Barry Leaper's journey from equity capital markets to food safety technology is a masterclass in recognising when your side project is actually your main business. LiberEat's evolution from consumer app to enterprise safety platform reveals how the best startups often emerge not from perfect planning, but from staying close enough to the problem to spot the real opportunity.
The Pivot That Changes Everything
LiberEat started as a consumer app for food allergies. But as the team dug deeper into the allergen data powering their app, they discovered the data was fundamentally unreliable. Rather than fix bad data for consumers, they recognised that their core technology for detecting undeclared allergens was solving a much bigger problem.
This wasn't just about pivoting from B2C to B2B - it was about moving from a crowded consumer market to addressing a critical safety gap that major food businesses desperately needed to fill. They chose to follow the impact rather than the original vision, transforming from another food app into a company preventing thousands of potentially harmful allergen incidents.
Market Validation Through Real Impact
While many startups struggle to prove product-market fit through surveys, LiberEat's validation came in concrete form: preventing actual harm. The thousands of undeclared allergen errors their system has caught represent proof that major enterprises couldn't ignore.
Papa John's, US supermarket chains, and airlines began reaching out not because of clever marketing, but because LiberEat could demonstrate measurable value in preventing both consumer harm and costly recalls. Instead of trying to convince customers they have a problem, LiberEat found customers who already knew they had a problem and could quantify the cost of not solving it.
"Papa John's, US supermarket chains, and airlines began reaching out not because of clever marketing, but because LiberEat could demonstrate measurable value in preventing both consumer harm and costly recalls."
Enterprise Sales as Endurance Sport
LiberEat's approach reveals truths many B2B startups learn the hard way. Success came through what Barry describes as "perseverance in reaching out to potential clients" combined with leveraging word-of-mouth referrals. Their strategy centered on treating every conversation as both a sales opportunity and a product development session.
This helped them reach an enviable position where demand now exceeds their resources. The key differentiator wasn't just persistence, but the quality of proof points they could offer. When customers became advocates and investors, it validated both the product value and their relationship-first sales approach.
Mindset Expansion: From Local to Global
Barry's experience with the Techscaler program, particularly the Silicon Valley exposure, illustrates how environment shapes entrepreneurial ambition. His observation that the Scottish investment ecosystem could benefit from greater ambition and urgency - qualities he admired in Silicon Valley's fast-paced environment - encouraged him to think beyond local constraints.
The Silicon Valley trip didn't just provide networking - it fundamentally shifted how Leaper approached fundraising and strategic planning. This mindset shift aligned with their technical capabilities and market opportunity, helping them envision becoming "the expected standard of safety across the food industry globally."
Vision at Industry Scale
LiberEat's ten-year vision - making their technology the global standard for food safety - reflects sophisticated strategic thinking. Rather than just building a successful company, they're aiming to fundamentally change how an entire industry approaches safety standards.
This works because it matches the scope of the problem they're solving. Food safety isn't a local issue - it's a global necessity affecting millions of consumers and thousands of businesses. When your solution addresses a fundamental industry gap, thinking at industry scale isn't ambitious, it's appropriate.
Building the Infrastructure for Change
LiberEat's journey demonstrates how today's most impactful startups often emerge from recognising that technology infrastructure, not consumer applications, drives industry transformation. By focusing on underlying systems that enable safer food supply chains, they positioned themselves to influence an entire industry rather than just serve individual consumers.
Their story offers a framework for founders: start with real problems, follow the data over initial assumptions, prioritise customer impact over product features, and never underestimate persistent execution combined with genuine value creation. For the food businesses now using LiberEat's technology to prevent allergen incidents, the pivot from consumer app to enterprise platform represents more than strategy - it's the difference between having a useful tool and accessing life-saving infrastructure.
