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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

#391

Post by anonytrary »

theNextEpisode wrote: post #240

Hey, best of luck to you! I'm in the UK so unfortunately can't try this out. Your product looks great though! To the rest of you - why is there so much negativity and doubt in this thread? HN generally has some negativity but it feels like there's a lot of mansplaining in here. Stop it.

> it feels like there's a lot of ideas in here. Stop it.

If you read the comments, you'd know that there's an unclear market which is a totally reasonable concern. HN is a place where people share their thoughts and concerns.

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

#392

Post by dragonwriter »

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

Different peppers contain various combinations of different capsaicinoids, and spicy dishes fun different cultures also have different non-capsaicinoids as best components. It's very common for someone used to spicy dishes of one culture to not be able to handle those of a different culture, and I'm not at all surprised that people working in food have developed a fair skepticism of people who think (often not inaccurately, for some particular cultural cuisine) they can handle spice (and often food-culture-specific codes that bypass this skepticism by signaling familiarity with the food culture in question.)

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

#393

Post by anonytrary »

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.

> 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.

This is untrue, bastardized Indian dishes tend to overcompensate for not only sodium but also oil. I'm guessing the extra sodium and sugar in your dishes are added to appeal to Americans and keep a longer shelf life...

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

#394

Post by srinivasan »

I did my BS at CMU as well, though it's been around 3 years since I graduated. The Indian food options were not great in Pittsburgh; I remember one restaurant that got shut down by the Allegheny County Health Department. A service like this would have been perfect for me, easy to prepare in crowded shared kitchens or even in my dorm room.

The other options all have their downsides. The imported pre-packaged stuff has a lot of oil (and has an overwhelming amount of garlic) and honestly smells rancid. Frozen options like Amy's are alright, but quite bland. And restaurant delivery, even if available near you, is not very healthy.

It looks like this won't have any of those drawbacks. Excited to try it out.

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

#395

Post by anonytrary »

J_cst wrote: post #33
MrEfficiency wrote: post #4

>The options were expensive 5 Spice packets for 24$ isnt what I consider cheap, given I eat for an entire week on ~20$, including a curry chicken dish. If I misunderstood(like veggies and beans are included), could you mention that in the product page?

Do you mind to share what you eat for 20usd/week and, more importantly, in which region you achieve that? I am in Italy, and I believe that budget would suffice for maximum one day. Thank you

At least in the US, you can make vegetarian Indian dal for seven days' dinner for about $20, probably less. Lentils are incredibly cheap at the Indian store, and onions, garlic and chiles are also very cheap. Vegetarian Indian food is not expensive to make, it's just somewhat difficult and time consuming. The most expensive thing you'll have to buy is the bread. If you try and get your spices at , you will get scammed (small McCormick cumin ~ $5+). You can buy spices in bulk for an order of magnitude less money at the Indian store.

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

#396

Post by apatters »

anonytrary wrote: post #389

> 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 thi…

> What fraction of Indian immigrants spend over 10 dollars on a meal

The very first product they feature on the homepage, the "Out of Office" pack, is $23.50 for 3-4 meals.

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

#397

Post by anonytrary »

dx87 wrote: post #101
christophilus wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a reasonable choice. There are people who won't buy their products if they are GMO, but the reverse is not true. (I doubt there's anyone who will only buy GMO products.)

People won't look for GMO products, but if you have two products with similar tastes and nutritional value, but one is more expensive because it has a "GMO Free" sticker on it, I'd bet most people would go for the cheaper option.

Not sure why you are getting downvoted, because you're absolutely right. Almost no one actually cares about "organic" and "non-GMO". Most in the United States are working paycheck to paycheck, but people on HN seem to consistently forget about their existence.

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

#398

Post by apatters »

vram22 wrote: post #229
0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be fun to taste. The buttermilk I have tried in USA is bitter and tastes acidic.

Interesting. Could be because it is somewhat stale, maybe. (Was it bought from stores, what you tried?) Same happens in India. Fresh home-made buttermilk tastes good, from just after being made up to say 24 hours or so. After that it does get more acidic, particularly in warmer weather or if not kept in the fridge, although I might call it sour instead. Not found it tasting bitter though, as I remember. Could be you…

A quick cooking hack when you're out of buttermilk at home is to add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk. So I always assumed the sourness/acidity was the defining feature of buttermilk. It would be interesting if there were types of buttermilk (and recipes requiring them) where this was not the case.

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

#399

Post by anonytrary »

apatters wrote: post #396
anonytrary wrote: post #389

> 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 thi…

> What fraction of Indian immigrants spend over 10 dollars on a meal The very first product they feature on the homepage, the "Out of Office" pack, is $23.50 for 3-4 meals.

First, you forgot shipping, which is $5.95 (for my location), bringing our total to $10 dollars per meal. The shipping conveniently says $0.00 until you actually proceed to checkout...

Second, each "meal" is 340 calories, which isn't even enough calories for a teenage boy. A teenage boy should be eating at least 700 calories per meal, and that's on a bad day.

So, correcting for real life, these meals come out to about $20 per meal.

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

#400

Post by kamaal »

I really hope you do well. But most of your customers are going to be in US cities, basically the Bay Area, NYC, LA etc. And those places are over flowing with Indian restaurants. Like fresh food cheaper than what you are selling(You can buy a unlimited buffet for as little as $11). Combined with things like Door Dash and Uber eats, the delivery problem is solved too.

There are restaurants at all cost points.

Pre packed food is a huge turn off for most Indians, and Indian-Americans. I mean people who have immigrated, not their kids born in America. Plus Indians are cost conscious.

I see you are selling that curry pack- Rice + curry for $28. You could a month worth Indian food with that kind of money. Indians are very cost conscious people. The bag of Basmati rice(5 kg) costs $15, you also get Idly/Dosa batter, heat and eat chapathis for pretty less too. And even if you shopped lavishly, the grocery bill is a lot less than anything you can sell.

Plus you have to also fight the affiliation people have towards things like Maggi Noodles, MTR and MDH masalas.

The other part making your case worse is the huge supply of Indian shops in most economic centers. Everything is available, like everything- Including cooking equipment. Heck, I had more diverse Indian food in Sunnyvale than I have eaten in Bangalore.

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