EP026 - Change lives to change your life - Robin Ferris

All right. Well, hello. A very warm welcome to the whole Man Academy podcast. Whether you're listening to this via wherever you get your podcast or watching it on YouTube, my name is Robin Swithinbank. I am. Well, I'm here in my home office, which is, I suspect we could say, scarcely soundproofed. Delighted to be with you. Very warm welcome, wherever you are. Today I am joined by Mr. Robin Ferris. Robin, before we get cracking, I just want to explain briefly for the benefit of our audience, who you are and what you do. So Robin is the founder of Banquet and Robin, I hope I've got this right. This is an online tool and it makes it easier for people to give to food banks. And over the last couple of years, Robin has been working feverishly to turn the gem, the germ of an idea, into a thriving enterprise. During the coronavirus pandemic and this period of lockdown, Banquet has rapidly expanded in order to support the vulnerable, many of whom are now trapped at home and struggling to get the provisions they need. With food bank operations greatly reduced because of the crisis, Robin's story is not just one of compassion and determination. It's also one of personal transformation and of a journey that, in double quick time, has changed his life. So, Robin, great name, by the way. Welcome to the whole Man Academy podcast. First of all, where are you? How are you on this gloriously sunny Lockdown Saturday?

Hi, everyone. Firstly, thank you, Robin, for having me on. I'm a big fan of the whole Man Academy and everything that you guys do, have been some of your to your events in London and actually love what you're about. So it's my privilege to be on this today. So thank you. So, yeah, I'm the founder and CEO of Banquet. Banquet is the first ever zero waste donation platform. We enable you to donate food to people at the click of a button. Our vision is to get food banks what they need and to make it easier for you to give. I'm sitting here on UK lockdown in Hackney on the glorious sunny day, behaving myself and staying in all day.

Well done. Well done. So listen, give us a quick bit of background to you now, as I just said that you started thinking about this, I believe, a couple of years ago. So you haven't spent your whole life building Banquet. What have you been up to in the last. You're nearly 40, aren't you?

I'm actually 40 on Monday. Thank you for pointing.

40 on Monday. Happy birthday.

Yeah, thank you. So, largely my entire career has been. I've been lucky enough to spend it within the entertainment industry. So I spent best part of a decade working in the music industry and then in film and tv. So I'm very passionate about music. So when I left university, moved to London, that was really the career goal and I was lucky enough to work for some of the biggest companies in the world. So he rolled back perhaps 15 years ago working in music. As I'm sure everyone listening to this knows. You don't need me to tell you about the transformation from you know, CDs to streaming. Between 2006 to 2009 I was privileged enough to work for probably one of the most famous and pioneering record labels, which was Island Records. So in that period, it was around when Amy Winehouse broke my job went from selling CDs to figuring out that now global platform called Spotify. And then I look used to look after Napster and then you don't need me to tell you about Apple Music and the whole transformation. And then later on in film that was the fall of a giant like Blockbuster but the rise of the business, us actually selling Top Gear DVDs to people and the other end of the organization, innovation and world class digital transformation of platforms like the iplayer. So really coming into this, I am not a tech person per se, although I'm a tech CEO now. It's more me sort of looking at consumer tech and how that has changed, perhaps my own experiences within those businesses, within entertainment and then now applying that to this sector. So I Recall we know 10 years ago sending a, or more than 10 years ago sending a CD to a small book retailer called Amazon which was starting to move into selling music online then you know, the whole preord culture, you would have sold thousands of CDs before it's been released and now digital. So my entire professional career, really every job that I've had has involved being exposed to some element of digital transformation.

Which course has proved to be very useful. Tell us a bit more about Banquet then and how the idea came to you in the first place.

