#328 The Taste of Innovation: AI, Food, and Future Tech with Fisayo Olawadiya

[00:00:00] 

Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to a new episode of the CTO Show with Mehmet. Today, I'm very pleased joining me, Fisayo. Fisayo, thank you very much for being with me on the show. The way I love to do it is I keep it to my guests and to do themselves. So tell us a little bit about you, you know, your [00:01:00] journey and what you are up to currently.

Fisayo: Okay, thank you so much for having me. Um, I am Fisayo Olawadiya . I am the founder. of OKO Inc. My company produces or created the product Resactly. Resactly is a two fold product. It provides an AIML restaurant recommendation platform, restaurant and dish recommendation platform for eaters that takes into consideration, um, dietary restrictions, likes and dislikes, um, all the way from cuisines all the way down to ingredients.

Fisayo: Um, and also it is a real time data analytic system that provides information. Um, to restaurants so they can make data driven decisions, uh, about their menus. Um, I have been in the tech industry for about 17 years now. Um, and I would say probably around six years ago is when I took on the passion of [00:02:00] food writing because I had peaked at principal software engineer at the company that I was then.

Fisayo: So fast forward a year and a couple of months. Um, a couple of months before I was looking for a product to build because I also wanted to be a part of the AI revolution and I combined my passion for food writing and AI to build this recommendation engine. Um, that is mostly it about me. 

Mehmet: Sure. Yeah, that's, that's fantastic.

Mehmet: And thank you again for, for being guests here. Uh, I love honestly when I see founders who merge. technology with their passion. So, uh, and, you know, especially we didn't cover much, you know, this, uh, topic much, which is related if you want that kind of food tech. And of course you're doing, you know, the analytics part of it.

Mehmet: Um, so [00:03:00] you wanted to merge the two worlds, uh, the words, sorry. And, you know, this is of course, but came also, I believe out of, uh, Something you have seen missing and I am always curious to be honest with you to know Like what was the moment that you said? Okay, like this is a problem that is worth solving and I need to build Uh, exactly.

Mehmet: Um, leveraging the I. So what was that moment or what drove you to to to, you know, think of that particular domain specifically and nothing else. Instead, 

Fisayo: sure, certainly it was really very much a step by step process. So as I mentioned, I wanted to have my own product to be a part of the I built out of the I built out of the ecosystem.

Fisayo: So obviously, the first thing I'm thinking was, okay, okay. Let's build something in the serious industries. Let's do something in finance. I built the products, but it wasn't something I could commit to my in it. My career [00:04:00] started in finance, um, in big banks, but I left after maybe about 8 years. So when I started with the product that was building out there, I really couldn't commit to it because.

Fisayo: Finance is just something I'd lost interest in. Then I moved over to building something for medicine and I built a really solid product there, which I figured, yeah, this is really going to make a difference. But even though it's going to make a difference, it's not something that I see myself doing, uh, for the long term.

Fisayo: I need to do something that is my passion across the board. So that's where I said, okay, let's combine all of these things together. When I write, uh, about when I write and recommend a restaurant, I'm basically a recommendation engine. So I said, okay, fine, let's build a recommendation engine for eaters.

Fisayo: And as I kept on building it, I kept on having, um, ideas. I kept on having ideas, more and more ideas about the recommendation engine. And I'm collecting all of these all of this data and training my models and became a light bulb. I have a [00:05:00] lot of data over here and there's so many questions I can answer with this data that I think these are questions that a restaurant would want to answer.

Fisayo: So something along the lines of how do I get more foot traffic into my restaurant? Um, so that people how do I get more food traffic into my restaurant? How do I make my menus? more attractive. So instead of saying, Oh, I just need to have a Saturday rush, make a profit on a Saturday to carry me throughout on Saturdays to carry me throughout the month, my revenue throughout the month.

