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

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141–150 of 262 posts

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

#141
post #122

This reminds me of Juicero. It seems to be solving a problem that only exists in the Bay area.

Every office with a kitchen and a coffee maker in the world needs to deal with reordering supplies. This doesn't seem massively overpriced nor massively over-engineered. It's basically a scale that auto-presses a dash button for you.

A bag of coffee lasts about a day or 2 in our office. Half of it goes into the coffee machine. Leaving it on a scale to show that it's gone seems to have no added benefit over ordering 12 bags every month and increasing the order if it proves too little. We have under 20 employees using the office daily, so having any more would make a scale especially useless. At home a bag last over a week. If I get 4 at a time, I only need to order them once a month-ish. This product won't make much sense in either of these cases. Also, in the Netherlands there are plenty coffee subscriptions for businesses, adding a scale won't make that much of a difference. I stick with my point that it solves a purely SV problem like Juicero did, it makes no sense to me at scale. (Pun not intended.)

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

#142

This kind of idea is why I'm not going to let my kids major in computer science (at least not just CS). The brains behind this startup could be doing something at least superficially useful, but apparently all they know are the technical 'solutions', and know nothing about real-world problems.

What an odd way to respond to two people willing to take the risk to start a new thing. You can say something similarly flippant and derogatory about most every company at its start. - "Books online?! Feh!" - "Power from hydrocarbons?! Nonsense! Get a real job!" - "Flying machines? We need more bicycles!" It would be better to engage with the founders and ask why they started the company and what they think the can a…

"First they laugh at you, then they fight, then you win" -- Elizabeth Holmes.

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

#143

This reminds me of Juicero. It seems to be solving a problem that only exists in the Bay area.

Food waste is a real problem. If perishables are repurchased automatically, that reduces the amount you need to buy at once, which in turn reduces the amount that can go bad. This problem extends far beyond the Bay Area.

Until you eat out for a week, because life happened, and all that stuff that got delivered goes bad. I don't think adding a scale for coffee changes anything about food waste.

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

#144

This reminds me of Juicero. It seems to be solving a problem that only exists in the Bay area.

Our most vocal and happy customers are regular people who live in the suburbs of Seattle. I've asked a lot of them and most aren't super into gadgets.

What's your plan to scale this? Do you think running out of coffee beans is an issue on international scale or just national?

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

#147
post #56

You could make generic jars with longitudinal light detection strips to determine the fill level.

Is a strip cheaper than a load cell?

Good question, probably not. One other idea I had was a little light sensing pebble that acts like a dash button. When it is exposed in your pile of goods it adds it to your shopping list for approval.

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

#149
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I like this idea, and good luck! Just wanted to give some input on this as I currently work on an ML project at Amazon. The more context possible from the user to define the space at the very beginning will increase accuracy exponentially (at the risk of a too much effort required for user onboarding). Finding that balance is important. Additionally, the user feedback is very important as well. incorporating a way to say yes a shipment came at the wrong time, or no it didn't will also improve model development. However both experiences should be lightweight and seamless - good luck!
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