SpoonRocket (YC S13) Delivers Healthy Gourmet Meals To Users For Just $6 Each

http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/09/spoonrocket/

by ramanujam • 13 years ago

63 20 13 years ago

I want this so much, as I'm sure everyone does. Sometimes food preparation is therapeutic, and if getting food faster is going to make us sit in the office more and stare at the screen longer, well that's more unhealthy. But with the right balance, this is good news and I would surely subscribe right away when it comes to my neighborhood.

johnrob• 13 years ago

I feel no guilt. Buying food is expensive and preparing it requires a lot of labor (not just cooking, but cleaning too). This could be a huge time saver for busy folks - and many of them might use the savings on sleep instead of work.

felixchan• 13 years ago

Add low carb and I'll be you customer for life!

jmcgough• 13 years ago

Tried out the site... the registration flow is a little needlessly confusing.

I hope this comes to SF - I and a lot of others eat at food trucks or restaurants 1-2 times a day just because we don't feel like we have the time.

pkfrank• 13 years ago

I think this is a great idea. I would imagine that attacking one vertical would be another way to satisfy low-cost, high-quality healthy meals on a smaller scale. One attempt I've seen recently focuses on providing "paleo meals" to the CrossFit community. It's called KettleBellKitchen.com, and I have no affiliation.

* Serving a very fanatical, loyal audience, already comfortable spending money on their health ("For Crossfitters, by Crossfitters")

* Smart distribution model to provide a refrigerator at local Crossfit gym (immediately taps into that highly-engaged population)

* Provides true value-proposition in reasonably-priced, paleo meals (otherwise a pain to make / find)

In all, it satisfies a huge demand at a reasonable price in a market that is sure to embrace it

I'd say it's important to have very-strong B2B tactics and familiarity to navigate negotiations with Crossfit Gym owners. Build the correct team (folks who have previously managed prepared-food operations at grocery chains, catering companies, etc - bias towards those with health food angle). Buy raw ingredients in bulk; cook and assemble; receive payment online; deliver to Crossfit gym where they're picked up in a convenient fashion. Seems doable.

egonschiele• 13 years ago

I'm pretty excited about this, but I'd like to see more details on what makes each meal healthy. I've tried a lot of "healthy" meals before and the simple fact is it's hard to make something nutritious taste as good as unhealthy food...butter, salt and sugar make food taste better, it's as simple as that. So the trend I see is:

Make healthy food -> no one buys it because it doesn't taste as good -> make it unhealthy.

There has to be a market for people like me, who choose healthy over tasty...cater to us, please!

lpolovets• 13 years ago

This looks great. Since SpoonRocket is in Berkeley, I wonder if this idea was inspired by the Cheeseboard, which is a great pizza place in that city (http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/pizza/). The Cheeseboard has a pizza flavor of the day, and they just make that single pizza flavor until they close (or run out of ingredients). Because the operation is optimized to deliver a single product, it's very efficient and (I'm guessing) cost effective. Seems like a great business model.

NDizzle• 13 years ago

Best of luck to you guys. Dollars are hard to find for healthy food startups unless, of course, you're part of the correct old boys club.

Me, not being a part of that club, found it very hard to do healthy food delivery in Berkeley/Emeryville/Oakland.

alxbrun• 13 years ago

I like their idea and wish them good luck. But I'm tired to read all these /\w+ fundamentally change the way we think about \w+/

"SpoonRocket was built to fundamentally change the way we think about food.". I'm sorry, but adjusting parameters like delivery time or price or number of choices in the menu does not "fundamentally change the way" I think about food.

That being said, that's a great business idea and I'm looking forward to trying them!

yoshyosh• 13 years ago

Think about a world where this becomes the standard. Not having to go to a grocery store, not having to cook, actually having healthy meals (in 10 minutes or less). You can't even shop or cook in that amount of time.

valueprop• 13 years ago

But then, everybody you know in the city will share the same food photos every day :)

ctdonath• 13 years ago

Suggestion: for an extra $1-2 include a simple but satiating shelf-stable breakfast &/| lunch, something like two packets of oatmeal and a couple "meal replacement" (ex.: Cliff) bars.

pronesmk2• 13 years ago

I saw this story on HN about 15 mins ago and I'm now eating my Butternut Risotto (I work in Emeryville). It tastes great, it's about as expensive as Subway (the cheapest thing near me) and I did get it in about 10 mins. The presentation wasn't the best but I'll definitely be ordering again. Small suggestion: It would be great to get some basic nutritional info on each meal.

BadCookie• 13 years ago

The article doesn't mention it, but it looks like their intent is to charge a $40 per year subscription fee for the service. The site is down, though, so I'm having trouble verifying that.

RolfRolles2• 13 years ago

Unfortunately, the site does not behave gracefully under heavy traffic. Berkeley resident here, tried to order one of each, but the "place order" page just times out and I am not sure if my order was actually placed, or if I should try again.

pronesmk2• 13 years ago

I got a flurry of automated calls and emails once my order went through, I would expect if you have yet to receive a call then your order didn't go through.

RolfRolles2• 13 years ago

I've tried literally about a dozen times at this point. Only once did I get some sort of response from the server; now clicking "place order" simply does nothing. Too bad; they got all of this publicity at the expense of their target audience not being able to use the service. I hope everyone who was interested remembers to try again tomorrow.

Edit: Alright, I finally succeeded. It took less than three minutes to arrive once my order was placed!

The packaged meal: http://imgur.com/JHrZbTd,WDG574u,2z9KKxn,350v3fd#2 Unwrapped: http://imgur.com/JHrZbTd,WDG574u,2z9KKxn,350v3fd#0

"Carnitas Enchiladas $6.00 Braised Pork with Red Onion and White Cheddar Wrapped in White Corn Tortillas Baked in Red Chile Sauce, Served with Black Beans and Spanish Rice"

What it looks like: http://imgur.com/JHrZbTd,WDG574u,2z9KKxn,350v3fd#1

What it tastes like: Rice: very tasty. Beans: the opposite of tasty; this is actually un-appetizing, and if I was the type to waste food, I would not continue eating it. Enchiladas: doesn't taste bad, but is also not very flavorful.

"Butternut Risotto $6.00 Arborio Rice with Tart Apple, Butternut Squash, Sweet Onion on a Bed of Baby Spinach, with Roasted Cauliflower, and Braised Fennel"

What it looks like: http://imgur.com/JHrZbTd,WDG574u,2z9KKxn,350v3fd#3

What it tastes like: Risotto: tastes mushy, kind of like paste. Caulliflower: doesn't taste bad, but is also not very exciting. Bed of baby spinach: tastes like poison. I don't know how to describe it better, but it tastes terrible.

I guess this is a decent meal for $6.00. It's certainly better than fast food. I have a hard time calling it "gourmet" and I'm not sure if I would order it again. (Living in Berkeley, I am spoiled on the local food, which can be properly considered "gourmet").

smokey_the_bear3• 13 years ago

This is awesome and perfect for me, and I totally understand launch issues and will definitely try them again either way. But could someone from SpoonRocket let me know if they think it will be possible to order lunch from them today? I have been trying for half an hour or so and I am quite hungry.

smokey_the_bear3• 13 years ago

Site seems to work again now, and my order should arrive in 4 minutes. If anyone else wants to try.

smokey_the_bear3• 13 years ago

... and it's here and delicious.

SpoonRocket (YC S13) Delivers Healthy Gourmet Meals To Users For Just $6 Each

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