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Guest: Damien Lee, founder of Mr. Lee’s Noodles.
Host: Kevin Mako, founder of Product Startup and the leading expert in hardware startup consulting. A hardware entrepreneur since 1999, Kevin has advised more than 1,500 founders and built and scaled MAKO Invent through its acquisition by TriMech in 2024.
Opening Large Channels With a New Food Product
Damien Lee shares how he entered the food industry, created a healthier instant-noodle product, and paired it with an innovative vending concept. He explains how an early contract with Compass Group helped open university distribution and why founder conviction mattered through the launch.
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Filip Valica: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the product startup podcast, podcast that helps bring your product idea to life by chatting with successful inventors, product designers, and other industry professionals. This podcast is run by Mako Design + Invent and hosted by Filip Valica.
Filip Valica: Our goal here is to get to the bottom of what makes a product successful, from initial idea to putting your product on the shelf. We're taking you step by step to build a functional product and scale your product business. Now onto the show.
Filip Valica: Never doubt yourself. If you have conviction and you have a have a dream and you believe with your heart of hearts, what you're doing is right,
Filip Valica: never give up, follow it through, and never look back. You know, because if you believe in a dream, other people will too, and they'll follow you. And it becomes their dream too.
Filip Valica: The Product Startup, Episode 17. Welcome to the Product Startup Podcast, helping you turn ideas into successful products step by step. with your host,
Filip Valica: Filip Valica. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the product startup podcast. In the last episode, we talked with Luke Lucas from Fottis. Luke owns and runs this startup food production business. They specialize in the production of low FodMap, gluten-free,
Filip Valica: and other allergy-friendly food that they sell online. Luke quit his career in finance last year to open a cafe and retail outlet, and him and his partner, Chrissy, have worked full-time in the business ever since.
Filip Valica: So make sure to check out that episode if you want to hear how Luke and Chrissy validate the food in their cafe and then sell what works through their online store.
Filip Valica: Before we get started today, I wanted to highlight one reviewer on iTunes. Mat Hofma wrote, Filip does a great job with these podcasts, very inspirational stuff for a young entrepreneur. Hey, thanks Matt for taking the time to leave a review.
Filip Valica: You may recognize Matt and Eric from guests on the show back on episode five. They talked about Mini Materials, their miniature construction material product line. I know they'll listen to the show regularly, so thanks for the support, guys.
Filip Valica: Today, I'm joined by Damian Lee of Mr. Lee's noodles for a truly inspirational episode. He served in the Australian Special Forces, was a city headhunter, as a single dad of two and stage four cancer survivor.
Filip Valica: He lost his latest startup, but cleaned up his diet to help beat the cancer and realized that he loved noodles, but hated all the nasty chemicals in them. So he created his own healthy, gluten-free pot noodle,
Damien Lee: which he'll soon start selling on university campuses through high-tech noodle kiosks.
Filip Valica: So let's get started.
Damien Lee: Hi, Kasi and Damien, thanks for joining me today.
Damien Lee: Hi. So how did you get started with that? Right, well, my journey with the noodles, I mean, if you want me to go way back or start with Mr. Lee's noodles. Yes.
Filip Valica: Whatever you feel comfortable talking about.
Damien Lee: Well, look, Matt, I'm an entrepreneur at heart. You know, today I'm 49 years old today, and, you know, I've had a very, yeah,
Damien Lee: not when I say today, not today, not today,
Damien Lee: every time, every time, but today I'm 49. Okay, fair enough.
Damien Lee: And, you know, I'm originally from Sydney, Australia,
Damien Lee: but I've lived, you know, throughout the world over, over many years, and I've developed and created businesses across the globe.
Damien Lee: some, had successes,
Damien Lee: you know, had a real wonderful journey. So like any good entrepreneur, I think you have to go through the whole curve up and down to really get to grips and manage businesses properly.
Damien Lee: So my experience is, look, I've been, yes, I've been a city headhunter, and what I mean by the city for the American folk out there, the city is your Wall Street in the U.S. We call it the city here in the United Kingdom. My work for some of the largest investment, thanks, Golden Sachs, Morgan, J.P. Morgan,
Damien Lee: Bank, et cetera, et cetera, some of the biggest interdillo-broking firms, Cantor Fitzgerald and Tullet-Kreve-on,
Damien Lee: so, you know, particularly in the investment banking industry for many, many years and was ranked pretty much one of the world's top interdealer-broking headhunters and head-hunting firms, which were, we were in fact voted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the EIU,
Damien Lee: as one of the world's top ten leading head-hunting firms. And that was a company I established from my living room many years ago, and we eventually expanded into Singapore, the US and Paris,
Damien Lee: France, and here in the UK.
Damien Lee: That business I eventually sold off and the business is still operating today in Singapore under some of my former employees, but I sort of moved into other businesses and I've been trading oil in Nigeria. I've
Damien Lee: had a security company operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. I founded a satellite communications company, which is now the world's second largest maritime satellite communications company.
Damien Lee: I have owned restaurants and bars in Sweden and England and Australia. So I've had a real broad sort of background in building businesses. And as I said, some are still here today in different guises and some have gone.
Damien Lee: But today I'm a noodle man. Wow. And that kind of happened when, you know, the journey for me in this. in this current form started,
Damien Lee: in a sense, a couple of years back when I moved from London, where I lived for many years, you know, running different businesses. And I moved down to where we're currently located in Bournemouth, down here in Dorset, in England,
Damien Lee: which is a beachside resort town, two hours out of London. And I kind of got attracted to this place three years ago when I first came down here to see the Bournemouth Air Show. And I thought, wow, you know, they've got a seven-mile.
