Hey, starter! Read on for…

—Danny (say hi via email, LinkedIn or IG)

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1. Like home. I wish I lived in Cedar, Michigan so I could spend all my waking hours at Green Door Folk School. 🚪

2. Brick by brick. Tomorrow, Australian menswear brand Mutimer is swinging open the doors to its first ever shop, in Melbourne. 26 year-old founder Jasper Mutimer started the brand in his bedroom as a creative hobby back in 2020, before going all-in on the biz after graduating with a degree in finance a year later. He calls the shop the ‘natural evolution’ of the brand’s journey – and also ‘the biggest risk’ he’s ever taken. Best of luck, Jasper. 👏

3. The perfect bite. And when London couple Ziad Halub and Farsin Rabiee started inviting friends over for Iranian-Iraqi dinners at their flat in Hackney, word spread fast. Sort of too fast. Friends-of-friends started asking to come. An informal waitlist formed around their 8-seat table. Soon enough, the dinners became a roaming supper club across east London. Then one day, walking home, they noticed an empty shopfront just down the road from where they lived. They popped in to have a look, half-joking – and signed a lease.

Now it’s Logma, a tiny bistro that’s already become one of the buzziest spots in London, thanks largely to an aubergine and kofta sandwich that went viral on IG. The ironic bit is that the sandwich was a total accident – they opened before they had any plates, so a sandwich was all they could serve. It stuck. → Check out this lovely profile of Ziad and Farsin in Service95 😋

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Amsterdam-based starter Bunmi Okolosi knows how to create a hospitality experience people talk about.

The former director of F&B for Ennismore in Amsterdam (i.e. The Hoxton hotels), Bunmi now co-owns a Scandinavian-Indonesian cafe called Kafé Kontrast and, with up-and-coming chef Nicolas Aquaa, is building (and crowdfunding for) a permanent home for their popup, The Jollof Club.

→ Below, Bunmi explains why a brick and mortar beats a popup and why The Jollof Club will be a playground for Nicolas to experiment, hone his craft, and get to ever greater heights…

💬 Hey Bunmi, how’d The Jollof Club start? And where did you meet Nicolas?

I met Nicolas three years ago when he did his first popup in Amsterdam. A lot of people in the creative and black community here know I’m the go-to guy for Horeca, i.e. the hotel, restaurant and cafe sector. They told me there’s a young Nigerian-Ghanaian guy doing fine dining Nigerian food here in Amsterdam. I was like no f’ing way. That’s because before I moved to the Netherlands I was in talks with an investor to start a Nigerian restaurant group in the UK, but I didn’t think London was ready. Then Ikoyi [now a two Michelin star restaurant] came out of nowhere!

💬 And now Nigerian food is booming here in London!

Yeah, London’s booming. Ikoyi was very much a pioneer. We also love Akoko and Akara. But back then, I didn’t feel bold enough to open a Nigerian place. And so, three years ago, when I heard about this guy Nick, I thought, hmm… 

💬 What happened next?

I reached out and gave him opportunities in my place Kafé Kontrast, where he did a takeover and a popup. Then, while I was F&B director for Ennismore in Amsterdam, we started The Jollof Club as a summer popup in the private dining room. It was a rip-roaring success.

The following year I said, “Why don't we just let the Jollof Club take over the restaurant?” No one quite believed in it at the time, but we did. We ended up taking over all the evening services. And again, it was a massive success. After that summer, we did a residency and generated around €100K turnover in six weeks. 

Based on that initial performance of The Jollof Club, I resigned from Ennismore to go all-in!

💬 Incredible, congrats.

Thanks. We’re currently in the last week of another popup, before we reappear at another location in April where we’ll do a fine dining take – the chefs will deliver the food to the tables, four or six courses, really letting Nick show that side of his potential. He has ambitions to be a Michelin star chef, one of the 50 best chefs in the world. I want to nurture that ambition at our new restaurant. I want The Jollof Club to be his playground, where he hones his craft.

💬 Why’s it so important to have a physical home for The Jollof Club? Why not keep doing popups and residencies? 

As Nick says, “Bunmi, you don’t know what it’s like on the road.” He says it’s like being a roadman, that London term – you go from one spot to another. “You’ve only done it four times,” he says. “I’ve done it twenty-five.” The stress, the unpredictable environments, all the stuff you try your best to but ultimately can’t – it requires you to always go 150%. And so having a permanent space gives peace of mind that you can consistently hit the level required. 

If you want to be good, you need to be consistent. If you want to have a great guest experience, you need to be consistent. If you want to have a great staff experience, you need to be consistent. Being consistent means controlling all of the mechanics that you can control. And in a popup there’s only so much you can control. 

💬 Bring us up to speed with the area you’re moving into and the space.

In April 2025, we did a popup in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, which is like London’s Brixton or Peckham neighbourhoods. The area is changing – there’s lots of regeneration and the community is a bit skeptical, but it’s also underserved. Since I come from a hospitality background, I know that restaurants, bakeries, shops and the young entrepreneurs behind them can be the catalyst for change. 

So that’s part of our aim with the Jollof Club – to be a part of the community. I purchased a flat just four minutes away from our new site. I’ve lived in Amsterdam for 11 years now, and I wanted to open a business in the area where I live.

We’ve signed a lease with a landlord. Since we’re a startup, the biggest journey we’re having is, even with a track record like mine, working for big multinationals, smaller respected companies, developing concept, executing business models, having relationships with banks – no one wants to give us any money.

💬 Why’s that? Why are people hesitant to invest?