Fisayo: How do I get food traffic consistent food traffic every day? One of the questions I was able to answer is okay. Everybody in a zip code has a particular dietary restriction. Let's say everybody is a vegan. And I'm running a steakhouse in that zip code, probably want to adjust things. So as I built more and more features, that's when I shifted over to, okay, there are a lot of analytical tools that I can build a lot of analytical tools that I can [00:06:00] build.

Fisayo: Um, into the restaurant space and again, with every day now, I actually have ideas for the chef space. I have ideas for restaurant groups and this just keeps on coming every day and I'm looking at the entire food, um, food industry and hos food tech and hospitality tech as a whole. It's just this open landscape.

Fisayo: There is no technology, there are no technology solutions. area. The most you have i

Fisayo: Yelp reviews things to that nature or google reviews. There isn't really any true core technical solutions So it's with that that I said, okay now I have a grasp on what my company okay Is going to be it's building technology solutions for that space starting with rizakly 

Mehmet: That's you know, I like to hear these stories as well as telling you like, you know, it's come also sometime out of frustration uh Of our [00:07:00] personal experiences also sometime now for something like if you, of course, like I know like AI plays a major role in, in, in, in your product.

Mehmet: So in very, I would say, simple terms, you know, because we have a mix of audience between like, techie people. And there are sometimes also people who are not like coming from a strong technology background, but of course they are into the startup and entrepreneurship space. So how you are leveraging AI to cater, you know, um, the individual taste preferences, which is I know as a core feature in Recycli.

Mehmet: And how does the platform also understand and adapt to such a diverse range of user preferences. So which make, you know, the product sets you apart from other recommendation services. 

Fisayo: Sure. Um, so one of the key things that the product does that there are no other recommendation services that do is it recommends dishes.

Fisayo: Most recommendation platforms, [00:08:00] they basically look at your dining history and the similarity of the different restaurants to say, well, you. Dined at this restaurant multiple times. It's of this cuisine and it has these characteristics. There are other, um, let's do some clustering. There are other restaurants that have these categorizations.

Fisayo: So try this restaurant versus with exactly. I'm going down to the dish level. You're telling me I like specifically these ingredients. I like these cuisines. These are my favorite restaurants. Um, these are my dietary restrictions. These are my allergies. So with all of this information, I can. Generate a persona, uh, dining persona profile for you.

Fisayo: And using all of this information, I'm able to recommend the dishes and restaurants based off of the information that the restaurants have given me. So restaurants have given me a metadata about who they are, awards, categorizations, general cuisines, preparations, ingredients in their dishes. So I'm getting this information and I'm able to then [00:09:00] do a match against the dining persona profile.

Fisayo: Now, as you can, this information, as far as generating the dining persona profile, Um, as you can well imagine, you have to give me a lot of information. So my model, the first generation model is very much a baby. I'm building the second generation model right now with a second generation model. All you have to do is keep on going to restaurants and provide reviews about, um, those restaurants, obviously the more specific.

Fisayo: So if you give me reviews at a dish level, that makes it even better. But if you give me reviews, um, at a restaurant level, that's fine as well. I have a lot of natural language processing. happening, um, across the platform. So I'll be able to extract that information. So the more you eat out, the more reviews you give, and with the more reviews you give, the better your recommendation.

Fisayo: So you don't have to be that particular with the information that you're providing. So that is that, those are two [00:10:00] points. I have basically the recommendation engine. I have the natural language processing and also with the natural language processing, I have sentiments analysis. So between your sentiments, um, on your different reviews, the natural language processing, um, on the reviews, and also when you're aborting, and also with, um, my model that I, my model that I train on a very frequent basis, and as I mentioned, building a second generation model on additional inputs, those are the ways that I'm using AI, but I'm just starting.

Fisayo: There are several other features that I'm exploring right now to use AI. Um, and to infuse AI even deeper into exactly, but I'm not going to reveal those features just yet. 

Mehmet: Of course, indeed, we can understand that. Now, one part of this journey is, you know, every founder passes through that, which is validating the idea.

