Looks great, remove the "$" form your pricing.
Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
121–130 of 454 posts
Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
#122I was very excited to see this but after looking at the nutrition details, I was dismayed.
Upma 1 serving has 660 mg of sodium. Khichdi has 1760 mg of sodium. The daily requirement is 2300 mg of Sodium and if you are hyper tensive the requirements are lesser. Is there a reason it has such a high sodium content?
The pricing also seems high to me. I think your should rethink pricing. For staple items like khichdi, upma you should drop the pricing. I am confident that you will make it up with volume. If you price staple breakfast and dinner items too high, you will drive away your core customer base of Indian students. You want Indian students to buy your items in bulk for a month. Will a Indian student spend 200 dollars per month (20 * 10 (1 khichdi + 1 upma)) on your food items? You can use these staple items as lead gen tools to establish a long term relationship with your customers.
Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
#123Reactions from a non-Indian (who loves Indian food):
* I really had to dig to find descriptions of the dishes.
* The emphasis on pre-built combo packs turned me off somewhat. You've only got ~10 dishes, I'd rather explicitly pick the 3 or 4 dishes that intrigued me than sift through all the combo packs to find the one that most closely matches what I want.
Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
#124Hey! 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…
Hey! Thanks for the message. Our products are all priced at $4.50-6, which is quite reasonable for a full meal that includes vegetables, protein, spices, etc.
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!
Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
#125Have 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
Super interesting, thank you!
Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
#126I 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.
Not sure why you're downvoted, but the amount of sodium is definitely high and is a serious concern.
Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
#127How is this any different from MTR's line of products?[1] 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/prod…
Not sure how OP's product is different, but MTR's food is not good at all. Even assuming that a $2.50 pack is enough for you (I find that I need two at most times for my regular hunger), it's not good to eat at all. I usually reserve it for national park trips only (the convenience of popping the pack into boiling water or into the microwave for 2 mins is unbeatable). As far as authenticity goes, most of their stuff…
Totally agree. I consider the MTR Palak Paneer in the category of "Indian Chef Boyardee". I don't know how successful she'll be but OP clearly appears to be highlighting taste and freshness.
Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
#128How recyclable is your packaging and how much packaging do you use per unit of food? Large amounts of plastic waste is a big reason I will never ever use blue apron and similar companies.
Our packaging is 100% recyclable and compostable! We take eco-friendly packaging very seriously. We use a single 4"x6" aluminum packet for each product, and ship all orders in thermal bubble mailers with compostable liners in recyclable boxes. Orders come with 2-4 gel packs that are all reusable and can be sent back to us if you don't need them.
For what it's worth, you're going to have to optimize away gel-packs somehow if you do want it to be handled in an eco-friendly way. The vast majority of people are going to throw those in the garbage. Sending them back to you is a huge hassle, and upcycling them won't scale for repeat customers.
Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
#129Hey! 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…
Hey! Thanks for the message. Our products are all priced at $4.50-6, which is quite reasonable for a full meal that includes vegetables, protein, spices, etc. 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 ser…
I saw one of the meal packs that was around 23.50 and said 3-4 meals, so I calculated it to be around $8/meal.
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!
Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes
#130I was very excited to see this but after looking at the nutrition details, I was dismayed. Upma 1 serving has 660 mg of sodium. Khichdi has 1760 mg of sodium. The daily requirement is 2300 mg of Sodium and if you are hyper tensive the requirements are lesser. Is there a reason it has such a high sodium content? The pricing also seems high to me. I think your should rethink pricing. For staple items like khichdi, upma…
I haven't tried any, but the Chana Masala looks pretty reasonable, and has lots of protein! Put it over some whole grain rice, and I bet it would be pretty filling. (I'm sure you could say that for all of these meals).
https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/cha...