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If anyone knows an expert on Japan (or other non-Chinese Asian nations') noodle typologies and preparation, please put them in touch. We aim to open 300 robotic

If anyone knows an expert on Japan (or other non-Chinese Asian nations') noodle typologies and preparation, please put them in touch. We aim to open 300 robotic service locations across three markets next year.

krapp 8y ago
You're planning to disrupt noodles in Asia? Good luck.
- contingencies 8y ago
  No, we're planning to feed hungry high density urban consumers noodle and soup cuisines in existing high demand with more availability, choice, consistency, time-efficiency and profit margin than manual competition, plus complete personalization support on every order. Think "take-away noodle restaurant minus overheads", 10-20x faster than delivery options, cheaper and closer to the consumer. We're located in the largest province of the largest market in the world, and on track for launch next year in HK/Macau/China. Currently raising Series A with commitments @ $125M pre and accepted in to YCSS advisor track.
  - jpatokal 8y ago
    At any tachigui (standing-only) soba shop in Tokyo, you can get a bowl of noodles made to order and customized to your liking from around 200 yen ($2) and delivered in approx 30 seconds: https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=11660 https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=11660 There are many opportunities for disruption in Japan; this does not seem like the easiest or most profitable one.
    - contingencies 8y ago
      Sure, there are high volume, low cost, single dish restaurants out there. Obviously that's not our focus, even though if they can do it at $2 we can do it cheaper and closer to the consumer, in their language, with full support for personalization, 24x7x365. Traditional food retail suffers from the following limitations: relatively high startup cost (real estate location, rental, renovation, fit-out, licensing), relatively high recurring overheads (staff, management, inventory management) and internal processes unsuitable for specific requirements (religious, medical, lifestyle or other specialist diets, plus other forms of personalization), typically limited hours due to reliance on staff, limited languages of service staff, food safety issues due to human preparation. In short we have enough USPs in enough areas that we don't have to compete on cost - the industry is vast - and if a single location fails to grow adequately we can literally move it within an hour or two.
      - jpatokal 8y ago
        I'm looking forward to your Show HN and wish you luck -- you'll need it.
        contingencies 8y ago
        Sincere thanks. All manner of support for our amazing team's dogged persistence - from digital well-wishing to hard currency - are most gratefully accepted. :)
      - UncleEntity 8y ago
        > ...and if a single location fails to grow adequately we can literally move it within an hour or two. And one would imagine there'd already be a noodle stand sitting there since they've had ~80 years to find the optimum spots (going by TFA). Brings back memories of when they opened a Taco Bell close to the Humboldt State campus and then had to hire 24/7 security to protect it from the anti-corporate vandals who didn't appreciate having tasty tacos within walking distance from campus. I can certainly imagine the mobile robonoodle stands will suffer many an unexplained breakdown when they try to displace another noodle stand.
        contingencies 8y ago
        As an outsider it is easy to severely underestimate the dynamism of mainland Chinese urban environments. Also, according to a recent international study by HSBC mainland Chinese consumer enthusiasm for technology adoption is off the charts versus all other countries surveyed. While resistance to vandalism is a design consideration with any public facility, mainland China has extremely small rates of petty street crime relative to, say, the US or UK. Besides, our business model is not "displace another noodle stand" but "serve frustrated demand wherever it exists" which is typically somewhere else.
