161–170 of 394 posts
Maybe I'm biased, as a fellow YC founder, but I don't understand the negativity. 1) Sudden is the first company that I've actually considered buying instant coffee from. In the US, there's a pretty strong stigma against it, so that's not an easy task. 2) $3 per cup isn't a lot of money, roughly equivalent to a cup of coffee elsewhere in SF. Especially if I don't have to stop anywhere and can just put it in a water bo…
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> The coffee is definitely as good the corner cafe here in San Francisco. I've only tried a few since I don't even live in SF, but IME "as good [as] the corner cafe here in San Francisco" could be anywhere from horrible to excellent, depending on the particular corner cafe.
Okay, fair. I'm from Salt Lake City where the coffee is decidedly not as good. What I meant to say it's as good to me as Philz.
Have you considered letting the coffee speak for itself and offering a paid/free one cup sample to get people interested? I'm not going to take a $19 leap on coffee I don't know if I'll like, no matter what people say or how good your marketing is. The fact that it's currently offered as a subscription makes it even less likely that I'll bite. However, if I tasted your coffee and found it reasonable, I would probably…
I totally get that we have a high barrier of entry. We tried lowering it last year when we offered one-off purchases. However, that just doesn't work with our current user acquisition model. Even if we get a lower number of subscribers their LTV is much, much higher.
I would suggest that you try to get to the point where your LTV of customers trying one paid/free sample and then converting into regular paying customers or subscribers is proof that the product works rather than to get into the bin where the unsubscribe barrier is what keeps you going.
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It's also one of the first things to turn off a new consumer thinking about taking a chance on an unknown brand. You're fighting the reputation of generations of scammers who promised "cancel any time" and either weasel-worded the small print or just outright ignored cancellation requests to charge as much as possible to recurring bills.
Automatic recurring billing is a "dark pattern" from back before anyone made up that term. The only reason it makes more money than one-time purchase or an honest subscription (where customers have to explicitly pay to resubscribe every month or year) is that people will forget or get frustrated when it's time to cancel. Do you want to run that sort of business? "Fun" fact: I bought a used car, only to discover that…
Obviously, we want to build a product that we and our subscribers love and choose to keep subscribing. Right now we have a lot of them.
The biggest thing with the subscription is clear CAC vs. LTV. With our current model this equation works and we can profitably acquire new customers. This allows us to grow, make the product better and bring the cost down.
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Who is your target? If people want good tasting coffee, like a connoisseur, one would like the option of selecting the type of bean, where it is sourced from, how it's roasted, how it's ground, how it's brewed etc. People even vehemently oppose and stand by brewing methods, which to an ordinary person who doesn't care about coffee, wouldn't care about. And if someone is buying instant coffee anyways, I doubt they car…
I wouldn't mind good instant for traveling. I used to use the Starbucks stuff, but they seem to have abandoned it. I've also taken my grinder and a bag of beans with me, which is... less than ideal.
I work in the coffee industry and saw Sudden pop up last year so was interested in the technique and hacked it out. Freeze dried coffee is already what Folgers does and sell you. This is the more artisanal version of that since the big brands have big factories that can pump out plenty of instant coffee grounds. So this is a ramped up volume play on existing techniques perfected by the doomsday preppers. Youtube sear…
Downvote me to hell, but I think people drink too much coffee (and caffeinated drinks), it's just not necessary and is an addictive substance. I think it's a toxic substance honestly, tires the adrenals and heart out. Anyone else on here who abstains from caffeine?
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Yup. In theory making good instant coffee is a pretty simple idea but I can tell you that if I knew what I know about the process I'm not sure I'd start this business all over again.
> I can tell you that if I knew what I know about the process I'm not sure I'd start this business all over again. And yet, those often make the best businesses. Businesses that do not require extensive domain knowledge are easy to copy, businesses that have no 'moat' (barrier to entry) tend to be overrun by competition initiating a very early race to the bottom in price where the only thing that matters is to hit th…
It just happens to come in powder form. (I'm your typical SF tech coffee geek, like a lot of us I'll seek out the good stuff.)
Sell on Amazon already! :)
I'd like to try it for backpacking, but not interested in a subscription. Give an option to purchase a sample pack.
Amen to this. I would be much more inclined to try Sudden Coffee out if there were an option for a one-time purchase, especially if registration were not required (I really don't want to deal with yet another password). As a side question: what's the shelf life of Sudden?
The shelf life is around 4-6 months - we recently started to flush the tubes with nitrogen so as long as you keep the in cool, dry and dark place they'll last for a while.
I just wanted to comment that I LOVE your marketing site. Extremely easy on the eyes, clear, good calls to action. I don't give that compliment easily either, it really is great, succinct, clean. That's my biggest problem with most sites is they're ridiculous and not built for actual sales. Great work PS. I just ordered some. Now if only blue bottle coffee would do this :| I think their coffee is god like. we shal tr…