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Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

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Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#111

Post by sir_akshay »

mitraraman wrote: post #87
EvilEndures wrote: post #58

This seems like you are working off of TastyBite's playbook: 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. --- This seems like a YC to clone TastyBite without any differentiation beyond the nebulous "quality food". So.... Are you telling me your qualit…

TastyBite is definitely a similar product/company. The key differentiators are: - 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 authenti…

> don't have any preservatives

Just what I was looking for. Definitely going to use this service.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#112

Post by murukesh_s »

mitraraman wrote: post #87
EvilEndures wrote: post #58

This seems like you are working off of TastyBite's playbook: 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. --- This seems like a YC to clone TastyBite without any differentiation beyond the nebulous "quality food". So.... Are you telling me your qualit…

TastyBite is definitely a similar product/company. The key differentiators are: - 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 authenti…

From the amazon link to TastyBite's packaging, it looks like they also don't use preservatives (It's explicitly mentioned in the packaging that no preservatives are used). Good luck with your startup, but their shelf life of 9+ months doesn't seem to be due to use of preservatives, it could be due to the packaging process.

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...

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#113

Post by gyani95 »

Hey!

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 :)

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#115

Post by exolymph »

sealthedeal wrote: post #26
23andwalnut wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, is the decision to keep everything vegan tied to the 5 minute requirement?

Shipping meat in package seems like a great way for regulators to step in :| Also it just sounds naaaaaaaaaasty lol

No reason for the above comment to be dead, so I vouched it.

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.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#116

Post by willmacdonald »

Have you looked into Pataks? This company is HUGE in UK.

They provide jars with all the ingredients mixed. You need to add an onion, can of tomatoes and some chicken/beef.

Read their story here: https://www.pataks.co.uk/our-story

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#117

Post by mitraraman »

agentultra wrote: post #114

This sounds awesome. As a person who grew up eating boiled vegetables, roast beef, and chicken I've come to love Indian cooking with an undying passion. I could eat it all day, every day. Fresh and convenient? Sold.

Thank you! Happy to hear it.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#118

Post by GordonS »

mitraraman wrote: post #99
staunch wrote: post #83

I checked just a few items and saw 910mg, 1220mg, 1430mg, and 1760mg of sodium per serving! 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.

Yes definitely. We are actively working on creating low-sodium options of these dishes. Unfortunately, the sodium comes from the traditional Indian spices used in each dish so it's an intricate process to adjust the levels and keep the same quality and taste.

> Unfortunately, the sodium comes from the traditional Indian spices used in each dish

Wat? What spices contain a high level of sodium? Or are you counting 'salt' as a 'traditional Indian spice'?!

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#120

Post by sjg007 »

mitraraman wrote: post #109
EvilEndures wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are going to market as an upscale version of TastyBite with no preservatives that sells niche Indian food? 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 l…

Your use case for TastyBit makes total sense. We're hoping to be a go-to option for a normal meal at home when you don't want to spend the time/money/energy on making a meal from scratch. We are starting with Indian food but will hopefully be expanding to different cuisines, too!

Maybe you could offer low(er) sodium versions. I find 20% daily sodium intake is too much for a dish.
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