  - sushid 8y ago
    So... you are planning on disrupting noodles in Asia.
- baybal2 8y ago
  Not so unreasonable it is. Out of most ridiculous get rich quick schemes, running a stall with with one or two killer dishes is the least ridiculous. I remember either around 2010 or 2011, CCTV ran footage about a famous teenage entrepreneur that was making 6 digits from less than 10 food carts in Shenzhen around Laojie station, when the passage in between first and third line was still above ground. I myself tried their noodles once when I was transiting through China on my way to or from Singapore. Those were very generic Taiwanese style noodles: shanks, sinew, innards, with tomatoes and a lot of spices. Just what a labourer would want after a long day. I remember, there was like 10 metres long lineup. The price was 18 CNY and 25 for extra large serving, that was a lot back then. The story of totally mind boggling HEEKCAA tea chain is very similar as I know. The collective that became the company I work in now once pitched them to manufacture their kitchen appliances. I think nobody can tell what will become the next instant hit of street food. Those things are almost like fashion trends. But I suggest anybody taking on that market to still try going the "single dish restaurant chain" approach. Once you get you fame, you can diversify, but going the other way around is not the best idea money-wise.
  - contingencies 8y ago
    Interesting anecdata but not directly relevant to our operation. You assume a high cost for choice. We explicitly selected our culinary category and business model and have developed our technology to support broad choice at low cost. We are not inventing new dishes and hoping for "the next instant hit street food" (a fickle venture as you rightly point out) but instead offering existing dishes and allowing consumers to make and potentially share their own changes.
    - baybal2 8y ago
      >You assume a high cost for choice. We explicitly selected our culinary category and business model and have developed our technology to support broad choice at low cost. That's not so much about cost as such, but about cost of making a good impression. I hope you don't underestimate how much of a foodie an average Chinese person is. Even the demographic of middle age bachelor labourers is quite choosy and will vote with their wallets. Earning not even bad but just "so so" rep for a restaurant... I believe, for most it is easier to close and start anew than to rehabilitate a brand. That's why I personally believe that going with the best dish you can make, and one with strongest popular appeal is the safest bet to get strong initial impression. That is easy to see in action when you go to any "food street" in any Asian city. Among many stalls, try to find some with "generic fried noodles," and compare the lineup in front of them with ones with fancy decor and more original dishes.
JasonCEC 8y ago
Analytical Flavor Systems may be able to help. Contact info in profile.
- contingencies 8y ago
  Thanks I will get in touch.
Klover 8y ago
I find it a little annoying that there is so much recruiting on HN that I open up the comments section of an article to find someone completely off topic plainly asking people to headhunt for them.
- contingencies 8y ago
  Apologies to offend your sensibilities. I did contribute elsewhere in the thread and did not expect a tree of responses, and do not typically make such comments. To be fair we are an explicitly noodle-focused tech startup in Asia and you are on a tech startup forum reading comments on an explicitly Asian noodle-focused article.

