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I wish there was a "Stripe Atlas" for brick and mortar businesses. 90% of the work to start a restaurant, cafe, shop, etc., must be the near identical to others

by tempsy 7y ago

I wish there was a "Stripe Atlas" for brick and mortar businesses. 90% of the work to start a restaurant, cafe, shop, etc., must be the near identical to others colocated in the same city/state. The rise of "ghost kitchens" tries to solve this in some way but I think there's opportunity to go further.

petra 7y ago
1. I wonder why we are not seeing "cloud brewing"? The process, as they describe it, seems very standard. 2. For restaurants, it's either "ghost/cloud kitchens" or franchises. If you go outside those, it's possible that restaurants require too much uniqueness and too much risk to fit a standardized model.
- catbird 7y ago
  Cloud brewing is definitely a thing, but I think the name for it is "contract brewing." A larger brewery will allow a smaller/startup brewer to rent their facilities to make a few batches.
- lflux 7y ago
  It’s not uncommon for craft brewers to contract out the brewing of bigger runs. Evil Twin (and I think his brother, Mikkeller as well) was exclusively a “phantom brewer” who developed recipes and then had other breweries brew them on contract. Sometimes it’s bigger established breweries that do a few batches on contract for them, but there’s also explicit contract breweries like De Proefbrouwerij
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- jcomis 7y ago
  contract brewing is huge. Usually it's used when a small brewery wins a national award (GABF Gold is a popular category) or if they want to start distributing outside of just the taproom. http://www.sleepinggiantbrewing.com/ http://www.sleepinggiantbrewing.com/ is an example of one such contract only business.
- mortenjorck 7y ago
  In Chicago, I’ve started to see “co-brewing” spaces where a few smaller breweries share a single brewing and taproom space.
- stdbrouw 7y ago
  As others point out, contract brewing is definitely a thing, but a better comparison than cloud computing would be shared hosting: you're stuck with whatever stack they happen to have installed, no admin rights, and you get the same dismal bandwidth as all other tenants. Or back to brewing: yup, the process is fairly standard – and how could it not be – but great breweries tend to be great not just because they have good recipes, but often because they have mastered their gear and have perfected their processes across the board. Only very few contract breweries are that good.
  - petra 7y ago
    Why are only few breweries that good ? And is that something that can, with the right investment be scaled, and offered affordably ? Or is it inherently expensive ?
triceratops 7y ago
Restaurants and other brick-and-mortar food businesses are highly location dependent. Only way to find the right location is boots on the ground, getting a good real estate agent, real estate lawyer etc. That's a rather more bespoke service than something like Stripe Atlas could provide. As for incorporation, tax filing, payroll and everything else a business needs, there are already companies providing those services to the food industry. Maybe they're ripe for disruption by a superior experience though?

by tempsy 7y ago

petra 7y ago

1. I wonder why we are not seeing "cloud brewing"? The process, as they describe it, seems very standard. 2. For restaurants, it's either "ghost/cloud kitchens" or franchises. If you go outside those, it's possible that restaurants require too much uniqueness and too much risk to fit a standardized model.

catbird 7y ago
Cloud brewing is definitely a thing, but I think the name for it is "contract brewing." A larger brewery will allow a smaller/startup brewer to rent their facilities to make a few batches.
lflux 7y ago
It’s not uncommon for craft brewers to contract out the brewing of bigger runs. Evil Twin (and I think his brother, Mikkeller as well) was exclusively a “phantom brewer” who developed recipes and then had other breweries brew them on contract. Sometimes it’s bigger established breweries that do a few batches on contract for them, but there’s also explicit contract breweries like De Proefbrouwerij
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
jcomis 7y ago
contract brewing is huge. Usually it's used when a small brewery wins a national award (GABF Gold is a popular category) or if they want to start distributing outside of just the taproom. http://www.sleepinggiantbrewing.com/ http://www.sleepinggiantbrewing.com/ is an example of one such contract only business.
mortenjorck 7y ago
In Chicago, I’ve started to see “co-brewing” spaces where a few smaller breweries share a single brewing and taproom space.
stdbrouw 7y ago
As others point out, contract brewing is definitely a thing, but a better comparison than cloud computing would be shared hosting: you're stuck with whatever stack they happen to have installed, no admin rights, and you get the same dismal bandwidth as all other tenants. Or back to brewing: yup, the process is fairly standard – and how could it not be – but great breweries tend to be great not just because they have good recipes, but often because they have mastered their gear and have perfected their processes across the board. Only very few contract breweries are that good.
- petra 7y ago
  Why are only few breweries that good ? And is that something that can, with the right investment be scaled, and offered affordably ? Or is it inherently expensive ?

triceratops 7y ago

Restaurants and other brick-and-mortar food businesses are highly location dependent. Only way to find the right location is boots on the ground, getting a good real estate agent, real estate lawyer etc. That's a rather more bespoke service than something like Stripe Atlas could provide. As for incorporation, tax filing, payroll and everything else a business needs, there are already companies providing those services to the food industry. Maybe they're ripe for disruption by a superior experience though?