SpoonRocket was an "on-demand pre-made meal delivery service"?
So... Like the pizza place down the street?
SpoonRocket shuts down
21–30 of 194 posts
Re: SpoonRocket shuts down
#22The company had actually reached contribution margin positive — it was selling meals for more than it cost to cook them. But due to other costs and the frosty fundraising climate, wasn’t able to get the money it needed to continue operating. Am I reading this correctly, and the business metric this company managed to achieve is simply "selling food above cost", like every deli and diner in the country does? Or is the…
Ignoring the app, and disruptive gimmick, I have to wonder what your average diner could have achieved with $13.5m in funding. You could build a small, well branded chain. Probably selling food above cost to boot! :)
Re: SpoonRocket shuts down
#23As someone who's ordered from spoon rocket dozens of times over the past two years, I'm definitely sad to see it go. A quick timeline (from what I can remember): - Initially started out in Berkeley / Emeryville area by a couple of Berkeley alumni who had previously launched a food delivery startup focused on midnight munchies (aka, unhealthy food for college-type students). Each meal was initially only $6, tasted qui…
> Lastly, what I'm hoping for is the "Airbnb" of food, where regular people could cook meals and sell them
Given the current lay of the land, I sadly find that to be a less likely to survive the regulatory requirements.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/09/11/cbs-2-investigation-u...
Re: SpoonRocket shuts down
#24As someone who's ordered from spoon rocket dozens of times over the past two years, I'm definitely sad to see it go. A quick timeline (from what I can remember): - Initially started out in Berkeley / Emeryville area by a couple of Berkeley alumni who had previously launched a food delivery startup focused on midnight munchies (aka, unhealthy food for college-type students). Each meal was initially only $6, tasted qui…
> Who doesn't like the sound of buying a home cooked meal from a neighbor?
I won't claim this is a rational fear, but I'm personally far more apprehensive about buying food from my neighbor than I am about staying in said neighbor's home (airbnb) or getting a ride in their car (uber / lyft / etc.)
Re: SpoonRocket shuts down
#25SpoonRocket was an "on-demand pre-made meal delivery service"? So... Like the pizza place down the street?
It was like the pizza place down the street if the pizza place made all their pizzas in the morning, put the into a truck and drove it around all day until they were delivered. Enjoy the pizza!
Re: SpoonRocket shuts down
#26Well, this sucks, I've been really enjoying my VC-subsidized services.
Dude, tell me about it, I was a VIP with them, and ordered almost every single day due to a busy schedule, they would show up within minutes... the meatloaf stack, the enchiladas, the pasta, I always enjoyed it except for a couple times in all. RIP I will miss you Spoonrocket!
Now that I think about it more, there was something odd about how most times I would order, the app would say 30-60 minutes which was discouraging, but experience told me it would be sooner, and it always was, like much much sooner, 5 minutes usually. I wonder how many customers didn't use it thinking "why would I wait 30-60 minutes?" oh well.... the drivers were very nice too...
Re: SpoonRocket shuts down
#27As someone who's ordered from spoon rocket dozens of times over the past two years, I'm definitely sad to see it go. A quick timeline (from what I can remember): - Initially started out in Berkeley / Emeryville area by a couple of Berkeley alumni who had previously launched a food delivery startup focused on midnight munchies (aka, unhealthy food for college-type students). Each meal was initially only $6, tasted qui…
> Who doesn't like the sound of buying a home cooked meal from a neighbor?
It'd take a lot for me to consider it, because it creates all kinds of awkwardness if the quality is poor, and I'd have little reason to trust that they'd deliver consistent quality.
It'd need to be far cheaper than any alternative, and I'd need to not afford the alternatives, before I'd consider something like that.
Re: SpoonRocket shuts down
#28As someone who's ordered from spoon rocket dozens of times over the past two years, I'm definitely sad to see it go. A quick timeline (from what I can remember): - Initially started out in Berkeley / Emeryville area by a couple of Berkeley alumni who had previously launched a food delivery startup focused on midnight munchies (aka, unhealthy food for college-type students). Each meal was initially only $6, tasted qui…
> - Lastly, what I'm hoping for is the "Airbnb" of food, where regular people could cook meals and sell them to neighbors on a marketplace with reviews, pictures, etc
This is already happening here: https://josephine.com/
Re: SpoonRocket shuts down
#29Cheap meals with low quality ingredients sitting in a warm box being driven around all day in some random persons car didn't appeal to people?
Sprig's ingredients are actually quite high quality and delicious.
Re: SpoonRocket shuts down
#30Cheap meals with low quality ingredients sitting in a warm box being driven around all day in some random persons car didn't appeal to people?
No, that's not it. As mentioned in the article, Sprig is still making sales.
How long it can survive at current unit economics is a different story.