31–40 of 194 posts
SpoonRocket 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!
I don't understand how anyone could think it has the margins to pay engineers, founders, and VCs.
I'm not an on-demand-food customer because the economics don't make sense to me. I either bring leftovers from dinner to work (I just have extra from dinner and spend an extra minute packing it the night before) or snag something from my work's decent cafeteria. And yet, I still see food deliver signs at my work and see coworkers utilizing them. What's the deal? ROI for food delivery seems ridiculously low in compari…
It was a lifesaver for those times when it was 6pm and you didn't have dinner ready for your kids.
The 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…
"We were exploring different strategic options, but deals fell through last minute."
Of course deals fall trough last minute. It's not like they would fall through a few months in advance.
As 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.
Well, knowing Techcrunch they're probably overreacting, but this is a prediction I can get behind.
Maybe now VCs can invest in companies that don't rely on questionable labor tactics in order to deceive themselves and others into thinking that they're unicorns.
The 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…
I find it strange when companies use this terminology: "We were exploring different strategic options, but deals fell through last minute." Of course deals fall trough last minute. It's not like they would fall through a few months in advance.
As 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/
I looked at them once before, and there's nothing super close to where I live (would need to drive to pick it up), but I'd definitely consider using it if there was someone who cooked within walking distance of me.
I'm not an on-demand-food customer because the economics don't make sense to me. I either bring leftovers from dinner to work (I just have extra from dinner and spend an extra minute packing it the night before) or snag something from my work's decent cafeteria. And yet, I still see food deliver signs at my work and see coworkers utilizing them. What's the deal? ROI for food delivery seems ridiculously low in compari…
It makes a lot more sense if you don't make dinner, which I think is pretty common. (The ROI on that life decision is also ridiculously low.)
How are you figuring the ROI? If you're not factoring in opportunity cost, then you're not even considering it as an investment.
I make well over $100/hr doing contracting work. I can get a good meal delivered for $15. I highly doubt I could cook a decent meal in 9 minutes, and that's assuming ingredients and training are free (time and cost-wise).
The 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! :)