So yeah, as I mentioned, I live in South Hackney, just lucky to live by Victoria park. So roll back 2018. Some friends and I saw the headlines about rising food poverty and rising food bank use in the UK and then realized actually that these headlines were right on our doorstep in the borough of Tower of Hamlets in Hackney. It's got the highest ever child poverty rate in the country, more people using food banks than ever before and I was determined to do something about it. So some friends and I set up a collection point at Co op and Hackney Road. Hello to Zara, probably not listening, but it's basically an approach of like, right, what am I actually doing? And we'll get onto this, of like, slaptivist to activist. I want to change the world but can't really be bothered. So actually, you know what, I'm going to respond. So I was working at a different company at the time, but it went into a shop one day and said, can we set up a donation point to help? And whilst doing that, I had the light bulb moment that every entrepreneur talks about of, you know, why isn't there an online food bank? Why isn't there an easy way for me to donate food to people that need it?

And in many respects it is extraordinary that there wasn't such a tool beforehand. Did you actually get to a point of establishing why or was it simply that no one had bothered?

I think in the uk, it's a complex issue in the UK with food banks, as I'm sure you're aware. If we take a step back for a second, ten years ago there were no only a couple of hundred food banks in the UK. Now there are more food banks than McDonald's in the UK, over 2000. In the context of COVID food banks are seeing unprecedented demand. Food banks are seeing a 300% increase in people using in a matter of weeks. What will happen in 10 years? Will more people be using food banks than ever before? Sadly, I would think so. And so me sort of coming in, this is like the food banks themselves, although they do incredible work, I think it's probably been a case of actually no one's ever thought to optimize them or apply technologies because we. No one really thought that they would perhaps exist. That should exist and shouldn't really be happening and might not be around for very long. So then my observation, applying consumer tech is, you know, why are we not? 10 years ago, your shopping habits were XYZ, you probably didn't bank online, you probably didn't shop online. That has changed massively in 10 years. I'm coming at it from the entertainment perspective. Obviously you can listen to music at the click of a button, therefore applying that to say, well, it probably hasn't happened because people didn't think that food banks would be around for very long, but actually they've now become sadly part of. Part of the DNA of the country.

Yes. Which is tragic in itself, but just going back a little bit then. So in 2018 you've recognized that there is a gap in the market. I suppose you Might say if you were being purely entrepreneurial about it, but it strikes me that there was more to it than that view. This isn't the first gap that a lot of people would think to plug, clearly. And there hadn't been one up until that point. So what was it really that motivated you to leave there, we say at the fairly glamorous confines of the music and film world and move into the world of. Which had a better word, but the world of poverty?

Yeah, it's more that slack to activist thing. I think of really thinking, okay, I've been blessed with this almost amazing CV of working for all these companies and really my posture of walking to that co op that day was positive, proactive response to a really horrible problem. Just the hunch that really, if given an easy way to do something, a lot of people may want to help. If you think of all the consumer tech, anyone listening to this either uses or is aware of, you know, Monzo, Airbnb, Uber, you can do things. Click of a button and I kind of thought, why? Why can you not do that for a food bank? There are huge problems that food banks face. Been spent 18 months volunteering in a food bank where food banks get donated years worth of pasta and baked beans and they don't get the things that they want. So Banquet being the first ever zero waste donation platform means that similar perhaps to your own wedding or your friend's wedding, you have a John Lewis gift list, you go along, you buy what your friends want that gets delivered when they want. So Banquet is essentially saying, why can't we solve that problem? Why can't we? Why isn't there a way that you can do that? So it wasn't really. I think it's more starting from like any entrepreneur, I think, and myself on this growth journey that you've mentioned probably starts off with what is the problem I'm trying to solve? So why can't I give food to a food bank at the click of a button? Why are food banks then? Why are food banks not getting the items they want when they need them? And so Banquet really conceptually sits in that gap of we are providing a connection between one end. People will have the means to donate. Perhaps people listening to this probably in the cast will be of donors. You find yourself in the position where you have the means to give and you want to. The other end of the cycle, you've got those who need food and want to get it. And really you've got the food banks in the middle that provide that service. And Banquet, you know, the strategy in one word, I suppose, and it's what I see. Technology delivering is connection.

