drew munro, demi, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, entrepreneurs, bc business, yvr

Demi Steps into the Spotlight: Drew Munro at the Helm

When Portfolio.YVR first introduced readers to Drew Munro in October 2025, his story followed a familiar but compelling arc: professional chef turned caterer, then innovator working to modernize an industry still tethered to spreadsheets and tribal knowledge. A year later, that trajectory has taken a defining turn. Munro has stepped away from his former role to become co-founder and CEO of Demi, a platform built to help prepared food operators manage recipes, track real-time food costs, automate production, and protect margins as they scale.

drew munro, demi, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, entrepreneurs, bc business, yvr

BORN FROM NECESSITY

Demi did not begin as a product pitch. It began as an internal fix for problems Munro and his team encountered while running their own food business, one that eventually scaled into the millions and secured major retail partnerships. “Demi was really created out of necessity to solve problems we were experiencing in our own food business,” Munro explains. Spreadsheets and manual processes worked when the operation was small, but growth, retail deals, and labelling compliance exposed the limits fast.

Rather than settle for outdated legacy software, the team built its own system, supported in part by Canadian programs including IRAP and SR&ED. The results arrived quickly. “We doubled revenue the first year after launch and grew nearly 60% again the year after,” Munro says. What followed was unplanned but telling: retail partners began asking how the team was moving so fast, then asking to license the software itself. That demand became the case for turning Demi into a standalone company.

drew munro, demi, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, entrepreneurs, bc business, yvr

WHY THIS MOMENT

Foodservice operators have always found workarounds, but Munro points to a shift in the pressure now bearing down on the industry. Margins have tightened, ingredient costs move constantly, and expectations around consistency, compliance, and speed have grown steeper. “Operators are being asked to behave like much larger companies without having the systems, teams, or headcount those companies have,” he notes. Demi is designed to close that gap, automating prep lists, inventory, ordering, food costing, product development, and compliance so operators can redirect their attention to the parts of the business that actually need them.

A LARGER MISSION

Every feature Demi considers is measured against three questions, according to Munro: does it save operators time, does it improve margins, and does it help generate new revenue. Advances in accessible AI have made those goals more attainable, whether that means surfacing profitability improvements within a recipe, flagging a better vendor price before an order goes out, or processing hundreds of cost updates in the time it once took to do the work by hand.

For Munro, the ambition extends well past efficiency metrics. “Our mission is to help more great food businesses stay in business,” he says, pointing to an industry where failure rates are discussed often and for good reason. Demi’s premise is that talented operators are frequently held back not by lack of skill, but by manual systems and thin margins beyond their control. “Demi is about helping great food businesses compete, grow, and survive, not just the biggest or best-resourced ones,” Munro adds. “That is the true win-win.”

drew munro, demi, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, entrepreneurs, bc business, yvr

BUILT AND TESTED

What distinguishes Demi from a theoretical solution, Munro insists, is that it was proven under real operational pressure long before it became a product. Three years of trial, error, and daily use inside a working food business shaped the platform before a single outside customer ever touched it. For an industry wary of software built by people who have never run a kitchen or a production line, that distinction carries weight.

With Demi now positioned as a dedicated company under Munro’s leadership, the platform’s next chapter centres on bringing that same operational discipline to food businesses beyond the one that built it, promising founders and operators a way to grow without losing sight of the margins that keep them running.

Author Profile

Helen Siwak, Collaborator: This story is created in collaboration between Helen Siwak and the featured subject. As the founder and publisher of Portfolio.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine, Helen works closely with entrepreneurs to share their paths of innovation, resilience, and growth. Each story in this series is co-developed through interviews and first-person insights, blending authentic voices with Helen’s editorial expertise to highlight the remarkable individuals shaping British Columbia’s business landscape.