Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
I’m Mitra Raman, the founder/CEO of The Buttermilk Company (https:///www.thebuttermilkco.com). We help you make authentic, fresh Indian food in 5 minutes by just adding water to our products.
As an Indian-American in my 20s, I grew up eating my mom’s homemade Indian food everyday. When I moved away from home to attend Carnegie Mellon University, I was homesick for the first time and realized how hard it was to find anything that resembled my mom’s food. I either had to make it myself (finding the Indian grocery store + following my mom’s recipe took way too much time) or would settle for whatever generic dishes at the local Indian restaurant. The options were expensive, time-consuming, or tasted horrible.
Two years into my job as an Software Engineer at Amazon, I asked my mom to help me make her rasam. She gave me all the ingredients in a ziploc bag and told me to just add hot water! I asked my friends about how they coped with homesickness and realized that most parents were also figuring out their own ways of getting their kids’ favorites foods to them when they moved. That’s how the idea for Buttermilk started!
We crowdsource our recipes from real people (keeping our product truly authentic) and develop them into products that are super easy for our customers to make. If you’ve ever asked your mom to send a family recipe to you, you know how hard it is to get this right! Our team spends hours in the kitchen tweaking each recipe so we can prep and cook it just enough that the customer can complete the cooking with water. We have to be careful to not over-prep such that the taste and nutritional value erode over time.
We use fresh and non-GMO ingredients, make everything from scratch (seriously, even the garam masala), and deliver our perishable products in sustainable packaging. Our production is extremely detail-oriented and time-consuming because we are recreating recipes for one family into large-scale batches that need to maintain the quality of its original recipe. To improve efficiency, we have built software to track food production, predict incoming volume, and help our production and fulfillment teams communicate. We’re also exploring new shelf-life extension technologies (such as HPP) so our products can last a lot longer. Currently, they must be refrigerated for 5-7 days or frozen for up to 3 months -- if you don’t eat them before then, that is!
In terms of market size: there are over 4 million Indian immigrants in the U.S. This demographic, like all other ethnic groups, is poorly served by the existing food options when it comes to their cuisines. And of course there is the population of everyone who just likes Indian food and can’t find or make it! Though we are starting with Indian cuisine, we definitely don't plan to stop there. The market for ethnic foods in the U.S. is at least $5B. But in good startup style, we've started with the specific problem we ourselves had.
We’re super eager to hear your feedback, ideas, and experiences in this space or as it relates to our type of product.
453 comments
[ 8.0 ms ] story [ 392 ms ] threadThe only thing from just skimming the site (haven’t dove deep in just yet) is that it seems it’s only veggie dishes right? Not a deal breaker, but if you had at least easy to follow recipes accompanying these on how to add some meat to them, this might turn into 100% of my meals
Anyways, will be ordering when I get home. Good job launching and good luck!
Example: https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/sam...
Also it just sounds naaaaaaaaaasty lol
However: Shipping meat in packages is pretty commonplace, you just need to keep it sufficiently chilled. (Maybe only frozen is acceptable?)
Check out Crowd Cow.
Thanks!
5 Spice packets for 24$ isnt what I consider cheap, given I eat for an entire week on ~20$, including a curry chicken dish.
If I misunderstood(like veggies and beans are included), could you mention that in the product page?
Here is the general page, the nutrient per dollar page has the most details on how I eat.
Sambar: https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/sam...
Of course the problem is that you don’t get a super varied diet which can be problematic both mentally and nutritionally. It can also become a bit harder to incorporate fruits and veggies into your diet when they’re not on sale. And you also need to cook a decent amount
When I was in Rome I found that I could eat on less than $20 a day extremely easily so unless you’re going to restaurants every day I’m not sure how you spent so much
There are 7 days in each week.
Thank you for your reply and your insights!
That should show you how to eat for close to that price.
Pictures can be ok but I would really prefer the info in text/chart form
Have you thought about trying to sell your products, or similar products, to people who camp/hike/etc? I think the fact that the meals are dehydrated and easy to cook would appeal to them
One point of constructive criticism I would offer is that I find the nutritional information hard to find and read in some circumstances.
That is a great point, and we will definitely update our website to make the nutritional information more readable.
And given that MTR's products cost just $2.50 per pack where I currently live, $24 isn't exactly cheap. I haven't tasted your product, but I have tasted the MTR ones and they seem pretty authentic. And MTR being a very old, traditional brand, it's as authentic as it gets. Would love to hear about your differentiation strategy.
