71–80 of 194 posts
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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.
Let's chat again about it when oil reaches $100 again
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Well... That's a viable business model, if you want to run a family pizza shop, and have a 50% chance of going out of business in two years. I don't understand how anyone could think it has the margins to pay engineers, founders, and VCs.
I can see how these businesses rationalize short term losses with a bet on a long term play that consists of one of the following outcomes: 1) Monopoly - If they can get enough lock-in on customers, they can outlast their competitors and then eventually move the prices up without losing customers (since there would be few viable alternatives). 2) Economies of Scale - In many businesses, the marginal cost does go down…
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! :)
SpoonRocket was an "on-demand pre-made meal delivery service"? So... Like the pizza place down the street?
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…
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Their food was largely gross and very unhealthy. Mac and cheese daily, often with ranch and/or bacon?! And that Korean dish? I don't know where all they were located, but it felt more appropriate for dorm delivery than SF. Where's the kale man?!
I don't agree that their food was "largely gross and very unhealthy" - mac & cheese was just one of the options, they always had 2-3 other nicer options I was a user since 2013 and enjoyed their stuff, too bad it's gone wonder if sprig's gonna survive..
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You could absolutely get investors. Just not any VCs.
In fairness, that's because VCs can't really make money investing in companies like those.
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Sprig (pricey + limited selection), Bento (very limited selection), HealthyOut (super generic and not enough relavent results), Thistle (very limited selection).
Sprig's food is way better than spoonrocket, so at least their cost is justified. For SF, it's pretty normal pricing. Bento is meh, but munchery probably is the highest quality (and most expensive) of all. Hadn't heard of healthyout or thistle until now, but they don't seem to be on-demand food services?
EDIT: Munchery doesn't delivery for lunch so that's a pretty big limitation there.