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Lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr

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Re: Lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr

#141

Post by nashadelic »

tchock23 wrote: post #63

It's a bad idea for founders to be doing their own market research. The prevailing advice from "startup gurus" like Steve Blank is that you must "get out of the building" and talk to customers face-to-face. Here's the problem with that advice (as Dinnr found out): 1. Very few people will tell a founder their idea is bad right in front of them; and 2. Founders suffer from the worst case of confirmation bias ever. They…

Very valid points and I believe Stave Blank addresses these by stating the users decide with their wallets. This is a key part of his strategy on model validation. The early customers have to sign up. He's even against tu I g early customers discount.

Re: Lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr

#142

Post by thesimon »

taigeair wrote: post #136
gingerlime wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm originally from Israel, but have lived in London for 9 years and now in Berlin in the last 3+ years. I can't say I notice a vast difference. Especially if I look at middle-class, educated, well-earning people, which this kind of service targets. There could be some cultural difference, sure. But I think it's relatively small. Other factors, some mentioned on other comments, can come into play. For example: * much…

I also am living in Berlin now and was wondering if you had some recommendations for online grocery deliveries?

Rewe is cheap and supposed to be good.

Re: Lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr

#144

Post by tim333 »

chvid wrote: post #51

I am reading thru this and it is a good, recommended read however I am getting slightly annoyed with academic attitude of the author. Like batman in the cartoon I want to slap him but not for "sloppy market research". But for using the term "market research" at all. (This is essientially the first and maybe the second point reiterated.) Suppose you were a cook with your own restaurant. How do you figure out what work…

It seems to me the best market research is to try your idea with a minimum viable product. In the Dinnr case that I think would be somethig like a website saying "fancy this for dinner we'll deliver it for £25, phone this number", made with some free website builder (wix etc), the bloke with his bike ready to answer the phone, pop to Sainsbury's and deliver stuff, and promotion by mailing their mates on facebook, twitter and the like. Total cost ~0 apart from some time. For feedback they could have phoned any customers a few days later to ask if they liked it. This may have been a better way to start than raising £60k via Seedrs (https://www.seedrs.com/post_investment/9369/round_details/19...) and spending "9 hours a day, 6 days a week, sitting in a cold warehouse in West Acton" perhaps.

Re: Lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr

#145

Post by Rapzid »

DrewAllyn wrote: post #105
ams6110 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe this idea would have worked if you had decent marketing. I'm not convinced. I am surprised to hear it has worked anywhere. I'm not a gourmet cook by any stretch, but I do cook most of my own meals. I would never buy fresh ingredients online. Shopping for the ingredients, perusing the choices and selecting "the best" unblemished fruits, vegetables, and meats is part of the experience of cooking. I don't want…

People may want the occasional experience of being a cook, without being super dedicated. It's like getting the occasional riding lesson, but never buying a horse. Horse enthusiasts say that caring for the horse, raising it, selecting a saddle, etc. is an integral part of the experience, and they might be right, but that doesn't stop places from succeeding at offering riding lessons. I also like to cook, but I buy al…

Would you be interested in a service where you could outline a meal plan for say, a week, and then get all the groceries required for those meals? I think the service would be more valuable as something that fusses the traditional on-line grocery shopping experience with this per-meal ingredients offering based off of recipes..

It would also be neat if you could allow people to store customized versions of recipes. Say they like more carrots in a particular soup, etc.

Re: Lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr

#146

Post by jpatokal »

markdown wrote: post #104

An entrepreneur in New Zealand created such a service in March 2013. It's now worth $27m and is expanding into Australia. http://www.brw.com.au/p/business/mid-market/how_frustrated_c... http://www.myfoodbag.co.nz/

HelloFresh is doing pretty much the same as well:

http://www.pehub.com/2013/09/berlin-based-food-site-hellofre...

I signed up in Australia when they were doing a 50% off promo, figuring on getting a cheap box of groceries and then cancelling immediately. My wife loved it and now we're paying full price.

Also, I found this bit about their target market weird:

urban professionals, couples without kids or with one baby max

Urban professionals without kids have time to shop. It's families with young kids that don't!

Re: Lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr

#149

Post by chippy »

tptacek wrote: post #30

This post links to an e-book by @robfitz called _The Mom Test_, which I hadn't known about before. It's fantastic and totally worth the price; also, that guy can write. I can see so much of my own bad pitching in the "how not to do it" examples he gives.

How do you know that book is "fantastic and totally worth the price" if you hadn't known about it before? Have you purchased and read it in the day between reading the article and writing your comment?

Re: Lessons I learned from the failure of my first startup, Dinnr

#150

Post by thisjepisje »

danielweber wrote: post #67
briholt wrote: post #21

I can't help but have a very negative reaction to this, not necessarily at the author, but at the startup ecosystem as a whole. These are posted as "lessons" as if they were difficult to learn, when this really should be labeled "things no responsible person would ever not know before even considering raising money." Of course you should be self-critical of your product, of course you should test with real customers,…

The fact that people lie to you when doing market research isn't incredibly obvious to a lot of people. That seems to be his biggest problem: he thought there was a market because people said they liked the idea. I loved this post (gets one of my rare upvotes) because the guy does a great job taking apart everything he did wrong. Maybe these lessons should be obvious, but empirically they aren't: people keep making t…

I was told a story about a focus group of women who had to judge a bunch of shawls. Almost every one of them said they preferred the colourful shawls with bold patterns. After they were done each of them got to pick a shawl to take home as a thank you, and they all picked the plain-coloured ones.
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