Damien Lee: long sandy white beach and this is england i can't believe it and it was just like back home in australia and you know i was instantly bonded with this town and i thought my god you know i'm
Damien Lee: i'm through with the big city of london and uh i really want to get back by the sea so uh i made a i made a decision pretty quickly and said you know what i'm going to move down to bormouth and i was
Damien Lee: coming to the end of my head hunting business where i knew after running that business for for almost, gosh, 14 odd years,
Damien Lee: that I was looking for a new business and one of my dreams and long-time ambitions was to start an internet startup company.com. And I came down here with my
Damien Lee: dreams and visions of my dot-com company and I started it. And that company at the time was called Design Gadgets and we were an internet startup company and what we were all about was about
Damien Lee: working with SME and startup technology companies, particularly the ones working. on the crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegirgo if you're familiar with those crowdfunding platforms.
Damien Lee: And we were all about championing these guys that got their funding, their technology was going to see the light of day, and we were going to move them onto the next day to make really cool video about them. We were having academia. We're going to help these guys with their
Damien Lee: projects, and then we were going to be the natural next step to launch them online throughout our shop and so on. Anyway, that's a much bigger story than that, but the point is,
Damien Lee: I was 10, 11 months into that business and things were going great. And, you know, we had about 20, 30 people involved around that business at the time.
Damien Lee: And, you know, I had just secured, at the time I'd put all my personal investment into that business. And I just secured my first big round of external funding.
Damien Lee: And, you know, we were high-fiving and hollering and woo-hoo. And literally a week later, I was diagnosed with cancer. Wow.
Damien Lee: And I was diagnosed with late stage four cancer. It was in my chest and it spread to my stomach. And at the time, the doctors had said, well, Damien,
Damien Lee: you've, you've, you've only got a few weeks left. It's pretty well developed. And, you know, our recommendation is you make plans. We understand you're a single dad with two young boys. And you probably want to get your personal affairs in order. And I said, wow, really?
Damien Lee: Well, you know, what's my options here? They said, well, you know, we could start treatment if you chose to start treatment, you know, chemo and et cetera, et cetera.
Damien Lee: But, you know, some people at your stage choose just to sort of live out those last weeks or month or so, you know, as best well you can rather than starting chemo. But, you know, we will give you the option. If you'd like to try it, you know, why not?
Damien Lee: So at that point, you know, I was determined and I knew, you know, I didn't plan to go anywhere, especially for the sake of my two years. young boys,
Damien Lee: and I still felt I had a lot of living left to do, I made the decision straight away, well, bring on the chemo and bring everything you want to throw at me, but also my girlfriend,
Damien Lee: Lanker, was a very big part of my life and recovery and so forth, where Lanker said, Damien, you've got to make every change in your life right now, and that starts with your diet, you know,
Damien Lee: And, you know, look, I being a busy guy and entrepreneur, I always took shortcuts a lot to eating. I mean, I love good eating, but when you're time poor and so forth, you tend to take shortcuts.
Damien Lee: And one of my biggest vices was instant noodles, you know, they're quick, they're easy, they're convenient, and so on. And I used to eat lots of nasty,
Damien Lee: convenient noodles,
Damien Lee: rum and noodles. So anyway, so at that point when I said, all right, well, let's change the diet. let's change the lifestyle let's do everything i've got to do to get through this this period of my
Damien Lee: life i went raw and uh you know took out all the nasties took out all the sugars and and and really sort of cleansed my body and mind and soul and uh and went on this one year sort of journey
Damien Lee: of chemo and and raw carrots etc and i was lucky enough 12 months sort of later to be given the all clear by my doctors and they said you're not only in remission you're in
Damien Lee: complete remission. I said, well, what's the difference? And they said, well, remission means the disease is going in the right way and we're happy and it's, you know, it's disappearing. Complete remission means there's no sign of the disease left in your body.
Damien Lee: And, you know, I had, I think it was near on 18 rounds of chemo and chemo-related treatment as well within all that. I lost my ribs on my right-hand side had dissolved through the tumors. I lost seven, eight, and nine, and partially four, five, and six at the time as well. Apparently they're
Damien Lee: growing back now. Wow. But the point is, you know, I got through what I had to get through. but I lost my business as well. At that time, I lost design gadgets. People had to get on with their lives.
Damien Lee: The investors that I had pulled in had, you know, moved on with their lives, and I was pretty much left with nothing. You know, I'd invested all my personal income up to that point to get it to where it needed to be. And I had to do a lot of salsa at searching that 12 months later.
Damien Lee: I think, wow, what am I going to do now? Do I, you know, get design gadgets going again? Do I try and start that? Well, God forbid, do I get a job?
Damien Lee: And I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit.
Damien Lee: And I thought, well, I need to find something new. What can I do? So I said to Lanker, I said, look, you know, I can finally travel again and get on a plane.
Damien Lee: Why don't we go to Greece and let's spend with the boys and spend, you know, 10 days in Greece, have a relax, just think about things more clearly and decide what we're going to do. So I went to Greece.
Damien Lee: and I was laying on the beach with Lenker and, you know, looking up at the stars and said, you know what, I've got an idea.
Damien Lee: You know how I used to love my noodles and I love instant noodles and, you know, how I was talking about all that technology at design gadgets and so forth.
Damien Lee: And there was a little bit more of a backstory as well because, and let me just quickly go into that, was during my period at design gadgets, I knew two Chinese brothers in China And they're, in fact, China's fifth largest instant noodle manufacturer.
Damien Lee: And during my time at Design Gadgets, and I think they sold something like four billion instant noodle cakes a year just in China, they had approached me and said, Damien, on one of their visits to the UK, they said, Damien, we would really love to expand our noodle business to the UK.
