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

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301–310 of 454 posts

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

#301
Great idea, will definitely check it out. Love Indian food. The packaging looks great too.

I am not sure about the name though. Buttermilk though is consumed in India more than other countries it does not seem to resonate with your product.

Good luck with the launch

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

#302
post #11

How 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…

Glad you asked! We have a few key differences: - 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 wi…

>This makes our products tastier, fresher and much healthier

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.

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

#303
CMU alum '06, best of luck! I'll certainly be checking this out. Love the design, love the packaging. A little skeptical on the taste and fillingness - that's why I've already bought some chana masala ;) But it'd great to hit home the taste when looking at the product pages. That'd make it easier for me to pull the trigger and spend more money.

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

#304

Great idea. I wish you nothing but success. Few points: * If you're targeting Indians. You need to price competitively. You need to make it hard to resist. * Find a village/s in India where you can procure and pack. * Post some videos of how it's prepared (tasty.com style). Minor website issues: * Fix coloring "Buy it now" barely visible - https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/single/products/daal * When user selec…

Thank you so much for the feedback!

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

#305

Hi! As a South Indian and knowing something about how commissary kitchens work and having studied the NRI market base, I would strongly advise you to pivot. You cannot compete with packaged foods wrt price point. You must also have something unique with no competitors. This market is too crowded. You had me at rasam and buttermilk..it’s because of the radar kinship, I want you to succeed. If you are interested, I can…

Love that you have experience in the Indian food space! I do appreciate the concern and would be happy to chat more if you'd like, to learn more about your findings.

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

#306
I am excited to see this, given the shortage of prepared vegan meal services. Most of the ones that do exist are over the top hippy-dippy and expensive, rather than catering to the "lactose intolerant vegetarian from cultures where that's pretty normal" demographic.

I'm interested to see how filling I find them, since that's the problem I often have with prepared meals, but lentils and beans are a good start.

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

#307

Mitra congrats! I'm dismayed by the folks harping on the sodium content (for health reasons not taste). I think it warrants a deeper look because sodium intake is controversial. But there's lot of evidence that people can have more than 2.3g and still be healthy if you have normal kidney function, etc. Shrug, maybe they just wanted to find something to hate on. New England Journal of Medicine: https://www.nejm.org/do…

Thank you!

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

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Midwesterners complain about how spicy something is, they're not talking about the pain from the capsaicin. They're referring to the unusual flavors from backing spices like cinnamon, coriander, cumin, turmeric, clove, cardamom, paprika, fenugreek, bay, et. al.. These are not "hot" spices, but people still have issues with them.

I'm sorry, this is contrary to every experience I've had. 'Spiciness' refers to heat, not to combination of spices.

It's a common misconception.

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

#309
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bunch of us Westerner looking types went to a Thai restaurant in Mountain View. This was many years ago and I don't recall the restaurant. We ordered some shared dish and were asked how spicy we wanted it, 1-10. We said 10. The whole "are you sure?" thing a few times. They brought the dish out. We said "this really isn't 10 spicy." The server said, "next time say you want it 10 on the Thai scale". Sigh. I live in N…

I think this may be a thing with Thai restaurants in general; it's not just spiciness but also level of fish sauce and even the way the dish is prepared. There's a thing in Chicago about "secret menu" Thai restaurants, which are often written in Thai language (food nerds in Chicago have translated and published them). It might be possible to order things "Thai style" in any good Thai restaurant and get a different, b…

Anecdote: Had a (caucasian) friend who spent a four-month co-op term as a student in India, and when they came back they also had to insist to the local Indian restaurants "yes, I want it extra spicy, like you would serve to an Indian person".

(Like, I realize this is frustrating, but how is the waiter going to know -- from your appearance -- that you spent four months eating Indian food in India?)

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

#310

Hi Raman Firstly congratulations on launching the product. Being myself from india, I love cooking and really like the choices what you have. However I notice one main thing which may cause issue "Made in a facility with meat, wheat and nuts" As you know few majority of Indians prefer vegetarian food and they may be bit skeptical of eating if it was processed in facility with meat. Also you did not mentioned what kin…

Thank you for the support! Being a strict vegetarian myself I understand the concern. We operate out of a shared kitchen space, so other clients in the space make a variety of dishes which include meat, wheat, and nuts. We use our own kitchen utensils, dishes, pots/pans, etc to avoid contamination as much as possible. Maybe one day we can share a video of a "day in the life" of our kitchen staff to show you, but rest assured that we take it very seriously to not cross-contaminate :) Per FDA regulations, we must include that information on our packaging.
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