[1] https://www.mtrfoods.com/products/ready-to-eat
Edit: was wrong about MTR using preservatives, but I've always found their food to have an off taste.
https://www.mtrfoods.com/mtr_admin/data_content/products_gal...
- MTR provides just the spices, you have to bring everything else. This includes vegetables/meat, seasoning, additional spices, oil/salt, etc. Our products include all of this so that the only ingredient you add is water which makes it much more convenient.
- Our packets are 100% fresh and don't have any preservatives, whereas existing packaged Indian foods are packed with them. This makes our products tastier, fresher and much healthier, although it comes with a shorter shelf-life.
- Our recipes are curated from people in the community (for example, the rasam is my mom's!) This lends a very homemade taste to each dish.
- We deliver to you! All existing pre-packaged authentic Indian foods are only available in Indian stores, so we're making good Indian food available to a much larger audience.
- At the end of the day, the taste just isn't comparable. Microwaveable chana masala from Haldiram's, let's say, comes out looking/smelling/tasting not at all like a homemade dish. Ours is made completely from scratch and you as a customer can feel that difference.
MTR/Haldiram's are 'last-resort' type meals, and we aim to be a meal that you actually crave + is good for you :)
Sorry, this is not accurate. If I buy an MTR Sambhar rice, or Paneer masala, everything is included. I just need to heat it and eat it.
> Our packets are 100% fresh and don't have any preservatives, whereas existing packaged Indian foods are packed with them. This makes our products tastier, fresher and much healthier, although it comes with a shorter shelf-life.
I can't vouch for the freshness of MTR's products, but I know they don't use preservatives (as it's printed on their cartons). They use a combination of food engineering and package engineering to preserve the food without using preservatives. That's why when you buy their ready to eat products, you will find a lot of oil in them (which you're supposed to drain away) as it helps to preserve the food for months, if not years. This is no different than storing dead specimens such as rats in biological laboratories, I assume.
> Our recipes are curated from people in the community (for example, the rasam is my mom's!) This lends a very homemade taste to each dish.
Ok, this sounds good.
> We deliver to you! All existing pre-packaged authentic Indian foods are only available in Indian stores, so we're making good Indian food available to a much larger audience.
So, basically a uber type of service? So that almost makes you guys like any other restaurant, no? I mean, what's the difference between calling an Indian restaurant to have fresh food delivered vs calling you guys?
> At the end of the day, the taste just isn't comparable. Microwaveable chana masala from Haldiram's, let's say, comes out looking/smelling/tasting not at all like a homemade dish. Ours is made completely from scratch and you as a customer can feel that difference.
This is subjective. Like I said, if you call up a decent Indian restaurant (HSB / Anjappar / Raj / etc.), you can get a similar experience.
> MTR/Haldiram's are 'last-resort' type meals, and we aim to be a meal that you actually crave + is good for you :)
Sorry, but I am still not convinced why your product is worth $24 and based on what you answer, seems like there isn't much difference between ordering from a decent Indian restaurant and you guys?
I appreciate taking the time to explain your points so far.
- The microwaveable complete meals are definitely more similar to our products, but those are once again shelf-stable and lack in taste and nutrition. We will be doing a live comparison of our Chana Masala vs. the MTR Chana Masala to show how different it is in amount of product, look, smell, taste and nutrition.
- The oil that they include is definitely a type of preservative, and they use packaging engineering called retort packaging. This is very similar to vacuum sealing where you are drying up the product to remove the nutritional value. I think we could agree that there's a pretty big difference between MTR paneer masala and a homemade paneer masala. I would say that our products are similar if not the same as if you made it from scratch.
- We are e-commerce delivery, not on-demand. The difference between ordering from us vs. an Indian restaurant would be price-point (most dishes start at $7-10).
- Taste is definitely subjective!
You seem really hung up on the preservatives thing and I was giving the benefit of the doubt, but now it is just disingenuous. If oil of all things in a competitors product as a preservative then I think the tremendous amount of salt in your product qualifies as well.
The sodium content from our products comes from the spices in the recipes themselves. Indian spices especially have a large amount of salt (which makes them so flavorful and spicy!), but we do not add any additional salt for preservation. We are also currently working on low-sodium options!
This is nonsense - chillies, ginger and spices (e.g. black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, cassia, mace, cumin, coriander) barely contain any sodium. In the quantities such ingredients will be present in each meal, the sodium content is completely negligible.
> Indian spices especially have a large amount of salt (which makes them so flavorful and spicy!)
