Carol Savage is the founder of MyDish.co.uk, a social networking site for food lovers. She appeared on BBC's Dragons' Den last week and secured £100,000 worth of investment from Deborah Meaden. She spoke to Kerstin Kühn.
Caterer What's MyDish all about?
Carol Savage It's a recipe sharing website for people who love food - it's essentially the Facebook for foodies. There is a social networking element to it as, if you and your friends or family join MyDish, you can each upload your favourite recipes and share them with each other. But you can also browse and search for recipes without being a member or uploading your own recipes.
Caterer Where did your inspiration come from?
CS My husband came back from South Africa after his mother had passed away with a suitcase full of stuff that included two scraps of paper with handwritten recipes on them. He said they reminded him of his mother and being a young boy and we wanted to pass them on to our kids. When I spoke to friends and family about it, I found that they all had special recipes that evoke powerful memories which they wanted to pass on and share with their friends.
Caterer How does it work?
CS You have your own homepage where you can upload your favourite recipes. It's sort of like an iTunes for recipes in the sense that you can organise them in one place and are able to share them with your friends and swap hints and tips about them. We also set up software allowing you to personalise your own recipe books, collect comments and add images. There is also a shopping basket, where you can add the ingredients needed for a specific recipe and then print it off or send it to your mobile.
Caterer How many people and how many recipes have you got so far?
CS Since my appearance on Dragons' Den traffic has increased massively but before then we had an average of 100,000 people visiting the site each month. We have 7,000 members and about 4,000 recipes and are still growing.
Caterer Would you encourage professional chefs to get involved?
CS I would love to get professional chefs involved. However, I'm not sure that they will necessarily want to openly share their recipes and I have thought of creating a section where people can keep their recipes private.
Caterer What was it like on Dragons' Den?
CS I have worked in the marketing industry for 20 years, have held presentations in front of 500 senior executives and have always been a confident speaker. But when I appeared on Dragons' Den I was so nervous I couldn't talk. But it worked out in the end and I was the only person ever offered double the required investment.
Caterer How will you use the investment?
CS I decided not to go for double the investment and made a deal with Deborah Meaden for £100,000 for 15% of the business. The money will be spent on extra site functionality and better marketing, like search engine optimisation.