So you sort of transposed an existing model that we're all actually very familiar with into an area where there was a desperate need for it.

Yeah, absolutely. Before COVID food banks were struggling. You know, I said 10 years ago there are only a couple of hundred, now there are a couple of thousand. You know, there are some stats published by the Food foundation three weeks ago that over 3 million people have gone hungry for over a day because of lockdown. The problem was bad at the beginning of the year. Now the state of emergency has gone into a state of crisis. Banquet has always been a good idea, you know, getting food banks what they need when they need it and they will need to click a button. Now it finds itself in the eye of the storm where actually arguably is the safest way to donate to someone. You don't need to leave your house to do it. As an entire generation, entire country has been sent home to self isolate. You can still help people from where you are right now.

Taking Covid and lockdown out of the equation for a moment. Going back to 2018, when you founded the business, was it an overnight sensation or has it been a bit of a slow burn to this point?

Been very much slow, burnt. The vision and missions has remained exactly the same. We're a social impact business. Our intention is to essentially serve food banks and provide them with resources to back their work. We started off very slowly. We ran our first pilot only in July 2019 with one food bank here in London. So Dan Thrift and the team there have been incredible about helping us pilot, helping us apply user centric design, really spending time with the people that actually need to use what we're doing. There have been lots of different iterations along the way, lots of mistakes, lots of learnings you can throw in, lots of startup buzzwords, you know, prototypes, pilots, MVPs. We've taken lots of steps very quickly, but they've all been strategic. We've been very, very focused on what we're hoping and now are achieving.

And without wanting to bring serendipity into it too much. It sounds as if you had a good sort of nine month run up to iron out a number of the problems before the service became as essential as it has now become.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean I wrote a pitch deck about two years ago. It was post Glenfell, which everyone is aware of here in London. And someone actually sadly that I met last year, he was affected by Glenfell he lived in Glenfell Tower, him and his family all safe now. But his reflection at the time was that in a consistent season of crisis and to certainly see in our numbers that people want to help, people want to donate. So his observation was that families got given loads and loads of food for Glenfell kind people wanted to help. You probably recall if you dial back, you know, bottles of water being put on the side, loads of people give. His observation was actually what you would need in that scenario. Look at just in time model, you know the Toyota car manufacturers, without wanting to have ideas above my station, you know, the business practice of just in time getting things when they're needed. His observation at that time was actually what would be really useful is if we just had food delivered at the time we needed it rather than weeks worth of food that eventually went out of going day. So I put the pitch deck of like, okay, here's the vision of Banquet which was then called the online food bank. The idea was therefore, okay, pitch deck, page three bullet point five. If we ever found ourselves in a state of national emergency, Banquet may be able to help with its just in time model. So clearly, clearly none of us ever expected Covid to happen. But also applying that learning of like a crisis in London on my doorstep, thinking okay, the vision of Banquet getting food banks what they need when they need it. Giving you one button to press means that's the meaning behind the whole zero waste thing. We're not over shipping, we're not under shipping, we're not giving them things they don't want. It's things like that which are almost in terms of timing, it's remarkable. Anyone who has founded an organization or leads a business will know that. Timing is key, isn't it? In anything you're doing, any product launch, any marketing strategy, any business coming to fruition, it's all about timing. And so Banquet finds itself in the eye of the storm. We're a small startup, we've done enough to know what needs to happen. We're small enough to be agile, to be able to change, to have to pivot. And you know, when it came to that, you said, you know, that nine month run up, it's almost like we had the relationships in place. You know, we had some processes in place, but not so rigid that we couldn't move. We knew really what would happen. Clearly coming into this year we thought, let's now scale what might Q1 look like. The globe Q1 has been chaos, hasn't it? No one knew what was going to happen. Our Business plan this year was we're going to scale up business. We're going to scale up the business. And then when March hit, like the rest of the world, we reacted in the best way that we could.

