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The proof is people, not claims.
Our credibility rests on named people with real industry records. We show who does the work and let their records carry the argument.
The people who advise your market entry should have already run one.
GourmetPro is a food and beverage market-entry advisory built around a network of senior experts who come from the industry itself. This page is about the company behind that network: why we built it, what we hold ourselves to, and who runs it.
180+ experts 40+ countries
Christine Couvelier
GourmetPro Expert
Strategic Advisory
Steve Ross
GourmetPro Expert
Business Strategy
Hitomi Sato
GourmetPro Expert
Product Innovation
Sanjeev Srivastav
GourmetPro Expert
Commercial
Rana Shehadeh
GourmetPro Expert
Product Innovation
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Kelvin Ng
GourmetPro Expert
Commercial
Giang Duong
GourmetPro Expert
Vietnam Go-to-Market & Sales Growth Expert
Jeffrey Cheng
GourmetPro Expert
Strategic Sales
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Why GourmetPro exists
GourmetPro was founded in 2019 in Tokyo by Ugo Bataillard and Vincent Nicol. One built software products across industries for a decade in Japan; the other spent his career inside the food and beverage industry there. They started the company as a hands-on market-entry consultancy, working directly with food and beverage brands entering Japan: the research, the introductions, the negotiations, done by the founders themselves.
That first stretch of client work produced the conviction the firm still runs on. The judgment these decisions need already exists. It sits with senior operators who have run the same market, in the same industry, at a senior level. What companies lacked was a disciplined way to reach them. So GourmetPro was rebuilt around exactly that: a vetted network of independent food and beverage operators, with the firm accountable for understanding each brief, matching it to the right person, and standing behind the engagement. Polina, the company's first employee in 2020, later became its third co-founder.
What we hold ourselves to
Evidence before adjectives.
We lead with the market fact and the concrete outcome. Specifics carry authority better than superlatives, so we deal in specifics.
Local depth is the work.
Food and beverage is local. Distribution, regulation, and taste change at every border, and we treat that granularity as the substance of the job, not a detail to flatten.
Help first, then invite.
Everything we publish is written to answer the question on its own. A conversation with us should be the obvious next step, not the price of the answer.
The people who run GourmetPro
The operating team, not the expert network.
The operating team runs the company around the network: selection, matching, and accountability for every engagement. They are not the bench you hire; they are the people answerable for it.
Ugo Bataillard
Co-founder
A decade building software products across industries in Japan; runs sales, operations, and Japan market-entry engagements from Tokyo.
Vincent Nicol
Co-founder
A career inside the food and beverage industry, from wine to global beverage companies.
Polina Oba
Co-founder
GourmetPro's first employee in 2020; runs expert vetting and client experience.