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Show HN: A new way of eating out – by dropping in

cozymeal.com

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Re: Show HN: A new way of eating out – by dropping in

#14
post #9

It would be incredibly unfortunate if this were found to be illegal. You take many of the same health risks when eating at a friend's house. The only difference is you don't pay your friend.

It seems that the real safeguard in all of these "sharing economy" things is the transaction record. If someone screws someone over on, say, airbnb, there are bad reviews etc. Maybe bitcoin's mechanism can be used to build public irrevocable reputation around these sorts of things. Different world than having a mediator like airbnb choosing the reviews to publish.

Re: Show HN: A new way of eating out – by dropping in

#16
This is a very cool concept and I love how it can work together with AirBnB. If there were a similar platform for long-distance travel then I think the sharing economy will help people explore the world in amazing new ways. Not that ride-share and similar services don't exist, but some means to travel international would be amazing. But I can't even imagine the legal problems such a service would face.

Re: Show HN: A new way of eating out – by dropping in

#17
Genuinely awesome concept. I hope you find a way to make it work within food/zoning regs because I think this is much more positive and communal than many other 'sharing economy' ideas.

It'd be great if you could figure out a way to provide social trust that wasn't through a FB login though.

Re: Show HN: A new way of eating out – by dropping in

#19
It occurs to me that x-sharing startups in the mold of Airbnb/Uber may be most likely to overcome their regulatory challenges not through litigation or lobbying, but simply due to more of them popping up and the increased likelihood that the average person knows someone who has benefitted ("my friend's daughter who paid her way through law school driving for Uber", "my cousin the line cook who was offered the opportunity of a pop-up run at an established restaurant after a few successful months on Cozymeal", etc.)

Also, I wonder if Cozymeal might find opportunities on the operations/materials side of this equation. I know that e.g. sourcing and selecting ingredients is frequently a very personal experience for chefs and restauranteurs, but I can't help but think there could be some upside to facilitating volume pricing of certain ingredients for members within a particular region, not unlike how members of hobbyist electronics groups will organize group buys of components. If ingredients are a bridge too far, they might apply the same logic to more practical items—flatware, napkins, menus, and so forth.

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