On a balmy, overcast Tuesday in July, Scott Goodfriend prepares to take a group of five on his Iconic Foods of the Lower East Side tour in New York. They stand at the entrance of a large food market in the downtown Manhattan neighborhood.
Goodfriend grew up in the Calabasas neighborhood of Los Angeles, the oldest of two kids. His dad was a mortgage broker and his mom worked at the UCLA medical center. Food was a constant."My parents would always love to take us out to different ethnic foods in L.A.," he says."My dad really likes Persian food. My mom always really likes sushi and Japanese food."
In 2016, he nabbed a job at major PR company Edelman. Throughout his six years at the company, he led projects in Web3 and virtual reality. Then, in July 2022, he got offered a job at Meta in their augmented reality wing.Friends sent 'little goals to challenge me' to make tours Goodfriend gave these kinds of tours for about eight years but resisted monetizing them, both because he enjoyed giving them to friends and because he didn't want the hassle of building a business and website. Then a friend let him know about Airbnb experiences, or opportunities to sell local tours through the site. In the fall of 2019, he decided to post one.
UFT recently partnered with local restaurants and added private cooking classes as well, mostly for corporate clients looking for a unique experience. Those go for $150 per person. He also sells merch on the website.