Damien Lee: Can you help us? And I said to them at the time, I said, listen, and funny enough, their names are Lee's as well. They're the Lee brothers like me.
Damien Lee: I said to them at the time, I said, look, I know nothing about retail. I know nothing about supermarkets. I've never done it before. The only thing I know about noodles is how to eat them.
Damien Lee: And by the way, I'm busy with my startup company anyway.
Damien Lee: And so I said, look, pass on this. I'm really sorry. So kind of when I was lying on that beach at Greece, I thought, well, maybe, you know what? Just maybe I could do that noodle. And I could be that noodle guy for them and bring that noodle because I need to do something
Damien Lee: and I could be the UK European distributor. But then I thought, well, hang on a second. What am I saying? Because I know their noodles are full of MSGs, full of ease, and full of all sorts of nasty things. And in fact, quote, their own words themselves,
Damien Lee: they said, Damien, we wouldn't eat our own noodles. And that was a big revelation for me when they said, that to me. And I thought, you wouldn't eat your own noodles? And they said, God, no. Wow. I was like, wow.
Damien Lee: So, and I thought to that at that point on the beach, I thought, hang on. Yes, it's something I could do, but hang on, how could I put my hand on my heart of hearts and start to market and sell a noodle that I know is full of rubbish, and especially what I know, and I'm a big believer now, and you are what you eat? Absolutely.
Damien Lee: I can't do that. So that kind of then spawn the idea, well, hang on, I love noodles and I need to do something. Maybe I could do a noodle. You know what, damn it? I'm going to do my own damn noodle, and it's going to be a noodle that's good for you.
Damien Lee: There's going to be no artificial additives, preservatives, colors, no nasties, no anything.
Damien Lee: I'm going to make a good noodle, and I'm going to bring it to the world with my sort of philosophy about eating and life and inspiring people to eat better, doing better, and bring a very special unique noodle.
Damien Lee: So that was the beginning of my idea of Mr. Lee's noodles, but then like I told the Lee brothers, I said, I don't know anything about retail. I don't know anything about supermarkets. And I thought, hmm,
Damien Lee: how am I going to bring my noodle if I do this to? the market. And that's when I thought, you know what, I've got to do something innovative and different. And that's when I thought, I'm going to create a noodle vending machine to go my noodle. Right.
Filip Valica: So I thought, okay, I'm going to go out and find one. So I came back to the UK and soon discovered there ain't any noodle vending machines. No one's really doing it. There have been people
Filip Valica: that have tried sort of odd iterations of it, but there's been nothing out there today that's taken a big leap forward in terms of noodle kiosks and I thought well maybe that's a good reason
Damien Lee: maybe that's a bad reason I don't know but regardless I'm going to get on with it so I went down it was gosh just over a year ago now we started the journey of developing firstly my my food business
Damien Lee: the noodle the noodle and secondly developing our very own noodle kioskers that there isn't one we have to make one and develop one which we which we've done and yeah so that was kind of the
Damien Lee: beginning of Mr. Lee's Noodles. It was born from there. Wow, that's a really inspirational story. So nobody really has an excuse to not get started on their idea after that.
Damien Lee: So you said before that there weren't any kiosks that dispense instant noodles. I know I've seen some kiosks that were doing pizza. How did you get to that point where you said, you know what, I don't have as much experience creating this specific technology, but I'm going to get into it
Damien Lee: anyway because it seems like a good marriage. Yeah. I mean, yeah, exactly that I had no experience whatsoever outside of my experience from design gadgets when I was working with startup companies and technology guys and you know working with really cool people with really cool ideas
Damien Lee: um so it was kind of an head start because I had a relationship without two local universities here in Bournemouth, Bourmouth University and Arts University, Bournemouth because I was bringing
Damien Lee: academia into my previous startup and getting academia to be involved in helping these sort of startup guys with their technology. I was I got to know these two universities very well and they got to know me very well.
Damien Lee: So that was a big step because I went into the university firstly after I came back from Greece if I'd take a step back, I sat down and wrote a business plan. I spent two months on my business plan just getting my thoughts right, doing my research and looking into the technology
Damien Lee: and realizing there isn't what I needed out there. Boy, I'm going to have to go and create it.
Damien Lee: But after two months, I was ready to approach my local university contacts and say, hey guys,
Damien Lee: I've got this new noodle idea. I'm back by the way from cancer and I've got a new business I'm doing.
Damien Lee: And I'm going to create a noodle vending machine with healthy noodles. And they were like, wow, what a great idea.
Damien Lee: And I said to the guys and I had some 3D mockups of my vision. Okay. I had no proven technology at that point. I had my graphic designer do a 3D knockups of the pots of our noodles and the vending machine. And I went to the universe and
Damien Lee: it said, this is my vision of Mr. Lee's noodles. What do you think? And they said, wow, what a cool, wonderful idea. We love this journey you've been on and the story. Great. So can we taste the noodles? I said, no, because I haven't made them yet. But this is what they can look like in the pot.
Damien Lee: Great. Well, where do we see the vending machine? Well, I haven't created that yet either. Here's what I want it to look like. And they're like, okay. And I said, well, you know, if I put all this together, can I put it on your university? Because who's the biggest eaters
Damien Lee: of instant noodles? It's students, you know, students that are looking for cheaper, convenient,
Damien Lee: easy food. And yeah, that's a great place for me to start. I want to put my noodles in vending machines on universities. And I want to start here at Bournemouth University. And the guys at Bournemouth University said, that's great. Damien, look, we're going to support you
Damien Lee: in your idea, even though you haven't yet created any of them. But there's one problem. And I said, well, what's that? And they said, look, we don't control the food and beverage on our university. And I said, what do you mean you don't? You're Bournemouth University. They said, yeah, yeah.
