Comment by ben_jones | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ben_jones | Hacker News Reader

I appreciate the thorough write-up. Here are a few notes from a potential power user:

1) Your service is currently unusable for me because there are only two shops in SF both located in the Mission. As a general rule of thumb I have no interest traveling >= .25mi for coffee.

2) My average monthly spend is ~$150 of primarily take-out coffee split equally between SBux, Pete's, and other.

3) I'll never wait in a moderate or long line (>= 3 people)

4) I usually choose convenience over quality, for example I prefer Pete's coffee but the Starbuck's mobile app AND in-store pick-up process is so streamlined i'll often choose starbuck's (Pete's is catching up).

5) I'm increasingly using Postmates to pick-up coffee + breakfast at local places but not many storefronts list coffee on their mobile menu (even if they sell it).

6) I and many of my peers are trying to cut back on Coffee in lieu of lightly caffeinated teas and other drinks

7) I've yet to find a compelling rewards program that doesn't feel like a shitty mobile game on any of the ordering apps, they all seem to give extremely marginal benefits that masquerade as something significant and not worth my time - looking at you Starbucks app.

8) Though it looks a little raw your app sign-up process was really fluid

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I'm really interested in following the biz-dev process behind a small start-up (that doesn't take on egregious funding) doing the raw canvassing needed to hit critical mass adoption of store fronts. If you can share, what is your methodology to reaching out to mom and pop's at scale?

Really appreciate this level of detail, all of this is really helpful.

In terms of biz-dev I'm happy to share, because it's been the definition of doing something that doesn't scale, but it's worked to this point. When we were getting started, our team + family and friends split up the task of pinning independent coffee shops on Google Maps, by using keyword searches like "local coffee," "espresso," etc. From there, we'd profile these locations by documenting their phone number and then searching the web for an e-mail address and (preferably) an owners name.

Once we had those email address, we'd setup sales campaigns to anywhere we had an e-mail address to - we still do this today.

In terms of our approach at scale, we're hyper-focused on partnerships and reputation. 1) partnering with company's like Square, Odeko and a number of roasters has allowed us to find customers in existing channels, avoiding the need to deploy a massive sales team (that requires egregious funding) to knock on doors 2) reputation is everything in coffee, and the more customers we add, the more referrals we get from existing locations.

Because we support a single vertical, having a few customers that love our product and are willing to voice that praise has gone a long way - our goal is to continue facilitating that level of enthusiasm, in order to grow.

Do you expect apps like DoorDash and UberEats to offer coffee pick-up in the future? I know some stores already allow pick-up for orders.

I fully expect it, but our goal is for that not to matter by the time they do. Both of those co.'s recently announced features that directly compete with other startups: 1) Ubereats announced an order ahead and dine in option, the exact same feature that Allset built as a foundation 2) Doordash announced a group order feature, the exact same feature that Ritual built as a foundation

It's only a matter of time until they attempt to carve into another aspect of food ordering, but we're confident that if we stay focused on supporting our target market (coffee) and building the best possible product for that industry, it won't be a concern.

My company does A LOT of coffee meetings and the actual ordering can be a bit awkward, usually someone senior pays and you get this sort of awkward exchange where the other person offers but then lets the first person pay anyways.

What about including it as a corporate benefit like Classpass where a company can pay for seats and then the seats can get coffee at various places as a benefit? Could definitely see it being a big hit and a much easier sales vertical because now you're pitching entire companies visiting a given shop instead of a single individual. I can dream :)

I think that's a great idea. Not surprising, but our highest volume tends to be at locations in or directly around large corporate offices. That and hospitals.

We'll definitely look into this, I appreciate the suggestion!

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