OK, this is just flat out lies - the only 'spice' that contains a large amount of salt is... salt! I now have zero faith that you have any idea about the very product you are marketing.
Also from Wikipedia retort packaging seems much more similar to canning than vacuum sealing.
I don't know specifically about Haldiram's or MTR (I might have tried out MTR Indian food ready-to-eat packs), but some others that I used to buy and eat sometimes (I forget the name, it may have been from an ITC group company - the Indian food and tobacco giant), mention on the package that they use DRDO-licensed technology. DRDO is an Indian defence-oriented R&D organization of the Indian government. The technology was originally developed for soldiers on the field. So likely made in such a way as to last long, and could account for its not tasting that good, and not as good as the same item, but freshly made (obviously).
I know it seems absurd on HN, but there are people who live in areas without decent Indian restaurants.
That's not to say you wouldn't see this product at a store and go "oh, I've heard of Indian food and always been interested!" but that's not the common buyer behavior. People tend to pick convenience foods based on established food preferences/familiarizes.
You have to be careful posting such comments, you might start a war :)
This is HN, bike shedding is a thing.
I have to agree with OP. I wish you well, but if I want to pay this much money for Indian food I'll likely go to an Indian Restaurant near me. I'm supporting a local business and being provided with a restaurant experience.
(of note: I worked in restaurants for over a decade, so my food spending tends to fall into "dining experience at a great restaurant" or "ingredients to prepare my own food because it's cheaper than convenience foods". I was going to be a hard sell from the start).
Appreciate the support :)
Any evidence that your food is healthier? Or even any explanation as to why it would be.
>Our recipes are curated from people in the community
What community? Every recipie comes from someone in a community.
>All existing pre-packaged authentic Indian foods are only available in Indian stores
Not where I live. Walmart even sells pre-packaged desi style food.
>Ours is made completely from scratch
What does that even mean in the context of selling a pre-made food product.
As far as authenticity goes, most of their stuff isn't. I would actually put them in the "very very bad attempt" category. But it could just represent the food of local area where they started (and that's not really acceptable, given that they make a wide range of stuff).
I do that too! MTR and the Trader Joe's Indian dishes are my camping food. Definitely no comparison to fresh food.
It seems like Buttermilk is definitely competing for quality, not price.
https://www.amys.com/our-foods/indian-mattar-paneer
https://www.amys.com/our-foods/indian-palak-paneer
Amy's bowls typically come in around $5 per dish as well.
If it doesn't greatly increase the price of packaging for your product, you may want to experiment with showing pictures of (and sending) food in single-serving packages (so instead of sending five-six packets, you'd send 15-24 of them).
Another option is to go with a "Home Chef" style pitch -- basically saying "here's a dinner date night for two in a box".
What is HPP?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascalization
> Remember that your packets are perishable, so refrigerate or freeze them as soon as they arrive!
That's definitely not true of Tasty Bites. :-)
Some of the starter packs don’t have nutrition label on it either.
Two quick thoughts:
1) I don't get your branding, especially the company name, and especially as all of your meals are vegan.
2) Shipping meat-based meals is presumably a very different and more expensive logistical challenge so I get the reason why there's no meat in these but it seems as though these packets could easily be combined with pan-cooked chicken to make a more substantial meal - is that the case and is that something you've considered promoting as part of the marketing?
I wish you the very best of luck!
As I mentioned downthread, I was planning to skip this completely because of the name until one of the founders happened to mention in a comment that the meals are vegan. I don't normally associate "buttermilk" with anything that I eat as a vegan.
This might be a tricky marketing issue, because a huge amount of traditional home-cooked Indian food is lacto-vegetarian but not vegan. So there might be not an enormous customer segment that would view the lack of dairy in these meals as an advantage (although I'm in that customer segment myself).
We didn't actually launch with the aim of only providing vegan meals, it just so happened that our first dishes are all vegan! This has definitely caused some confusion so we'll continue to iterate on our branding/messaging.
A key part of a manageable vegan life is building a database of what you can consume that you enjoy and using that to drive choices, so if you can get vegan customers buying your food and enjoying it then they’re going to be stickier customers. I am a very loyal customer to my favourite food brands out of necessity, as are my vegan friends.
That said there’s certainly a double edged sword here in that there are some non-vegans who see “vegan” and are turned off but given Indian food is so often vegan I don’t think this would be a concern in your market. Although the name is cute, it’s definitely misrepresenting your product to a growing portion of your potential customers. If you stick with the name, regardless of marketing, you’re going to lose vegans, because many won’t look beyond the name because that’s a necessity for getting by.
