Why don't you make a whole container with the weight scale at the bottom?
Smart IoT Coffee Container...?
Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
221–230 of 262 posts
Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
you just spent a minute typing out a list of problems that could be solved by their product? stocking,having to vary orders based on usage(that you can't track but very well could with this product)
also juicero didn't "make" juice it just pushed it out of a bag into a glass, this is doing actual analytics and inventory management.
Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
#223I would have loved this for baby formula. But I'm not sure if a family buys that for a long enough time for this to make sense for that. And most people try to avoid it nowadays. It also keeps for a pretty long time.
Our formula stock was a daily discussion. Will this last through the night? Running out was always a red alert though. Hungry babies don't care what time it is.
Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
#224Few of questions 1. People always make weekend grocery trips. Why can't they just add a packet of coffee powder? Why do they have to use you? 2. Amazon just discontinued their dash buttons. There should be a strong reason for it. Do you know what it is? How are you planning to avoid it? 3. The issue with diapers and toilet papers is huge. They take up a lot of volume and have very little weight. Does the scale approa…
I'll answer some of your questions: 1. You asked about "adding a packet of coffee powder". If you're asking about coffee "powder" (i.e. either preground or instant), then you are not the target market. For coffee aficionados, there is a very short window of peak freshness, about 1-2 weeks post roast. This model works great for these coffee folks who care about this freshness. Note supermarket coffee is usually hopele…
The physical buttons did not display the price.
Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
#225The 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!
I can't imagine having sufficiently spacious and sparsely-populated household storage that each of these things could live on its own individual scale, to be monitored in this way.
Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
#226I didn't think this was a problem that needed to be solved. Then I realized that I was running out of coffee and unless I make the trip to the store tonight (tough chance - I have a movie night planned), I will be out of coffee tomorrow morning.
Not the end of the world scenario, but I'm basically a zombie without my morning coffee. Not something I want to experience on my Sunday
Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah love grocery shopping when I’m making a meal or shopping for something unique. Personally, I’m not a fan of shopping for the same stuff over and over.
That's kind of my point. I buy coffee every week but rarely the same one. In fact discovering, comparing and contrasting various beans, washes, roasts and preparation types is half the joy of coffee.
I like coffee but it's now mostly a utility for me. Same with milk and eggs and butter. I have a fixed brand (not that there are too many options in my local market) and I buy it by default
Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
#228I love startup parody as much as the next guy, but this is taking it a bit too far.
Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
#229If this is serious, you are solving the wrong problem.
You assume that you can mail order the coffee your clients want through an API, this is the hard part. It's not hard for people to know and signal that they want more coffee. But even worse, you limit coffee variety to a small fraction, most gourmet beans don't even have websites.
But if we are assuming API-reachable mail ordering, here are some much simpler solutions:
An amazon button next to the grinder.
A one click app with a today view widget. It can even pro-actively suggest that it might be time to order more.
*Automatic re-ordering on a schedule that is easily changeable. Almost everyone will have fairly constant consumption patterns, getting new coffee a few days too early sometimes is not an issue, it won't go bad.
Re: Launch HN: Bottomless (YC W19) – Coffee Restocked with a Smart Scale
#230I would have loved this for baby formula. But I'm not sure if a family buys that for a long enough time for this to make sense for that. And most people try to avoid it nowadays. It also keeps for a pretty long time. Our formula stock was a daily discussion. Will this last through the night? Running out was always a red alert though. Hungry babies don't care what time it is.
Perfect example of where this product is useless. Just have it automatically deliver on set intervals, that can easily be adjusted. Have a bit too much is not an issue, it doesn't have to be fresh. Besides, you should be breastfeeding.