9 ms·

Munchery CEO Tri Tran's harrowing journey to Silicon Valley

70 points by miraj 11y ago

rjett 11y ago
Rethinking food delivery? Perhaps there's something novel with their real-time routing algorithms, but that's a razor thin edge in food. The food game is an old game. To put that much money to use in a food business, your best hope is to buy distribution facilities where the real estate will appreciate and then convince enough consumers to get out of the mindset of cruising the grocery store freezer isle for convenient microwavable meals. So in the end, you're some premium, made for urban environments, version of lean cuisine. I'm sure there's a market for that, but is it a market worth this much investment?
jobrack 11y ago
A bit tangential, but I grew up in an area with a lot of Vietnamese immigrants - so many, in fact, that I was regularly the only white face in a restaurant or store. Watching the wider world grapple with unhealthy diets and the boring ('boring') healthy alternative, Vietnamese food has always struck me as THE perfect solution. I'd been waiting for a while for someone to start a Vietnamese food chain in Australia and when it did - check out Rolld.com - it immediately blew up. Taking Cuon (rice paper rolls), Bun, Goi, and the perennial favourite Pho, you have the foundations of a week's worth of delicious and healthy meals. (My mouth is watering just writing this) Which makes me wonder why Munchery hasn't been pushing Vietnamese food harder, given its origins. I just don't understand - in a world where Chipotle dominates, where is its Vietnamese equivalent?
- supahfly_remix 11y ago
  The founders of Chipotle started Shophouse which they describe as "the bold flavors of Southeast Asia," so you're on to something. Takeout food is generally unhealthy, though. The pho I've eaten has off the charts amounts of sodium, but it does have plenty of vegetables.
  - viewer5 11y ago
    > Takeout food is generally unhealthy, though. The pho I've eaten has off the charts amounts of sodium Is there something takeout places usually put in it that people who make it at home don't?
    - jedrek 11y ago
      Most people have trouble adding MSG directly to their food, restaurants have no such qualms.
      - greggman 11y ago
        MSG is not unhealthy AFAIK. Wikipedia covers that for one. For anecdata see Japan. Highest life expectancy, most msg usage. And it's commonly used in home cooking
        gtk40 11y ago
        It's just salt and glutamic acid (naturally occurring in mushrooms, tomatoes, etc), and it immediately dissolves to each of those components in water. Usually the problem isn't with MSG but with too much salt at places that also add MSG.
        kbart 11y ago
        Arguably, MSG itself isn't unhealthy (in limited doses), but it enhances taste so much, that it's often used to cover up for poor quality or even expired products. For example, lower quality hot dogs without MSG and other additives are basically inedible, for the same reason junk food is tasty as well.
    - wmil 11y ago
      You can mask poor ingredients by dumping salt and sugar into dishes. Sugar actually stops you from tasting all the salt.
  - donretag 11y ago
    I spent almost two months in Vietnam and ate tons of pho (the easiest thing to order since most restaurants have no menus and spoke no English). The amount of vegetables, if any, was very small.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- imglorp 11y ago
  Vietnamese are probably bored with their stuff and longing for a burger and fries.
- lilcarlyung 11y ago
  The perfect solution is to know what you put in your mouth. You can have a six pack and still enjoy sugars and fats. But you have to be aware of how much carbs, fats and proteins your body needs and how much you actually get. Then adjust your diet to that on the fly. Ate a bunch of fries (fat and carbs) for lunch? Eat a stake and veggies for dinner (protein and fiber). My observation is that unhealthy people are the ones who usually end up at “healthy diet” salad bars, trying to compensate for sugar addictions. The really fit people I usually find at buffets - Asian, etc., which many people in my social circle consider to be “unhealthy diets”. There they can put together their own dish by themselves, depending on how much carbs, fats and proteins they roughly estimate that they need right at that moment.
- _kyran 11y ago
  Footscray?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- thrownaway2424 11y ago
  You have to be kidding. There's a reason every Vietnamese is 5 feet tall at best. Their diet is terrible. Rice and bone broth isn't nutritious. Cilantro should not be your main vegetable.
- sliverstorm 11y ago
  My memories of authentic Vietnamese restaurants and home-cooked Vietnamese food involve very significant amounts of tripe, ligament, collagen, tendon, cartilage, and so forth. Those were in fact my close friend's favorite parts of every dish. I realize that was only one perspective on authentic Vietnamese food, but those things are not popular in the American diet. So I imagine the only form it can take off is as the Vietnamese equivalent of Panda Express.
  - amyjess 11y ago
    > tripe, ligament, collagen, tendon, cartilage As someone who's never had it before, what does it taste like? I eat pho fairly often, but I usually just chicken out and get flank and brisket. I keep telling myself that one day I'll try tendon and tripe out of sheer curiosity, but I'm too nervous.
