Startup interview: Sam Ulph, Founder and CEO, Starstock

RTIH: Tell us about StarStock

SU: StarStock is an e-commerce and marketplace business, built to disrupt the food and drinks industry. We’ve built a number of platforms and continually look for inefficiencies across the food and drink supply chain where there is an opportunity to deliver value to our customers. 

Most recently, in direct response to lockdown, we launched a new platform mypubshop, enabling pubs to transform into a Click and Collect store which has proved invaluable to pubs looking to support their communities. 

We have also partnered with Asda to power their recent food box initiative to help vulnerable and shielded customers receive food and essential items. 

RTIH: What was the inspiration behind setting the company up?

SU: I’ve been inspired by a number of e-commerce platforms out there, particularly those leading from the front in terms of innovation. Moneysupermarket and AO.com have definitely been two leading platforms I’ve admired in terms of their innovation and agility, aspects we look to implement at StarStock. 

When starting the business, I felt there was an opportunity to provide the drinks and hospitality industry with more value through the utilisation of tech and online solutions that were already being effectively used in other sectors. 

Many of the processes that were being used historically lead to inefficiencies and often a lack of price transparency. With StarStock I wanted to liberate the industry from these processes and provide real future value. 

RTIH: What has been the industry reaction thus far?

SU: A bit like what Mahatma Ghandi said: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”. I’m not sure we’ve won just yet, but we’re definitely on the right track. During the first few years, we had to try really hard to just get through the door. 

However, slowly but surely, we have managed to get more people to understand how our tech solutions can resolve the inefficiencies in their own business and as seen by our list of clients, that message has got through. 

“Moneysupermarket and AO.com have definitely been two leading platforms I’ve admired in terms of their innovation and agility, aspects we look to implement at StarStock”

RTIH: What has been your biggest challenge/setback?

SU: It took us a while to get through the door and get in front of the right people and so being able to show our value to the industry was a really big challenge for us. 

We are an enthusiastic business with a dynamic and agile nature, which means we can turn projects around within seven to ten days – something that we have successfully proven with the mypubshop launch for example. 

Not all businesses are able to run at the same pace so learning to slow down and bring businesses on a journey with us is also a key challenge. However, we endeavour to increase that pace to support the industry in remaining competitive and aligned with growing trends towards e-commerce. 

RTIH: What are the biggest challenges facing the omnichannel retail sector right now? 

SU: I think the whole sector is grappling with how to manage with the uncertainty of the market. Things are changing so quickly and almost on a daily basis, so it makes it very difficult to make any concrete plans for the future. 

As we progress through this pandemic, we are looking forward to understanding more clearly what the market will look like in six to twelve months’ time. In the meantime, however, as the sector finds itself in this reactive state, for businesses like ours, who pride themselves on their agility and dynamism, it does provide opportunities to accelerate innovation.

RTIH: What's the best question about your company or the market asked of you recently by a.) an investor and b.) a customer?

SU: We often get asked ‘Are you wholesalers?’ which highlights some of the misconceptions around the StarStock model that we faced at the start of our journey. We don’t get that question so often, which is fantastic and demonstrates that the industry now understands our proposition more clearly. 

We create platforms that enable our clients to control and supply direct to customers with true price transparency – something we pride ourselves on. 

RTIH: What can we expect to see from StarStock over the next 12 months?

SU: We have now built a fantastic client base and there are currently a number of discussions happening as we try to understand what the pandemic has done to each business and what platform we can create for them to deliver the best value. 

We are in the planning stages to launch our own B2B platform to the on-trade and we are also in the final stages of releasing a SaaS platform for one of the UK’s largest pubcos.