Ask HN: How Should I Produce and Sell a Food Product I Created? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How Should I Produce and Sell a Food Product I Created?

7 pointsdwwoelfel2 comments

I’ve created a dessert that I want to mass-produce and sell to restaurants. I’m capable of producing my dessert on a small scale, but I don’t think that I could make it in quantity without the help of a food manufacturer. I have a nearby factory in mind, but I don’t want to approach them in the wrong way. I’m afraid that they will either ignore me or steal my idea. Any advice on how to approach a food manufacturer?

Instead of going straight to a manufacturer, I could show my prototype to local restaurants before I have a supply in place. However, I’m hesitant to try this because the product is relatively easy to reproduce. They may decide that they’d rather not wait on me to get a supply established, and produce the product on their own. Any advice on how to approach a restaurant?

If the product is easily reproducible then perhaps you should consider going for the premium end of the market - retail that "home made" image even if you have to locate some premises and take on an employee or two to produce the quantities involved.

Branding may be important here - you need to establish an image for the product and then sell that. You will also need to deliver the product to your trial (hopefully later paying) customers in a format that fits in with their processes. So we are perhaps talking packaging of some sort here - at least for hygiene and probably for safe (perhaps stackable) storage.

Try looking for a nearby packaging manufacturer (not too large perhaps turning over less that $10M) with experience in the food market and ideally the catering market if that is where you think your product niche is. They will know a lot about how to manage their side of the business but will also have lots of contacts that could be invaluable to you in the supply and processing areas. They would be less likely to "rip off" your idea and could help a lot in bringing your product to market.

Foodzie.com

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