Damien Lee: But the food and beverage facilities, they're contracted out. And it's not just Bournemouth University. Damien, you're going to find that's on most of the universities. They're given out to these big companies. And I said, well, what company is that? And they said, well, in our instance, it's a company called Compass Group. I said, Compass Group.
Damien Lee: Who are they? They said, well, they're the world's largest contract catering company.
Damien Lee: And their competitor is a company called in America,
Damien Lee: Aramark, which is the American equivalent. And in the group, it's SEDEXA. And they're the three biggest contract catering companies in the world. And I said, well, I've never heard of any of them.
Damien Lee: And they said, well, look, the first step is you need to convince them that your noodles and noodle kios should be at Bournemouth University. And I went, oh, no, my heart sank. And I said, I don't know anyone there.
Damien Lee: And they said, look, we'll introduce you to the local manager. Anyway, long and the short of it is, I met the guy, Ricky King, and he said, hey, what a great idea, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Damien Lee: We think it's great, but it's not my decision. You have to go right up through the corporate chain and meet with them, and they have this group called The Idea Works, which is Compass Group's equivalent of Dragonsden. I think you have that in the US as well.
Damien Lee: You know, these four panelists sit there and you pitch your idea. Right. And they said, we kind of have this panelist, the idea works through Compass Group, and you pitch to them, and they basically look for SMEs,
Damien Lee: small SMEs in the food and food technology business to give them a chance here in the UK. okay and we pick four every year and i said wow okay so the long journey began with compass group
Damien Lee: and uh that was about a four-month process to be able to get through to the pitch stage where we were accepted into i think thousands of UK SMEs applied and they picked four we were
Damien Lee: one of those four and we pitched and we were successful but still at that point we didn't really have a product and uh well and i'll get to your question the set but the major point was we ended up
Filip Valica: winning Compass Group contract based on our idea, based on our vision,
Filip Valica: based on unproven technology or soups outside of our pilot soups that were developed in cups that I had
Filip Valica: cellophane and photocopied paper wrapped around the cups, you know, without, again, my 3D mock-ups and pitched them. And they said, yeah, we love this idea. We're going to give you a shot. And we
Damien Lee: are the first company from what I've been told to ever win a Compass Group contract that has never been proven or a company or a food product yet in the market. We're just a concept at that stage,
Damien Lee: which was a major feat in achievement. So that's when really the journey began to say, wow, I've really got to now get these soups down, Pat, I've really got to get
Damien Lee: this technology built and really get this sorted out, because we now have the biggest whale in the food and beverage industry in the world, Compass Group, that also operate, I believe, in something like 100 other countries, including the U.S. and everywhere.
Damien Lee: I think they've got different names in the U.S., but they operate a hell of a lot of defense force bases and hospitals and unies in the U.S. as well.
Damien Lee: They were ready to give us our chance. So the journey began. That's a really amazing story because, like you said, most people that get started, especially if they're looking for angel investment or some investors just to come in to give them maybe
Damien Lee: 40, 50,000 dollars, no one's going to turn over money unless you've got a working prototype at the very least, and somehow that you've tested your market. So that's really amazing that you're able to do that. Do you have any insight into why they might have taken the chance with
Damien Lee: you? Is it probably because of your background and you're able to really speak to your vision and sell the panel? Yeah, I mean, good question. And I think, look, I think a lot of people,
Damien Lee: including the team that I sort of developed around the idea at the time and at that time, one or two sort of angel investors that came in believing in my business plan that I, as I said,
Damien Lee: spent two months on and believing in the dream I had and the vision I had. And a lot of people got enthusiastic and excited about, hey, a healthy cup noodle, wow.
Filip Valica: And the fact that you've come back almost from the dead to create it based on your beliefs of eating better and knowing that the cup noodle sector is an instant.
Filip Valica: noodle sector is a huge, huge segment all around the world, but all these people are eating crap and not many people are making good ones. What a great idea. So people quickly sort of bought into, let's bring a healthy 100% natural noodle to the market.
Filip Valica: And then people quickly got, hey, what a cool idea, creating a vending machine to vend it and put them on universities and colleges. So it was an easy sell and an easy concept for people to get their heads around.
Damien Lee: and the fact that I was getting a lot of traction, and particularly from Compass Group, who said, we love this and we believe in this too, and we want it, just made it easy after that
Damien Lee: because I said I didn't even yet have the product developed and, you know, I was speaking to potential packers and developers and suppliers and whatever that were also believing in the concept. So I was getting a lot of support from different areas, even though at that time we didn't
Damien Lee: have big budgets, we didn't have, you know, we had an angel investor that came in and promised us, you know, to pretty much finances to the end,
Damien Lee: although their circumstances changed a little further down the road, and that's another story.
Damien Lee: But no, no, I think people understood what we were doing and felt it was a good idea, so that helped a lot. And I've noticed that in maybe a couple other instances where there's been a startup that has done something that's been
Damien Lee: so unique that it creates its own traction in the market, where you just put out a couple pieces in the media and it naturally kind of builds on itself as opposed to having to sell your story
Damien Lee: and sell what you're about and where you come from and why people need it. And it's just this huge heavy push in order to convince people to buy it versus having a product that by itself
Damien Lee: stands on its own that people get instantly. So it's the kudos to you for having that idea and bringing it forward. Were you worried at all about someone, especially since you were talking to people in the industry about someone taking that idea and running. with it without you?
Damien Lee: Yeah, sure.