Mehmet: So [00:11:00] what are some of the techniques that you have used to, to, to validate that what you're building is something like the mass want? I'm asking you a question not to, you know, just to question you, how you did it. Because, you know, this question always comes from fellow entrepreneur that, okay, we have this idea.

Mehmet: We're excited about it. And then I asked them, How did you validate that? And you know, this is where usually they go silent. So I want to hear from you, you know, if you say like, what was your experience when you did the validation? 

Fisayo: Oh, yeah. Validation has been painful. I'm still very much in the validation phase.

Fisayo: It's very much, um, I mean, by validation, you're essentially talking about product market fit. And it has been a pain point, so to speak, as far as being able to push people down the funnel, because what I have is, um, I have a number of people coming to the platform. They're looking at the, about they're starting the process [00:12:00] of onboarding, but there's a little friction because as I mentioned, I'm trying to get a lot of information.

Fisayo: Um, out on the initial onboarding. So essentially, I'm revisiting that on that onboarding flow, which will probably get not probably will become a lot simpler once I have the second generation model, but back to your initial back to your initial question. Essentially, what I'm doing with the validation is I'm going out the entire point.

Fisayo: Um, of the platform is to assist people when they go out to restaurants. So I very simply do that. I go out to different restaurants. I sit at the bar. I have conversations with people. I explained the product. They think, wow, this is absolutely great. And then I simply tell them to log into the application right now.

Fisayo: It's. It's a mobile web application, but very shortly it'll be an app in the app store, so it'll be even easier to say, download the app and try it. So essentially just sitting there one on one, having these conversations with diners, I'm able to get people onto the [00:13:00] platform and try it. Um, further still to that, I am on the podcast circuit every time as I'm here.

Fisayo: Thank you. Um, every time I have a podcast, I'm able to drive a lot of traffic. Thanks, Anne. Shift people to come onto the platform and, um, not only use it, there is, um, the option on the platform to provide feedback and I read, um, all of the feedback there. Most of the feedback I've gotten has been positive, but they have also been asked for a couple of features.

Fisayo: There are a couple that haven't been particularly pleasant. But I do, in fact, have this feedback cycle in order to, um, get the information and to build the product better. Um, now, certainly I could, uh, I would like to have more feedback, which is why I want to drive more users onto the platform. Because obviously, the more users I get on the platform, the more data, um, and the better I'll be able to train my model.

Fisayo: But that is essentially how. Um, I have been validated in the product. I [00:14:00] will be, I will be honest and say, from a restaurant perspective, since I don't have enough data yet from an eater perspective, the dashboard for restaurants, as far as the data driven analytics, it's not it's, it's not as fully robust.

Fisayo: Um, so because of that, I have pretty much just been validating the idea by having conversations with different restaurant groups and they Um, have shown positivity of across the board. So as soon as I get more data, then I'll be able to release that, um, dashboard for more product validation from the restaurant.

Mehmet: Absolutely. And this is one of the reasons why this podcast exists, uh, say, Oh, because I want people to leverage my platform. Like if, if I would be any of any help, you know, driving some traffic. And for you to, to listen to, to some feedback that would make me really happy. Now, [00:15:00] when you design anything, which is for daily use, I would say, especially, you know, like every one of us, they must be using, for example, an application to order food, let's say someone uses.

Mehmet: It's for, uh, uh, rate hailing and so on. So how important in your opinion and your experience, of course, when you, when you build, you know, your idea to also put the customer experience in mind from day one. So, because as I understood, like I'm going to get very. You know personalized recommendations about my Food and what I can eat from this application.

Mehmet: So how it's important to have, you know The seamless experience when you design product like the one you're building now 

Fisayo: Certainly. So as far as the seamless Experience and the building the product first that certainly has been there from [00:16:00] the very beginning as I mentioned I was just thinking about What is my product that I'm building that provides a solution to something?