And you talk about a business. So Banquet is a business or a charity or what is it exactly?

Banquet is a business or a limited company. That was by virtue of me sort of having the idea and thinking, right, what is the quickest way that we can get this moving? As I mentioned, my entire professional career is being working for companies. It's very much a case of me applying that knowledge, staying in our lane and making the best impact that we can. Last month we were very kindly listed an article about 19 wonderful responses to business responses to Covid. And we were listed alongside unbelievably Ocado, Brewdog and the B Corp movement, which I'm sure you're aware of, about business being force for good, tech for good. And it's really like the sole purpose of Banquet if it is to serve feedback. So we are a tech startup focused on that.

Where did the name come from?

The name here, interesting question. So originally it was online food bank. So my the light bulb moment. Why isn't there an online food bank now? There is and it's called Banquet. In my heart I had this, the correct spelling of Banquet. Almost a heart of what happens around a table, what happens around food. There's a banquet, there's a spirit of generosity to be captured from donors. But really, actually Banquet, Banquet wouldn't be potentially appropriate for the arena in which we find ourselves. So potentially Banquet middle classy, let's all have a party together. That's not really what happens in a food bank. So we change the spelling slightly because we're a tech startup and we're allowed to do that really around the behind it was, you know, what really happens when food is there. There's a redemptive, beautiful experience that actually happens in a food bank. And food is only part of that. You know, anyone listening in this, what happens when you eat food? You are with your friends and family, your loved ones. There's community, there's life, all of those things. So really, Banquet is trying to make that sort of transformative culture, acknowledging the role that food actually plays in the.

Sort of the nourishing element, isn't it? It's not just food for the body, it's food for the soul and for the heart of the mind.

Yeah, absolutely.

So you said that July 19 was the first partnership that you built with a food bank. How many do you have now?

Yeah, so first one was in July with Wandsworth Food Bank. We started off very small, testing our ideas, piloting it. By the end of the year we had 10 food banks. So last year we had 15,000 zero waste items donated and that's enough to feed just over 500 people. We were celebrating in January that we'd had such an impact and it was amazing. We came into February this year with a little under 20 food banks from the system. And then now Covid happened. We've now supported over 100 food banks. We have gone from 20 to 100 in six weeks. And the impact, the social impact is what our KPIs are as a business. We had over nearly 100,000 items donated in March and that means we had enough food delivered to feed over 3,000 people. Fantastic. We've had Food bank contact us almost every day. This month we've launched Food bank, had a food bank join us every single day. We'll be ramping that up over the next coming weeks and months so we can help more people.

Incredible. It's an absolutely extraordinary story. Hugely inspiring. Sort of sit here and marvel really at what you've achieved in such a small space of time. One of the sort of miraculous things about it is clearly how quickly the model can be rolled out. If you're adding one a day, I mean, I assume you have some sort of admin team behind you, you're not doing it all from your flat in South Hackney. But is that the case? Is it now a pretty water type model that you can simply replicate again and again? And.

Yeah, in some ways, I mean, that's changed my posture in. This has always been one of thanks for all the people that have been helping us. You know, not every only has it been overwhelming with the amount of donations we've received. So in March, donations are up 5,000% month on month. I had to change my inbox. In March we were receiving donations every single minute. So in February there's one official volunteer for banquet, some advisors behind the scenes, largely me doing everything. And then now I'm blessed with over a hundred volunteers and I'm building out operations very, very quickly. So it's largely, you know, when you're the CEO of a startup, your job title is actually Chief Everything Officer. And now I'm transitioning to be a CEO, which is Chief Executive Officer. So in terms of your comments at the beginning about a personal journey, that's a rapid growth curve for me as well. So now we have some incredible people that have volunteered for us. It's an abundance of talent. It's just an overwhelming position to be in. I'm really thankful that, you know, cometh the hour. People have just stepped forward in so many ways to help. It's been mind blowing. So, you know, the vision and the missions remains exactly the same. And now I find myself in the position where there's so many people that Hunt was right. Okay. I've got a hunch that other people want to jump on this. And now we're seeing things changing every day.

