Andre Beurskens (34)
My reader Andre Beurskens asked me to visit the office and kitchen of his “expat-friendly” food delivery company Giraffy. For an hour or so, we talked about both business and Brno — I believe Andre’s opinions and tips can be useful to some of us.
Andre came to Brno from Holland as an employee of a foreign investor. He found out that it was hard to order a food that would fit into business meetings. “Pizza and burek are hard to eat in a suit,” he says. Having an experience with selling food at various events in his home country, he decided to start a similar business in the Czech republic — but focused on preparing tasty foods with people working in office on mind.
Owners of “startups” and even working companis face specific problems in the Czech republic. Standard parole agreements don’t work. “Everyone wants everything written down on a paper and certified by a stamp,” Andre complains.
Salads being prepared in the kitchen of Giraffy at Lidická st.
There was another interesting observation of Czech culture — women become more and more independent and they make still more orders. They are an important source of income, as it is hard to impress a stereotypical Czech male with pasta or salads.
Approx. one quarter of the customers are expats, thanks to menus in English and other factors.
Clever trick: make your brand look like a franchise
One thing was particulary interesting: Andre has invested above-average amount of money and time into the brand of Giraffy, so some customers think that they order they meals from an international franchise.
Ironically, Giraffy is maybe going to become a new franchise. “We showed our brochures to people working in Prague and they told us there was nothing like that in the capital city.” Expanding to other cities is one of the possible future plans.
A dinner for two
Andre’s “best of Brno”
Restaurants
For business occasions Rialto, for with friends rather Déjà vu on Srbska or Avia. Hacienda Mexicana is good for any occasion, they have the best steaks in town imo.
Leisure activities
With friends to the pub or to the cinema for a movie, or I go out with my dog (Timmy) in the nice surrounding nature around Brno (mainly the woods at the north of the city).
“Expat success stories” at Brno Now
If you have a business in Brno (not necessarily a successful one, it may be a startup) and you want to share a bit of your experiences with the readers of Brno Now, contact me.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice article, I checked the site, it looks great! I will definitely try it. Another tip for good a restaurant; there is a nice tapas-restaurant on Pionirska. I think the name is Espagnol.
I am a huge fan of these businessmen and companies in general. I often order meal deliveries (mostly pizza and pasta). However, almost none of them charge “transportation fees”, even if the value of the order (1 pizza) is, say, CZK 149 (destination, downtown). :))
Every delivery service charges transport fees, they only say it’s for free but in real it’s in the price of the pizza (they have often lower prices for the same products in their restaurants). So if you order 3 pizza’s you pay 3 times the transport fee. By the way, if you order for 300 CZK Giraffy also does not charge the fee.
Marco: AHA! I checked the menus in the restaurants from which I order pizzas — and you were right!! Stupid me… Really… I should have known…