Fisayo: And as I built it more, the more I realized, really what I'm building, aside from the recommendation engine, is automating extreme personalization in dining. So, That is happening right now when people go to the restaurant and the waitress comes and asks for the waiter, waitress comes and asks for what they want to order.

Fisayo: And the person says, okay, what is good here? Oh, does that include these ingredients? Because I don't eat that. Oh, this is my dietary preference, which speaks for itself. sometimes changes from day to day. Um, my dietary restrictions rather is sometimes changes from day to day that personalization of the dining experience that's already happened.

Fisayo: It's not happening on, um, a level equal across the board to every individual, but it's there. And I noticed that as at the very beginning when I [00:17:00] was building, um, exactly. So noticing that, that then became also a part of sort of, um, the mission. And automating and simplifying that process because I see, uh, in the future, not, not so long in the future, let's just say three, five years where this.

Fisayo: customized or this customized dining experience is something that everybody is doing. It's something that everybody expects. Um, so there's that. And then further still to that, it is in fact a pain point already when you're trying to go out to eat as a group. So maybe when it's Um, two people going to eat out.

Fisayo: I don't know, maybe it's a date. Um, it's always a question of, will they like this? Oh, I've heard that this is a good place. How about we eliminate that? Because right, because within Rezapli, there is, um, group there, there's the social aspect of it. You can create groups, add people to the groups, put like a search term, maybe like French [00:18:00] food in New York, and it will take that and not only recommend restaurants for you as an individual, but also get the percentage probability that.

Fisayo: The group as a whole will like that restaurant. So that's another feature that I was thinking about the customer first and thinking about the seamless experience. So, um, from that perspective, from the EDA perspective, that's where I was thinking about it from the customer 

Mehmet: first. Absolutely. Now I'm thinking a little bit, you know, I'm brainstorming, maybe here with you, uh, Sayu.

Mehmet: From a restaurant perspective as the owner, so of course you will be sitting on, a lot of data and this is where the data analytics part will come in. So this is will not only benefit me from seeing what people are eating or what people are searching for. So I'm thinking also as a restaurant owner, I might Benefit.

Mehmet: I'm just asking. Of [00:19:00] course. That's a question. May I benefit from catching early trends in eating habits, so for example, uh, I came to New York only one time, but let's say Uh, I'm in in next to wall street, right? And people all of a sudden there they decided to go on diet So as restaurant owner, I might be So I wanted to figure out that this trend started here, so I started with in the menu more healthy stuff rather than, am I right in the way I'm thinking about it this way?

Mehmet: Like, is that what you're trying to do for restaurant owners? Yeah, 

Fisayo: exactly. Absolutely. So as far as like that, that goes back to the first example I gave, which is just that everybody in the zip code has a particular dietary preference. And because of that dietary preference, you can look at the location of your restaurant.

Fisayo: So you can adjust your menu based off of the dietary preferences of the people in your zip code. Further still to that, you'll have [00:20:00] information. You can certainly key in, okay, fine, not only my zip code, let's increase, let's increase the radius and see what's happening in different areas. You, your radius can be customized.

Fisayo: So that's that. Um, further still to that, there's also the recipe generator. So think about the fact, let's just give the example that I have. five dishes in, um, the database that each of them has 10, 000 likes and you're trying to think about, um, what, what dish can I add to my menu? Okay, I'm not sure I have four ingredients.

Fisayo: I'm playing with this creativity. Um, exactly. We'll then recommend, how about you try putting these additional two ingredients? Use your creativity, but here and here are an additional two ingredients. We're seeing this is getting a lot of, a lot of likes. How about you try this and apply your creativity?

Fisayo: So it's like this. Um, that exactly will expose over to restaurants to assist, um, with increasing the [00:21:00] traffic with seeing the trend. So on and so 

Mehmet: great to hear that. Now, another thing, because, of course, the core, I would say from technology perspective of what you're trying to do. So it's based on data. And, of course, data leads us to a I.

