Show HN: My weekend project, MealMogul.com

http://www.mealmogul.com

by tomblomfield • 15 years ago

44 36 15 years ago

I like cooking, but making a meal for just myself or my housemate seems pretty inefficient.

So I spent a few hours this weekend knocking together a site that allows people to post "meals" that they will be cooking in future. If you live nearby, you can eat a (hopefully) delicious home-cooked meal for £4 - £5. A restaurant in the area would typically cost £10-£15.

It's a little like GrubWithUs meets AirBNB, although I'm doing it purely for fun - I hack away at a startup as a day job.

If you're in London, pop by to one of my meals in the next few weeks!

mattslight3• 15 years ago

Tom, I'm working on a project similar to GrubWithUs (blog.eatsocial.net). We are a team of 3 and just started working every weekend on this about a month ago.

How many of you are working on this?

sgrove• 15 years ago

This looks awesome for someone like me - balancing cooking, healthy food, regular meals, and running a startup time is a major PITA. Food is regularly a burden rather than a joy.

Having a homecooked meal from someone nearby? Sounds totally spot on. It could be quick if I want to leave (could be some social issues), WAY cheaper than delivery, cheaper even than eating out, and presumably it'll be healthier than just drinking tea and alcohol instead of eating (my usual diet).

That said, critical mass if the big challenge here - sites like this take a huge amount of focused effort. Feet-on-the-ground city-specific events, marketing, networking, etc. And mealmogul could face an even bigger challenge for people like me who live in SF without a car, but up on Twin Peaks with few people around.

That said, I'd love to be eating home cooked meals from my neighbors soon, so I hope they can find a way to explode in SF!

jamest• 15 years ago

Completely agree with the sentiment that food often becomes a burden rather than a joy.

Love the idea and congrats on knocking it out in a weekend.

patrickaljord• 15 years ago

Looks like http://www.super-marmite.com/ by @shingara

tomblomfield4• 15 years ago

Yeah, it looks very similar to super-marmite - I'd not seen that before.

I guess the key is just getting critical mass in an area, since it's effectively just a marketplace. Super-marmite seems to be very Paris-focussed at the moment.

There's also housebites.com, but it's a bit more upmarket and focussed on takeaway/delivery.

ebaysucks• 15 years ago

I'd like for this service to take off. People spend much more on eating out than on hotels, so an AirBnb for meals makes a lot of sense.

Just pick one area of London and market the hell out of it. Make sure there is a variety of food styles available every night.

tomblomfield4• 15 years ago

That's the plan - I'm going to try to start in North/Central London. Islington, Camden & Shoreditch (home to the infamous Silicon Roundabout).

Short of actually flyering local homes, does anyone have any ideas for cheap & effective local advertising? I've got some Facebook ads running, but targetting more locally than just "London" doesn't return many people.

ypcx2• 15 years ago

Search Quora.com, if you haven't already, e.g. http://www.quora.com/Startups/How-can-I-market-my-startup-wi... or http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-promotion-plans-used-...

mattslight3• 15 years ago

Advertising this could be one of your biggest costs. Reduce the requirement for advertising by devising a traction plan, if you haven't already. You already have the right idea by targeting a small area first and then expanding.

There is a similar site to yours already launched in London, fairly well established called HouseBites.co.uk - have you studied their model? Mike from HouseBites gave a talk at YCombinator London about 1 or 2 months ago. Did you see this talk? There is a video floating around somewhere.

Some of the logistical issues were discussed which may give you some assistance on for Meal Mogul.

I am also working on a different yet related project EatSocial.net (see blog.EatSocial.net) - think meetups in restaurants. Would you be interested to meet for a chat? I am based in London and would like to hear more about Meal Mogul.

ypcx2• 15 years ago

Add more login options. Currently I have FB and G+ in my /etc/hosts as 127.0.0.2 -- a little detox. I'm writing this comment because I know that from developer's perspective the FB-login-only may seem a good thing (I've been there), but it puts many people off, for many reasons. I know this is only a prototype etc., but for later.

tomblomfield4• 15 years ago

Thanks for the feedback. I'm using Omniauth, so it's really simple to add different login options.

I'll put it on my list for next weekend!

skadamat• 15 years ago

Badass! I wanted to do something like this in Austin, Texas but haven't had the time just yet.

marquis• 15 years ago

I was just talking about doing this with friends every friday, we all love to cook and show off - it makes me spend a week investigating food preparation to impress. I've been in cities before where groups of friends have an open night once a week for a $5 tip. Works really well, especially once you get traction and a random group of friends show up every time. Great concept, good luck!

dgurney• 15 years ago

My advice would be to show more content before you make people sign in with Facebook. Since I don't like connecting things to my Facebook profile I clicked out of the site, when otherwise I might have been interested and spent more time exploring.

jbigelow76• 15 years ago

Too many questions left if somebody isn't willing to sign in to an unknown service with FB (which I am not).

I'm guessing this like an AirBnb for meals?

yangez• 15 years ago

Consider describing the service more on the front page in terms of what it does and how it works. Currently, without logging in, I have no idea. Does everyone pitch in to cook pot luck style? Do you deliver these meals to different places for a fee? Do people just show up and buy dishes? Getting me to sign up is much easier if you resolve this uncertainty.

noduerme• 15 years ago

I really, really like the idea, but I hate Facebook and I won't have an account with them. Otherwise I'd definitely host a meal.

ascendant• 15 years ago

Yeah, maybe next steps could involve logins via other sites like Google, Twitter, OpenID, etc?

ansy• 15 years ago

Or, you know, just use a login name with a password? Why do identities need to be connected by default? Who really thinks making up a name and password is too much trouble? Are the Hacker News and Reddit models really so bad?

kqueue• 15 years ago

I would put some effort and change the default bootstrap css theme because it looks like many other websites.

ralphsaunders• 15 years ago

Don't know what the idea is and it's asking for access to information I have on facebook. Sorry, but no.

drumdance• 15 years ago

Love the idea. In my case I can't really host meals because my place is so small, but I'd love to attend & participate in others.

MercuryCreative• 15 years ago

How do you get around restaurant and food prep regulations? Once an event is public and payment is made for services some very strick government controls come into play. Or am I misunderstanding what is going on here?

zobzu• 15 years ago

"to continue, sign in with FB"

well, sorry, no.

here is the ONLY decent "global sign in" solution that i know of btw:

https://browserid.org/

not going to sign in with anything that offers anything less

araneae• 15 years ago

You need to make sure http://mealmogul.com/ goes to @ as well as the www subdomain.

prawn• 15 years ago

I don't use Facebook so I couldn't get very far. And I like cooking, but I wouldn't be keen to host absolute strangers in my house - I'm guessing that's the idea?

I wondered if you could have something like this but the host would cook a dish if they got a minimum number of takers and perhaps pick-ups were an option/encouraged/forced. So there'd be a tipping point to make a meal happen. If I already have a broad social group, but I want to make a bit on the side from my cooking, it's barely worth the $x to risk having some nutbag show up. But it might be worth me cooking twice a week for a minimum of 10 people each time, and charging $8. Then they drop in at a certain time to eat or pick up their containers/bags and away they go.

dr_• 15 years ago

Interesting idea. While it would be nice to have alternative log in options, I do give you credit for making the facebook log in just that - logging in, rather than asking for permission to post to my wall, etc. etc. etc. which turns me off right away from most sites. Another advantage to using facebook for log in is that fact that you are basically inviting strangers into your home, so it wouldn't hurt to know something a little about their identity in advance.

pamelafox• 15 years ago

There was a site similar to this in SF, HouseFed, but it looks like its down now. Another variation here is Munchery, where the meals are actually made by chefs.

I love cooking and hosting meals at my place, but I don't actually want to meet new people through my meals or make money. Instead, I just want to catch up with people I haven't seen in a while in a way that doesn't involve drinking (the default around here).

But I find it hard to figure out who to invite for meals, because I'm not sure who's around on any given night, and I don't want to invite too many people, and I don't want to invite someone too many times (and have them feel bad for having to say no so much). I wish I could just say "tonight I'm making X, come over if you're interested, reply by X so I can buy appropriate portions."

I've tried using G+ circles and Facebook lists, but everyone's on different networks and has different rates of response.

Anyway, that's my problem, would love an app with a solution. :)

mattslight3• 15 years ago

Another similar site in the UK is HouseBites.co.uk.

They are revenue making at the moment (note sure on profitability).

I am workimg on a similar project st the moment EatSocial.net where the focus is on eating out rather than eating in. Think meetups in restaurants.

Early blog posts about it here: http://blog.eatsocial.net

http:

jurre• 15 years ago

I think it's a cool idea, but I didn't really get what it was at first. I thought I would be able to share recipes and view other people's recipe's, and now I'm disappointed that I don't have that Chili recipe :(

Also, will you be adding closed events where I can invite friends? Seems like a convenient way to not forget who I promised to eat with/cook for and what I'll be making.

FedericoElles• 15 years ago

You need someone for the German localisation/translation? I'm helping you!

swecker• 15 years ago

I've had dinner with many people in their homes, and at my parent's house my mom hosts a home-made dinner every Sunday in an open invite sort of fashion like this, so I am familiar with and really like the idea, but I have a question that a lot of the clients might have.

In this situation (possibly complete strangers meeting for the sole purpose of eating) what is the norm for after dinner socializing? I think it'd be fair to say that some people would just leave after they're done eating, but how does a host go about inviting their guests to leave? Or would hosting such a dinner automatically entail at least a round of talk afterwards?

If you can keep it simple, than it'd be easier to host. I just say this cause my mother's dinners usually last all evening long, and that isn't something I'd personally be willing to host, although a small dinner would be much easier for me to manage.

Not that you should try to regulate it by any means, but would you have readily available advice to users?

Show HN: My weekend project, MealMogul.com

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