There's clearly been many rewards along the way. But I'm intrigued also to know what challenges you have faced and have had to overcome, perhaps, or are still trying to overcome.

Yeah, we've faced some huge challenges. I suppose, like everybody in March when it happened, it was almost in a blink of an eye. I find myself having to take action immediately. So when you're running a startup, it's very, you know, I'm a very creative and strategic thinker. There's always ideas coming out. There's always the new thing you can try. You can try this. I found myself in a matter of days having to go from ideas to execution. You know, if last year Banquet ran a successful pilot, you know, we kind of knew what we needed to do. This year really was about executing that and it's almost accelerating that. So my own capacity to do that with a lot of help from other people as well, it's almost like, right, we know what this is. Let's go. We hit the target last year in terms of proving the market or the concept. This year was about right. We've got to execute this. When you're, I suppose for us it was about we are small enough to be agile. And my immediate challenge was everything. The chief, everything officer, everything in Banquet was largely me doing it. Understandably, I've been doing it full time only for a couple of months. So literally every touch point within the business was me, from the big strategic things to writing a post on Instagram, to doing a spreadsheet, to keying an order to be delivered. So my immediate response, which was, I need to get people in quickly and get things off of me so we can scale rapidly so I can download some of my knowledge and get stuff off of me and then create like a, you know, a crack team. We've got the volunteer surge team, we've got a couple of freelancers that have come in. So across core areas of the business, I'm clearly involved in a lot of things, obviously ongoing, but the posture is like, right, this needs to stop everything going through me. We need to scale up quickly. How do we resource that? So that was the first sort of response was like, right, we know what to do, how do we do it? Can't be me doing everything. And then the sort of main challenge now is I have an unbelievable amount of resource available. So in February I had some brilliant volunteers helping me along the way, but they're people that have full time jobs and are giving me a few hours a week, which is brilliant. But clearly now with new resource, so huge challenge now is we have an unbelievably long task list of things to do in certain elements. I know what we need to execute and how we're going to do it. On the other side, I've got an abundance of talent, you know, hundredth volunteer signed up this week and when I in that pool of people, you've got people from former directors of large companies and COOs through to people younger, less experienced and just want to help. So now the challenge is matching all of these tasks, you know, that need to happen right now, but also thinking medium and long term, how can we do that? You know, the buzz throws that's been kicked about is, you know, trying to change the wheels on the car whilst it's going down the motorway at 100 miles an hour. That's what it is in a hurricane banquet right now, you know, the impact is, you know, if excellence is doing simple things well, we're just trying to do that, this low hanging fruit stuff that needs to be done every single day. But how do we establish the core processes and elements that are going to carry us forward for the next three months? And what does it look like in six months? I mean, like the rest of the world and everyone listening, you know, it's difficult to forecast what next week looks like, isn't it? But we're just trying to fly, doing the best that we can and people around me have come in and are doing an incredible job.

Have you, you clearly got a huge amount of drive for this. Have you surprised yourself perhaps in how much drive you had for it and how much motivation you found to solve these challenges? I mean, to build the thing in the first place, but that now, in this current hurricane situation, as you've just described it, to just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and driving this thing forward?

Yeah, I mean, I think in this, I think when you run a startup, it's a personal development program disguised as starting a business. So yes, it's about business, but it's also about your personal capacity and growth along this journey. I've learned so much. I haven't been more motivated and driven, I don't think, in years. When I started off on this journey, it was one of like, you know, stepping out, encouraged, taking that first step. So step into the unknown. You know, I can talk you through my CV if you like, you know, work through some big companies, as we all have, and had some amazing experiences.

You don't need a job at the moment.

