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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

#381

Post by pravint »

+ Good name

+ Good package design especially color palette

+ Good website

- Expensive for packaged food

- Nothing that stood out (from comments) as strong differentiator from competitors (that they can not do)

- Unclear target market, this is what I gathered from comments, people

    * Who don't have access to Indian restaurants

    * Who don't have time or know how to cook Indian food at home

    * Who don't have access to competitors products 

       ** Hard to make case here as all major retailers sell one or other Indian food packages, and for everyone else there is Amazon Prime

    * Who have access to restaurants, have time or know how to cook but would instead prefer to spend about same amount of money on packaged food as they would by ordering it with food delivery services.
I might be completely wrong but IMO this is commodity business, unless you are building robots which can cook millions of packages of custom made Indian food for everyone.

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

#382

Post by cncrnd »

Rotdhizon wrote: post #376
cncrnd wrote: post #375

Has YC become a meme? Yet another company doing the same thing, and claiming subjective advantages over the competition. Almost like companies are selected for being part of a story ('poor college student craves mums food') rather than being an actual business.

You can appreciate the willingness to jump and start a business and take it as far as being ready to ship out your product, but I agree this product just seems redundant. It has so many flaws that people have pointed out. Literally the only point the founder made that separated this from the competition was that 'ours tastes better', even though it is way more expensive.

Perhaps I was too dismissive, I wish them the best of luck. Maybe it's actually that delicious.

I'm just surprised to see another food company pop up, it's kind of like the latex mattress boom (Casper, leesa, etc) but those mattresses are ridiculously high margin products.

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

#383

Post by bastijn »

pcdoodle wrote: post #298
bastijn wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Little advice, it's the effort you put in that impresses the ladies more than the final taste. Adding water to impress won't work ;). That having said, as a European person I'm always amazed at the "instant food" culture that seems to be the standard in US. Wonder if it will ever cross the ocean.

Don't get me wrong, I can cook pretty well, I'm going to be pouring the water in secret if these taste good! Maximize results with minimal effort :)

Haha. I imagine you as a little secret chef in the kitchen, keeping her out when she wants to come in to see what's smells so delicious in there. "Oh no no, it's my secret recipe, no peaking!".

:)

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

#384

Post by sandworm101 »

t1o5 wrote: post #200

You will have a hard time balancing the spice levels. You can't satisfy both Indian and non-Indian demographic or you will have to have a spicy, less spicy type of each item. As an Indian, I cant stand the westernized non spicy versions of the supposedly authentic Indian foods. So I wouldn't buy them nor eat in those type of Indian restaurants. Its the same case vice versa. Non Indians may not like the spicy versions…

Been eating and making curry for years. From scratch, not powders. I cannot stand when someone tones down a dish because of my skin colour.

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

#385

Post by transreal »

ForrestN wrote: post #262
monocasa wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, I've been to an Indian restraunt where I've ordered something spicy, and the server asks "are you sure". After responding yes, he asked "are you really sure". This whole thing goes on a third time before he finally goes back into the kitchen. About five minutes later his manager comes out "so I heard you ordered it spicy, now I'm not sure you know what that means". I went to school in New Mexico, we used t…

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.

One thing I feel is missing in the world is a standardized way to talk about chili levels, like a more accessible Scoville scale that includes things like black pepper.

The lack of standardization makes it hard to know what you'll get.

Even in India, from region to region what is considered mild or spicy varies, e.g. a spicy dish in Pune can be less hot than a "mild" dish in Hyderabad.

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

#386

Post by Aloha »

nishs wrote: post #370
sumedh wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You should probably know that chicken tikka masala is British, not Indian then. You have to be careful posting such comments, you might start a war :)

Right. A war over something as meaningless as this.

There have been more fiercely fought wars over more trivial things.

This is HN, bike shedding is a thing.

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

#387

Post by shostack »

tptacek wrote: post #272
js2 wrote: 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…

My photo is on the wall of a Chicago Thai restaurant for their spicy food challenge. They had a scale of: mild, medium, hot. From there they had a second scale of: Thai hot 1x-10x.

If you cleared your plate at Thai hot 7x or higher you got your meal comped and your photo on the wall.

My friend and I did it one day. He ordered a curry and had no problem. I ordered pad thai that was the biggest plate of noodles I'd ever seen and failed because my stomach wasn't large enough vs it being from the heat. Went back and did the curry no problem.

The thing with very spicy foods is at a certain point your tongue checks out and flavors just get muted. Personally I love the Sichuan approach since the peppercorns numb your tongue to the heat a little which for me lets me more fully experience the flavors of the chiles.

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

#388

Post by alasdair_ »

Isamu wrote: post #334
foobar1962 wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 wo…

This. When they ask you "are you sure" they are just wary of getting jerked around by people who really have no idea, and who can't abide having to live with their decisions. They get those people all the time. As an aside, I remember somebody returning a standard grilled chicken sandwich at McDonalds for being unbearably spicy.

>As an aside, I remember somebody returning a standard grilled chicken sandwich at McDonalds for being unbearably spicy.

Maybe it was secretly a McSpicy? https://www.mcdonalds.com.sg/food-menu/mcspicy/

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

#389

Post by anonytrary »

> In terms of market size: there are over 4 million Indian immigrants in the U.S.

This is the wrong market. What fraction of Indian immigrants spend over 10 dollars on a meal -- which is a waste of money at median income? How will you satisfy the nuanced tastebuds of Indian men who only prefer their wife's specific cooking on a daily basis? I would guess your actual market consists mostly of wealthy Americans who think all Indian food is "the same". I don't think too many Indians will go for this, but best of luck.

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

#390

Post by dragonwriter »

enno_au wrote: post #362
MPSimmons wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only two times in my life have I been brought to weep because of how spicy something was, and both times , it was the F'ing Cajuns. I have no idea what they did, but oh my god. They showed up one time at an Octoberfest (!!!) with their damned salsa. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get something that will cut heat at a German festival ? I had to eat a cream puff the size of my head to stop the pain. And yes, ev…

One word of advice, capsaicin is an oil. Trying to dull the pain with milk, etc is a waste of time. You need to dissolve the oil off your tongue and for that alcohol is the best solution (no pun intended). Pure spirits work well to remove the capsaicin and then you can follow up with something that will soothe your raw nerve endings. So, German beer may have been the right answer for you at the time.

> One word of advice, capsaicin is an oil. Trying to dull the pain with milk, etc is a waste of time.

No, it's not; cold milk, largely because of casein, which is lipophilic, is one of the most effective remedies (sugar solution in water is also effective, though somewhat less so.)

> You need to dissolve the oil off your tongue and for that alcohol is the best solution (no pun intended). Pure spirits work well to remove the capsaicin and then you can follow up with something that will soothe your raw nerve endings. So, German beer may have been the right answer for you at the time.

Pure alcohol is effective, and recommended for cleaning things that have been contaminated with capsaicin, but is not a great idea to ingest. Mixtures of alcohol and water that are far more of the latter than the former are not particularly useful.

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