    - sliverstorm 11y ago
      It's been years (except for the cartilage), but I don't remember it tasting particularly weird. I just couldn't handle the textures. Crunchy, chewy, springy, spongey... The cartilage, in particular, was like chewing carrots crossed with chewing gum, it took forever to break down enough to swallow. If you relish beef or chicken gristle, you will probably love tendon, tripe, etc.
- randycupertino 11y ago
  Also, it's cheap. I regularly get an enormous sandwich and shrimp rolls from this awesome place in Sunnyvale: http://www.yelp.com/biz/cam-hung-sunnyvale http://www.yelp.com/biz/cam-hung-sunnyvale It's almost SUSPICIOUSLY cheap! But sooo good! .. it's like $7 for the giant meal which could feed me for two meals. I always amazed at the quality you get for the price.
LoSboccacc 11y ago
healthy/gourmet food deliveries? innovative. http://londonist.com/2015/02/londons-gourmet-food-deliveries http://londonist.com/2015/02/londons-gourmet-food-deliveries http://www.foodtechconnect.com/2014/04/12/omgfoodtech-the-food-startup-fundraising-frenzy/ http://www.foodtechconnect.com/2014/04/12/omgfoodtech-the-fo... I really can't see where there is the 'rethinking delivery' here - just eat was interesting, as middle tier between me and the food - but I think there still some margin for something like that but with a private fleet of delivery guys, to bring the long tail of brick and mortar establishment over the internet without changing their workflow (much)
howeyc 11y ago
What's the advantage of this compared to heating up a frozen dinner you bought from the grocery store? Doesn't a $10-$15 dollar frozen dinner have quality ingredients too? Or does it taste a lot better if it's frozen for hours compared to days/weeks? Honest questions. These services don't exist in my city yet, so I don't know.
- overcast 11y ago
  I think the idea here, is that those traditional frozen supermarket meals you're referring to, are just loaded with salt and preservatives. These are meant to be more like mom freezing leftovers for you.
  - jonknee 11y ago
    Perhaps salt (depends on the brand), but because the food is frozen it doesn't need a bunch of preservatives.
    - overcast 11y ago
      It doesn't matter, they are. Freezing isn't indefinite shelf life.
      - jonknee 11y ago
        Look at the label sometime, you will be surprised. I just opened my freezer and looked at the back of an Amy's meal, it's not surprisingly real food: http://www.amys.com/products/product-detail/indian-meals/000058 http://www.amys.com/products/product-detail/indian-meals/000... > Rice, onions, peas, garbanzo beans, water, paneer cheese (, distilled vinegar, diced tomatoes, tomato puree, expeller sunflower oil, carrots, sea salt, garlic, cornstarch, turmeric, paprika They even have a line specifically for low sodium.
        overcast 11y ago
        You're cherry picking an example of an all natural, organic, frozen dinner. Yes, they exist, and that's what this guy is doing. But historically, processed, frozen food, is all sodium and preservatives.
MichaelBurge 11y ago
The article says they've raised $115 million to deliver in 4 cities. The populations of those cities are: San Francisco: 837,442 New York City: 8,400,000 Seattle: 652,405 Greater Los Angeles: 3,800,000 For a total of 13.6 million people, or $8.45 per person. I looked at one example by finding an SF zip code, and found they were charging $10.95 for 650 calories(if you assume 2000 calories, you might say they're looking to raise $10.95 at a $33.69 daily food valuation). It's also 59 calories per dollar: https://munchery.com/menus/sf/#/0/dinner/bbq-pork-with-rice-1/info https://munchery.com/menus/sf/#/0/dinner/bbq-pork-with-rice-... I checked a couple other zip codes, and they do seem consistent with $30-$34/day in food 'valuation' by calories. Looking at San Francisco, it looks like people spend an average of $3,937 to buy 48% of their away-from-home food(2000 * 0.48 * 365 / 3937 = 89 calories per dollar), and $4,215 on 52% of their at-home food(90 calories per dollar) http://www.bls.gov/regions/west/news-release/ConsumerExpenditures_SanFrancisco.htm http://www.bls.gov/regions/west/news-release/ConsumerExpendi... So their food is about 50% more expensive than the average in the region, per calorie. If you assume people's expenditures rise with their income exactly, and that the average income in San Francisco was $92,780 from that same link, then you'd expect them to be targeting people who make 1.5 * $92,780 = $139,170 which is the 74th percentile in San Francisco. Applying this uniformly reduces the 13.6 million audience to 3.264 million(edit: Not sure you can apply a percentile like that). I'm not sure what their markup is, but if you assume it's the 50% rather than them simply choosing more expensive restaurants, then they need to generate $3x in sales to generate $x in revenue. So $115 million / 3.264 million = $35.23/person * 3 = $105.70/per person on average to make revenue equal to their investment. If you assume only 10% of its target audience ends up using Munchery, then this rises to $1057/person, or about 96 overpriced meals. They appear to outsource all the actual work to restaurants, but they might get a bulk discount. Maybe that's eaten up by their operations. You could reduce this by a factor of f by assuming that the valuation was some fixed multiple f of their valuation. I've heard 3 is common for f, and probably these are preferred stock so the multiple