Scott Goodfriend

Tell me about your time in advertising. How did you get started and why did you leave?

I started in advertising in 2013 as a video producer. I was working as a freelance reality TV producer and was looking for my next job. A friend of mine was working at an animation studio and asked if I was available to produce something called branded content. I told him I was available and then asked, “What’s branded content?” He said it was videos for Facebook. I took the job thinking, you can get paid for making online videos? I eventually moved to Edelman where I worked as an Executive Producer in their New York office. Over time, I wanted to move on from advertising, so I learned mixed reality and took a job on the product side at Meta as an Augmented Reality Producer. I eventually got caught up in the Meta layoffs in 2023, which gave me the push to run Ultimate Food Tours full time, but more on that later.

What are you doing now? 

I currently run Ultimate Food Tours: The best NYC food tour company in the world! We offer five walking food tours in New York City where we fill your belly and mind with delicious food and facts. 

How did the idea for Ultimate Food Tours come about? 

I moved to New York from Los Angeles in 2011. I always loved traveling and getting lost walking through different cities. When I moved to New York, I was fascinated by the ability to literally visit anywhere in the world by subway. Many of these neighborhoods were far away and I figured I would need to eat. I researched different restaurants and then started thinking, well, maybe I can eat at a few different places, so I started planning walking routes to different eateries on Google Maps. My friends found out I was doing this and said, we want to join.

Eventually, the word spread and friends and family from out of town started calling me when they came to the city. They would tell me about a neighborhood they wanted to explore and ask if I could plan a food tour. I enjoyed the challenge and was happy to do this. I assume I planned 50-100 tours over the course of seven or so years.

During this whole time, I was a broke freelance TV Producer living in the East Village who lived off of a fair amount of $1 pizza. I lived close to Chinatown and figured I could probably take a short walk and find something better. I not only found delicious food, but also discovered the variety, depth, and complexity of Chinese food, which I became obsessed with. I started doing tons of research into the regions, the cuisines, the history, and the Chinese experience on the Lower East Side. I started taking folks to Chinatown and they fell in love with the tour. They told me to do this as a business and I always poo-pooed the idea, saying I didn’t want to build a website or do the marketing (sweet, sweet irony - but more on that later). Then, one day, my friend Danielle took the tour, and after giving her the reasons why I didn’t want to do it for the public, she told me to put it on something called AirBNB experiences. I posted the Chinatown tour on AirBNB 2019, and the rest is history. Now we have five tours (six in the spring!), a great team of guides, and yes, a website and a marketing plan.

What was your first step in Ultimate Food Tours?  

I never wanted to do this for anyone but my family and friends as this was my hobby, so I just started trying different restaurants, adjusting the walking routes, and exploring. At some point, I realized this might have potential beyond just a hobby and started saving the money I made from the tours in case I were to ever make the jump to do this full time. Luckily, Meta made that decision for me when I got caught up in their 2023 layoffs, so I had somewhat of a cushion and a plan to build out Ultimate Food Tours.

What struggles did you have? Did you have ideas that failed?

Making the jump to run my own business certainly came with struggles. The biggest was adjusting to no longer having a regular income. What got me over this hump was time. As time went by, it taught me that there are going to be busy and slow periods, but it gave me the confidence that business will ultimately be there.

I have had plenty of ideas that have failed. My attitude when I started was to try a ton of things, figure out what works and what doesn’t, lean into the wins and learn from the losses. 

I will say, even the losses yielded wins. For example - I made a self-guided food tour for NFT NYC where people walked around, ate, and claimed NFTs. Not a single NFT was claimed, but people did engage with other parts of the campaign at a much higher rate than other campaigns. This gave me actionable insights that I never would have thought of if I didn’t launch the NFT project. I am implementing these insights in our 2024 projects, which I think will drive growth.

Did you have help along the way?

Definitely, and this feels like a good time to plug the amazing New York creative and production community. Everyone I have worked with in production, advertising, and tech over the last 15 years has been so helpful from coming on the tours when I was getting started, making creative assets, and being a sounding board for ideas. I have regular meetings with old coworkers who have their own start ups, and these meetings have been incredibly valuable. The people here are second to none and I’m lucky to be a part of this incredible community.

Did you ever consider giving up?

I did not. There are certainly ups and downs when starting a business but these are similar to the struggles that you encounter when you get promoted. You’re learning something new, so do your best to keep your spirits high and eventually you’ll get comfortable and gain more confidence.

What would you do differently if you did it again?

Probably would have started email campaigns earlier, but I wouldn’t have changed much. Since I was working full time while growing Ultimate Food Tours, I was able to grow at my own pace, so I didn't feel the same pressure to scale as I might have if I didn’t have a stable income.

What advice do you wish you had before you started?

To just go for it. It’s so easy to look at established companies in the industry you’re looking to get started in and get overwhelmed with what it takes trying to get to where they are. One of the best pieces of advice I got was to not look at where others are, but how they started. And while the first step is the hardest to take, just make that Instagram post, research that domain name, whatever it is. Once you do this, momentum will follow.

What's the single biggest mistake you made in doing this?

I’ve made a ton of mistakes in the last five years, and if you add them all up I’m sure the total is a bunch of big mistakes. If I had to pick one I’d say I’ve probably spent too much money on paid social ads. This feels like a bigger mistake because it not only cost me time but money. On the flip side, it has made me shift my focus to organic social, which I think will ultimately be more effective. 

What is the single most important thing that contributed to your success?

The support of my parents in making the jump to run Ultimate Food Tours full time. After the Meta layoffs, I had a job offer to work at a company I always admired. I called my parents to tell them I got a job offer and I didn’t want to take it so I could run UFT. I expected them to tell me I was crazy, but they told me this is my time and to go for it. I’m forever appreciative of that.

Do you miss your old life?

There are parts that I miss, such as being able to work for large, global companies, being able to work at scale with teams of experts from around the world, and being able to take risks and make decisions that don’t impact my own bottom line. However, I’ve always wanted to run my own business, and I’m having a blast doing it, so generally speaking, I don’t miss my old life.

Running your own company gives you a 10k ft view of how different parts of business come together to drive growth. Ironically, the marketing side has been one of the most enjoyable parts. I guess you can take the guy out of the agency but you can’t take the agency out of the guy!