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0 pointsdouble0jimb09y ago0 comments

Because even though there are 300,000 - 500,000 new consumer products launched in the U.S. each year, 99% are generic commodities like a new kind of 2% milk or whatever. The number of new products that are actually interesting is very small, which means that there is a very high cost of discovering and reaching out to enough of these product makers to make the site viable.

and from your letter:

The typical budget of a new specialty food product is 30k - 100k per year total, and almost all of that is allocated for manufacturing/distribution/development/salaries, so the marketing budget at these companies is basically zero.

You've got some unstated/hidden assumptions that I am trying to illuminate.

Why do you believe the actually selling and distribution method of a new product doesn't fall into the list of "critical things founders need to know how to do to have a successful business" and instead can be outsourced?

You built a "selling" product for founders who don't know how "to sell" in the first place, I don't think there should be surprise that it failed. Just my .02

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Alex39179y ago

It wasn't a sales product, we were hosting events to connect startups with bloggers, and also building scaleable promotion tools.

The issue with the food space is that most new products start out at their local farmers market, then get into Whole Foods, and then maybe attend the Fancy Food Show. And that's it for a long time. Trying to displace any of those channels is basically impossible. Building an additional channel is possible, but in addition to needing an exceedingly good cost/benefit ratio, you also need a very large source of targeted inexpensive leads.

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Alex39179y ago

It wasn't a sales product, we were hosting events to connect startups with bloggers, and also building scaleable promotion tools.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse