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The failure of Sprig

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Re: The failure of Sprig

#71

Post by teh_klev »

> After @sprig, I took off and traveled the world.

Apart from the spelling, where do I even begin with this last tweet? I'm sure that most right thinking folks know what I mean.

Edit: just to clarify, I'm looking at the optics of walking away from a failed business that was a glorified takeaway (that thought it didn't have to obey food health rules - that's yer disruption there eh?) and still having enough money in the bank to "travel the world" and expecting us to feel sorry for the poster. Most normal business owners would never be in that advantageous financial position.

Re: The failure of Sprig

#72

Post by s1mon »

stickfigure wrote: post #66
s1mon wrote: post #57

Sprig's food and delivery was pretty good at times, but the whole thing was so archetypical of venture backed insanity in SF and Silicon Valley. "We're going to throw a ton of money at X and disrupt it with our complete lack of industry knowledge and make a fraction back." It was essentially a decent restaurant with convenient delivery, and no eat-in option. There's no magical hockey-stick growth curve to be had in t…

I don't think that's a fair characterization. Sprig's business model was somewhat novel. It had limited menu items (like 5 choices), prepared in advance and deployed in a fully loaded truck. Nothing was made-to-order. The truck just drove around from business to business and dropped off three #4s, two #1s, etc. It only served peak meal times. Honestly I'm not quite sure why the economics were unfavorable. It should h…

Fair enough. I remembered the limited menus, but I had forgotten that part of the story about the food being already on the delivery vehicle when you ordered. The marginal costs for additional orders still applies. Unless you're taking a lot of bulk orders - say for lunch at an office - each order adds food and delivery costs. There's also the risk that you make too many of something that no one wants, and it gets tossed.

With having to predict the demand, there was the issue (also coming back to me now) that they would often not have a lot of choices left after a short time. The food was sometimes very good, but it was often so-so and too much the same. Or conversely, something that was really good the last time you ordered was no longer available. All of that added up to a certainly level of frustration.

Re: The failure of Sprig

#73

Post by foobar_ »

Ah yes, when a competitor offers a product at negative profit just to drive you out of business is capitalism... except when you do it another country you call it colonialism.

Re: The failure of Sprig

#75

Post by [deleted] »

stickfigure wrote: post #66
s1mon wrote: post #57

Sprig's food and delivery was pretty good at times, but the whole thing was so archetypical of venture backed insanity in SF and Silicon Valley. "We're going to throw a ton of money at X and disrupt it with our complete lack of industry knowledge and make a fraction back." It was essentially a decent restaurant with convenient delivery, and no eat-in option. There's no magical hockey-stick growth curve to be had in t…

I don't think that's a fair characterization. Sprig's business model was somewhat novel. It had limited menu items (like 5 choices), prepared in advance and deployed in a fully loaded truck. Nothing was made-to-order. The truck just drove around from business to business and dropped off three #4s, two #1s, etc. It only served peak meal times. Honestly I'm not quite sure why the economics were unfavorable. It should h…

[deleted]

Re: The failure of Sprig

#76

Post by lyime »

stickfigure wrote: post #66
s1mon wrote: post #57

Sprig's food and delivery was pretty good at times, but the whole thing was so archetypical of venture backed insanity in SF and Silicon Valley. "We're going to throw a ton of money at X and disrupt it with our complete lack of industry knowledge and make a fraction back." It was essentially a decent restaurant with convenient delivery, and no eat-in option. There's no magical hockey-stick growth curve to be had in t…

I don't think that's a fair characterization. Sprig's business model was somewhat novel. It had limited menu items (like 5 choices), prepared in advance and deployed in a fully loaded truck. Nothing was made-to-order. The truck just drove around from business to business and dropped off three #4s, two #1s, etc. It only served peak meal times. Honestly I'm not quite sure why the economics were unfavorable. It should h…

Heard of pizza delivery? Similar business.

Re: The failure of Sprig

#77

Post by jeffrallen »

I don't understand restaurant delivery. Just cook for yourself. You get something cheaper, faster, healthier, possibly better, and the satisfaction of doing something useful with your hands.

Re: The failure of Sprig

#78

Post by baby »

Anecdote: I remember trying it in Chicago! I think they had the first meal for free or something. The food was pretty bad so I never tried again.

Re: The failure of Sprig

#79

Post by baby »

jeffrallen wrote: post #77

I don't understand restaurant delivery. Just cook for yourself. You get something cheaper, faster, healthier, possibly better, and the satisfaction of doing something useful with your hands.

you probably don't understand restaurants either right?

Re: The failure of Sprig

#80

Post by jeffrallen »

fasteddie wrote: post #2

I loved Sprig. I used to use them as my example of a favorite product when asked in interviewed. Problem: I am hungry right now and can't/don't want to cook. Solution: As the founder notes, once signed in, it was literally three taps to get food to my door really quick. Also the design was beautiful. Doordash, UberEats, et. al have certainly (glactically) widened the variety of food I could order, but I always find m…

> Problem: I am hungry right now and can't/don't want to cook

Solution: Pot noodles Solution: Learn to cook Solution: Granola bars Solution: Walk around the corner to your local taco store

Anything but "vc funded disruption of something humans have been successfully managing for thousands of years".

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