My name is Daniel and I'm the founder of a foodie start up.

More than a year ago I took the jump and quit my IT job to pursue a foodie dream.

This dream was Foodie Anthem. A brand that would help locals and travellers find the best dishes in Sydney. I wasn’t satisfied with the solutions in the market and I thought it could be done better, faster and simpler.

In February last year Foodie Anthem was launched with a website www.foodieanthem.com. By design it was mobile and tablet responsive because I didn’t want to take the mobile app route. It was enough to give me the basic framework to learn with. If this proved it’s worth then I was going to spend the time and money in developing a mobile app.

Instagram was also gaining traction among the food community, so I setup an Instagram Account. I thought this would be a great marketing channel for the website. Facebook and Twitter were obviously around too but I thought it was best to pick one social channel rather than spreading across a few. So Instagram it was!

Instagram can fulfil all your needs

The funny thing was Instagram quickly became the face of Foodie Anthem. Instead of being a marketing channel for the brand it quickly became the primary unit of Foodie Anthem and the website became secondary.

Good thing I didn’t put the money into the mobile app ey?

What I loved about Instagram is that it made it very easy to tap into my target market and even better (from a hustling point of view) it was very cheap to do it. No website costs, no SEO costs, Instagram was ready to go, some of the best developers in the world were behind it, and the content I put on Instagram was much cheaper and quicker to create than the content on the website. In addition using hashtags and looking at who was following who I could easily reach my audience with a like, comment or private message.

As a side note, if you’re a business and you’re looking to get digital. You may want to hold off on the website and mobile app. Look at your options like Instagram, eBay etc. Then see where a website or mobile app is needed.

My first pivot

So officially my first pivot was in April when I ran my first Foodie Photo Comp. I’d organised the comp with the global Japanese chain Ippudo to celebrate getting 2,500 followers (still blows my mind that Foodie Anthem got to partner with them!). It was at this time I began to full appreciate the capabilities of Instagram as the young Foodie Anthem started to integrate into the Sydney foodie community.

I honestly don’t know how much time or money it would have taken to get the same integration into the community with only the website. But I know it would have been a lot more time, money and effort to pull off. It was time to pivot.

Did I stop the website? No, but I made the call to not create a mobile app and to focus more than 99% of my time on the Instagram. With 10,000 followers now that effort has pulled off big dividends.

Along the journey I’ve partnered with Belly Bao, Three Williams, Kazbah, Flour Drum, The Nine and Osaka Bar who are all notable cafes and restaurants in Sydney. As a result Foodie Anthem has been able to give away more than $2,500 of food and drinks!

I’ve also got to meet some of the established Insta foodies like @sydneyfoodprn, @willxia1 and @lickyourphone who between them have more than 300,000 followers. I’m also getting free food invites weekly, so much so that I have a core team of 4 friends in Sydney and another in Melbourne looking after the tasting.

I’d credit this to Instagram. Not bad for a digital tool that didn’t cost anything to setup and which I didn’t have to build.

So Instagram was a fantastic pivot. Did the message of Foodie Anthem change? Slightly. It went from a brand that would help locals and travellers find the best dishes in Sydney to a brand that helps locals and travellers find the best looking and best tasting dishes in Sydney. With the Instagram focusing on the best looking dishes and the website focusing on the best tasting.

Why FoodHi?

So why FoodHi? The journey shared has given me a lot of perspective and I’ve learnt some very valuable things about the food community in Sydney and Melbourne.

One thing I realised is that my solution of helping people find the best dishes in Sydney and Melbourne was a niche solution to a broader problem. The broader problem being “how do I have a great food experience?” and “how can I help people have greater food experiences?”. With my new found perspective and experience I see a bigger ocean to jump into.

Before I take that jump I wanted to improve my brand. I wanted one with a shorter name, one that is easier to remember and one that’s all about the food…

FoodHi is about that moment when you see a mouth watering dish and your eyes light up 😍. The food hi moment 🍕👋 .

As you’ve also picked up it’s a nice play on words because it’s short for food high.

See the BETA version of the site by going to http://www.foodhi.com

PS> Thanks

Special thanks to my mate Matthew Ho from http://www.inspiredworlds.com who encouraged me to start writing about my journey.

Thanks to all my friends that have helped FoodHi get to where it is.