might be higher. I don't know - it seems like the average yuppie would have to buy way more overpriced delivery Chinese food than I expect is reasonable for their business to make sense. My historical credit card statements show about $6/day on all my food, compared to their 'valuation' of $33.69. I'm not sure I understand where the investor money's coming from though: It's traditionally hard to get money for a restaurant(loans require higher down payments, etc.) since they tend to lose money. Buffets tend to be more efficient than sit-down restaurants like they indicate here, and I've also seen some restaurants hire delivery staff. If they sold it to investors as "We want to set up a couple buffets three times as big as average with some delivery staff instead of a sit-down area", I can't see them actually raising the money. (The 3x comes from me looking at a local buffet in Portland, which was 11,000 square feet, and comparing it to the 30,000 one mentioned in the article. Admittedly theirs probably doesn't have any sit-down room).
jzwinck 11y ago
Pulau Galang, where the protagonist lived as a refugee, is fascinating. It's a small island in a small chain which many people now call by the name of the largest: Batam. Today there are bridges but when the Chinese-Vietnamese refugees were encamped there, Galang Island was totally isolated. Foreign missions built churches which today are very eerie, and the refugees built their own informal economy and businesses at a moment when they had nowhere even to apply for jobs. It took many years to discharge some of those refugees (who numbered a whole lot more than the 10k suggested in this article). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galang_Island https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galang_Island
jmorphy88 11y ago
There is not much interesting about the business itself. More likely, the article's purpose is to advertise for the refugee experience in America.
charleypyn 11y ago
What struck me about the article is how much effort this company has gone through. It equated the business struggle with the harrowing escape of the founder from Vietnam. And after all that struggle (both the escape and spending millions on the business), the company still doesn't have a real business model. It left me with a feeling of hopelessness for the company, not the feeling of triumph I was expecting.
habosa 11y ago
I almost never get food delivery (SF is loaded with good food you can walk to) but I have tried Munchery and it is impressive. The food is delicious and tastes fresh, and they delivery it really quickly since there is nearly no prep time on their side. The only thing is they tend to sell out by the end of the day, you have to order before you're hungry. I think there's a spectrum of food options, and Munchery fits into a slot where I had not previously seen an option: * Shop and cook yourself * Get grocery delivery that you order, cook yourself (Instacart) * Get grocery delivery that someone else chooses, cook yourself (Blue Apron) * Have someone else deliver and cook a fresh meal for you (Munchery) * Have someone else deliver a restaurant meal for you (Seamless) * Go to a restaurant
vkb 11y ago
The stark difference in tone between the beginning of this article and the end was startling. Judging from the set-up, I thought it was going to be a profile of a company working to improve conditions in rural areas, or for immigrants. But the inherent mismatch between the depiction of Tran's very hard early life resulting from the aftermath of war and logistical difficulties in a third-world country made the problem he's facing now, how to make food for middle-to-upper-class households in America, seem laughable and trivial. What problems are start-ups like Munchery trying to solve? Not the conditions that created Tran and many like him, but the issue of those who don't have home chefs. I'm not saying clawing back time from the day and isn't important and isn't valuable. It most definitely is, especially for parents working in the "second shift"[1], after work. But depicting the idea that Munchery is some great force with a vision while ignoring the larger systemic problems in the story (poverty, access to clean water, aftermath of war) that propelled Tran to arrive in America is a failure of journalism. Let's work on - and shed light on - the harder stuff. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Shift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Shift
- huac 11y ago
  > But depicting the idea that Munchery is some great force with a vision while ignoring the larger systemic problems ... is a failure of journalism. That's like, 80% of startup coverage.
- dang 11y ago
  I think it's uncharitable to take Tran's interesting story and turn it into a criticism of him for not working on "harder stuff". You didn't phrase it that way, but it follows from what you're saying, and that's unfair. A person with his background is as free to work on what motivates him as anyone else is. No one would disagree that "harder stuff" is important, but the trope of using this in arguments to belittle what others are working on comes across as finger-pointing. On an actions-speak-louder-than-words level, few of us are in a position to judge others about this, and I have the impression that those who are, tend not to.
  - charleypyn 11y ago
rajacombinator 11y ago
Munchery has the best user experience/delight I've encountered since Uber and Lyft.

