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From Selling Scoops of Ice Cream to Founding ZeroCater

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Re: From Selling Scoops of Ice Cream to Founding ZeroCater

#41
Just to throw my 2 cents here.

My brief but meaningful interaction with Arram and the team at ZeroCater was nothing short of exceptional. Exceptional care for their service and customer, exceptional determination and conviction. They are an intensely likeable people.

All the best Arram!

Re: From Selling Scoops of Ice Cream to Founding ZeroCater

#42
Thanks for sharing your story Arram. I'm going to be making this a required reading for my college students. Most of the time, young people are advised to find stability and to be level-headed about their goals, and in the process lose their passion. This is reminder that to succeed, you need to be bold, creative, and energetic.

Re: From Selling Scoops of Ice Cream to Founding ZeroCater

#43
post #8

I always chuckle when I hear "MVP" in the same sentence as a RoR/node.js stack, complicated monetization strategies and A/B testing. A bank account and a Google Docs spreadsheet. That's MVP.

Exactly!! This is very true

A Startup has nothing to do with a 'node.js/RoR/GoOnSkis/etc' stack or computes. The association is statistical rather than structural.

The business comes first.

Of course programming helps and saves pain. But my money is on the business knowledge first.

Yes, the 'computer people' like to bash the business people, and it is often true that sometimes they have bad ideas or act like they know the business when they don't. This is like the tech specialists thinking a product will sell only based on its tech specs.

Re: From Selling Scoops of Ice Cream to Founding ZeroCater

#44
Sounds like great execution, but one thing I find remarkable that of all the talk here of 'the internet is going to cut out out the middleman', and most business plans being build on that, this business is basically about adding a middle man where historically none existed (because of slim margins). Quite neat to see it work out so well - it seems a middle man can add value, even if that added value seems small at first sight.

Re: From Selling Scoops of Ice Cream to Founding ZeroCater

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a vegetarian fed by ZeroCater, it feels like a lot of the time the thinking goes something like 'we have 20 meat-eaters and 3 vegetarians - let's get 20 lamb/chicken shish kebaps and 3 vegetables ones!' It sucks to have to make a meal out of sides, and it seems like the meals are structured most of the time such that quinoa salad or mac & cheese are perceived as being sides. And I don't think the solution is to te…

I'm curious, what's wrong with 20 meat/3 veg for these single-serve meals? Most meat-eaters wouldn't be happy being forced to eat the vegetarian option, that's bound to happen unless you provide more food than necessary. The rest of what you said only applies to a lunch not served in individual portions.

Because people help themselves to food, everyone takes like 1/2 meat and then the first six people take 1/2 veg as well. I agree, for single serving meals like sandwiches that are not easily dividable, it makes sense to only have a few vegetarian ones. But those meals are usually at least 60% not-meat for meat-eaters (bread, rice, veggies, whatever). Basically every other meal is not single serving, and the veggie entrees are seen as just another side. It's usually family style.

Re: From Selling Scoops of Ice Cream to Founding ZeroCater

#46
Very inspirational and fascinating account that is probably worth a movie and a book on entrepreneurship. Also reminds me of the trademill quote by Will Smith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doqS35FfcUE. One side note here is also the net risk Arram actually took. He is a single guy without dependents and health insurance to worry about. Without college degree and other specific skills he really had little to lose in terms of other lucrative job offers on hand, for example, compared to a Harvard PHD in CS with a wife and two children would have. That scenario ironically simplifies lot of complexities around for pursuing entrepreneurship.
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