Mehmet: Now, um, You mentioned a little bit the social aspect. So are you thinking also to leverage any other mainstream technology with the AI, uh, if you can share, of course, or what could be a an emerging technology that you think would be a good recipe for this mix? 

Fisayo: Emerging technology that will be a good recipe for this mix.

Fisayo: So in, I haven't figured out exactly how to apply it just yet. And it's, um, it's not an, it's not an emergent, it's not, um, a, it's not an emergent [00:22:00] technology. Um, and it completely escapes my mind right now, but basically being able to Um, being able to identify where ingredients come from. So there is, um, currently There is there is the current trend of wanting transparency in what it is that what it is that you are dining.

Fisayo: Right? So you want to see what is in the ingredients. Where is it coming from? So you want to see basically that contract of where everything within your meal is coming from. It allows for transparency within the dining experience within the entire food industry. So figuring out a way to take it. That transparency with the different contracts of where everything is sourced from and apply it within exactly to not only on the restaurant perspective, but also on the either perspective, that is [00:23:00] something that I think could be a game changer from the perspective from the perspective of the direction that the dining industry and the dining experience is going.

Fisayo: A lot of people are going meatless. So since they're going meatless, we're trying to now figure out the transparency of all of the other things. Um, it completely escapes me. I'm sorry, the name, but it's not an emerging technology. What is it called when, um, you it's in supply chain, they're using it right now.

Fisayo: It has completely escaped my mind. 

Mehmet: Is it, uh, Other than machine learning? 

Fisayo: Other than machine learning. It starts with a B. I always mix it up. It's not Bitcoin. It's the other B. Blockchain. Yes. Blockchain. There we go. I always forget it. Um, but yeah, applying blockchain from a transparency level within exactly from a restaurant, from a restaurant, as well as [00:24:00] from a dining perspective, I think that could certainly be a game changer.

Fisayo: I'm still trying to think about other ways that I can apply blockchain within this. Um, but I don't have it just yet. I just think that I think there's something there that I, there's something there that I can use it for. Beyond transparency, 

Mehmet: of course, like and I believe like the more people will start to use you will come up with more ideas and more Probably, uh, technologies that fit, um, you know, what customers are looking for as well, but to your point about blockchain and supply chain in food industry, I had last year on the show, uh, Bruno Calabretta, who's Now he's the head of ICP in Indonesia.

Mehmet: And, you know, we talked about the blockchain and one of the use cases of a project that they did is for Italian, um, I think spaghetti where they need to make sure that, you know, that's spaghetti actually. [00:25:00] You know, from, you know, it was wheat and they harvested and then they will send it to the Factory and then they exported it by each step They can put kind of a digital stamp that this is an authentic italian product.

Mehmet: So I believe this is something, yeah, like, because people, they want to know what they are eating is coming from, actually, like, regardless if it's, uh, just, uh, maybe an apple or even like a full fledged meal. So that, well, definitely that could be, um, you know, a, a valid use case. So. Now I know you're still in the early stages currently, but my question, how big are you seeing yourself going to Sayo?

Mehmet: Did you have this vision of going on a global level? What's, what, what are your BHAG if we [00:26:00] can call it this way? 

Fisayo: Yeah, definitely. I mean, since this is, um, I've been building for the last year and such months I was building on my own. Now I have a team because I have so many ideas. Um, that I want to build, but since I am shifting focus from being the hands on tag into all the other aspects of getting people into the platform, I have my first year KPI at 10, 000 eaters and 5, 000 verified restaurants.

Fisayo: The difference between a verified versus a number five restaurant is that with a verified restaurant, it is my data team that is loading the data. So, um. Loading the restaurant information, the restaurant and that they load the menus and dishes. And then I have an engine that generates the metadata based off of the information available on the Internet, um, about the restaurants.

Fisayo: Um, so that is an unverified restaurant. Now, when the restaurant comes into comes onto the [00:27:00] platform and claims. Um, their restaurant. Then they become a verified and then they're managing their own data. So my KPI for this first year is 10, 000 eaters and 5, 000. Fast forward three years, I'm looking at KPIs eaters and 50, 000 verified restaurants.