70 points by miraj 11y ago

rjett 11y ago

Rethinking food delivery? Perhaps there's something novel with their real-time routing algorithms, but that's a razor thin edge in food. The food game is an old game. To put that much money to use in a food business, your best hope is to buy distribution facilities where the real estate will appreciate and then convince enough consumers to get out of the mindset of cruising the grocery store freezer isle for convenient microwavable meals. So in the end, you're some premium, made for urban environments, version of lean cuisine. I'm sure there's a market for that, but is it a market worth this much investment?

jobrack 11y ago

A bit tangential, but I grew up in an area with a lot of Vietnamese immigrants - so many, in fact, that I was regularly the only white face in a restaurant or store. Watching the wider world grapple with unhealthy diets and the boring ('boring') healthy alternative, Vietnamese food has always struck me as THE perfect solution. I'd been waiting for a while for someone to start a Vietnamese food chain in Australia and when it did - check out Rolld.com - it immediately blew up. Taking Cuon (rice paper rolls), Bun, Goi, and the perennial favourite Pho, you have the foundations of a week's worth of delicious and healthy meals. (My mouth is watering just writing this) Which makes me wonder why Munchery hasn't been pushing Vietnamese food harder, given its origins. I just don't understand - in a world where Chipotle dominates, where is its Vietnamese equivalent?

