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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

#311

Post by mitraraman »

cbhl wrote: post #223

If you plan on targeting the college market, I would focus the pitch on parents rather than students. For a student, the alternative is to go to McDonald's and spend $8, or to go to an on-campus cafeteria. For a parent, the alternative is to take a whole day (or more) to visit their child and bring a home-cooked meal in the trunk of their car (or on the train/plane/etc). At that price point, $24 is a steal. And the p…

That's a great suggestion -- you might be reading our minds here at Buttermilk HQ ;) Follow us for updates on this!

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

#312

Post by mitraraman »

karthikpaga wrote: post #133

I believe there's a lot more to serving this customer segment. Especially, in terms of engaging the. Often, times it is the details in the "home-made" dishes that differentiate from everything else. It is quite exciting to have the building blocks for having an amazing meal, but the scope of the twist should be customizable. If you could incorporate, a video series like https://www.youtube.com/user/BonAppetitDotCom w…

That's a really great suggestion, hopefully we can do that in the future!

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

#313

Post by mitraraman »

lquist wrote: post #208

Congrats on the HN launch. I remember you used to have more detailed nutritional information on your website. I recall this specifically because of noticing how much sodium is in the product. Am I misremembering? I guess a visit wayback machine would sort this out but thought I’d ask here first.

Thank you! We still have detailed nutrition information available on each product page (see pictures).

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

#314

Post by roguecoder »

koala_man wrote: post #226
dotBen wrote: post #30

I think you should consider your addressable market to be greater than Indian expats - I'm a Brit and I miss my curry living here as much as anyone from India! 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…

>I think you should consider your addressable market to be greater than Indian expats - I'm a Brit 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 hipster foodie market is best catered to by not catering to them.

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

#315

Post by mitraraman »

harigov wrote: post #211

I think the food is slightly overpriced but I would be willing to pay for high quality organic food. However, my key concern is how you deal with allergens. I am very sensitive to certain food items like gluten and dairy which makes it hard for me to find food when I travel. If you can handle food contamination and provide organic gluten/dairy free food, consider me a customer. I can totally see myself buying these f…

I understand your concern, and we're very careful to not cross-contaminate. All of our products are vegan and the only dishes that are NOT gluten-free are khichdi, upma, and our rices. We use our own kitchen appliances and actually cook the gluten-free and non-gluten-free dishes on separate days to ensure that we're being careful. You're right, these are great for trips!

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

#316

Post by foobar1962 »

learc83 wrote: post #270
ForrestN wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you pause to think about why you were asked that series of questions so often? Your experience suggests that the case of a guest overestimating their own tolerance is vastly more common than the case of the restaurant underestimating the tolerance of a guest. Edit: my mother, for example, is constantly enamored of the idea of spicy food, orders it "medium" or even "spicy," and then struggles to eat it.

Warning customers that your food is spicy is one thing. Refusing to accept that your culture isn't the only one on the planet that enjoys spicy food is something else entirely. There are white people who don't like spicy food, and there are Indians who don't like spicy food. There are probably more white people who don't like spicy food than Indians who don't (percentage wise). But if you use this heuristic instead o…

> Warning customers that your food is spicy is one thing. Refusing to accept that your culture isn't the only one on the planet that enjoys spicy food is something else entirely.

When I was waiting in a Thai restaurant (in Australia) I too started do the "are you really sure" thing after a couple of customers ordered the hottest dishes on the menu, then complained they couldn't eat them and wanted a refund.

People would often ask for a "mild" version of, say, Tom Yum soup, which is not really possible without thinning it down with water and losing all the flavour.

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

#317

Post by mitraraman »

deepGem wrote: post #239

"Our team spends hours in the kitchen tweaking each recipe so we can prep and cook it just enough" This is super tricky to achieve. But, are you sure that this process is what makes your food flavoourful yet preservable by just freezing/refrigerating ? Good luck though!

Yes, definitely! There is a lot of testing that goes into each recipe before we turn it into a product.

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

#318

Post by mitraraman »

albertzeyer wrote: post #235

I'm from Germany and I really like all Indian food I tried so far, also when I was in Sri Lanka (and I will be in India soon). So I would love to try something more authentic. When could I expect to order this in Germany?

That's awesome! We don't have international shipping on our near horizon but hopefully will be able to, soon!

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

#319

Post by maxharris »

buildawesome wrote: post #266
maxharris wrote: post #219

Can you please offer a fructose-free option? Or at least tell your customers which products contain added fructose? This matters because there is an ever-growing mountain of evidence that shows that fructose is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Do you mean to say sugar-free option? Or high fructose corn syrup? Tangentially, I would argue that fructose isn't the primary cause of obesity but the excess of sugar (fructose, glucose, sucrose) consumption.

No, I mean specifically fructose, no matter what the source (sugar, honey, agave, HFCS, natural fruit that has been turned into pulp or frozen, etc.)

Regarding your tangential point, watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM. I used to be quite the Atkins dieter, and I didn't gain any weight when I started eating _some_ non-fructose carbs. Thanks to the fact that weight tends to correlate with age, I look a lot younger than most people think I am. (I've been doing this for nine years...)

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

#320

Post by mitraraman »

starving_coder wrote: post #251

I see you are talking about non-GMO ingredients. Are you also planning USDA certification for all/subset of your products? Wish you better than the best.

Yes! We are also working on all-organic ingredients.
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