Atomic 4 + Agencia Gourmet: A new society specialized in digital marketing for restaurants

CREC Connect provides many types of contacts between coworkers. With this, services have been exchanged between companies, joint projects have been promoted, recommendations for external people arise… And also great relations of friendship within the community. But there are collaborations that manage to fit all the pieces and go even further. For the community builders team, it is a pleasure to feel part of these successes. And very clear example is that of Atomic 4 and Agencia Gourmet.

These two companies that have partnered to work together and improve digital marketing strategies for restaurants. We have spoken with their respective founders, Sergi Sans and Jaume Roig, to learn more details of a collaboration with very ambitious expectations. It is one of the more than 700 connections that, today, have been generated thanks to CREC Connect since 2018 (on our website you can see the map with all the connections between coworkers).

 

Video and pictures of Vera García

 

How did you get to this point?

 

Sergi Sans: In Atomic 4 we had the opportunity to work with an important client, LaBarra group, which has restaurants in Barcelona and Sant Cugat. We saw that there was potential to make a 360 project, not just web, Google Adwords and SEO, which was the initial idea. Thus we could incorporate social networks, connect different tools, provide free Wi-Fi in exchange for obtaining customer data, and many other possibilities. At this point we thinked: “Hey, Jaume, what do you think if we face this project together?“. The collaboration was so good that we wanted to attract new restoration partners… And even become partners.

 

“Atomic 4 manages well marketing strategies, but Agencia Gourmet knows how to manage a restaurant”

 

How do you think this society can be an inflection point for your companies?

 

S: From Jaume, I would highlight his ability to understand a hospitality project from the perspective of the owner/manager. We dominate all the technological, technical and innovation aspects, but we need to have lived this world from inside. We don’t know what it is to have a restaurant. That is why Jaume is the person in the company who best knows our customers. Atomic 4 can master marketing strategies, but he knows people well. And in the end, this is key since we work with people: a chef, an owner or someone who goes on the adventure of managing a restaurant.

Jaume Roig: The truth is that Sergi’s main value is his commercial skills. That makes us complement each other very well. He has a lot of technical knowledge and a lot of ability to connect with people. He also has experience in entrepreneurship and startups, which is an advantage when you have to anticipate to different situations. All the Atomic 4 team are great colleagues and they first went from coworkers to friends before becoming our partners.

 

How do you think this society can be an inflection point for your companies?

 

S: We would have created a service line focused on hospitality but we would not have enhanced or expanded it. It would have no life or form, which would have been a shame. Basically because there are about 9,000 restaurants in Barcelona, between 10% and 15% of them are sold and approximately 10% fail every year. This means that every year there are about 1800 new restaurants, which means 1,800 potential websites, social networks, etc. It is a lot of market for the little amount specialized competitors. There are many general digital marketing agencies, but just a few which are exclusively focused on restaurants. So we saw it very clearly: We had to start walking together.

J: When it comes to work, our partnership implies a cultural change. We were used to work independently and having a new partner makes us be even more professional. At Agencia Gourmet, both founders Carles Cuéllar and I, we have a very clear business idea and with the partnership we have made it grow and dynamized it to offer more value to the clients.

 

 

“The starting point must be the consolidation and expansion. But once this is achieved, we would like to open an office in Madrid soon”

 

What are your perspectives for the future?

 

S: The most immediate one is to consolidate the company. From this point, we will set new goals: Financing ourselves and continue to grow, profitability, number of clients… Now we estimate about 3 to 6 months to see who we are and what we can achieve with the initial capital. After this, many challenges will come in later stages.

J: As Sergi says, the starting point must be the consolidation and expansion. But once this is achieved, we would like to open an office in Madrid before next summer. 

 

How have your companies developed since the moment you arrived to CREC Coworking?

 

S: We entered CREC a couple of years ago. First we were two people and now we are ten. You can see that there has been great growth. But apart from that, being in a coworking has allowed us to make a lot of contacts and collaborations, including this one with Agencia Gourmet, and consolidate many projects. Therefore, we consider our stay here very positively, since without the community builders team we would not have met Jaume and our company would not have emerged.

J: The truth is that, in line with Sergi, everything is very positive. In the time that I have been at CREC, I have also gone from being self-employed to a proper company, which is a process that suggests a promising future and projects an image of evolution in our clients and suppliers. So being in a coworking space has allowed me to take many steps forward and face new challenges with energy.

 

How important do you think the connections you’ve done at CREC are?

 

S: I think that with CREC Connect we have met many of our suppliers, customers and even staff. We have hired workers who were not comfortable in other projects based in CREC, we have got more than four different clients every year, a very reasonable number to be a physical business center, and we have become partners with Jaume. So in this sense, we are very happy and we hope to continue with this volume of connections for a long time.

J: At Agencia Gourmet, have a very good opinion on connections with people in CREC and external suppliers. The main one is Social WiBox, which offers free internet connection to restaurants’ customers. We also work with an online bookings supplier and a TPV and command services one, ASA Barcelona. Connecting with freelancers and companies at CREC is always a great opportunity.

S: I’d also highlight partners like Guzzo, which are our main investor. They bring value with unique experiences and intangibles and they have a vast knowledge on the sector.

 

 

Is there any anecdote you are allowed to explain?

 

S: The first lead we visited was a very humble Korean bar, to say it in an elegant way, which wanted to work on its marketing. The thing is they had a vision of our services which was not really aligned with ours.

J: Basically, they asked us if we could make fake reviews. We told him we work on strategies that generate good reviews in Google and other platforms, but he was not interested in that. Faking experiences is not so strange in our sector, but it’s not the path Agencia Gourmet and Atomic 4 want to take.