supahfly_remix 11y ago
The founders of Chipotle started Shophouse which they describe as "the bold flavors of Southeast Asia," so you're on to something. Takeout food is generally unhealthy, though. The pho I've eaten has off the charts amounts of sodium, but it does have plenty of vegetables.
- viewer5 11y ago
  > Takeout food is generally unhealthy, though. The pho I've eaten has off the charts amounts of sodium Is there something takeout places usually put in it that people who make it at home don't?
  - jedrek 11y ago
    Most people have trouble adding MSG directly to their food, restaurants have no such qualms.
    - greggman 11y ago
      MSG is not unhealthy AFAIK. Wikipedia covers that for one. For anecdata see Japan. Highest life expectancy, most msg usage. And it's commonly used in home cooking
      - gtk40 11y ago
        It's just salt and glutamic acid (naturally occurring in mushrooms, tomatoes, etc), and it immediately dissolves to each of those components in water. Usually the problem isn't with MSG but with too much salt at places that also add MSG.
      - kbart 11y ago
        Arguably, MSG itself isn't unhealthy (in limited doses), but it enhances taste so much, that it's often used to cover up for poor quality or even expired products. For example, lower quality hot dogs without MSG and other additives are basically inedible, for the same reason junk food is tasty as well.
  - wmil 11y ago
    You can mask poor ingredients by dumping salt and sugar into dishes. Sugar actually stops you from tasting all the salt.
- donretag 11y ago
  I spent almost two months in Vietnam and ate tons of pho (the easiest thing to order since most restaurants have no menus and spoke no English). The amount of vegetables, if any, was very small.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
imglorp 11y ago
Vietnamese are probably bored with their stuff and longing for a burger and fries.
lilcarlyung 11y ago
The perfect solution is to know what you put in your mouth. You can have a six pack and still enjoy sugars and fats. But you have to be aware of how much carbs, fats and proteins your body needs and how much you actually get. Then adjust your diet to that on the fly. Ate a bunch of fries (fat and carbs) for lunch? Eat a stake and veggies for dinner (protein and fiber). My observation is that unhealthy people are the ones who usually end up at “healthy diet” salad bars, trying to compensate for sugar addictions. The really fit people I usually find at buffets - Asian, etc., which many people in my social circle consider to be “unhealthy diets”. There they can put together their own dish by themselves, depending on how much carbs, fats and proteins they roughly estimate that they need right at that moment.
_kyran 11y ago
Footscray?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
thrownaway2424 11y ago
You have to be kidding. There's a reason every Vietnamese is 5 feet tall at best. Their diet is terrible. Rice and bone broth isn't nutritious. Cilantro should not be your main vegetable.
sliverstorm 11y ago
My memories of authentic Vietnamese restaurants and home-cooked Vietnamese food involve very significant amounts of tripe, ligament, collagen, tendon, cartilage, and so forth. Those were in fact my close friend's favorite parts of every dish. I realize that was only one perspective on authentic Vietnamese food, but those things are not popular in the American diet. So I imagine the only form it can take off is as the Vietnamese equivalent of Panda Express.
- amyjess 11y ago
  > tripe, ligament, collagen, tendon, cartilage As someone who's never had it before, what does it taste like? I eat pho fairly often, but I usually just chicken out and get flank and brisket. I keep telling myself that one day I'll try tendon and tripe out of sheer curiosity, but I'm too nervous.
  - sliverstorm 11y ago
    It's been years (except for the cartilage), but I don't remember it tasting particularly weird. I just couldn't handle the textures. Crunchy, chewy, springy, spongey... The cartilage, in particular, was like chewing carrots crossed with chewing gum, it took forever to break down enough to swallow. If you relish beef or chicken gristle, you will probably love tendon, tripe, etc.
randycupertino 11y ago
Also, it's cheap. I regularly get an enormous sandwich and shrimp rolls from this awesome place in Sunnyvale: http://www.yelp.com/biz/cam-hung-sunnyvale http://www.yelp.com/biz/cam-hung-sunnyvale It's almost SUSPICIOUSLY cheap! But sooo good! .. it's like $7 for the giant meal which could feed me for two meals. I always amazed at the quality you get for the price.