Damien Lee: Look, there's a couple of other brands here in the UK that I benchmarked firstly my product against one of the UK's leading brands where I wanted to seek out and felt who's the best noodle in the market.
Damien Lee: I won't say who that brand is, but there's one particular brand here in the UK. And I thought, right, that's the brand.
Filip Valica: We're just going to be better than. And we're going to do their product 10 times better. and then with that so we have our benchmark and that very quickly I felt hmm you know these guys
Filip Valica: started hearing about us because you know things things travel quickly and I felt well maybe these guys are going to start to maybe hook onto this noodle uh kiosk idea quickly as well and
Filip Valica: try and find one themselves but my my key strategy in terms of making sure that the the other guys the big brands the established brands are already out there couldn't get the
Filip Valica: traction that we got was by locking up the real estate. That was key for me, because if we
Damien Lee: could lock up the real estate, and what I mean by the real estate, the ideas of Compass Group, compass group here alone just in the UK managed 10,000 sites. And when I mean sites, you know, Bournemouth University is a site, you know, Portsmouth Naval Base, the biggest naval base in the UK
Damien Lee: is one site and so on. Twickenham Football Stadium is one site. So within each site, there's multiple vending opportunities within each site. So just by securing one big client, and the biggest,
Damien Lee: we very quickly lock out our competitors from getting traction and quick traction. So part of my strategy was, as I said, was first to go out there and win the whale compass group and then meet the others.
Damien Lee: You know, we're already in discussions with, you know, and speaking to, you know, Aramark and Sodexo as well, who are very interested in the idea as well and so on. So that was key. Real estate is king in the vending business. Yeah, absolutely. Distribution, right? Secure, you're right.
Damien Lee: So, but even so, you know, going up to against probably one of the largest distributors or largest companies that would probably buy your products, it must have seemed, A, daunting,
Damien Lee: and B, they have their own teams of people that are working on products, right? And so what is their incentive to buy into you? I mean, don't get me wrong, I think your story is super compelling and that probably helped win 60, 70% of the way there. But as an engineer, we've gone
Damien Lee: and pitched products to some companies and it's always been you have to walk that hairline on how much IP you share with them or how many details you go into because you want to be seen as a partner, not a competitor they're going to steal an idea from. I guess when you had talk with
Damien Lee: them, you felt pretty comfortable to kind of go into the detail that you did. Yeah, I mean,
Damien Lee: when you run any business, of course, you have to be careful with giving away. the sort of the kitchen sink and the keys to the living room and so on absolutely um we've
Damien Lee: been very careful in our partners we've chosen um and and who we work with but for various reasons um you know inda's and so forth okay that's one form of sort of a lockdown in a sense but you know
Damien Lee: how how significant is that i mean i think it's it's a matter it's a matter of getting to the market quickly and and getting getting getting yourself spread as said earlier, getting real estate,
Damien Lee: developing a product that as far as we're concerned, and certainly many people now that are reviewing our product and so forth, saying that it's the best pot noodle in the market. So for us, we're calling ourselves the champagne
Damien Lee: of noodles. Okay, we are the gourmet pot noodle or cup noodle. So it's about creating a superior product. And for the others,
Damien Lee: in terms of the way they do their noodles and their product, we we have a different technique the way we actually create and make our noodles we use freeze dried ingredients and a lot of it where a lot of the other brands use dehydrated ingredients for
Damien Lee: example free freeze dried ingredients are more expensive um they're more nutritious they lock in all the flavor and goodness the other brands um use dehydrated as a said which sucks out all the goodness
Damien Lee: all the nutrition they're cheaper to use and so on so they have cheaper manufacturing processes but another part of our strategy which i'm also doing very differently to
Damien Lee: the other guys is my strategy here in the UK at the moment is not take it to the supermarket strategy.
Damien Lee: Now,
Filip Valica: as I told the Lee brothers in China many years ago, I don't know a damn thing about the supermarket business, and I'm purposely keeping it that way right now. And people are like, well, Damien, are you crazy? Are you mad? What do you mean? You've created a product.
Filip Valica: The biggest dream or goal is to try and get your product into the supermarket, isn't it? well my belief in strategy is no it isn't because that's where all the other guys are
Damien Lee: they're all on the supermarket shelf and they as you said mentioned earlier they got the big advertising budgets they got the brand recognition they got the they got everything so i don't want to be on the supermarket shelf with 20 other brands competing with them because what i did learn from
Damien Lee: the lee brothers in china was the noodle market and the competition is getting tougher and
Damien Lee: everybody's dumbing down their product okay because they're being squeezed on price and margin. So they're trying to compete, to stay in that game, they're having to, as I said, dumb down their product. And what that means is you and I, the
Damien Lee: consumer are suffering. Yeah, it's a race to the bottom. That's right. A big race to the bottom. And you and I's the consumer eating more and more rubbish because they're feeding us rubbish
Damien Lee: because they can't afford to put goodness into their food pots. So I thought, I'm not going to get into that game. We're going to a totally different direction. We're going to go into the corporate market where there and none of these guys are playing like we're going to play.
Damien Lee: What I mean by that is the airline sector, the hotel sector, the compass group, you know, the office canteen sector, we're going direct to the market in a different direction.
Damien Lee: I don't want to be on that supermarket shelf where the supermarkets are dictating price to us. We're paying listing fees and all this. I don't want to get in that game. We will build a market through the corporate sector first. We will build a reputation and a brand.
Damien Lee: And when the supermarkets do come and knock on our door, and they will, it'll be on our terms. and will be a brand that's already potentially recognized through our sectors, as I said,
Filip Valica: because we've got airlines interested in our product.