There’s a few companies in the U.K. doing intentionally vegan ready meals (e.g https://allplants.com) and there’s a growing market for vegan ready meals (we are as busy/lazy as everybody else), so I think it’s worthwhile to reconsider the name, but also it’s a great name so maybe you can be the company to get vegans to look beyond red flags. Your product seems absolutely great for my needs and would, assuming they’re enjoyable to eat, integrate into my life well. Good luck!
Yeah, I've become very quick at glancing at an ingredient list and noticing "whey" or "gelatin" and then putting the product back. So indeed, the brand name itself would trigger a similar reaction for me if the founder hadn't happened to specifically mention that it was vegan.
> That said there’s certainly a double edged sword here in that there are some non-vegans who see “vegan” and are turned off but given Indian food is so often vegan I don’t think this would be a concern in your market.
There might be some knowledgeable customers who expect a particular dish to contain ghee and feel like it's not likely to be that great without the ghee.
Great initiative. But even I don't understand the use of this name as Branding. As ideally "Buttermilk" is a Drink consumed throughout India, and ironically your company is not selling it. :-).
Also its a name of the Drink and you are selling ready to eat food items which also make this name a little inappropriate, as for any Indian it gives the impression of Drink selling site rather than Food selling site. (Even i was not planning to look at it, if I have not read the comments).
Anyways all the best and have a great success.
Re: meat-based options, we have added suggestions for meat to mix in with each dish under 'How to eat'! We plan on adding more in-depth recipes in the near future.
Buttermilk is commonly drunk with meals in India (both North and South, although lassi is very popular in the North too), and also separately as a refresher, more so in summer, often lightly spiced with cumin, hing (asafoetida), etc. and sometimes with a few green chillies in it (for the brave - heh:), and is considered a soothing drink, and also healthy and wholesome. In fact I remember a childhood friend of mine saying that (as we both drank a glass each of buttermilk at lunch at his house), and it stuck in my memory. And it is really that - soothing.
http://www.amul.com/products/amul-pouchbuttermilk-info.php or try this https://www.amazon.com/Amul-Masti-Spiced-Buttermilk-1Liter/d...
I don't know. I'm not Indian either, and I was drawn to it in part because it wasn't advertised to westerners.
The website has a really clean look - it makes the product seem delicious and authentic. The minimalist design compliments the minimalism of the product.
I would be careful with identifying your target market. I live in Chicago, which I believe has one of the highest percentages of Indian immigrant populations in the nation. This might seem like your target market - but in fact the large percentage of immigrants has led to a slew of Indian markets and restaurants, that are likely equally delicious and cheap. It is a common theme among my coworkers to bring in homecooked Indian meals on a daily basis.
I also noticed the Upma pack is listed as gluten-free, but contains semolina. That's just asking for legal trouble from those with Celiac's. It might be worth consolidating all of the different packages and their ingredients lists on a separate page, QAing them, and making them more available to the reader in an organized, possibly drop-down format. Hope this feedback is useful.
Cheers
That's a good point about the target market. There's definitely a sizable portion of immigrants who continue to cook from scratch. There's also an emerging part of the market who are first/second-generation and don't cook at home as often -- either because they don't know how, don't have all the ingredients on hand, or don't have the time/patience. We are aiming to serve this population, and also be a nice-to-have for the former group of people!
That is a great call out on the Upma and a mistake on our end (that we accidentally added last night!). We will fix this immediately. I also really like your feedback about putting all the ingredients and nutritional information on a single page. Thank you!
Speaking of which, I'd love to know of Indian restaurants in Chicago, ideally closer to south side, that are truly friendly to Celiacs. Thanks.
Agreed. And also may be worth putting all the nutritional information (I mean what ingredients are used, and all - not some - of them, and in what percentages or weights - again, for all), on the food packages themselves. Saying this because a pet peeve of mine about Indian products here is that many of them put such info for some, but not all of the ingredients. Common example: Haldiram snacks: they often mention many ingredients, but the labeling can go like this: Peanuts (8%), gram flour (12%), rice flour (no number given), and so on. I mean what the heck is the use of putting that info, then? if a person wants to know that info, they want to know it for all ingredients, not just some, for their health or whatever other reasons.
Oddly enough, the salt levels seem a tad lower in the family restaurants (big evening meals).
Large amounts of plastic waste is a big reason I will never ever use blue apron and similar companies.
http://tastybite.com/products/
> The options were expensive, time-consuming, or tasted horrible.