So hopefully. Well, hopefully Unhopy, sadly, or whatever, this will be my job for the foreseeable, I think, but. But it's in terms of capacity. I just felt like all the stars aligned, I suppose all the things I sort of dreamt of, put in a business plan, knew that Banquet would be capable of one day that accelerated. That process has been accelerated massively. Banquet probably is where I thought it might be in 18 months or maybe even two years time, within the space of six weeks. So it's been a huge learning. It's been exhilarating, overwhelming, exhausting. I've never worked as hard, but I've never felt almost alive.

Well, I mean, clearly or hopefully, I should say, you feel massively rewarded and satisfied by it, albeit I appreciate this is sort of slightly. There's an awkward tension, isn't there, when you're working in the. What essentially is the charitable or the volunteer sector in order to try and solve a significant problem such as hunger and poverty. But to see such extraordinary success in relatively what is a very short period of time, I hope for you, gives you a sense of wow. I'm quite proud of what I've achieved. It can be difficult for us, maybe as Brits or as men, I don't know. But it can be quite difficult for us to look at something we've done and say, I'm really proud of that, but I hope you do feel proud.

It's very kind. And you personally have been a supporter on the way as well. So thank you to you and many others who backed me when this was just an idea in my head. And the transition from that to now is remarkable. And in some senses, as you touched on miraculous. And I haven't really had a chance to catch my breath. There have been big milestones almost every week. You know, we've gone from 20 food banks to 20. We've just shipped our first order with Morrisons. That was something that we've been trying to execute for 18 months. We've been, you know, if Banco was ever going to scale and ever be able to Help every food bank in the country, which is still the ambition. And who knows how quickly we'll do that. But that's. That's top of the list. You know, we want to get every food bank in the country on board so we can help more people to do that. We need a mighty partner to do that. Morrisons are working with us. That's happened within two weeks. I've been trying to nail that in for eight months. We've got some conversations in the background, lots of people. But the Morrisons deal is happening right now.

I feel like sort of a moment to say thank you to Morrisons, because I think for all of us who are experiencing lockdown at the moment and who are technically only allowed out to exercise and to go buy the provisions that we need to keep ourselves in good health, the supermarkets have done a remarkable job of staying open and keeping their shelves stocked. And clearly, at the same time, also considering how they can help the vulnerable, which should be celebrated.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the spirit of Banquet has always been one of collaboration. You know, we really think, if anything, really, you want to go make a huge impact. It's going to require lots of different parties to work together. It all hinges on the generosity of donors, ultimately of, you know, thousands of people wanting to help. That was always the hunch. You know, I think people do want to help, and it's overwhelming seeing those donations come in. And I think there's a role for business to help as well. You know, when you look, you know, when I think the other side of COVID you'll see the good guys and the bad guys, you know, who. Those that stepped forward and wanted to help and probably shouldn't mention them on here, but we've had massive companies get in touch with us wanting to donate, and we facilitated that via our network. And then when I say donate, I mean donate hundreds of thousands of products to people that need it. They don't want to mention, they don't want to be accredited. They just see it. And I've seen this happen. There's daily things that are happening which are quite remarkable. And I suppose Banquets sitting here in the middle. Part of me always thought this was possible. You start something, you have to be crazy enough to think that there's legs for your idea and the strategy is correct. No one ever obviously thought Covid would happen, but Banquet now finds itself in this unique position where we can help and are helping thousands of people. And it's the real privilege to be sitting here doing this. The better Banquet becomes the More people we help. That's what drives me. Everything we do, the drive and the relentlessness of my character behavior is probably made for this moment. The determination of like I will keep going because the better banquet becomes, the more people we help. And it's changing literally by the hour.

Let's circle back then, in which case, because two years ago when you first had this idea, your life was obviously really quite different. You were, I hope it's fair to say, a smaller cog in a much larger organization in an even bigger industry. Describe to us the sort of transformation that has happened in your life personally over the course of the last two years and how your soul, your spirit, your mind, your emotions have responded to the transformation that you've been through.

