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Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale

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Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale

#41

Post by seizethecheese »

psalminen wrote: post #39
noirbot wrote: post #31

So, I really like this idea, and I've been with plenty of coffee subscriptions over the last few years. My issue/worry is that I don't make coffee at home on a daily rate. I have coffee at the office most weekdays, and then at home on the weekend, and then usually also on one day I work from home. For me, it would be really nice for your service to work out something like "You make 60g of coffee on Saturdays and Sund…

I am in the same boat. This kind of irregular is what has stopped me from automatically re-ordering a la Amazon subscriptions. It would be amazing if this was solved.

Glad to hear it. This is the problem we're addressing. E-commerce subscriptions don't actually work.

Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale

#42

Post by noirbot »

seizethecheese wrote: post #35
noirbot wrote: post #31

So, I really like this idea, and I've been with plenty of coffee subscriptions over the last few years. My issue/worry is that I don't make coffee at home on a daily rate. I have coffee at the office most weekdays, and then at home on the weekend, and then usually also on one day I work from home. For me, it would be really nice for your service to work out something like "You make 60g of coffee on Saturdays and Sund…

Interesting use case. This actually mirrors a lot of our customers, so it's important for our system to take this consumption pattern into account. After a few orders, the system will learn that you make 120g on weekends with sporadic weekday consumption.

That's really nice! One thought - it might be helpful to have some way to seed the system with what you at least think is "normal" consumption?

The one other thing that springs to mind is having some way to mark vacations or other disruptions to schedule? Also potentially a way to mark that you refilled some other way? Often when I'm on a trip, I'll bring home some coffee from a local roaster, so having a way to feed that into the system would be nice.

Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale

#44

Post by timothycrosley »

Bottomless is awesome! I've been part of the service for a while now - and only stopped using it recently because my neighborhood coffee roaster (who I'm trying my best to support!) isn't on the service: https://lovelicton.com/pilrim_coffee_comes_to_oaktree.html.

I don't necessarily have ideas about how to improve or expand your service - however since you are in Seattle and utilize Open Source software, I encourage you to hack on some of those projects with the community at our next OpenSource hackathon in Licton Springs. https://lovelicton.com/images/events/2019/hackathon.jpg (our next one is April 29th).

Thanks for starting an awesome Seattle company!

~Timothy

Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale

#46

Post by seizethecheese »

noirbot wrote: post #42
seizethecheese wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting use case. This actually mirrors a lot of our customers, so it's important for our system to take this consumption pattern into account. After a few orders, the system will learn that you make 120g on weekends with sporadic weekday consumption.

That's really nice! One thought - it might be helpful to have some way to seed the system with what you at least think is "normal" consumption? The one other thing that springs to mind is having some way to mark vacations or other disruptions to schedule? Also potentially a way to mark that you refilled some other way? Often when I'm on a trip, I'll bring home some coffee from a local roaster, so having a way to feed…

Interesting concept for seeding the system. We used to have something like that and dropped it because it wasn't too accurate.

We do have a setting for turning off automatic re-ordering to handle vacations or unexpected bounties of coffee.

Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale

#47

Post by rangersanger »

I hate subscription services and smart home solutions, but you've hit on an actual solution to an actual problem. I have a subscription with Peace Coffee right now that I have to manually manage. I only subscribed because it saves a good bit of cash. I'm sitting on an extra 5lbs of coffee because I'm not good at that kind of thing. This resolves that.

I'd totally sign up today, but why only a dark roast option? Add light roast and I'm 100% in.

Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale

#48

Post by seizethecheese »

timothycrosley wrote: post #44

Bottomless is awesome! I've been part of the service for a while now - and only stopped using it recently because my neighborhood coffee roaster (who I'm trying my best to support!) isn't on the service: https://lovelicton.com/pilrim_coffee_comes_to_oaktree.html . I don't necessarily have ideas about how to improve or expand your service - however since you are in Seattle and utilize Open Source software, I encourage…

Glad to hear you churned for a reason other than the service!

We believe companies should find a way to give back to the open source software they use. We're actively thinking over how best to do this. Thanks for the links!

Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale

#49

Post by noirbot »

seizethecheese wrote: post #25
jchallis wrote: post #23

The biggest stockout problems in my life are those where an inconvenience turns into a big mess. If you can expand your thinking to that problem, I'm very interested. Specifically: Toilet Paper Diapers Diaper Wipes Paper Towels Cat Litter Laundry Detergent Sanitary Napkins / Tampons Auto-coffee refill is something I can avoid. Diaper stockout -- the horror!

Thank you! We're always wondering what the biggest restocking problems are for people. Your list are all products we're planning to address eventually. The real question is: what do we do next ?

The one other thing that could be a good restock is rice. A solid restock on quality rice is something that could be really valuable for folks who cook Asian food regularly, and it's something that people generally make on a pretty regular basis, but may not have a good local store that has quality options for.

Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale

#50

Post by feifan »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #40
seizethecheese wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! We're always wondering what the biggest restocking problems are for people. Your list are all products we're planning to address eventually. The real question is: what do we do next ?

Toilet paper. By far the biggest market out of those listed above, bulky and inconvenient to pick up at the shops while doing other things or to stock up on, catastrophic not to have. You'd need two/three levels of comfort, probably.

You don't just order toilet paper from Amazon, subscription or not? (Although I'd imagine toilet paper usage rate is pretty consistent, so that would be easy to set up a subscription for)
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