Fisayo: Um, that's three years. Fast forward from that, I want to start going global. I'm looking at for starting out in Spain, France, and the Dominican Republic, simply because these are my favorite vacation spots. Um, And that is, those, that, past that, it will just be a case of, um, this is now on a global scale, so everybody come and sign up because there should be proof in the pudding by that time when I have numbers, when I have the kinds of numbers that I am projecting.

Mehmet: Absolutely. Uh, so like, I understood you're, you're, you're doing this by yourself now, right? 

Fisayo: Um, [00:28:00] yeah. 

Mehmet: Or do you have co founders? Yes. 

Fisayo: Oh, I started this on my own, completely on my own. Um, so I have been on my own. I've been my front end engineer, back end infrastructure, every single thing as far as tech is concerned.

Fisayo: Again, I've been doing this for 17 years, so this is easy for me. Um, but I just brought on a team last month. Um, so they are, um, they are a really good engineering team. Um, certainly they, they do in fact use chatGPT, which. Annoys me, but I have to get with the times, engineer, engineer. Um, but I brought them on last, I brought them on last month and I'm able to move, um, significantly faster.

Fisayo: I'm able to refocus on, um, all the other aspects of running a company. So marketing, finance, so on and so forth. 

Mehmet: And you're bootstrapping the business, I believe, right? Yes, I am.

Mehmet: Yeah, [00:29:00] but which makes sense because you need to have some traction before going out and seeking maybe some, uh, some capital. And you know, this is, this is the way I believe, especially in your category. And if you say that this is what the investor would ask you first, okay, how many users you have in the platform, you know, all these questions.

Mehmet: So, because people sometimes come to me and they say, Hey, can you help us in raising funds? And I ask him, okay, how many users you have actually have you been to MVP? So for you, of course, you, you, you crossed all these phases. Now talking about these hassles being first as solo, and then, you know, having to wear multiple hats.

Mehmet: There's another aspect, I think, especially which I'm driven by. So for you being also like a female entrepreneur in tech and you know, like this is something how I would say it. It's hard. I know it's hard. I have a lot of friends that they pass through this and there's the [00:30:00] multiple aspects of that. So tell me about some of the challenges you faced with Fisayo and maybe you're still facing it, but at the same time, how do you stay resilient?

Mehmet: And you say, you know what? I know I have all these issues. I know I have all these problems. Let me stay focused. So tell me a little bit more about that aspect. 

Fisayo: Um, I will put it quite bluntly that my biggest problem has been financing. So when I first started out, I was looking for financing. I was looking for the angel investor, but I got left alone and ghosted so many times and asked for.

Fisayo: There were requests for very uncomfortable things, um, that led me to say, no, this getting financing and requesting for money, um, mostly for men is just something that is not for me. Um, which is what led me to bootstrap from the perspective of [00:31:00] the, from the technology aspect, I've already gotten used to the challenges of being, um, a coder, let alone a black female coder off of 17 years in the industry.

Fisayo: So that wasn't particularly challenging. From the perspective, um, from the perspective of, um, talking about the product, um, it was when, as far as when I was, when I was building applications for other companies, it's always that I've had to have my finger in everything. So I had that. familiarity, so to speak.

Fisayo: Um, I always put myself on critical path projects, so I was always able to get understanding of all the different spaces, but then shifting into my own company and building okay on my own and having to know everything about networks and networking and um, the, and the importance of having pixels at a certain ratio [00:32:00] for things to look accurate, to look correct.

Fisayo: Um, and laws and regulations of like ADA on the platform. These are all things I didn't know about, but I had to actually understand, I had to actually understand all of this and build it on my own. So that's certainly. Was a challenge, but being is that I've been doing it for a year now. I have a lot. I have a lot of understanding deep rooted knowledge, and I'm grateful, honestly, that I have to I'm grateful that I had to, uh, learn all of that.