Yeah, so as we pointed out at the beginning of the call, I turned 40 on Monday. Supposed to have my birthday party this evening which has sadly been cancelled because of lockdown. So yeah, running back a few years I suppose. You know, long history of working in the entertainment industry as you've touched on perceived glamour and very much had a fun time, you know, came out of university, went to move to London, worked in the entertainment industry in your 20s and for me personally there couldn't have been a better job for me. You're going to as a music lover working at a record label where everyone is equally obsessed with it. You're going to gigs every, feels like every night of the week there's a party. It's fun, you know, you know, working in a huge label where you know the world famous artists that you're exposed to and it's a high, high caliber machine that you're part of. Yes, you might be a small cog in it, but it's remarkable seeing those things happen. Same in film, you know, you touched on it, perceived glamour, you know, going to all these things and that's fun. I think in your 20s and for me that was very much the case. But then I think when you get a bit older, maybe this is a transition of perhaps you're doing a job that's a bit more senior and it becomes less about maybe the lifestyle, more about, you know, the numbers and the business function and everything. And I think anyone who's worked in the creative sector will have a view on this probably about maybe some of the underlying anxiety of it, of it's fun. Your 20s and your 30s, you know, I have bills to pay like, like everyone does and you sort of think, wow, constantly changing landscape brings with it perhaps a bit of anxiety. Oh gosh, you know, what's gonna happen? When's the next Napster gonna fail? On the next Spotify? It's exciting, but, you know, if you're listening to this and you've worked in the creative industries, you know, as an executive or as an artist, there's always this element of uncertainty. So it's both exciting and terrifying. So I suppose in my 30s, there's a little bit of that. Like, okay, I loved music, I still do, but it's probably within me looking for that next step. And really I wasn't quite sure of what that might be. You know, five years ago I'd have been, I've killed someone to get back in working in a record label and the buzz of it. And part of me misses that, you know. But then also I think, you know, it's almost a chapter that I'm very thankful for and had ended. And now I was looking really for something more. You know, I touched on the slaptivist to activist thing. It was almost all of these things, the perfect storm of like, okay, why isn't there an online food bank? You know, now there is, and it's Banquet. You know, as the more I go down this journey, I realize and look back that all of the jobs that I was given, all of the doors that have opened have already started to come into fruition. For this, for example, I've worked with pretty much every retail or retail platform that there is. You know, I've spoken to Amazon, eBay, HMB, grocers, wholesales, independents. So I have a relatively articulate view on the retail landscape in this country. Fast forward to Banquet. I'm now negotiating with some of the biggest companies and the grocers in the country. And we are essentially an E commerce platform. So at the very beginning of the journey, okay, gosh, I've never run a startup before. What am I doing? I'm working. I'm a guy in my late 30s. All my friends are directors of companies, they're married with kids. I'm starting off on this journey and I feel, you know, a bit of an imposter, but also, you know, potentially could look like a bit of an idiot on this. You know, what am I doing? But then now you kind of think back and, you know, I'm so glad that I did step out and take that first step of courage and I never thought would be in the situation we are now, clearly. But as it goes, I see a lot of my professional experience come to play. And there is that stuff, I guess, when you're a bit older at the Very beginning this, I was on a startup program in beginning of last year. I sort of stepping out thinking my goodness, I'm in my late 20s, what am I doing? Should I just go and get a real job at a film studio again or should I do this? And then as I have grown in this, my own development realized that actually being a bit older does enable me to have a bit to pull on professional experience to pull in some of the relationships I have and the know how, you know, no doubt I have continued to make lots of mistakes and I've certainly made a lot on, on the way already. But it's, there is an element of experience that I can, can bring to this too.

Where was your confidence in yourself and in your abilities and in your, your usefulness perhaps a couple of years ago? And how has your confidence ebbed and flowed during the course of this last two years?