LoSboccacc 11y ago

healthy/gourmet food deliveries? innovative. http://londonist.com/2015/02/londons-gourmet-food-deliveries http://londonist.com/2015/02/londons-gourmet-food-deliveries http://www.foodtechconnect.com/2014/04/12/omgfoodtech-the-food-startup-fundraising-frenzy/ http://www.foodtechconnect.com/2014/04/12/omgfoodtech-the-fo... I really can't see where there is the 'rethinking delivery' here - just eat was interesting, as middle tier between me and the food - but I think there still some margin for something like that but with a private fleet of delivery guys, to bring the long tail of brick and mortar establishment over the internet without changing their workflow (much)

howeyc 11y ago

What's the advantage of this compared to heating up a frozen dinner you bought from the grocery store? Doesn't a $10-$15 dollar frozen dinner have quality ingredients too? Or does it taste a lot better if it's frozen for hours compared to days/weeks? Honest questions. These services don't exist in my city yet, so I don't know.

overcast 11y ago
I think the idea here, is that those traditional frozen supermarket meals you're referring to, are just loaded with salt and preservatives. These are meant to be more like mom freezing leftovers for you.
- jonknee 11y ago
  Perhaps salt (depends on the brand), but because the food is frozen it doesn't need a bunch of preservatives.
  - overcast 11y ago
    It doesn't matter, they are. Freezing isn't indefinite shelf life.
    - jonknee 11y ago
      Look at the label sometime, you will be surprised. I just opened my freezer and looked at the back of an Amy's meal, it's not surprisingly real food: http://www.amys.com/products/product-detail/indian-meals/000058 http://www.amys.com/products/product-detail/indian-meals/000... > Rice, onions, peas, garbanzo beans, water, paneer cheese (, distilled vinegar, diced tomatoes, tomato puree, expeller sunflower oil, carrots, sea salt, garlic, cornstarch, turmeric, paprika They even have a line specifically for low sodium.
      - overcast 11y ago
        You're cherry picking an example of an all natural, organic, frozen dinner. Yes, they exist, and that's what this guy is doing. But historically, processed, frozen food, is all sodium and preservatives.

MichaelBurge 11y ago

The article says they've raised $115 million to deliver in 4 cities. The populations of those cities are: San Francisco: 837,442 New York City: 8,400,000 Seattle: 652,405 Greater Los Angeles: 3,800,000 For a total of 13.6 million people, or $8.45 per person. I looked at one example by finding an SF zip code, and found they were charging $10.95 for 650 calories(if you assume 2000 calories, you might say they're looking to raise $10.95 at a $33.69 daily food valuation). It's also 59 calories per dollar: https://munchery.com/menus/sf/#/0/dinner/bbq-pork-with-rice-1/info https://munchery.com/menus/sf/#/0/dinner/bbq-pork-with-rice-... I checked a couple other zip codes, and they do seem consistent with $30-$34/day in food 'valuation' by calories. Looking at San Francisco, it looks like people spend an average of $3,937 to buy 48% of their away-from-home food(2000 * 0.48 * 365 / 3937 = 89 calories per dollar), and $4,215 on 52% of their at-home food(90 calories per dollar) http://www.bls.gov/regions/west/news-release/ConsumerExpenditures_SanFrancisco.htm http://www.bls.gov/regions/west/news-release/ConsumerExpendi... So their food is about 50% more expensive than the average in the region, per calorie. If you assume people's expenditures rise with their income exactly, and that the average income in San Francisco was $92,780 from that same link, then you'd expect them to be targeting people who make 1.5 * $92,780 = $139,170 which is the 74th percentile in San Francisco. Applying this uniformly reduces the 13.6 million audience to 3.264 million(edit: Not sure you can apply a percentile like that). I'm not sure what their markup is, but if you assume it's the 50% rather than them simply choosing more expensive restaurants, then they need to generate $3x in sales to generate $x in revenue. So $115 million / 3.264 million = $35.23/person * 3 = $105.70/per person on average to make revenue equal to their investment. If you assume only 10% of its target audience ends up using Munchery, then this rises to $1057/person, or about 96 overpriced meals. They appear to outsource all the actual work to restaurants, but they might get a bulk discount. Maybe that's eaten up by their operations. You could reduce this by a factor of f by assuming that the valuation was some fixed multiple f of their valuation. I've heard 3 is common for f, and probably these are preferred stock so the multiple might be higher. I don't know - it seems like the average yuppie would have to buy way more overpriced delivery Chinese food than I expect is reasonable for their business to make sense. My historical credit card statements show about $6/day on all my food, compared to their 'valuation' of $33.69. I'm not sure I understand where the investor money's coming from though: It's traditionally hard to get money for a restaurant(loans require higher down payments, etc.) since they tend to lose money. Buffets tend to be more efficient than sit-down restaurants like they indicate here, and I've also seen some restaurants hire delivery staff. If they sold it to investors as "We want to set up a couple buffets three times as big as average with some delivery staff instead of a sit-down area", I can't see them actually raising the money. (The 3x comes from me looking at a local buffet in Portland, which was 11,000 square feet, and comparing it to the 30,000 one mentioned in the article. Admittedly theirs probably doesn't have any sit-down room).

