Startup Case Study: SpareMeal

There is a fundamental flaw in how well-meaning people make food available to those struggling to make ends meet, according to Magda Wolna. With help from EnSpire Oxford, the University of Oxford’s enterprise hub, she is devising an app to offer the missing attributes of dignity and choice for those receiving donated food.

Having grown up in Poland in what she describes as poverty, the former Researcher from the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford, believes these are the two biggest stumbling blocks in accessing help. People can feel stripped of their dignity when they receive surplus food or visit a food bank, she contends, and there is also the issue of choice. Food passed on to those in need tends to come from unwanted stock. It may, or may not be what the recipient would like, and it may or may not be healthy and nutritious, it is down to chance.

With the help of EnSpire, and other University of Oxford entrepreneurship initiatives, Magda has devised SpareMeal. The app is in the early stages of development but will allow donors to pay for healthy meals for people in need which are, crucially, chosen by the recipient and prepared professionally by a restaurant or café.

Inspiration from I2I

The roots of her journey from researcher to entrepreneur started through a chat at work with a colleague who was interested in the I2I (Ideas 2 Impact) project run by the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre. It immerses scientists in the world of business, offering lectures and mentorship as well as, crucially for Magda, access to helpful advice from MBA students. Magda and her colleague signed up for the three-month programme, in the last quarter of 2023. She looks back on that time as a period when she changed her outlook on how she could direct her determination to work for a better world.

“The I2I programme was a real eye-opener into how innovative businesses can have a positive impact on the real world outside the lab,” she says.

“As a scientist I wanted to make a difference and help with the battle against cancer, but you rarely get a chance to interact with anyone outside the laboratory. So, to walk in and listen to the expert lecturers and mix with MBA students as you chat about different business models and how to approach markets, it was just so inspirational.”

Focus from Oxford Venture Builder

It was those three months at the I2I programme that convinced Magda she should think beyond the lab and use her experience of growing up in a low-income household to innovate a way to impact the lives of those who need help the most. A kernel of an idea was forming, and it started to take shape properly at the Oxford Venture Builder from April to June 2024. The three-month programme is run by the Oxford Saïd Entrepreneurship Centre in partnership with EnSpire. It is designed to help turn ideas into start-ups by helping staff and students concentrate on asking those ‘how’ questions that need to be answered before business can be launched.

“The Oxford Venture Builder was a pivotal moment in my journey, it’s where I turned an idea that was in my head into SpareMeal. The programme helped me validate my concept as well as learn to understand customers and build a business model around them. It was so useful to go through the stages of product development, marketing validation and how to launch a startup. The mentorship from experienced industry experts was invaluable in helping me to refine my vision around the product, how I could build a team and secure early-stage funding.”

After the programme, Magda had devised a better idea of what SpareMeal should be. The missing component was explaining her vision to people she had never met before. The opportunity soon came with the #StartedinOxford Showcase (formerly known as Demo Night) where founders staff stalls, explaining their new ideas. Attendees are handed £1000 in replica notes and can ‘invest’ the ‘money’ to projects they think deserve investment. Three winners take away £1,000 in real prize money. Although Magda did not win the most virtual funds on the evening, she attracted a lot of interest and support. She came away buoyed by the warm reception to her new approach to combating hunger.

Business plan at the incubator

That momentum took her to the Oxford University Innovation (OUI) Startup Incubator during the final quarter of 2024. She already had an outline business plan for SpareMeal, but it was during the three-month incubation programme that she finessed it into a structured business model. Magda explains the mentoring and regular pitching experience, with live feedback, was invaluable. So too was the way the startup founders helped to inspire one another.  

“The programme offered valuable advice and hands-on experience, but what made this part of my journey even more impactful was the peer-to-peer learning, watching fellow entrepreneurs grow alongside me,” she says. “The incubator perfectly complemented the Oxford Venture Builder (OVB), reinforcing key lessons while helping me take concrete steps toward developing SpareMeal further.”

In fact, the incubator helped so much, Magda took the huge decision to focus entirely on the new app. Her medical research contract was up for renewal in early  November 2024, almost exactly at the same time as she left the incubator programme. She saw this as a sign she should go full-time on SpareMeal.

From plan to app

This has freed her to focus on gaining early-stage funding to commission the app and build a team to deliver what she believes is the ultimate virtuous circle. Donors benefit from knowing they have done the decent thing and treated someone in need to a meal. Recipients get to order a healthy meal of their choice, rather than accept whatever is available at a food bank. They also have the dignity of picking up the meal like any other takeaway customer by simply showing their smartphone. Restaurants benefit from extra customers. 

“SpareMeal is the only model I know where everyone gets to benefit fully, and when everyone sees a benefit, the virtuous circle can keep going round,” Magda sums up.

It has been a huge journey from working in a research laboratory to becoming a startup founder. She now sees the three, three-month programmes she embarked on as pushing her along the path until, in her words, “entrepreneurship wasn’t just an idea, it became my reality”.  

Now fully focused on the startup, she is already imagining the next stage of SpareMeal. After launch, the ultimate ambition is to not only serve takeaways at restaurants but to develop a delivery service. This would make the concept available to those who cannot afford public transport or are living with restricted mobility.