Show HN: Farm Feedery – menuless lunch delivery with farm-fresh ingredients • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Farm Feedery – menuless lunch delivery with farm-fresh ingredients

#21

Post by jmzbond » Wed, Jul 29, 2015, 9:58 PM UTC

msandford wrote: post #19

jmzbond wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, with the delivery thing it will be great if enough folks order from one area that we can designate a drop off point (like Lyft hotspots) OR just do a regular catering if that area is one business. Latter, specifically, would make much more sense in my mind. Re: ingredients. I totally agree with everything you said. We also preserve a lot of food so could be tomatoes in December, just not the fresh form. You're r…

I think the ingredients problem is why chain restaurants haven't completely dominated the landscape and why small restaurants can compete. No solution to the ingredients problem scales in a way that favors big entities. In fact there is a "tax" associated with being big for many ingredients that small restaurants don't pay. If I need 1 fresh tomato a day it's tough because any one supplier might or might not have goo…

Love the illustrative parabola thanks! I agree with so many of your points, but I do hope there's an alternative as well, and that's actually why we're in business, to explore those models. This is just the consumer facing engine that will give us (hopefully) the funds to do so. And we have a lot of ideas about things to explore =)

Feel free to keep in touch if you ever have other thoughts, I always like chatting strategy: james@farmfeedery.com

Re: Show HN: Farm Feedery – menuless lunch delivery with farm-fresh ingredients

#22

Post by jmzbond » Wed, Jul 29, 2015, 9:58 PM UTC

trcollinson wrote: post #20

jmzbond wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree, but I think now is the time when many small companies have dreams of figuring that out! We'll write about it if we do =)

I wonder when old fashioned ideas will become more main stream again. When I look at Farm Feedry it screams franchise opportunity. Why try to scale this out yourself, if you can come up with a working model and equation for how to source local farm fresh ingredients, a database of reasonable recipes for a set of ingredients, and the logistics for delivery? It would seem like an amazing business opportunity. By the wa…

At the moment we're not scaling out ourselves just yet, we're just in one region, but you're totally right that franchising could potentially be a model. We have a lot of ideas on how to better scale, when the time is right. Thanks for your thoughts!

Re: Show HN: Farm Feedery – menuless lunch delivery with farm-fresh ingredients

#23

Post by jmzbond » Wed, Jul 29, 2015, 10:01 PM UTC

peterwwillis wrote: post #18

Do they use steamer containers and those foil toasting platforms to get the textures and flavors right? Without them it'd be very easy to overcook the meats or change crispy to soggy. Some foods reheat very well, some don't, and a dirty workplace microwave transfers nasty flavors. I would love it if there were a way for city slickers to subsidize the expansion of local organic farms. But at the same time, those farms…

I agree with you about how hard it is to maintain flavor and texture, it's always something we're working on. The meals come to you in biodegradable containers that you can microwave without transferring elsewhere. So far, so good, but we've definitely had to cut some meals where the reheat didn't work as well. We have stringent QC requirements!

I also love your last points, and totally agree that there are some work opportunities here, which we'd love to explore when we get to that size.

Re: Show HN: Farm Feedery – menuless lunch delivery with farm-fresh ingredients

#24

Post by rnernento » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 5:03 PM UTC

jmzbond wrote: post #15

msandford wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cooking will scale nicely. I spent a summer in a commercial kitchen and 15 people cooked enough for 2500 with no issues. Delivery can scale if you get people to order in groups and have a minimum group size or something. Actually having high quality fresh ingredients is a much bigger challenge. Look at Subway. They always have tomatoes but they're rarely good tomatoes. Even Chipotle can have very substandard pico or…

Yup, with the delivery thing it will be great if enough folks order from one area that we can designate a drop off point (like Lyft hotspots) OR just do a regular catering if that area is one business. Latter, specifically, would make much more sense in my mind. Re: ingredients. I totally agree with everything you said. We also preserve a lot of food so could be tomatoes in December, just not the fresh form. You're r…

I think the ability to provide fresh ingredients is one of your strong points, the whole deal is you decide the menu. Just don't offer anything with tomatoes in December.