

It’s an over-used term but COVID was a black swan event, and with these types of things it’s about accepting that it will mostly be out of your control. Instead of scaling the team to 70 as originally planned, we had to scale down – it’s about leaning into the change, and finding the unexpected opportunity in it. There is no other option. What gives people hope is the number of successful start-ups that are visible today, that are the product of the last recession.

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What are your thoughts on the role of the Triple Bottom Line for the years to come? (people, planet, profit)

Profit is central to business, so there will be no change there, but the other 2 are so much more important than they ever were prior to COVID. Talent is closely linked to business success, people are essential, and these people need something bigger to care about than just their next pay check.  

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As well as a team and suppliers that are driven by purpose and fulfilment, consumers care more about this than ever too. We are becoming increasingly conscious about where we spend our money, and how our pounds affect the world around us. This can be small and incremental but changes on the individual and global stage feed into each-other.

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When it comes to business – it’s common for people to feel the need to decide between higher education and learning on the job, what is the value of each?

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Education was a great opportunity for me to do things such as live abroad, however it can also be a great way to accrue debt and I think some people may benefit more from apprenticeships which instantly start developing practical skills. However, it’s also too extreme to look solely into skills as a direct means of making money, and more than just income, it’s about learning about how to study the world around you.

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What is your favourite interview question? (And how would you answer it personally)

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By the time I get to interview people, it is usually purely about personality. This always comes back to motivation – what about this is their passion. There are so many different possible answers, but it usually comes back to customers and product. We’re not saving lives, but we’re creating incredible memories for people to improve their quality of life.

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What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?

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I started Feast-It when I was 24 and knew nothing about start-ups. It’s cliché but it’s so much about the people, and you are totally reliant on the skills of the team around you, technically and emotionally across the board. A business is a team, not an idea, so surround yourself with people you’re excited to work with, and wowed by. I feel we got this right from the start, and have a great group of people who are excited by the journey.

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If you were to do it all again, what would you do differently?

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We were embarrassed about the scale of our idea to begin with, and downplayed ourselves. We pitched as a start-up that were trying to build something for the catering industry, when really we wanted to build the largest events business in the world and technology was a route to that. We started off too small, and should have been more vocal and bold about our true ambitions from the start.

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What’s the smallest change that’s given the biggest return, personally or professionally?

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Personally, it’s been being able to schedule my own time. I can now set my own agenda, so I only have meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays and go running every lunch time. Creating the space for this has been a huge benefit to my mental health, and not having any meetings on Mondays and Fridays allows me to get into the headspace for work, as well as cutting down on evenings spent in the office. My time has a premium attached to it, so I’m very protective of it.

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What are your strengths and weaknesses?

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In terms of weaknesses, I can often get so excited about what’s next that I can miss focusing on what we have here and now, which may be frustrating for the people around me. In terms of my strengths, I am a loud voice and a big personality, and I love being challenged, so I get excited when someone has a better idea than me, and I never think that mine is the best or final version. I want to foster an environment based on people questioning me, challenging my assumptions and debating key issues.

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Do you think entrepreneurial attributes are innate personality traits, or skills that can be developed?

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I think these skills can be developed, no two of my friends are the same. However whatever type of founder you want to be, there are certain business characteristics you seem to need to have, the main one being pure determination – it’s a long and stressful journey and there are days where everything can go both right and wrong at the same time.

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It’s important to nurture the ability to keep picking yourself back up, and coming back to centre. I think this can be learned by seeing failure as a positive thing, which comes with time and experience. Each loss teaches you how to handle the next one better, and you don’t need 20 years in a consultancy firm to do that, you can learn on the job by accepting that whatever feels so crucial at the time, is often insignificant years later, and over time everything recovers.

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How has what you do changed you as a person?

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It’s changed me an immeasurable amount. This is the longest I’ve lived in a city or done something like this in my life, and its made me more analytical in my thinking, as well as giving more thought to the longer term consequences of things. I read a lot more, exercise, and take better control and care of myself, including managing my mental health.

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What is your vision for the future, personally and professionally?

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Professionally, I am so excited and hopefully this has been the toughest year we could have. We’ve spent 9 months building a better product and company, and I can’t wait to take advantage of the recovery. We are in talks to launch internationally, and have already launched in 3 different countries. Personally, I’m excited to travel more, see more of the world and to do more. I grew up travelling as a kid, moving every 6 months or so, and this shift towards a new, more remote lifestyle has birthed a lot of new opportunities to work abroad over the next few years.

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When working on your passions, it can be difficult to put on the breaks and is easy to burn out. How do you prevent this, and manage anxiety and stress?

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This is one of the toughest lessons for everyone in the start-up world: a mix of imposter syndrome, burn out and stress, especially this year. No one has the perfect answer, but I think the most important thing is to acknowledge that the business is built on the team so it’s important that people take time off, and essential to create that space.  

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Everyone is unique and different, so listen to yourself. I now do nothing on Sundays, not even social things, and creating the space and time to do this has been a huge uptick in my life. It’s also made a big difference to me to stay off social platforms, especially LinkedIn.

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Are there any books or blogs on your reading list?

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I’ve recently finished ‘Why We’re Polarized’ by founder of Vox Media, Ezra Klein. It’s an assessment of everything from Trump to Johnson and the more staunch parts of political allegiances, as well as recent demographic and theological shifts. I finished it in 2 sittings.

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The other book I picked up is ‘The Tyranny of Merit: what’s become the common good?’, by philosopher Michael Sandel. It makes you think about meritocracy, and whether this concept of the American Dream and the assumption of working harder to achieve more carries any weight, or fairness.

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What do you love most about x+why?

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I love the space but more importantly, my team love it and that’s why we’re here. We have a whole floor to ourselves and it provides and beautiful and calming office to work from. We feel truly welcomed here, and when we show visitors around, the site and what it signifies never fail to impress.  

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