Fisayo: I'm someone who always loves learning anyway. So that was definitely a challenge as well. Um, back to the financing part. Um, I'm grateful. I'm not sure that I'm really grateful that I did not get the financing. Well, at least yet. Um, I'm grateful because I'm able to go at my own pace. I, my pace is pretty fast.

Fisayo: As I mentioned, I built this entire platform on my own in a year and there are a lot of feature [00:33:00] functionality. This is three different applications. There's the admin my employees used as the restaurant admin. And then there's the heater. So I built all of that on my own going at my own pace. But now having a team, I'm able to, I'm able to go even faster.

Fisayo: If I had had funding, I would have had to be going at the pace of whoever is funding the money, because obviously you don't want to push too hard. It's you, you don't want to push too hard. You don't want, you're kind of. releasing control and having to listen to inputs and inputs and get feedback from somebody else because they're the ones controlling the purse strings.

Fisayo: So that too, coming to that realization, I mean, not only because of all of the negative experiences getting funding, coming to that realization that this actually was a positive. Um, this actually was a positive that I didn't get funding. That was also a challenge because I definitely had a lot of very [00:34:00] uh, sleepless nights.

Fisayo: Um, But yeah, those are the challenges. 

Mehmet: Yeah, I I bet you like, you know, I I for one moment I put myself In your shoes and I said, oh wow, like if if i'm doing this like Investors will start to ask. Hey, where is the revenue, you know, and You know, I think you did the right thing, Fisayo. Uh, and I'm sure, like, with the way and the logic you explained to me, things will go to the right direction.

Mehmet: Uh, and I see, you know, the passion that you have towards this project, so I'm sure that you're going to have the success. And as I said, this is why this podcast exists, because we want, on a global level, I don't know how much I can succeed, but at least I'm trying to get people like you say, to, who have this resiliency, this consistency to build something they believe it's useful for everyone, including themselves.

Mehmet: So a hundred percent on this. Now, this [00:35:00] question, I keep asking it again and again for everyone, especially, but with you today, you're, you're building this on your own. Um, you. left everything you decide to focus on your own project and few people do this. Now my question is And I know it's kind of a classical question, traditional question, but every time I ask it, I get brilliant answers from my guests.

Mehmet: So are the advices you would tell to someone who's now maybe listening to this podcast or watching us? And saying, you know what? I want to do this, but you know, I come from a minority, you know, people will not look at me. I am a female founder. No one will look at me. I am in a country that no one will understand what I'm talking about, right?

Mehmet: So, you know, and people, sometimes they put these limits. [00:36:00] in, in, in their mind, right? So for all these aspiring to be entrepreneurs, which I think they can do it, if you want to summarize, you know, in a couple of, of, of sentences, what do you tell them today? 

Fisayo: Sure. There are actually two things that advise the first one is to actually do what I'm doing, create a product that is your passion.

Fisayo: If you're creating a product that is your passion, you're going to stick to it thick and thin, because it's not, you can't escape it. Um, it's something that you hold on to through all of the hard times, because yes, I have in fact wanted to give up so many times, but then I'd go out dining, then I'd have these conversations with eaters, then I'd have these conversations with restaurants and restaurant groups, and it's like, okay, this is why I'm building this.

Fisayo: So then it's. Dust your shoulders off. Stop crying. I don't cry. But stop doing that and get back to [00:37:00] work. You can actually do this. So that's one, follow your passion. Two, bootstrap. As painful as it is, I am very, very committed to it because it's my money that's on them, right? If I wasn't paying for it myself, it's like, okay, fine, I have somebody else's money and I have to listen to their opinion.

Fisayo: But my commitment is even deeper because it is my own money. If I don't get this completed, I have lost a lot of money that I've put into it. So those are the two things that I would say. Those are the two pieces of advice that I would say, go, go forth and conquer because you will not give up when you have these two things that you have.

