Interview: Leyth Hampshire

Leyth Hampshire, 20, is an Entrepreneurship student at the University of the West of England who is the co founder of Pelico, which is a fresh, healthy meal delivery service. We caught up with him to ask him how he balanced university work and running a business.

Give us a bit more detail on what Pelico does?

We are the new-age lifeline for the busy person.

We control the full stack, which means we look after the ordering platform, the cooking team and the delivery fleet. Our mission is to provide, delicious hot meals in under 30 minutes, at the tap of a button.

What gave you the idea to set up Pelico?

Spending late nights in the office and library, and realising the lack of convenient and affordable food that was accessible. We realised a huge need in the young professional market for great food delivered at an everyday price.

Do you want to carry on the business on after graduation?

100% - We are looking to go full time in the business after graduation, after raising our first round of funding. We are striving to build a business that supports us for many years to come.

Where do you see Pelico in 5 years time?

In 5 years, the vision is to have a minimum of 10 hubs across 3 cities delivering up to 5000 meals a day collectively. The future of fast food delivery. Healthy, affordable and convenient.

Did you have any concerns when setting up the business?

Starting a business is full of uncertainty! Being our first ever venture there was a lot of unknown and we have had to learn a lot along the way. It has been a journey of self discovery along with business development and skill acquisition.

How did you overcome these concerns?

Endlessly educating ourselves about the market, strategies, techniques and literature has greatly improved our abilities to run a company. This spans from team development, to marketing skills to operational understanding and self-development.

How have you balanced running a business and university work?

The balance has been hard, yet being on an Entrepreneurship course has been of huge help to us. We have had some help in getting tools and advice to develop the company which has been great. The social life isn’t great, but the dream and the vision is what pushes you through those hard times.

What has been the best bit about running a business at university?

Being able to get ahead of the game of Life. Knowing that if we work strategically, hard and are continuously persistent we will be able to support ourselves after the university and the future is limitless. Of course, it is a lot of fun as well!

What advice would you give to those university students who are thinking about setting up their own business?

Find your passion, work on something you love, find people on the same mission. Never give up and be persistent! It’s a marathon not a race, learn to love the process.

Three sentences of wisdom about being an entrepreneur at University?

Balance is the key.

Let go of what holds you down.

Being persistently persistence is the key to success.

Thank you Leyth for letting us interview you and we would like to wish you all the success with Pelico in the future.

If you want to check Pelico out, click here.

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