jzwinck 11y ago

Pulau Galang, where the protagonist lived as a refugee, is fascinating. It's a small island in a small chain which many people now call by the name of the largest: Batam. Today there are bridges but when the Chinese-Vietnamese refugees were encamped there, Galang Island was totally isolated. Foreign missions built churches which today are very eerie, and the refugees built their own informal economy and businesses at a moment when they had nowhere even to apply for jobs. It took many years to discharge some of those refugees (who numbered a whole lot more than the 10k suggested in this article). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galang_Island https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galang_Island

jmorphy88 11y ago

There is not much interesting about the business itself. More likely, the article's purpose is to advertise for the refugee experience in America.

charleypyn 11y ago

What struck me about the article is how much effort this company has gone through. It equated the business struggle with the harrowing escape of the founder from Vietnam. And after all that struggle (both the escape and spending millions on the business), the company still doesn't have a real business model. It left me with a feeling of hopelessness for the company, not the feeling of triumph I was expecting.

habosa 11y ago

I almost never get food delivery (SF is loaded with good food you can walk to) but I have tried Munchery and it is impressive. The food is delicious and tastes fresh, and they delivery it really quickly since there is nearly no prep time on their side. The only thing is they tend to sell out by the end of the day, you have to order before you're hungry. I think there's a spectrum of food options, and Munchery fits into a slot where I had not previously seen an option: * Shop and cook yourself * Get grocery delivery that you order, cook yourself (Instacart) * Get grocery delivery that someone else chooses, cook yourself (Blue Apron) * Have someone else deliver and cook a fresh meal for you (Munchery) * Have someone else deliver a restaurant meal for you (Seamless) * Go to a restaurant

vkb 11y ago

The stark difference in tone between the beginning of this article and the end was startling. Judging from the set-up, I thought it was going to be a profile of a company working to improve conditions in rural areas, or for immigrants. But the inherent mismatch between the depiction of Tran's very hard early life resulting from the aftermath of war and logistical difficulties in a third-world country made the problem he's facing now, how to make food for middle-to-upper-class households in America, seem laughable and trivial. What problems are start-ups like Munchery trying to solve? Not the conditions that created Tran and many like him, but the issue of those who don't have home chefs. I'm not saying clawing back time from the day and isn't important and isn't valuable. It most definitely is, especially for parents working in the "second shift"[1], after work. But depicting the idea that Munchery is some great force with a vision while ignoring the larger systemic problems in the story (poverty, access to clean water, aftermath of war) that propelled Tran to arrive in America is a failure of journalism. Let's work on - and shed light on - the harder stuff. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Shift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Shift

huac 11y ago
> But depicting the idea that Munchery is some great force with a vision while ignoring the larger systemic problems ... is a failure of journalism. That's like, 80% of startup coverage.
dang 11y ago
I think it's uncharitable to take Tran's interesting story and turn it into a criticism of him for not working on "harder stuff". You didn't phrase it that way, but it follows from what you're saying, and that's unfair. A person with his background is as free to work on what motivates him as anyone else is. No one would disagree that "harder stuff" is important, but the trope of using this in arguments to belittle what others are working on comes across as finger-pointing. On an actions-speak-louder-than-words level, few of us are in a position to judge others about this, and I have the impression that those who are, tend not to.
- charleypyn 11y ago

rajacombinator 11y ago

Munchery has the best user experience/delight I've encountered since Uber and Lyft.