A quick look through the entrepreneurial endeavours of Londoner Walker-Smith is fascinating reading, ranging from an ink cartridge venture set up while still at school to a cereal business that pre-dated the now well-known Cereal Killer Cafe.
Having gained an early interest in starting a business after observing his fathers company and being told by him that youll never make any money from taking someone elses coat off , Walker-Smith appears to never have been afraid to run with a hunch.
His new business is called Zoola Fix and allows users to book what are described as savvy and well-connected partygoers in different locations around the world. These partygoers, called Fixers, then provide the insight needed to enjoy an authentic and local night out based on users preferences. Like many businesses that have sought to piggyback on the wildly successful rental platform, Walker-Smith calls his venture Airbnb for nightlife.
Its a business which he says is close to his heart, and brings together all the experience gained though a decade of trying to get early ventures off the ground. Across a range of sectors, Walker-Smith has experienced the highs and lows associated with entrepreneurship.
An early attempt at business building saw him gain inspiration from British student Alex Tew, who created a web page with one million pixels and sold each of them off for $1 to buyers who would then be able to display a logo, image or advertisement. Walker-Smiths variation was an online advertising platform for musicians on MySpace.
Explaining his motivation, Walker-Smith commented: I was fascinated by Alex Tews idea, even more so because he was in the same course and same year [at university] as me when it started. I had a homepage with music genres and then little thumbnail photos that linked to profiles with one dollar per day to feature.
At this stage however, Walker-Smiths other passion, travelling, reared its head and he was persuaded by a friend to get a proper full-time job and raise some money for a big adventure. As luck would have it this overseas jaunt served as the inspiration for a business that would grow almost as fast as it collapsed.
His idea to bring fish pedicures back to the UK had its roots in a Cambodian night market. My eyes are always open to see what I can be inspired by, and when I get an idea I think will work I get very excited. With this one I was bouncing off the wall as I knew instantly it would be a hit.
While none of the other stalls in the market had more than a couple of people milling around them, the fish pedicure set-up had hundreds all fascinated by what was going on, he said.
Much to his travelling companions probable dismay, Walker-Smith spent most of his remaining travelling days plotting the business and eager to get home. But, having never so much as kept a goldfish, Smith had a fair bit of learning to do.
One of the biggest problems he faced upon returning to the UK stemmed from one of his biggest advantages, being a first mover. I had no blueprint, no money and no experience. As luck would have it I received an unexpected tax rebate of 2,000 which was perfect to start with.
I went to Ikea and bought plastic storage boxes to turn into tanks, as I couldnt afford proper ones, and purchased off-the-shelf filters. It then took quite a long time to find the right location [to set up] as I didnt have the cash for rent deposits or leases.
Having identified Camden Market in North London as a suitable site at 80 per week, he then drove to Holland and bought enough of the Garra Rufa doctor fish needed for a first stab. After only two weeks of being set up in Camden, Walker-Smith had taken up another unit nearby whereby a third followed a few months later.
Then came the sticking point. It was easy to open in Camden as I didnt need deposits so getting into shopping centres took a lot more time.
Through relentless harassing he managed to get Westfield interested in the unproven concept, all he needed then was a big rent deposit. Its clear that Walker-Smith is quite proud of the way he set about raising the funds for this first rent deposits, effectively calling it an early attempt at crowdfunding.
Using Groupon, which at that stage was a lot bigger and more prevalent, Walker-Smith managed to do a large, bulk advance sale. Groupon loved the concept so much, and the bits we had done with them had gone through the roof and fitted perfectly with what they were all about,” he explained.
They gave us really favourable terms and, instead of taking 50 per cent of sales, only took 20 per cent. So we did a deal with them and sold 6,000 vouchers in one day, which brought in about 54,000 worth of sales.
Having seen the success the Zoola Fish business had with Groupon, fellow voucher business LivingSocial wanted a slice of the action and helped Walker-Smith top up his coffers with an additional 15,000.
So, without needing to give away equity or enter into a loan agreement, Smith had his deposit money and proof for shopping centres that people would be coming through the door. With his first unit secure, Walker-Smith took the business concept to other shopping centres, high streets and even a concession in TopShop.
From that first exposure to fish pedicures in Cambodia, Walker-Smith had built a business with over ten locations that was funding itself though revenue and had great margins . However, it is at this stage in his journey that lady luck combined with a little bit of naivety to bring his venture crashing back down to earth.
Read on to find out how the business went under.
After being secretive and turning down an interested Daily Mail, which wanted to write a feature about the fish pedicure craze, it was ultimately a couple of newspaper articles that triggered the fall. A front page spread from The Sun declaring that the treatment brought with it an HIV risk saw next day revenues fall by 70 per cent and the slide from there wasnt much gentler.
“We thought it would just be a blip and people would get over it so carried on trading. But after three weeks revenues got even worse and it wasnt sustainable at all.
With a big site footprint, staff to pay and no money in the bank, the newspaper pieces were enough to clip the fledgling company’s wings.
Despite spending all of the money coming in on growing the business, Walker-Smith believes that no matter how much he had in reserve, the decision to call it a day would still have been necessary.
I did learn from that as the potential for downside was overlooked. To have all of our monthly revenues going out to pay wages and rent, starting each new month with nothing, was so reckless but I was incredibly keen to use it for expansion. All things considered, in the same situation it would be hard to hold back from fast expansion.
Not that Walker-Smith was deterred from starting out again, far from it in fact. Before Zoola Fish had gone under hed already been thinking about his next project, having got to the stage where the systems in place and staff count would have meant hed be able to take a little step back.
As already mentioned, his idea for a cereal cafe ended up a physical reality despite again having no money at his disposal. But again it was a lack of wanting to shout from the rooftop about this new company that saw it stall before even getting going.
Everything about it was wrong. I tried to make it modern, clean cut and fresh, rather than like the Cereal Killer Cafe guys now who have gone down the nostalgic, old school shabby chic vibe. Instantly I knew it wouldnt work so was in and out within a week, but as the set up costs were low it wasnt such a hit.
It was annoying having spent that much time working on it but I didnt take on the lessons from my last business starting without reserves and buck-up.
We now arrive at Walker-Smiths latest business, Zoola Fix. The venture has just launched and is a return to the online roots he cultivated through his buy a pixel business. While largely a service that pairs those wanting a good night out with people who can show them one, it will be his online platform that will be the success or downfall.
Much of his early effort, alongside a laborious website build, centred on finding enough Fixers to launch with. Finding it was akin to a chicken and egg situation, potential Fixers wouldnt buy into concept without a website and not being able to launch website without Fixers, Walker-Smith has a firm idea of the people he wants involved.
They have to be in situations in life where they arent working nine till five, creative types like models, students, artists or performers. Also someone who is open minded and keen to meet new people,” he explained.
London and New York are his cities of choice for launch, leveraging his knowledge of the English capital and network of friends and acquaintances in the Big Apple. The business will derive its revenues by taking a cut of the Fixer fees, which right now range from 70 for Walker-Smith himself to 220 for Londoner Jey .
Coming back to his comparison with Airbnb, Walker-Smith sees no reason why his venture can’t achieve a same kind of scale the American venture capital-backed company has.
In it’s first year Airbnb only turned over 5,000 an his now valued at 10bn. Even if in a years time Im not getting anywhere, that doesn’t mean it won’t go anywhere eventually.
They are big words for the 20-something year-old entrepreneur. But with some significant business building war wounds on show, who is to say he hasnt finally found an idea with potential and longevity.