Tasty bite tastes decent, takes 60-90 seconds to heat up, and costs about $3/package with no need for refrigeration.
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This seems like a YC to clone TastyBite without any differentiation beyond the nebulous "quality food".
So....
Are you telling me your quality is so much better a household staple of my life is going to be replaced for twice the price?
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https://www.amazon.com/Tasty-Bite-Chickpeas-Tomatoes-Microwa...
$15 for 6 packages / 60 oz.
https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/cha...
$13.50 for 3 packages / 30 oz(?)
Costco in the Seattle area also now sells some tasty bite bulk packs.
Yeah, which isn't really a positive unless it saves on sodium/etc. If it does, its really a niche "healthy" version of TastyBite and they need to market it as such.
- Our products are fresh and don't have any preservatives, meaning they must be refrigerated or frozen whereas TastyBite is shelf-stable for 9+ months. Our food is inherently fresher and tastes more homemade because of this.
- Our recipes are crowdsourced instead of developed in our kitchen. This ensures that the food is actually authentic with a homemade taste and we are able to expand into a much larger variety of products much quicker. For instance, we have a few recipes in our pipeline that you would be hard-pressed to find in TastyBite or even regular Indian restaurants because they are authentic to smaller regions of India.
- I can't say that you'll definitely like our product's taste better than TastyBite, but I do believe so :)
I wish you the best of luck with that.
Personally, I find a package of Vindaloo from TastyBite, some riced veggies, and a shredded chicken breast lasts me about 2 meals and is comparable to the price you are charging. I really only use TastyBite as a backpacking/on-the-go meal or as a quick curry out of laziness. I'm probably not your target market but shelf stability has alot going for it.
We are starting with Indian food but will hopefully be expanding to different cuisines, too!
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-th...
>With nearly everyone focused on the supposed benefits of salt restriction, little research was done to look at the potential dangers. But four years ago, Italian researchers began publishing the results from a series of clinical trials, all of which reported that, among patients with heart failure, reducing salt consumption increased the risk of death... Those trials have been followed by a slew of studies suggesting that reducing sodium to anything like what government policy refers to as a “safe upper limit” is likely to do more harm than good. These covered some 100,000 people in more than 30 countries and showed that salt consumption is remarkably stable among populations over time. In the United States, for instance, it has remained constant for the last 50 years, despite 40 years of the eat-less-salt message. The average salt intake in these populations — what could be called the normal salt intake — was one and a half teaspoons a day, almost 50 percent above what federal agencies consider a safe upper limit for healthy Americans under 50, and more than double what the policy advises for those who aren’t so young or healthy. This consistency, between populations and over time, suggests that how much salt we eat is determined by physiological demands, not diet choices....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/we-ea...
>People tend to consume about the same amount of sodium no matter where they live, and this amount hasn’t changed much in decades. Those facts hint at the biological basis of our sodium appetite.... “Over the last five decades, salt content of commercial food in our food [in the United States] has gone up. But if you look at people’s 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, you see that the amounts of salt people consume have been constant,” he says. Irrespective of age, sex or race, between 1957 and 2003 Americans have been eating on average 3.5 grams of salt a day. “This suggests that we are somehow regulating the amount of salt we are eating,” Breslin says.... In one of Leshem’s studies, babies who had low concentrations of sodium in their blood in the first weeks of their lives grew up to be teenagers with a penchant for salt, even salt that is seemingly hidden in processed foods. “Even if you can’t taste the salt, apparently your body does. It’s working on an unconscious level to condition a preference for sodium,” Leshem explains.
Just what I was looking for. Definitely going to use this service.
On a relative note, there are tons of such products in India and most of them taste sub par to home cooked food. One exception I found was Butter Chicken I used to buy regularly when I was spent some time in Newyork few years ago. You just have to freeze it until you open and then, heat it in microwave and ready to go. It tasted very good, but spoiled my stomach (I am bearing the burden even till today) due to the usage of preservatives. Anything that doesn't use preservative is a welcome addition.
One more, when you mentioned sustainable packaging, what does it mean? Is it paper or bio plastic? If so another +1.
https://www.amazon.com/Tasty-Bite-Chickpeas-Tomatoes-Microwa...
But Salt is probably the most common food preservative there is and the reason canned foods have such high levels of it.
Why is the salt content on many of these items through the roof for ready-made meals meant to be eaten soon after delivery.
I love Indian food, but I live in the middle of nowhere (more specifically in a rural area 10 miles from the nearest town). The closest Indian restaurant is at least 45 minutes away and the closest good one is probably over an hour away.