Damien Lee: We've got, you know, with hotel chains are taking on our product now. Compass Group, our vending machines will be out from September and so on and so on. So I have a different approach to the market than all the other brands have ever done. That's an excellent strategy, right?
Damien Lee: Be where no one else is and you eliminate competition just naturally. Just naturally. That's amazing advice. Thank you for sharing that. You've gone through the design, and you said your machines are going to be on the floor
Damien Lee: and at the end of this year or by fall this year. That's right. Can you kind of share some of the development that went into that? How much of a hand did you have in that with your vision? And how much, maybe did you work with a product development company at all to build those?
Damien Lee: Sure.
Damien Lee: So, yeah, taking it back again, as I said, when I went on the journey to look for the noodle vending machine or noodle kiosk, as we call them, and found that there wasn't anything in the market
Damien Lee: off the shelf that I could buy I had to go in search of developing one and that started with finding wow how do I find a noodle that a machine that bends a pot noodle you know and injects hot
Damien Lee: water in through the foil that it and delivers etc etc and I did manage to find one company that was doing something but not quite what I wanted uh you know over here in Europe and they were
Damien Lee: just small small guys and uh you know I approached them and I said look You know, my vision for a noodle vending machine is very different to what you've developed here. My vision for a noodle vending machine is big touch screens, cashless,
Damien Lee: you know, content on the screen, entertaining and engaging the consumer, et cetera, et cetera. And they went, wow, you know, why? And I said, you don't get it.
Damien Lee: Because a noodle vending machine and the whole concept around vending a noodle is very different to vending a kit cat or a mask. are. And they said, how come? What do you mean? I said, look, you've cut your noodle. Think about it. I said,
Damien Lee: vending today is very dull and boring. There's no experience when you go up to a vending machine and buy your junk food out of it today. And they said, well, what do you mean? I said, look, you go in, you look through the glass window and you see Kit Katz or Rose of Candy or
Damien Lee: crisps or whatever. You select when it drops down and you take it and off you go. Yeah, if you're lucky, the spiral doesn't get caught and, you know, you're not shaking the machine. That's your excitement for the day.
Damien Lee: I said, that's the thing for dinosaurs. I said,
Damien Lee: we've got to shake up the market. We've got to change all that. We've got to do things differently. And they said, have you been in vending before? I said, never. But I'm a consumer. I know what I want. I know the experience I want.
Damien Lee: And I don't have to be someone from the vending industry to tell me what sort of an experience I would want from something that I believe should be there in the market. And I'm going to make it. And I'm going to tell you how. And they were like, oh, okay, tell us how.
Damien Lee: And I said, look, put the big touch screens, big 32, 42 inch touchscreens, make third-party commercials, viral videos, infomercials on those screens. Because I said the key thing is here, which we've done now with our machines, is when
Damien Lee: you go to a Mr. Lee's noodle kiosk, the whole vending time is a 45 second from select to vend,
Damien Lee: delivery time, 45 seconds. Right. You've got a captive audience. Exactly. Exactly. Now, what opportunity have we got there around that screen in that 45 seconds to, as I said,
Damien Lee: entertain, engage, deliver, inform? I said, if we're on university colleges and campuses with all those millennials,
Filip Valica: now advertising companies, no, you're lucky if you've got a millennial for three seconds before they swipe past you on their smartphone. Right. But Mr. Lee's noodle kiosk, they've got to stay for 45 seconds waiting for that soup.
Filip Valica: you have got that captive audience and I said that's a unique proposition they can't walk away they're there so if we're entertaining them on that screen or there's a cool ad or a cool commercial
Damien Lee: or whatever we have got them and think again in high footfall areas at universities it might not
Filip Valica: just be one person that might be there two or their three four friends around that screen
Damien Lee: so the long and the short of it is what I ended up developing with these guys and finding a software guy and developer and so forth and combined all this into this dinosaur machine that I found
Damien Lee: and redeveloped it into a machine that, you know, now we own the IP for and have developed it's our Mr. Lee's noodle kiosk, is we have a cashless bending machine with 32-inch, which will
Filip Valica: eventually be 42-inch touchscreens. They record client demographic information. In other words,
Damien Lee: our Mr. Lee's noodle kiosks are smart. He understands it. if you're a male or a female,
Filip Valica: he understands your age group within a five-year age gap. So he will then be able to push smart advertising aimed at whoever's in front of him.
Damien Lee: He will be able to capture that client demographic information. In other words, 762 people walk past this location today. Of those 762, 520 were females, age between the ages of 18 and 20, and so on and so on.
Damien Lee: So this becomes very powerful information we can also return to our host,
Damien Lee: the site as well. You know, for example, Compass Group here at Bournemouth University, they know today they sold 1,000 meals in their canteen, but they don't know that today 4,000 people passed through
Damien Lee: there, but they only sold 1,000 meals. And of those 4,000 passed through. Yeah, that 25% conversion, right. Exactly, exactly. So this sort of information for their marketing teams, becomes invaluable because they go, wow, why did we only sell 1,000 mils to 4,000 people?
Damien Lee: Of those 4,000 people, you know,
Damien Lee: 2,600 females age between, et cetera. So this is powerful information, which are Mr. Lee's noodle kiosk can return to the host site as well.
Filip Valica: So it's powerful for the host site, it's powerful for us, it's powerful for third-party advertisers and so on. So we actually become much more than a vending machine, but we're actually a new digital media platform as well in demographic locations.
Filip Valica: And that gives you a lot of control because you're able to roll out whatever you would like. You can have an advertisement for Mr. Lee's noodles on the screen before someone walks up to it. Maybe someone's preparing fresh noodles with fresh ingredients and it's kind of drawing them to the machine.
