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Peter here (author) - happy to answer any questions..
by eightturn 7y ago
Peter here (author) - happy to answer any questions..
- ztoben 7y agoYou mention putting purpose over profit, but I assume you still make a reasonable living doing this from the sounds of things. Is this your only job currently? What's the tech stack like? Thanks for a great article :)
- eightturn 7y agoIt makes enough to make me happy. And yes, I have other projects (jobs) that bring in revenue.
- 7373737373 7y agoGreat post! How do you decide which tasks to do yourself and which to outsource? Also, at what point do you consider incorporation?
- eightturn 7y agoWe're an LLC. Regarding tasks -- there really wasn't any deciding. We just starting doing stuff. The farmer grew the Onion, and I built out all the online stuff and logistics. When pain points arose, I tried my best to find software to shoulder those loads. But I made sure to never outsource my phone calls. I answer those. I wanna talk to my customers.
- giarc 7y agoHow does the farmer get the orders?
- eightturn 7y agoOur online orders come through me. The transaction is made online, or over the phone.
- giarc 7y agoNo I mean, do they get a fax? An email? A SMS message when they have to ship a product? Or do you handle that logistics?
- eightturn 7y agoSometimes I print the orders in my office and physically take them to the farm. Other times, I transmit the orders to them online, and they print them at the shed.
- ccostes 7y agoDo you like Vidalia onions? More seriously, how much interaction do you have with the farmer(s)? Seems like there would need to be a lot of communication to make something like this work. Super cool story!
- eightturn 7y agoGreat question (do I like Vidalias).. I was indifferent on them at the start. But when you're surrounded by them, you start eating them. And now, I put Vidalias (or other sweet onions) on virtually anything. Eggs, Chili, burgers, list goes on.. And yes, I communicate quite frequently with the farmer. We got along quite well, and I'm fortunate for the friendship I have with him & his team.
- bduerst 7y agoHah, same here. I was indifferent but introduced to sweet onions while in Mexico when they were being served, grilled whole, by a street vendor. I have been hooked since and buying them now whenever in season.
- iooi 7y agoIs it a 50/50 partnership with the farmer? What was that negotiation like?
- eightturn 7y agono kidding, here was the first negotiation. I'm at the shed, in the front office with the farmer. We talk about whether this could work. We realize it might. I then bring up how to split money. From my side, it seemed fair to pay him more, so I suggested they keep 60% of profit, and I keep 40%. He nodded, and agreed. So we went with that. We changed it slightly over the years, but it still falls around that range. You wanna know funny thing? UPS makes the most on the entire transaction (as we roll in shipping costs on all our orders).
- barneygumble742 7y ago> UPS makes the most on the entire transaction (as we roll in shipping costs on all our orders) And this is what every company finds out eventually. Shipping is key and out of your control. Thus, Amazon starting its own fleet of air carriers.
- omarchowdhury 7y ago> And this is what every company finds out eventually. I wouldn't say every company. Just the ones shipping products that are relatively heavy.
- nathancahill 7y agoNot even. Tried to start a small (friends and extended family) coffee roasting business. Most of the margin shipping a 12oz bag of coffee after all other costs is eaten by flat rate USPS shipping. Only made economic sense at a much greater scale, or for orders > 5lb.
- oh_sigh 7y agoCan you just stick a stamp on the onion and drop it in the mail? I think there is a potato shipping business that does this
- ronyeh 7y agoJust bought a 10 lb box. Supporting a fellow hacker / business person. I look forward to them with my eggs and bacon.
- eightturn 7y agothank you so much! We'll start shipping next Monday, 4/29, and your order will leave the farm that week. We'll also send you a tracking link when UPS gets their hands on your box (fyi)
- mrbill 7y agoI'm guessing that shipping is the biggest part of the cost? I see that a 10lb box is only $5 more than a 5lb box...
- eightturn 7y agoshipping is a large portion of the cost. But I was adamant in rolling it into the cost to keep things simple.
- siavosh 7y agoLikewise, looking forward to my 10lbs as well. I love onions.
- eightturn 7y agoreally appreciate your order - thank you..
- simonebrunozzi 7y agoCould it be a good idea to combine a few orders for San Francisco customers like me? And then use the opportunity to just meet and share our 10 pounds of Vidalias and shake hands?
- virtuexru 7y agoLoved this story. Your writing style is succinct & speaks to the heart. You really should write more essays if possible (found only 4 here: https://www.deepsouthventures.com/essays https://www.deepsouthventures.com/essays). - A captivated reader
- eightturn 7y agothank you. I'd love to write more, it's just time consuming. That onion post took me, off-and-on, over 6 months to write.
- Townley 7y agoWhat's been your feeling on generalizing the idea to other products? There's certainly value in being The Vidalia Man, having connections within the industry, and owning the domain. At the same time, the lessons you've learned (not to mention the platform you've built) could apply to just about any other niche agricultural product, such as ramps in the northeast, or southern flour. How do those two tensions play against each other when it comes to deciding where on the spectrum between "I sell onions and only onions" and "I will become the next Amazon" to fall?