I suppose my confidence is sort of medium to high in some ways. As I sort of mentioned, I was probably on that cycle of, you know, as unbelievable it sounds, possibly a bit bored of working for some of these perceived to be glamorous companies, was a little bit, maybe tainted by it all, possibly a bit fed up, wasn't quite sure what the next step was. And so really thanks to my, you know, friends and families and a few friends in particular, finding that courage of wanting to step out and try something. You know, a good friend of mine said in the first sort of step is trying something you've got to take one step to start off with. It's calculated risk in some senses, but it was almost coming off the back of that inner confidence and drive to try and make some change happen. That's incredible.

One starts to wonder then what happens next. You've already talked about the fact that this is probably your job for the foreseeable and it sounds like you have, dare I say, a fairly bleak view of the need for food banks in the next 5, 10, 15, even 25 years. What's the vision for the business and also for you in it over the next period?

Yeah, so sadly, I mean it's difficult for anyone to give an articulate view across the global economy, isn't it? But I sort of see sadly the use of food banks increasing. You know, some that we're talking to in London have seen an increase in use of hundreds of percent in a matter of weeks. You know, you think, you know, many people are furloughed, there's higher rate of job insecurity in the UK possibly than ever before. You look forward and Think, when's a recession going to hit? Possibly in July. People, freelancers, those are part time work, those that run small companies may sadly not exist. And it's a strange place emotionally to be in when friends who run these businesses have had to make horrible decisions. And I find myself here with more people running after me than I know how to manage. And I think that the vision for Banquet remains the same, the strategy remains the same. You know, we get food banks what they need when they need it. We'll be onboarding more food banks over the coming quarter. Throughout the year we will be scaling up, we will be growing and we'll be trying to help. So in some ways staying in our lane, doing exactly as we intended. The quicker we do that, the more people that we can help. You know, it's a strange position to be in doing what I'm doing, I suppose, you know, it's a business that really shouldn't exist, but it does and I think sadly it will be for many years to come. Me within that I'm happy to serve behind the vision for as long as required. It's a very different world for everyone, isn't it? As long as I'm the man for the job, I'm happy to continue doing this. You were building out the team and we're growing rapidly. Who knows what will happen in the next six months. And ultimately this is a global problem. You know, we've started this one in the uk, it's the world's first service of its kind. But you look above, you know, many other territories that might be able to benefit from what we've essentially piloted here.

And on that note, it would be remiss of me not to ask you on behalf of people listening to this or watching this who will, I'm sure have been very moved and very motivated by your story and indeed by Banquet. Clearly you're building an army of volunteers. But then there'll be many who, as you say, would just like to be able to click and make a donation. So how can people help? How can people get involved?

Yes, there are three ways that you can help. So number one obviously is to donate. So if you go to www.banquet.co.uk so that's B A N K U E T. You can then click on a food bank of your choice and you can buy a monthly bundle of food or just make a one off donations, that's 10, 20, 50 or 100 quid. Banquet takes that money, buys the food the food bank needs, delivers it when they want. So banquet.co.uk the second thing you can do, we're inviting people, families, friends, companies, organizations to club together to run a crowdsourcing campaign. So that means that a bunch of you together could all raise some funds for a particular food bank of your choosing, or many, and then that will have a huge impact. The team will then feed back to you about what you've done. And the third one would be to tell all your friends and family on all the social media channels that you'd expect. And also if your local food bank needs help, then we'd be delighted to help them if we can.

Incredible. Robyn, it's been quite extraordinary listening to your story, both in terms of Banquet and what it's doing and achieving, and congratulations, congratulations on all that, but also to hear how it has impacted you and your life and to hear more of your personal journey, which is very much central to the success of Banquet. So well done. Fantastic. Keep up the hard work. Conscious that even though it's a Saturday, I'm probably taking up very valuable time of yours, whether it's in fact getting some rest, which I suspect you need more of than ever before. So thank you.

Let's leave it there.

Rest well, work hard and let us know if there's anything we can do to help, because it's an incredible story and never needed more now than ever.

Before, as you say. So well done. Thank you, mate. Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me on. It's my pleasure to be here.