Filip Valica: And then once they get to the machine, that changes into something else that you've decided to send them. That's interesting.
Damien Lee: So is the technology that you're using based on camera type, like Microsoft Connect, where they're recognizing people based on images or how are you identifying your demographics?
Damien Lee: Exactly, based on sort of recognition and sort of technology. That's pretty amazing. Any worries with privacy or anything like that? Yeah, UK laws, I think, you know, a lot of countries have their own sort of quirks in terms of laws.
Damien Lee: But in the UK, as long as we black out the faces, we're not capturing their facial images. We're just capturing demographic data, you know, female 18 to 25. That's the information we're storing, not, you know, oh, there's the image capture and so forth,
Damien Lee: because, you know, that's the, you're in murky water there. So it's just, just data that we're capturing. That's amazingly powerful. I mean, you could basically turn into a media company in, you know, two or three years as well. That's right. Well, that's part of our game plan.
Damien Lee: And I always say it, one, we're a food business, and two, we're a technology business.
Damien Lee: So it's a two-fold business that we're developing here. That's amazing. Congratulations on that.
Filip Valica: That's, and you're going to be in 10,000 locations, hopefully within the next few years. Did you guys talk about your rollout or how fast you can get to it?
Filip Valica: We said we start our initial phase in September. Over here in the UK, it's probably the same in the U.S. September is when the universities come back. The students start again in mid-September here in the UK.
Filip Valica: So we start our first rollouts into the university sector then, and then we'll be rolling into defense force, hospitals, corporates, hospitals, et cetera, et cetera, after then. But, yeah, so that all starts in September.
Damien Lee: We have our international rollout plan as well. We'll be looking to come into the U.S. we already start in scant we've started in scandinavia as well uh in denmark and soon sweden
Damien Lee: and and so on and so on so uh you know really things for us are just about to begin we our product just the noodle product itself um goes online on amazon in uh mid august excellent so you
Damien Lee: on through amazon and then through various retail outlets as we start to uh will retail outlets I call, you know, sort of, you know, offices and staff canteens and hospitals and so forth and hotels.
Damien Lee: Yeah, and Amazon's basically a no-brainer because they do all your fulfillment. I mean, their margins are pretty high. They want to take a good piece of your profit, but at the same time, it's one of the largest e-commerce sites in the world. Absolutely.
Damien Lee: And especially in the U.S., you know, they've moved to certain items, especially grocery items are now same-day delivery. Amazon Prime, which has been two-day delivery, is just insane.
Damien Lee: popular here. So we've conditioned this culture where we want things now instantly, right? And your product kind of goes along with that. So that's awesome. That's very exciting. How are you
Damien Lee: able to keep on top of all these things? Got a great team. Got a great team around me. Ashley here. Say hi, hi, Cash.
Damien Lee: You know, ahead of our marketing communications. You know, we've built in the short time that we've been around, which is really, as said, you know, the company was registered here in the UK back in July, so just over a year ago,
Damien Lee: that we took our offices that we now sit in here in the town centre in November. Was it cash? Yes.
Damien Lee: And the team, the team, there were a lot of people, a lot of people, there were a number
Filip Valica: of people moonlighting before, before that, you know, and there are other jobs and believing in the dream. But the team started coming together from January of this year.
Damien Lee: And today, around our business, there's approximately 18 people in the business today from logistics to brand management design, our digital media team, you know, legal operations and
Damien Lee: sales, et cetera. So we've got a great little team. And, you know, that's, for me, that's the big part of it, you know, having a team of believers. And they believe in the product. They believe
Damien Lee: in the vision and dream. And hopefully they believe in me, you know, help me, helping, helping me build this dream. That's really exciting. I mean, what could be better? You're working on
Damien Lee: something you absolutely believe in, something that you know is going to have a worldwide impact.
Filip Valica: And people maybe don't think in those terms, sometimes they sit up and look at the stars and say, how can I affect this huge mass of people? And you don't run to instant noodles. But to you,
Damien Lee: it speaks just volumes. And I could absolutely see how you could have an effect on everyone's health from the ground up. You know, they're starting at the university level. And you could be the first person that introduces them to all natural noodles. And they might not ever want to,
Damien Lee: go back. Yeah, absolutely. And look, Cash is suggesting, I'll tell you one more thing about what
Filip Valica: we're going to be doing is part of our USP around our brand and product is we're not just a noodle, okay, we are about sort of eating better and living better and bringing that message
Filip Valica: to people and helping time poor people have better food and eating options around these nasty,
Damien Lee: junky noodles that are around today is we're also developing our boost range, our supplement and boost range, which will supplement, you know, our noodles. Oh, what's in there? Sorry, some brochure.
Damien Lee: So, so with,
Damien Lee: there's, yeah, there's some of our noodles. So with these noodles, we call it Pimp Your Noodles, okay?
Filip Valica: And it will be available through our noodle kiosks and also in hotel rooms and so forth to accompany our noodles. And there'll be protein boosts, okay? So we've got really cool stuff that, you know, you'll be able to, you know,
Filip Valica: you go into a juice bar and you buy a, I don't know, a carrot and ginger juice and you say, hey, I'll get a weak grass shot with that as well, you know, and just really sort of boost up your protein nutritional. We're going to be doing it with our soups. So, you know, we've got
Damien Lee: cool boosts from everything from Kinoa to seaweed boosts, and, you know, just really funky sort of things, you know, and you'll just tip it into your soup and boost up that protein levels.
Damien Lee: The flavors, we've worked very hard on making sure that these natural protein boosts don't overpower our soup flavors as well. They just really work in harmony.
