At first glance, it sounds like you may be overfitting an overly-comprehensive technical solution to an extremely cost-sensitive/archaic/offline-centered industry.
Explaining the stack you used to build this platform will likely come off as pure alien speak to the restaurant owners you try to sell to.
But that being said, I only understand restaurants in the US, and not Sicily.[0]
Research is a good place to start - first with your own product, then the larger market (how is it being used, how much value does it bring prestofood, how many orders do they process per day).
If the metrics give you conviction, start by talking to some restaurants.
There was a YC company (Trackin) that focused on this exact concept in the US that went through enough trouble that they've since pivoted to catering like Zesty, Zerocater, etc...
Oh, and effort != good product.
[0] Started/ran www.eatmise.com in SF, grossed 35K+, achieved ramen profit in 7 months solely on organic WOM.
I try to follow a low-carb diet and it's really easy to follow when you spend a Sunday cooking everything at once, then the rest of the week, reheating from that same menu.
Don't drink coffee, alcohol, or eat sweets/desserts except for fruit. Exclusively drink water, unsweetened almond/coconut milk.
I've asked some of my friends in college and for them, the notion of eating the same things every day is unfathomable. At least for someone who doesn't value food highly or today's culture around food, the benefits are immense.
The time you save that you'd usually spend casually browsing "where to eat" and "what to eat" is substantial. The time saved cooking along + just thinking about food in general.
It just takes one morning to cook it all together and prep for the week. Potatoes are a nice comfort and chicken is roasted whole.
Breakfast: 2-3 eggs, baked potatoes, 2 strips of bacon, with two corn tortillas.
Lunch (if needed, usually skip): Small bowl of homemade chia seed pudding with dark chocolate + strawberries and/or apple.
I walk on average 6-10 miles/day and run for 4 every other. Try to eat more fats/protein. Don't crash with this menu and can eat x2 volume if particularly hungry that day without worry.
Arguing is healthy. Just depends on how it comes & what it's over. Obviously, if your relationship deteriorates to the point that you are arguing for little value then that's bad - I do think arguing early is better than arguing late. It'll be insightful for you and him, to be honest. You'll learn a little more about yourself and a lot more about him in how the argument progresses and more importantly, how it ends.
All non-tech founders are insecure about their position in the business. I think any competent non-tech founder should be insecure about their position imo, if there is a component of technology to the business.
I was too, so I just kept working and supporting in as many ways as I could think of.
Thankfully, our product was online-to-offline, so there was plenty of work to be done.
Eek, went through the same thing except we did it for a whole year. Skillset or not, sharing core values/beliefs is most important. Because when shit goes south, if you have someone who is just as committed as you are (for the right reasons), there is nothing you can't overcome when the core values align.
Although this is really hard because people show their truest faces when shit goes south. So you won't know for sure unless this is someone who you've spent and enjoyed spending lots of time with for a while.
After spending time thinking critically about the past year, here are some rough open-ended questions I've come up with that I think would shed light into one's core values.
How do you approach solving a problem (any size, scope)? What locus of control do you believe in? Is there value in rolling up your sleeves?
Cool, thanks Jennifer! That was some serious dedication, super admirable. :)
One more question, although I've already asked a lot of you. How did you make sure you conceptually understood what you were learning at every stage, not just simply taking code and just replacing bits of it here and there?
Thanks! Means a lot. It's a good idea - one day, I hope when we're successful, perhaps then writing such findings then may be more meaningful and valuable as learnings for others.
Delivery is not as heavy as a cost as running the kitchen itself. I think food production is so overlooked in these discussions. The operating cost for a kitchen is insane, labor, ingredients, storage, inventory, etc...
Peter Thiel always uses restaurants as a good example of a business model that is so costly that there's no margin left, combined with the impossibility of a monopoly. So you take something that's already tight on margins and you make that even tighter with delivery.
Isn't one of Gobble's selling point is that it's super cheap? like $10/person? I remember seeing that as their main homepage jumbotron, which seemed to successfully target and reassure their audience of parents who wanted to know how much it'd cost to feed a family of X.
We tried a variant of this with Mise very early on but we've since pivoted to a much more stable model with massively improved results & proper regulation.
There are some highlights from what we learned trying "Airbnb for food."
1. Our target was not home chefs, but instead professional chefs. We worked in the industry for several months and identified how difficult being a chef. Lack of progression, opportunity, and a chance to showcase your skill.
2. We rented out a commercial kitchen for chefs, let them work their own hours, and cook the things that they wanted. We took on amateur chefs as an experiment, using their passion and food samples as determinant/predictor of success.
3. We wrote stories for every chef and dish. We'd even take photos of the chefs and edit those to make sure that they looked just as respectable as they sounded.
The Findings:
1. Food quality was inconsistent, ranging from inedible to passable. Because most professional chefs (professional doesn't mean much) and home cooks don't have any experience running a business of their own, their ability to scale and cost-control is poor.
2. That resulted in not only inconsistent food, but insanely overpriced meals ($15 for a bowl of chili, $16 for shrimp & pesto pasta).
3. The amateur chefs we worked with did not understand how to cook outside of recipes and/or they'd cut corners in production. Resulting in some shockingly bad food or overpriced mediocre meals.
4. Because there is no one checking over the food during production, you can't catch people cutting corners. If any of our chefs woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day, one of these things would happen (shitty food, tiny portions, unfulfilled orders).