I'd buy this in a heartbeat.
One bug: the Amazon cart discarded my old items after I added new ones.
Steps to reproduce: 1. Add a sampler to the cart 2. Try to check out using Amazon 3. Discover that shipping is $6, or free shipping at $35+ 4. Go back and add a few more items 5. Try to check out with Amazon again
Expected result: The items all show up, now at the $35 level
Actual result: Only the newly added items were show
Very sorry to hear about that issue and thank you for the debugging instructions. We will look into it immediately!
We just subscribed to the Buttermilk Suite. Looking forward to trying it.
That's an incredibly high amount of sodium. It would probably be unhealthy for most people to eat one per day, let alone 2-3. Maybe you can do something about lowering the sodium levels, but until then I don't think "healthy" is a fair word to use.
Wat? What spices contain a high level of sodium? Or are you counting 'salt' as a 'traditional Indian spice'?!
That said, I don't understand how you have this much salt in these packs. I'm south indian and cook on a regular basis; specifically I cook these foods quite often and the spices involved generally don't have salt mixed in (unless the spice mix wasn't ground by you originally and so I can see how the salt would be mixed in, but still)
The majority of Indian spices are mostly single element spices - cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, garlic etc.
Even Garam Masala probably the most widely used multi-spice doesn't contain any salt.
Could you elaborate on which "traditional" Indian spices have salt in them?
https://www.eatthismuch.com/food/view/green-chillies,139995/
https://www.eatthismuch.com/food/view/red-peppers,2438/
https://www.eatthismuch.com/food/view/ginger-ale,524416/
As an example, you'd need around 5 kilos each of both ginger and chillies to come close to the sodium content of one of these meals!
Personally, I don't have a problem with them having a high sodium content - but I do have a problem with nonsensical claims by the maker.
This is untrue, bastardized Indian dishes tend to overcompensate for not only sodium but also oil. I'm guessing the extra sodium and sugar in your dishes are added to appeal to Americans and keep a longer shelf life...
> A new study that followed more than 2,600 men and women for 16 years found that consuming less sodium wasn't associated with lower blood pressure.
Others in this thread seem dubious that quality could be a differentiator, but I think you should double down on that. It’s not just ingredients, but technique that makes food delicious and if you can truly scale proper par-cooking technique, that will be a strong core for your business, and difficult to copy from the outside.
I also think you are absolutely correct to focus on a core market who loves real Indian food. There’s no price you can put on your family’s home cooking, which makes it a good market for you to start in low volume.
Just a random idea as you grow: you might try supporting an “experiment community” the way Soylent did. I think that forum became https://www.completefoods.co. They encouraged people to share and develop their own recipes.
In the long term, you will need to compete against “monoculture” brands who are selling one size fits all products. Because you aren’t storing inventory, you will be positioned to sell a wider selection of products, even short runs of one-off special foods. Could be another differentiator.
That's a great suggestion about the community. We are experimenting with community building through our recipe curators, who send in their recipes to be turned into Buttermilk products. They receive 5% of the proceeds of their product sales, too. There are tons of great opportunities for this!
As somebody with dairy allergies, I was going to avoid this, given the name, but since I saw you mentioned that the meals were all vegan (so far) I am tempted to give it a go.
I'm am an expat who lives in the UK. I'm from India as well. $24 for 3-4 vegetarian meals seems really expensive, will you adjust pricing as you scale?
How do you plan on preserving taste and the "home cooked feeling" as you scale? This might be an absurd question at this stage, but a friend and I who wanted to get in this space couldn't come up with a good answer.
Personally, I just cook a lot of food whenever I cook so that I am able to do a couple of meals. I've recently considered having a soylent for dinner and I just ordered my first pack of Huel. I can cook whenever I want to eat really authentic food.
Here in the UK a lot of house wives provide a tiffin service. Is there something similar in the US?
Great website. Nice story. I wish you luck :)
We're working on a few things that will help us automate a lot of the repeated processes but still ensure the same homemade recipes are being followed correctly. It's definitely a hard problem but one we're working hard to solve!
I believe there are similar services in some larger cities, but those usually have higher prices ($10-14 per meal) and aren't able to scale with the demand as necessary.
We hope to be the go-to for authentic food when the existing options don't cut it and you don't have the time or energy to make it yourself!
I agree that cooking can get quite exhausting, procuring ingredients, cooking and then cleaning up is a long process.
You are solving a real problem. Good luck!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala
(I don't know anything about the U.K. situation.)