Full name: Jean-Michel Petit
Role: Co-Founder and CEO
DOB: 1962
Birthplace: Tunis (Tunisia)
Website: www.vizeat.com
Let’s start at the beginning then! You started back in 2014, but the origins of VizEat lay in your time at Lake Titicaca. Could you tell us a little about the years/decades leading up to VizEat and how you got to today? Were you always a foodie?
I was born in a Mediterranean country, with a very strong culture of food and exchange. People can spend an afternoon around a lunch table! I have to confess that food has always been – since my childhood – one of my passions, and that meeting new people, discovering their culture was something that my family valued a lot. I was educated at an international school in Tunisia, with pupils from 30 different countries.
I came to France when I was 17, discovered a new life (and the fact that winters could be pretty cold!) and new food. Worked in tech in France, UK, US then a VC for 14 years with activities in Western Europe, Russia, US, Israel. And one thing I’m sure is that, in every culture, bonds and friendships are often built around a table and a good glass of wine. And it’s much stronger when you get the opportunity to share a meal at somebody’s home.
Where did you meet your cofounder Camille anyway? Your background is in VC, right? What do you do at/bring to the company?
We’re cousins but before VizEat, we had probably met only 10 times as we were living in different countries. I’m more focused on strategy, bizdev and marketing. Camille is focused on the community and the user experience…
You’re doing pretty well in Europe right now. Have you found much variation in how different countries take to VizEat? I heard that a lot of restauranteurs in France didn’t like the idea of what you call ‘social dining’ and what they call ‘underground restaurants’. How has the UK been for you so far?
Food is at the same time universal and very much linked to local culture. For example, English, French and Spanish don’t have the same notion of what’s the right time to have dinner -:). We’ve run polls on representative samples and discovered that the interest for VizEat-style events is always above 50% – the world champion being the Chinese independent travellers with 86% saying that they’d love to share a meal with locals !
Regarding restaurants, we believe that this is unfounded. Our members are not looking to find an alternative to restaurants but want to live a different social and culinary experience. By the way, one of the favourite questions of guest to hosts is “which good local restaurants could your recommend us ?”
VizEat is facilitating a growing demand of authenticity and exchange.
Tourists who join a VizEat experience continue to go to restaurants during their stay ! and locals, too. And our hosts are foodies who receive at their home from time to time, certainly not restaurateurs !
What are the best and worst meals you have each experienced – ever?
Best meal ever : a fish “celebration” at a local home in Greece
Worst meal : a tourist trap restaurant in Rome
What’s a ‘day in your life’ like? Could you give us an insight into the world of VizEat?
The most important thing is to manage priorities. There are so many opportunities that we have to make choices. Another important part of life at VizEat is… food. We eat a lot of good food at the office 🙂
What’s your greatest/most memorable professional moment been, so far?
The world’s largest social dining event with more than 1000 Airbnb hosts from 90 countries having diner in 200 VizEat parisian hosts homes
Where do you get your ideas?
Listening our hosts a lot and benchmarking other sectors
What’s your philosophy, summed up in a sentence?
Follow your instinct (and also a lot of data…) ; If nobody thought about it before, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done; If others failed before , study their execution
Who’s the person who’s most inspired you in your work – food industry or otherwise? Is there anyone that you draw inspiration or strength from? Do you have any specific culinary influences?
My biggest culinary influence is my mother -:))
What do you enjoy most and least about what you do?
People, people, people…. and extraordinary food experiences. Everyday, we are in contact with extraordinary people around the globe : our hosts. A lot of them have incredible backgrounds and a love of sharing.
The least: days are too short.
What advice would you give to aspiring food entrepreneurs who’d want the kind of results that you’ve had?
We are not only food entrepreneurs. VizEat is as much about food than travel and social exchange. First you have to do it yourself. What I mean is that, in our case, we were the first hosts, we tried to understand the “secret recipe”, the DNA of these events. The second advice is to go below the radar screen, be extremely cost conscious and understand clearly your value proposition.
Third : speak with bloggers, make them test : they are often much more influential than the “classical” press.
If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you be doing instead?
Since I had the idea for VizEat, I can’t see myself doing anything else. Seriously. If had to do something else, it would probably around social exchange networks, as I believe that the next wave of the Internet will be focused on the “offline” world.
If you could get anyone to try VizEat (fictional or real, living or dead) who would you pick and which of your hosts’ (and your hosts’ food…) would you like them to try? Assume that they go on to be your brand ambassador…
Marco Polo and Ernest Hemingway ! Ernest would dine with all our hosts in Paris and Marco would VizEat all our hosts in the Middle East and Asia.
What’s your ultimate aim and goal for VizEat? If you could achieve anything with it, what would you pick? Money and reality are no obstacle, so shoot for the moon…
Social dining or meal sharing will become a must-do experience for travellers and locals. It’s going to be a worldwide movement. And we hope that VizEat will be the network facilitating this exciting experience !
Where next for you and the business?
…we still have to convince 7.4b inhabitants of our planet to do meal sharing
And we always ask three customary ridiculous questions…
If you were forced to live on one kind of alcohol for the rest of your life (assume that your metabolism becomes specifically adapted to use this as your sole source of calories, so you had to drink this to survive) – which would you pick, and why?
Boukha. This is a Tunisian distilled beverage produced from figs.
If you had to employ any member of the Justice League of America to come and work with you guys at VizEat, who would you pick, and why?
Difficult. I don’t remember any super-heroes eating or sharing a meal. Maybe Atom Smasher because he could create some great new molecular cuisine 🙂
If you were given an infinite budget but had to spend it all on entirely frivolous stuff, what are the first 3 things you’d buy, and why?
1. The Garden of Delights by Hyeronimus Bosch…but I’ve heard that it’s not for sale
2. A seat at an Asterix Banquet (the one at the end of each story)
3. A full year of food from Mars (when we’ll have managed to produce something there)