How free meal planning is changing food research

What started as a way to escape meal planning admin has turned into a powerful tool shaping the future of food.

Appetise is a free, recipe-rich meal planning and smart shopping platform loved by tens of thousands across New Zealand and Australia. Co-founders Toby and Elise Hilliam transformed an admin-killer into a two-sided business: empowering home cooks and providing FMCG brands with authentic, behavioural insights.

In this episode, we explore how Appetise launched for free, rebranded from MenuAid, and leveraged its growing user base—now over 90,000 households—to deliver billions of genuine data points a month to brands. We dig into the funding, the rebrand, the shift to Australia, building culture, and how their stock tracker and insights platform are changing how food companies understand and engage their shoppers. This is a story about mission-driven growth, innovation in food tech, and creating tools that serve both people and brands better.

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