The Alumni blog: Filipinofusion

Philippines in my dreams

When you have been working in the restaurant business you easily get inspired to want to start your own. You would like to be your own boss and take decisions. This is exactly what happened to me. I’m Nathalie Larsen, a Swedish girl that loves traveling and food. A lot of food and especially healthy food.

My boyfriend's mom is from the Philippines and she makes the best food. At her birthday last year we planned to go out and eat some Filipino-food but we didn't get that far since no such restaurant exists in Gothenburg. Gothenburg has got, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian and probably a lot more Asian restaurants. But still no Filipino restaurant. Then this idea crossed my mind, how about I start a Filipino restaurant with her?

I was bored and took an evening course of how to be an entrepreneur organised by Venture Cup. Back then I didn't even know what Venture Cup did and I just wanted my brain to get out of the coma it had been in for the last couple of years. For the final exam, they made us write a ten pages long business plan of how I would start my own company. This business plan was also connected to a competition that could potentially result in me winning money and of course I wanted to compete! When I sat down working on the essay/competition it became so clear to me that I had to start a Filipino food truck. It was perfect on so many levels and I started writing down stuff that's important to me and that became like a checklist that I continued with and still are following today.

After the course, I received an email from one of the employees at Venture Cup asking me how my business was going and If I had the possibility to make my first job at one of their events. I laughed of happiness but also because I had no truck at the moment. I called my sister and she told me to make it work. Of course, I wanted to do this event. Venture cup was so kind and went along on my terms and made my first catering event happen. Because of them, I got extra money to my truck which I now recently bought and at the moment I'm in the process of building a kitchen in this truck.

I did not expect this a year ago at al! Actually, all you need to succeed in life is someone who believes in you. That’s why I recommend and brag about Venture cup to everybody I meet and talk about my business with. They believe in you even when you don't believe in yourself!

Competing business idea and when: Filipino Food Truck, Spring 2016

Turnover: Just recently started

Team: Nathalie Larsen

City: Gothenburg

Web page: foodtruckfilipinofusion.se