Appetise started as many good ideas do: with a familiar scene and a common problem.
The recipe for this particular moment of inspiration included Toby Hilliam (né Skilton), his wife Elise Hilliam, a good dose of dinner decision fatigue, and a healthy pinch of dissatisfaction.
Toby explained that throughout his relationship with Elise, they would take turns cooking for each other, but his range was a little lacking.
Or as he put it: “We were like, if we're going to be together for the next 50+ years, Toby can no longer cook nachos and Thai green curry every week.”
They turned to subscription meal boxes, which helped but eventually became repetitive as well.
Ever the entrepreneur, Toby hatched a plan.
Step 1 – Learn
At that time, Toby was chief executive of his former startup, Mutu, which began as a marketplace for people wanting to rent out gear they weren’t using.
Mutu found some early success but struggled to expand and so pivoted from a direct-to-consumer (D2C) to business-to-business (B2B) model, helping enterprise companies manage their assets.
Eventually the peer-to-peer marketplace was sunsetted and with it, Toby’s passion for the company.
“I thought, when it's all said and done, do I want to be famous for helping a construction company get more use out of their assets? … I just started to lose joy, lose excitement.”
He began to plan a new dinner-based startup that had the spirit of meal boxes, but was more user-driven.
So one day, possibly as he and Elise were bonding over some green curry, Toby popped the question: would she quit her job and “join the chaos” as co-founder of a new startup?
Elise agreed, becoming chief operating officer and, as a trained nutritionist, adding a much-needed subject matter expert.
The final piece was a technical lead, who was found in former chief technology officer William Pearse.
With everything in place, Toby sold his stake in Mutu and used the proceeds to start MenuAid.
Step 2 – Build
MenuAid was the first iteration of the company that would become Appetise.
It charged $4 a week for access to a growing range of recipes, five of which were sent each week as dinner suggestions.
Crucially, it also included the ability to add those recipe’s ingredients to a shopping list.
MenuAid’s real meat on the bones was the hard graft the team did working with the supermarket chains to get direct integrations with their systems, meaning the shopping list could be imported right into a users’ online shopping account.
Toby said that was a “very, very tough journey” as even getting recipes to populate as shopping list ingredients proved to be a technical challenge.
On top of that, none of the supermarket’s systems had built-in capacity for external connection.
Fortunately, fixing that was an easy sell – “We're going to make it really easy for people to spend money at your store” – and together, the startup and the supermarkets were able to quickly build out an effective solution.
Toby said the company also had a secret weapon when it came to product design and user interface: a core of engaged users found by posting on every NZ mum group on social media.
With this invaluable feedback and the support from the supermarkets, MenuAid began to take off.
Step 3 – Grow
MenuAid launched in September 2021 and by May 2022 it had raised $1 million in venture capital on the back of 7,000 users and dreams of reaching 100,000 by 2025.
But already, cracks in the model were starting to show.
The cost to acquire a customer through paid marketing was around $4 and retention proved to be a challenge.
“They might subscribe for a little while and then, once they churn, you're just constantly having to top up the bucket again.”
He said they got to around $400,000 in annual recurring revenue, but were struggling to see a future where that grew as they hoped.
“We just started thinking, is this the best model for us going forward? Which is a tough conversation to have ... but we just were thinking, we want to go really big and build something truly unique and defensible and innovative.”
One day, a friend who ran a food and beverage company mentioned he had no idea who was buying his products from supermarket shelves.
This lit a pilot light in Toby’s mind.
A bit of research revealed that this wasn’t just a problem for his friend, but the whole industry and it just so happened that MenuAid had a fair bit of data in its back pocket.
Step 4
Toby and Elise made a bold decision: MenuAid couldn’t last.
It wasn’t going to be an overnight transition, but they couldn’t take too long.
Recognising he would need more insider help, Toby made the bold move of cold messaging Craig Irwin, then NZ managing director of Circana, a market research and development company for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).
“I reached out to him basically saying, hey, we are looking to enter your space … and you could just tell he was like, holy crap, this is what the market has been missing for the last 40 years.”
Irwin proved to be a highly valuable mentor and advisor for MenuAid and Toby, helping them strategise the best ways to approach the new model.
“We were on top of this treasure trove, an absolute goldmine of information. We very quickly were trying to figure out what we had, and it was a lot. From flavors that are trending to different products that are being purchased; cuisines, meal types, how different occasions are in growth or decline.”
They made the recipe service free, dropping their revenue to zero overnight.
Soon, MenuAid instead had 10 business customers, each paying around $2,000 a month for insights on their user’s spending habits.
Toby and Elise realised they were onto something but needed a “strategic reset”.
“We needed a new identity that could position us in the market as someone who speaks to what is now the FMCG marketer, but can still hold a strong place in consumers’ hearts and minds.”
So in 2024, they raised $4 million and Appetise was born.
Step 5 – Reflect
Like a well-tested recipe, success is the result of myriad failures.
Toby said the focus, drive and commitment that spurred Appetise on turned out to be the source of one of his biggest moments of humility.
“It's blood, sweat and tears every waking moment and you put in so much energy and effort and you're always trying to do your best … (but) there's very little gratitude or like recognition of that.”
He and Elise were promoted a culture of feedback and, in that spirit, they released an employee survey.
While Toby didn’t share details, he said the results were “pretty brutal”.
“It was a real ‘ouch’ moment for us where, we know there's always things to work on but you commit so much of your life to doing something, giving 5,000% of your effort and, yeah, had some pretty rough stuff written about me personally and the company.”
It was a moment of realisation about the difference between working on a startup with six mates, and being the boss of a company.
“When you're a team of 30 you don't go as deep with everyone and so you're opening up the door for more people to not like the way you operate and get frustrated.”
While it took a long time to come to terms with that criticism, he ultimately realised that while there were some things that he could address, it was also part and parcel of being a CEO.
“I'm going to rub people up the wrong way at times, and that's just unfortunately part of it.”
Step 6 – Scale
Toby was in Sydney during this interview where he and Elise are based as they seek to take their new B2B, data-based business model to the world – and things are going well.
“Our Australian market actually just overtook NZ, so we're getting a huge amount of growth … We've just about hit the $2 million mark and our big goal is to try and get around $4 million by the end of this year.”
Toby said there were six staff in Australia and another 20 in Christchurch, and plans are underway for capital raise in 2026 to fuel expansion even further.
Currently, the team is focused on delivery, improving the product and refining the user experience as they keep moving ever closer to that mythical unicorn status.