5. No rational user is going to stick around and experiment their way around a Wild West marketplace that has such a wide range of quality and price. And no amount of "humanization" with stories, photos is going to save the fact that the food sucks.
6. Chefs are really good at pumping up their own food. "Best in the Bay Area", "everyone tells me they love it", "people ask me to open my own restaurant all the time", "there's so much love in this", or "I cooked for X person for Y years". (None of this means anything.)
7. Poor retention (and deservedly so from shitty product) and declining sales. With small orders, our chefs earned minimum wage or worse, which either drove them away ("I quit, fuck you!") or encouraged them to cut even more corners (smaller portions, terrible inedible quality).
8. We experienced ridiculous turnover (someone would quit every week, mad rush to find someone else to replace, unconsciously lowering standards in desperation).
9. At the end of the day, if the food sucks, it sucks. Doesn't matter if it's coming from your "neighbors" or "supporting the local chef down the street".
We've now partner with the best Bay Area mobile food businesses and sell their most popular items. Mise is now sustainable, food quality is consistent/high, customers are really happy (feels awesome whenever we have power users). And we've been able to offer more affordable and better-tasting meals week over week.
Ben (my awesome cofounder) and I take a lot of pride in what we do now, because we know it's awesome food going out to awesome people at affordable prices.
Order for the week ahead, get it all delivered to your door on Saturday, and enjoy a meal on your own schedule. :)
Some highlights from Glassdoor. Strange since Zappos is championed on a regular basis by bschools for customer service, employee satisfaction, and culture.
"It was great the first 4 years, great leader great benefits. it has changed tremendously and not for the good at all."
"The reality is once someone leaves, they become persona non-grata to an extreme. They are not allowed to come to events, if they show up as your guest… Figure out how to say goodbye with some class. Figure out how to let people go with their souls intact. There is over 20% turnover every year."
"The relaxed environment becomes hindering when you need to get work done. Even simply asking others to tone it down or that you need to focus is met with purposeful continuance of whatever it is you tried to stop in the first place. It is a "so what?" environment."
"Many people joke around so often that nothing gets accomplished when it matters or takes a very very long time to do simple tasks. Voluntary outings that are really mandatory. You are viewed as an outsider if you do not act like you're part of the Zappos college fraternity like lifestyle. It is very much like high school or college all over again."
"After getting rid of the attendance policy, people are no longer showing up to work on time. Those that do show up to work are forced to deal with how busy the phones are. There are petty incentives and rewards for actually coming into work and doing what you're supposed to do."
tl;dr sentiment is that Zappos is like high school and college all over again with a lot of politics getting in the way of work. Reminds me a bit of some startups here.
Would this really be cheaper? It's an awful lot of man hours committed to just one area vs. a centralized one that can dedicate the time/effort/resources accordingly based on needs and corresponding urgency.
Also one of the bigger question would still be how would these EMTs have their equipment with them + how would quality of care be ensured?
Well, we've had movies on airplanes for a long time. And I agree it makes things marginally more bearable.
But just because they've moved it from a shared television on the aisle/ceiling that everyone had to lean out to watch from to a little touch-screen in front of a chair hasn't really changed the fact that flying is a waste of time. And very uncomfortable.
It doesn't matter how we categorize Uber. (We can just call it a platform.) What is way more important is what Uber means to a customer. The average person in SF knows is that Uber is cheaper than a taxi, more plentiful in supply, and more convenient.
So it doesn't matter what the discussion is about, since the core product hasn't changed. It provides utility to both the avid users and occasional users like me. And that's why there are people giving these "simpletons" money.
Now with Uber, people who out of budget don't have to ever consider buying/leasing a car. Even those who do have cars are starting to see just how affordable it is to Uber around. http://blog.samaltman.com/uber-vs-car-ownership
As for people using their cars to drive "98% Uber miles", that's their decision. And it's a pretty logical one if you don't have a stable, decent-paying job to begin with.
- You already own the car and are going to be paying for maintenance and gas and DMV fees anyways, which isn't cheap. Since chances are, you're already living/driving around that area, you might as well just drive a few extra miles here and there to earn a few bucks.
- Cars depreciate fast. It's not like you will get substantial value when you resell if you've kept your mileage low. Maybe it's a few hundred dollars, but given the thousands you already paid for the car, you might as well drive it and earn money with it.
- Your car can become an asset if you can make it one via Uber. It can't be an investment if it's losing value as soon as it rolls out of the dealership. Otherwise, it'll just be sitting in your garage as a liability, collecting dust and you'll just be waiting for the eventual yearly bills from DMV/mechanic. Might as well go out and make money with it if you need to offset your costs.
Explaining the stack you used to build this platform will likely come off as pure alien speak to the restaurant owners you try to sell to.
But that being said, I only understand restaurants in the US, and not Sicily.[0]
Research is a good place to start - first with your own product, then the larger market (how is it being used, how much value does it bring prestofood, how many orders do they process per day).
If the metrics give you conviction, start by talking to some restaurants.
There was a YC company (Trackin) that focused on this exact concept in the US that went through enough trouble that they've since pivoted to catering like Zesty, Zerocater, etc...
Oh, and effort != good product.
[0] Started/ran www.eatmise.com in SF, grossed 35K+, achieved ramen profit in 7 months solely on organic WOM.