- eightturn 7y agoHonestly, I don't want to build an amazon size business, so there's no tension. Too complicated. I sorta follow the same path at Paul Jarvis, and his book https://ofone.co/ https://ofone.co/ . Right now, from a product standpoint, I focus on one thing, Vidalias. But I'll have to note that we also own the domain name 'Onions.com', so there's possible opportunity for growth down the road. Not right now, though.
- ignoramous 7y agoHi Peter, Congratulations! You're an inspiration. A few questions, if I may: 1. Do you plan to expand to other produce other than just the onions? 2. How did you arrive at your current business model (like min order quantity, areas served, return policy, shipping rates etc)? 3. How do you deal with customer complaints, in particular, with something as prone to decay as organic produce? 4. What significant part of the way you do this business changed after v1? Esp, as multiple customers would have inevitably given you comments and suggestions. 5. You mentioned you're registered as a LLC. You don't intend to raise VC money? For instance, YC prefers not to invest in LLCs. 6. What does the tech stack look like (Shopify? Weebly? AWS? Frameworks? Payments? etc)?
- eightturn 7y ago1. Right now, we're concentrating on just Vidalias. We continue to grow at a pace I'm happy with, so there's no need to get complicated. 2. We learned it as we went along, really. ie, "Oh crap, X happened.. what do we do?" And then we figure out what's best for the customer, and do that. 3. We listen, and empathize. I want all our customers to get the onion they're expecting. If they don't, I'll cover the cost to get them more that meet their needs. 4. The logistic changed the most, by far. Our second year, we added order tracking, and that helped a lot too. (Our first season, the customers would call me and ask where their order was, and I'd manually look it up) 5. We're profitable. I have no interest in raising money or taking direction from a VC. 6. Tech stack (if I even understand what that means).. Wordpress, Shopify
- ignoramous 7y agoThanks a lot. I sincerely wish you nothing but the best.
- simonebrunozzi 7y agoJust chiming in to say that I loved reading your article, and I really wish you all the very best. I'm you have inspired many people in one way or another!
- stjarnljuset 7y agoWhat was the issue with the faulty shipping boxes?
- eightturn 7y agothey weren't strong enough, and crushed heavily during shipment. I had to refund alot of orders, and eat (no pun intended) the cost of the boxes.
- bluekite2000 7y agoWhere do you go to get the box made? What is its cost? And what is shipping cost (for ex within GA) per box? Does shipping cost increase by weight too?
- rdiddly 7y agoHow close is M&T's operation to "organic"? I know some farmers follow a lot of the practices, but don't necessarily want to bother with the cost & hassle of the formal certification. Would love to see them or some future partner get into that. Any interest in that direction, or obstacles in the way?
- eightturn 7y agoWe're about as close to organic without putting the label on it. But we are test growing some 100% organics now, trying to determine next steps with that..
- daanavitch 7y agoHow do potential customers find you? Do you do spend a lot on marketing?
- eightturn 7y agoA lot of different ways. A lot through word of mouth now. Some paid search, some organic search, some through other farms pointing customers our way, some though our billboard on i-95, and some through the magnets I have stuck on my car.
- iscrewyou 7y agoHow do you take care of the shipping? Do you pick up the onions and ship them? Or do you have the farmer do that?
- eightturn 7y agowe ship directly from the farm.
- instaheat 7y agoHey Peter, I'm quite fond of buying domains myself. I just came here to tell you I'm so happy to have found someone with a hobby like mine, though it is more accurate to call yours a business. My wife hates it, but many of the ideas I have had, have started with a domain name and that being my lift off point. I tend to buy 1 year registrations for $8 like they're lotto tickets or something.
- vram22 7y agoIs the image a composite of many? If so, how is it created? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19733080 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19733080
- hinkley 7y agoDo you know anything about the demographic of your customers? Are they people who graduated and moved away, looking for a little bit of home? I'm suspecting a fair number of Gatech alumni, for one. Or people like me who have to negotiate the onion content of dishes very carefully with friends and family (shallots and Vidalias make that easier).
- eightturn 7y agoTypically older demo.. over 35 usually.. I only know this cause I speak to so many customers on the phone.. Most customers are folks who are foodies and have read about Vidalias, or are already familiar with..
- PopeDotNinja 7y agoIf the farmer infrastructure goes away, would you look for another partner, or just find something else to do?
- eightturn 7y agoThese days, the farmer and I are equally devoted to this. If the farm goes away, the farmer and I will start again somewhere else. Highly unlikely the farm goes away though.. The farm could possibly change names down the road.. small things like that.
- PopeDotNinja 7y agoA good partnership is a wonderful thing :)
- mkoryak 7y agoYour post just caused me to make an impulse purchase of 10 pounds of onions. This is the first time this has ever happened to me in my life. Though I've only been 35 or older for a year. Should I expect more decisions like this? :)
- eightturn 7y agothanks so much for the business - your order will leave the farm next week!
- TimD1 7y agoDid you ever consider registering a .onion domain?
- eightturn 7y agonah.. we do own Onions.com, though..
- duiker101 7y agoWouldn't it be better to be a direct redirect to vidaliaonions.com or maybe even have the website under both domains? onions.com is a great domain and it seems a bit of a shame to have the landing page about the domain name rather than the product
- caseyf7 7y agoDid this post on HN lead to a large increase in sales today?