Mehmet: Absolutely. Absolutely. On, on, on basically these two points. Um, so follow the passion and, you know, do the, the, the bootstrapping. Now, if you are lucky enough and maybe you have. Some savings and you know, maybe you have some colleagues and friends who would help you. That's [00:38:00] fantastic But this is good news.

Mehmet: You would have a lot of more cash Uh, you know I would say buffer for you to to continue but to to your point if you tell you like 100 percent agree on this and never give up this is why I always tell people never give up just go and do it Regarding crying just because you mentioned about crying said I don't cry, you know, like maybe people would be surprised like all You know, some of the big names, we, we see them as idols in the startup force, especially I'm talking about the tech startup force, are people at some stage, they felt very weak, you know, and they felt that the world is collapsing on them.

Mehmet: And then, you know, but again, if you have what you just mentioned, this passion, https: otter. ai You know, will of, okay, I need to do this, whatever happens. So the moment you start to think about it this way, I believe people would succeed. Now we, we, we, you know, like discuss a lot of things, uh, started today.[00:39:00] 

Mehmet: Anything which I didn't touch on, you might want to just shed some light, uh, before we do the closing. 

Fisayo: I think I would want to highlight maybe just a little bit more of the social feature. Because there is a power in groups. There is a power. I mean, look at the transformation that social media has brought to the world.

Fisayo: Nobody thought that when Facebook first started out, it's an app for making friends. It was probably a case of, wait, what are we talking about here now with, um, combining social media with the group and the recommendations. I think that really is a game changer from the perspective of partnerships in our whole ecosystem of Um, what is the word that I'm looking for?

Fisayo: Social. Dining is social. So bringing, changing, bringing that transformation of social dining with technology. This is something that's new and not done. So highlighting that, [00:40:00] and That is just the beginning of the conversation as far as what social is going to bring to the platform from a dining, from a dining technology perspective.

Fisayo: That's just the beginning. And it's something that I think, I mean, right now I have it as, Oh, it's fine. You can recommend restaurants for the group, but I have so many features that are coming just simply on that social media aspect of the platform. I am really excited to do more. 

Mehmet: Let's see how it comes.

Mehmet: Uh, final thing where people can find more about you and How about, uh, 

Fisayo: well, certainly you can go, um, you can go to my company website. Okay. A O Inc, um, that has links not only to, um, exactly, but also to the food writing stuff, if you're curious about my style of writing, it's there. Um, but please focus on exactly.

Fisayo: Um, so you can go, you can go to my, you can go to that website or you [00:41:00] can go to Resactly directly. Um, it's R E S a C T L. Y dot com um, and as I mentioned very shortly It'll be in the app stores and you'll be able to just simply download it android or app android or ios Um download exactly so 

Mehmet: absolutely that's perfect.

Mehmet: So for the audience, don't worry about the spelling The both websites will be in the show notes. If you just go to the show notes, you will find them out there Uh, so like really I enjoyed speaking to you today Uh You know, it's nice to hear your story and it's very interesting what you're building. I think, you know, there's a lot of things that can be built around our food habits and the way we eat and the recommendation, especially for people who might have also some probably some specific diets or diseases related to the food they eat.

Mehmet: So absolutely, you are on a great mission, I would say. And thank you very much for being with us. Early today with [00:42:00] me because just for the audience to know I'm based in Dubai So I was in New York and there's like some time difference between us. So thank you very much for accommodating Um shooting this episode and this is for the audience If you just discovered the podcast by chance, thank you very much for passing by.

Mehmet: I hope you enjoyed it If you did, please subscribe. We are available on all podcasting platforms and we are available on YouTube as well. So please subscribe, share the podcast with your friends and colleagues. And if you are one of the people who keep coming back to the loyal followers, thank you very much for the encouragement, for your messages, for your suggestions and for your questions.

Mehmet: Keep them coming. I read them all. Don't hesitate to reach out to me and I hope we will meet again very soon. Thank you. Bye bye. 

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