Variety is the spice of life for Dutch foodie Freddie Janssen who will launch her new venture in London this summer.
Freddie, 36, is launching Snackbar London: a vibrant neighbourhood cafe with global-inspired breakfast-lunch-brunch fare and co-working space, based within an urban farm.
Freddie has extensive experience in the industry, working in marketing at Lyle’s and running pop-ups across London, picking up awards for Best Street Food at the Young British Foodie Awards and Best in Taste at Taste of London. She’s also famed for her love of pickling and has authored a book on the subject.
Snackbar has previously held residencies across London but now will have a permanent home in Dalston, East London, after partnering with the world’s first urban farming hub, FARM:shop.
It’ll feature multiple mini-farm installations and grow its own vegetables, herbs and mushrooms in a bid to encourage more people to grow their own food.
Snackbar has come to fruition after successful funding was received, partly from a Start Up Loan from Virgin StartUp.
Freddie said: “Launching Snackbar, I’ve looked at a couple of different avenues for funding. I’ve done a Kickstarter campaign and got a loan from Virgin StartUp. The loan was definitely needed – it’s helped massively with my cashflow.
“It was the first time I’ve crowdfunded as well. We were successful in hitting our target of £20,000 but until the day before I launched the campaign, I was only going to look for £12,000. When it got to around £10,000 it started to stagnate and that was probably the most stressful two weeks of my life.”
Freddie believes her entrepreneurial spirit comes naturally to her. “I’ve always wanted to do my own thing,” she added. “Some people say that to be really successful at something you have to master that one thing. But I think I’d get bored. I like to keep busy and have some variety in my life. I want to build something that brings the community together.”
Freddie has welcomed Virgin StartUp’s pledge to hit 50/50 gender investment equality and felt proud of the work being done to promote equality, particularly in the hospitality sector.
She said: “I think it’s a great thing to do. There’s been a lot of attention on this recently. I think people are very aware that it’s been a bit of a boy’s club over the years so the more people can be vocal about it the better.
“There are a lot of good initiatives around promoting women in the industry, including the Ladies of Restaurants club.”
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