krapp 8y ago

You're planning to disrupt noodles in Asia? Good luck.

contingencies 8y ago
No, we're planning to feed hungry high density urban consumers noodle and soup cuisines in existing high demand with more availability, choice, consistency, time-efficiency and profit margin than manual competition, plus complete personalization support on every order. Think "take-away noodle restaurant minus overheads", 10-20x faster than delivery options, cheaper and closer to the consumer. We're located in the largest province of the largest market in the world, and on track for launch next year in HK/Macau/China. Currently raising Series A with commitments @ $125M pre and accepted in to YCSS advisor track.
- jpatokal 8y ago
  At any tachigui (standing-only) soba shop in Tokyo, you can get a bowl of noodles made to order and customized to your liking from around 200 yen ($2) and delivered in approx 30 seconds: https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=11660 https://digjapan.travel/en/blog/id=11660 There are many opportunities for disruption in Japan; this does not seem like the easiest or most profitable one.
  - contingencies 8y ago
    Sure, there are high volume, low cost, single dish restaurants out there. Obviously that's not our focus, even though if they can do it at $2 we can do it cheaper and closer to the consumer, in their language, with full support for personalization, 24x7x365. Traditional food retail suffers from the following limitations: relatively high startup cost (real estate location, rental, renovation, fit-out, licensing), relatively high recurring overheads (staff, management, inventory management) and internal processes unsuitable for specific requirements (religious, medical, lifestyle or other specialist diets, plus other forms of personalization), typically limited hours due to reliance on staff, limited languages of service staff, food safety issues due to human preparation. In short we have enough USPs in enough areas that we don't have to compete on cost - the industry is vast - and if a single location fails to grow adequately we can literally move it within an hour or two.
    - jpatokal 8y ago
      I'm looking forward to your Show HN and wish you luck -- you'll need it.
      - contingencies 8y ago
        Sincere thanks. All manner of support for our amazing team's dogged persistence - from digital well-wishing to hard currency - are most gratefully accepted. :)
    - UncleEntity 8y ago
      > ...and if a single location fails to grow adequately we can literally move it within an hour or two. And one would imagine there'd already be a noodle stand sitting there since they've had ~80 years to find the optimum spots (going by TFA). Brings back memories of when they opened a Taco Bell close to the Humboldt State campus and then had to hire 24/7 security to protect it from the anti-corporate vandals who didn't appreciate having tasty tacos within walking distance from campus. I can certainly imagine the mobile robonoodle stands will suffer many an unexplained breakdown when they try to displace another noodle stand.
      - contingencies 8y ago
        As an outsider it is easy to severely underestimate the dynamism of mainland Chinese urban environments. Also, according to a recent international study by HSBC mainland Chinese consumer enthusiasm for technology adoption is off the charts versus all other countries surveyed. While resistance to vandalism is a design consideration with any public facility, mainland China has extremely small rates of petty street crime relative to, say, the US or UK. Besides, our business model is not "displace another noodle stand" but "serve frustrated demand wherever it exists" which is typically somewhere else.
- sushid 8y ago
  So... you are planning on disrupting noodles in Asia.
baybal2 8y ago
Not so unreasonable it is. Out of most ridiculous get rich quick schemes, running a stall with with one or two killer dishes is the least ridiculous. I remember either around 2010 or 2011, CCTV ran footage about a famous teenage entrepreneur that was making 6 digits from less than 10 food carts in Shenzhen around Laojie station, when the passage in between first and third line was still above ground. I myself tried their noodles once when I was transiting through China on my way to or from Singapore. Those were very generic Taiwanese style noodles: shanks, sinew, innards, with tomatoes and a lot of spices. Just what a labourer would want after a long day. I remember, there was like 10 metres long lineup. The price was 18 CNY and 25 for extra large serving, that was a lot back then. The story of totally mind boggling HEEKCAA tea chain is very similar as I know. The collective that became the company I work in now once pitched them to manufacture their kitchen appliances. I think nobody can tell what will become the next instant hit of street food. Those things are almost like fashion trends. But I suggest anybody taking on that market to still try going the "single dish restaurant chain" approach. Once you get you fame, you can diversify, but going the other way around is not the best idea money-wise.
- contingencies 8y ago
  Interesting anecdata but not directly relevant to our operation. You assume a high cost for choice. We explicitly selected our culinary category and business model and have developed our technology to support broad choice at low cost. We are not inventing new dishes and hoping for "the next instant hit street food" (a fickle venture as you rightly point out) but instead offering existing dishes and allowing consumers to make and potentially share their own changes.
  - baybal2 8y ago
    >You assume a high cost for choice. We explicitly selected our culinary category and business model and have developed our technology to support broad choice at low cost. That's not so much about cost as such, but about cost of making a good impression. I hope you don't underestimate how much of a foodie an average Chinese person is. Even the demographic of middle age bachelor labourers is quite choosy and will vote with their wallets. Earning not even bad but just "so so" rep for a restaurant... I believe, for most it is easier to close and start anew than to rehabilitate a brand. That's why I personally believe that going with the best dish you can make, and one with strongest popular appeal is the safest bet to get strong initial impression. That is easy to see in action when you go to any "food street" in any Asian city. Among many stalls, try to find some with "generic fried noodles," and compare the lineup in front of them with ones with fancy decor and more original dishes.

JasonCEC 8y ago

Analytical Flavor Systems may be able to help. Contact info in profile.

contingencies 8y ago
Thanks I will get in touch.

Klover 8y ago

I find it a little annoying that there is so much recruiting on HN that I open up the comments section of an article to find someone completely off topic plainly asking people to headhunt for them.

contingencies 8y ago
Apologies to offend your sensibilities. I did contribute elsewhere in the thread and did not expect a tree of responses, and do not typically make such comments. To be fair we are an explicitly noodle-focused tech startup in Asia and you are on a tech startup forum reading comments on an explicitly Asian noodle-focused article.