In the Netherlands, Horeca is sort of a big red flag. It’s been that way before Covid, but Covid put it into hyper drive. And it’s not that the industry has collapsed, because it hasn’t – it’s slowly but surely recovering and getting better. But for banks, it’s still hard to get investment if you’re in Horeca. So everyone does it alternatively. 

We went to two of the bigger banks that do invest in Horeca. They loved our idea and said, “Come back when you’re a year old.” Then we went to the country's leading microfinancer, and they said we were asking for too much money for microfinancing, so that door closed. 

After that, we started our crowdfund campaign. We always wanted to do some form of crowdfunding, primarily to mobilize the community. But now it’s become even more important than we anticipated.

💬 What’s keeping you up at night with the business?

Not that much keeps me up. My mind works slightly differently. But there are so many hurdles we have to overcome. For instance, when I started talking to contractors about the restaurant fit-out, I got quotes ranging from €120,000 to €600,000. I must have had 35 site visits with 35 different contractors. Every single one gave me a completely different price. So I’ve decided to be the contractor myself, so I can save money!

💬 I’ve seen many episodes of Grand Designs where that happens…

100%! I’m lucky that I’ve got an incredible missus who is f’ing amazing when it comes to hustling and looking for solutions. What she did with our apartment was amazing. It’s all been a very hands-on process! 

💬 Who do you want to be connected to? Shoot your shot.

Definitely Chef Kwame in the US – the African-American superstar chef of the moment. He gives a platform to young chefs and there are lots of arms to his business. I’m inspired by him as a business owner, because I also want to build a portfolio like that, such as a catering arm.

💬 What are you most excited about right now?

I’m excited about being a part of the development of Amsterdam-Zuidoost, where we can showcase to younger people that Horeca isn’t what everyone says it is. It shouldn’t have a bad reputation. In the UK, we had that conversation 25 years ago. But I don’t think we’ve had that same conversation here in the Netherlands. For the younger black generation here in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, Nick is a bit of a poster boy in that community. It’s important to show that you can really go places in this industry. It can take you all over the world. ☼

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Design duos & collectives 🎨 → Madison Utendahl on how the current creative agency model is dead, and what might replace it: “Independent contractors collaborating and sticking together, pitching as one but entirely financially independent and not reliant on each other”

Made-by-humans marketing 💁 → Elsewhere, marketing made by real people might become a luxury item.

Tacit knowledge 🧠 → Related: In the AI era, knowledge that can't be written down becomes more valuable and your entire competitive advantage.

The 4-day work week 🤔 → Whatever happened to that idea?

Fragrance mood boards 🐽 → “Perfume obsessives are making online fragrance mood boards for everything from ‘having a fight with your parents’ to ‘looking at old photos’. It’s both nostalgic and comforting.”

Boomerang restaurants 🧑‍🌾 → “Fed up with hostile regulations and slim profit margins, chefs from New York, Chicago, and the like are trading big-city burnout for life in smaller towns around the country.”

Tools for travellers with disabilities 🛠️ → A giant market gap.

Alternatively influential 👋 → “Talent agents are seeking out the internet’s erudite elite, promising marketers access to niche and engaged audiences far from the blast of social media.”

Sustainable diapers ♻️ → Diapers are notoriously slow to degrade. Compostable alternatives are starting to get traction.

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The Ecommerce Playbook — Day job alert… in my 9-5 as editorial lead at Mailchimp, I headed up the creation of this giant, free guide to ecommerce, featuring tactics from 22 experts. Enjoy!

The Tenth Muse – A searchable art discovery engine featuring 120,000 artworks.

ReCon — For all you starters in NYC, next week (2-3 April) is the world’s (?!) first resale conference.

What technology takes from us – and how to take it back. Rebecca Solnit / Guardian

How did you make money after your layoff? Laid Off

In search of a sewing machine. Locavore Guide

Her daughter’s health scare sparked a journey that led her to reinvent instant noodles. CNA

The Guy Who Made a Career Out of Negotiating Car Prices. WSJ

Do not launch a new short-form unscripted vertical video show. Another New Thing

New York’s Barkhouse unveils premium pooch-themed identity. Creative Review (Congrats to For Starters subscriber Ryan Crown, whose biz Crown Creative was behind this work)

Why Tech Bros Are Now Obsessed with Taste. Kyle Chayka / New Yorker

Japan’s “Dr Stretch”, who turned a simple wellness idea into an international franchise. Monocle

This Cancer Researcher Home-Brewed a Beer That Works as a Vaccine. Reason

A guide to the fringe internet for marketers, brand owners and creatives. Oren John

3D printed power user – Align, the $12 billion company that makes Invisalign, a piece of clear plastic to align your teeth, is, incredibly, the world’s biggest user of 3D printers.

A list of chain restaurants whose names contain unusual structures.

French company Woodid, which immortalizes your runs on a wooden trophy.

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For Starters subscriber Jack Stanley co-founded the food-focused print mag SLOP with fellow editor Nicolas Payne-Baader.

Last night I caught up with them at a launch event for their 10th issue. A real milestone. I asked Jack to share some words of wisdom from the first 10 issues. Here it is…

We’ve learnt a lot over those 10 issues, and we’ve also made a lot of it up as we went along. I think that’s been the key. We’ve found solutions and processes that work for us, not for the people who gave us advice.

Whenever a new issue arrives from the printer, we’re still hit by the same feeling as when the first ever copy of SLOP was delivered. Working in print is such a rewarding and gratifying – and difficult! – experience. Picking up a magazine that we’ve poured our feelings and ideas into is always special.

There are 4 pieces of advice we can give after 10 issues:

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