Filip Valica: And, you know, you're just getting a real maximum protein boost in a small cup for our noodles, high in protein, high nutritional value. And you'll be able to get soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oils, but again, really good ones,
Filip Valica: gluten-free ones as well that you can also personalize your soup with through the vending machine.
Damien Lee: And again, as I said, throughout product from hotel rooms and so on.
Filip Valica: Yeah, now you're making me hungry. It's 11 o'clock our time, and I wish there was one down the street now. Any plans for expanding into other countries, or you want to focus on the UK first? No, no, no. We're already expanding into Scandinavia.
Filip Valica: We have our head of Scandinavian sales manager based in Copenhagen, Henrik, and he's already taking care of our Scandinavian distribution and said we've got a number of hotel chains and another outlets already taking the product.
Filip Valica: And that's just beginning. We've got our guy Ken Mark based in the U.S. based in Chicago, who's going to be taking care of our U.S. distribution sales, which he's on the team now. He's already out there, but we're getting UK Scandinavia
Filip Valica: and he's going to be starting to push into the U.S. from sort of late this year. Great. Well, and the nice thing is you can use your experience with universities in the U.K.
Filip Valica: is a stepping stone to say, hey, we are already in 10,000 sites. So if you don't get in now, you're going to miss the boat. Exactly. Well, the good part with that is because Compass Group, our partner already operates massively throughout the U.S., so it's just a natural progression
Filip Valica: with that client into the U.S. and into their universities, into their defense force bases, and hospitals and corporates already. So, yeah, so hopefully that will be our natural progression
Filip Valica: with them. Very exciting. I feel like we could talk for hours, but we're nearing the end of show here. So I wanted to make sure I asked this one last question that I asked everybody if you're speaking to your younger self or you're speaking to someone that is stuck
Filip Valica: at this somewhere in this product development process where they maybe haven't gone to market yet. What advice would you give them to help them take that next step or to give
Filip Valica: them that push to succeed? Well, never doubt yourself. If you have conviction and you
Damien Lee: have a dream and you believe with your heart of hearts what you're doing is right,
Damien Lee: Never give up. Follow it through and never look back. You know, because if you believe in a dream, other people will too and they'll follow you. And it becomes their dream too.
Damien Lee: Wow. No, I absolutely believe in that. There's plenty of examples of other leaders that have been able to do that. Steve Jobs was very polarizing. But he was able to propel Apple where
Damien Lee: they're at now. And I could see you taking over the noodle world one country. at a time. So where can people go and buy your noodles now or where will they be able to find
Damien Lee: them? And how can they find you online? Sure, sure. Online through our website, Mr.leas Noodles.com
Damien Lee: and through Amazon. I said that'll all be from mid-August. Okay. So they have a little bit patient. I know today's what August 2nd or whatever. By the time this episode airs, I think that it's going to be right on the money.
Damien Lee: Fantastic. Fantastic. So mid-August will be online and you know, hopefully we'll have lots and lots of hungry noodle lovers.
Damien Lee: Excellent. Well, thanks again for coming the show. I really appreciate your advice and being so transparent and helping everyone kind of take that next step forward. I wish you all the success. You
Damien Lee: certainly deserve it. And good luck to you and hope maybe we can connect in a couple of years' time and you can talk about some of your worldwide projects that you have going on. Philip, that would be awesome. And pleasure to meet you. And thanks for taking time to have this chat. Thank you. Thank you.
Damien Lee: And that's all I've got for today. Thanks for listening. I put all the links that we've covered. under the show notes, posted on the productstartup.com slash episode 17.
Filip Valica: Join me next week as I speak with Jennifer Harris of Motivo. Jennifer and her design partner, Germi, reinvented the Walker for an aging population. In addition to creating this recently patented product, they're also running the business
Filip Valica: and bringing the very first Motivo tour off the production line in September. She talks to us about her journey of problem identification, why updating a decades old, unchanged design was no easy task, and what it's like to bring a new,
Filip Valica: innovative product to the boomer market so stay tuned next week to hear that episode last week i asked to get your take on the types of guests that we have on the show and some of you responded
Filip Valica: back telling me to keep the direction stay focused on products and i'm glad to hear that because i personally love products myself and i feel that there's a void in the market for that so i'd like to follow up
Filip Valica: with a second question many people approach me and say i can't believe that you talk for 45 to 60 minutes about a physical product or that your guests are willing to interview for that long. I feel that a lot of the shows that are maybe under 30 minutes are too short and you don't have
Filip Valica: enough time to get into the meat and the detail. Do you prefer the format as it is and keep episodes 45 to 60 minutes long? Or would you prefer that they get chopped up into maybe smaller
Filip Valica: segments that get distributed throughout the week? Or do you just want to keep it as is and keep the format the same and listen to pieces of the show as time permits? please just shoot me a note, send me an email, and let me know how you feel about that
Filip Valica: because I definitely want to create content that works for you and your lifestyle. Thanks again for the support, everybody. I read all of your comments and questions and emails, and I definitely try to incorporate all of that into future shows. So I'll see you guys next week.
Filip Valica: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Product Startup Podcast with your host, Philip Belisa. For more great content and to stay up today, visit theproductstartup.com. Your guide to getting there. Thanks
Filip Valica: for tuning into this episode of the Product Startup Podcast, the show that teaches you what it really takes to bring your product to market and turn it into a big success.
Filip Valica: This podcast series is brought to you by Mako Design + Invent, the first firm in North America to provide global caliber end-to-end physical consumer product development to startups, inventors, and small product businesses.
Filip Valica: If you're looking for product development help on your invention, head over to Mako-design.com. That's M-A-K-O-design.com for a free consultation from one of Maca-Design for design four design studios from coast to coast. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
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