It would seem obvious that in 2021 every business has a presence online, including a website. But Ameet Kallarackal, CEO and co-founder of the US-based startup Fisherman, found that it is not the case. Many businesses, especially in the food industry, do not have a website or – arguably worse – have an outdated website. That is why Ameet has developed a new service that builds optimized websites in a semi-automatic way, using information submitted by the clients and information that is already available on different platforms online.

However, Fisherman is not a web developing agency. It is not like popular services like Wix, which make it easy for non tech savvy people to build their own website. Fisherman’s software “is” the agency. No drag-and-drop approach, no design required on the part of the client. The strength of Fisherman is that it separates content and graphic design, just like typesetting programming languages like LaTeX separate content and formatting. The clients are in control of the information contained in the website, the looks of the website are automatically manages on Fisherman’s side.

The US-based startup was launched at the beginning of 2020, just before COVID hit. Luckily, Ameet’s startup is one of those who benefit from the new circumstance involving the population across the world, instead of being damaged by it. With dine-in solutions not being possible, and take-away being limited, food orders for home delivery increased dramatically. And businesses in the food industry suddenly needed functioning websites to display their menus and accommodate the orders.

In this interview, Ameet responds to some of the objections that some business owners may have to investing time and money to build their own website. Fisherman’s model has proven successful and soon Ameet plans to expand his client pool to Europe.