5 ms·

How the Startup Slice Got Their First 1k Customers

91 points by abouelatta 6y ago

redis_mlc 6y ago
Wow, that's some hustle: - wrap your car and park it outside pizzeria prospect locations - then do a sales pitch in person - then change your system flow to support existing fax numbers.
Larrikin 6y ago
My annoyance with the app is that I discovered by directly searching for one of the highest award winning pizza places in Chicago, Art of Pizza, and being recommended to buy through their app. As much as I love deep dish and their specific pizza they don't really show up when I try to search for pizza around me. There are dozens of mediocre places with less than 100 reviews and art of Pizza shows up way down the list with thousands of reviews that are much higher up and me being well within their first choice delivery zone. Maybe they are specifically good for pizza shops but they are pretty useless when you want good pizza and are searching for what's around you.
oftenwrong 6y ago
Slice hijacks Google Maps listings with their own websites that mimic local pizzeria websites. For example: Mario's Pizza in Dorchester, Massachusetts The Google Maps listing [1] links to https://www.mariospizzeriadorchester.com/ https://www.mariospizzeriadorchester.com/ , which is a site owned and operated by Slice. The ACTUAL Mario's Pizza site is https://www.pizzabymario.com/ https://www.pizzabymario.com/ . This "growth hack" was previously discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16824992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16824992 [1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mario%E2%80%99s+Pizzeria,+197+Humboldt+Ave,+Boston,+MA+02121/@42.3130031,-71.0897931,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e37b0a4d75e7bd:0xe3d0c651dc5a72b https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mario%E2%80%99s+Pizzeria,+...
- hef19898 6y ago
  So another "tech" start-up using (VC?) money to outby competitors and others on SEO and marketing. And pretty sneaky, registering duplicat websites for pizzerias in order to divert traffic and a take 20% share for that "service". EDIT: The pitch they used to get pizzerias on board has nothing to do with the "growth hack" described in OP's link.
- yvoschaap 6y ago
  The Google search results do show the owner' site as #1. https://seobrowse.com/share/25c8f9129eaea94bf34531dd780a9438028e9636407f4bd05ac28e69ee2d161f@2x.png https://seobrowse.com/share/25c8f9129eaea94bf34531dd780a9438... But if you look at the right sidebar under Menu and Order, you get all the Valley players who are trying to get a cut from the order... Update: wow this is even worse. Slice is "verified" by Google as owner and abuses this by posting their coupons as "news" in the sidebar (look at "Mario's on Google" part lower down). https://support.google.com/knowledgepanel/answer/7534902?hl=en https://support.google.com/knowledgepanel/answer/7534902?hl=...
  - yvoschaap 6y ago
    Looked into what tricks they are doing in a short write-up here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23348815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23348815
    - kevingadd 6y ago
      Sucks that it seems like it got flagged off the front page almost immediately, thanks for doing the research and writing it up. I'm surprised to see just how aggressive Slice is about this, they must believe the upside outweighs any associated risks from being caught. Wouldn't be the first startup I've seen try to play games like this with Google though...
      - yvoschaap 6y ago
        I'll try again: https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=23349819 https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=23349819
- desigooner 6y ago
  This may be a bit off-topic but their pizza is actually pretty decent by Boston standards.
- oftenwrong 6y ago
  UPDATE: looks like Google finally accepted the website change, which had been pending for many months at least. I must assume these posts had something to do with it.
slashblake 6y ago
So now we start unbundling grubhub and local shops start losing even more?
jevans22 6y ago
I love startup stories like this. Cleverness + determination = :thumbsup:
- MobileVet 6y ago
  Where you see cleverness, I see unethical behavior (Google hijacking) linked with powerful knowledge. Instead of using their knowledge and skills for good, they are exploiting loopholes in technology to take a slice of others' businesses that were built with real hustle and determination. Edit: to clarify the unethical piece (which is left out of the op)... nothing wrong with the in person sales pitch and fax optimization
- dev_tty01 6y ago
  Regulation and laws need to catch up with this nonsense. Identity theft plain and simple. If it crosses state lines it should bring federal civil penalties and sanctions. I'm ranting a bit of course, but this is disgusting. On the other hand, perhaps you were just being sarcastic...
jugg1es 6y ago
I especially liked the part where he converted the online orders into faxes.
- tristor 6y ago
  That was basically the only part of this story that showed an actual value-add rather than just injecting himself into the revenue stream of existing businesses via unethical "growth hacks".
peruvian 6y ago
I was happy my local pizza place set up their own ordering system so I could stop using Slice and the rest. These "growth hacks" are just another example of our awful startup/VC model.
ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
I suspect that part of the reason that these types of things are so successful, is that restaurants tend to have God-awful sites, if any site at all. The good ones work by word-of-mouth, so SEO doesn't mean squat to them. They also run on razor-thin margins, so they don't spend a dime they can't see immediate, measurable ROI on. I have a couple of friends that own restaurants. One of them is a really well-known (local) place with a tasting menu that costs about $250/per person (cash-only). When I was getting started setting up Web sites (I did a lot, but always for free, for NPOs), I offered to do their sites for free. They declined, and their sites sucked, for YEARS. Didn't hurt their business at all. Now, they have sites, but their domains are an SEO graveyard, because they waited so long (I guess an AngelFire subdomain wasn't really that good an idea, in hindsight, eh?). I'll bet they are representative of many restaurants, which tells me that this is a well-fertilized field for this kind of scam.
- itake 6y ago
  > They also run on razor-thin margins, so they don't spend a dime they can't see immediate, measurable ROI on. You're not wrong, but if their margins are so thin, where is slice making its money? VCs? Or is slice raising prices (Delivery fee, increase per item cost, etc). Couldn't these restaurant owners just increase their prices to what Slice is charging?
  - ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
    > Couldn't these restaurant owners just increase their prices to what Slice is charging? Not possible (in the traditional market). Competition is ferocious. Maybe that will change, with all the interceptors and delivery companies. It's a miserable market. I don't think I'd last five minutes in it.
floatingatoll 6y ago
Another post today focuses on how Slice is running an SEO scam on Google to get free top placement in results without having to pay for ads: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23349819 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23349819

91 points by abouelatta 6y ago

Wow, that's some hustle: - wrap your car and park it outside pizzeria prospect locations - then do a sales pitch in person - then change your system flow to support existing fax numbers.

Larrikin 6y ago

My annoyance with the app is that I discovered by directly searching for one of the highest award winning pizza places in Chicago, Art of Pizza, and being recommended to buy through their app. As much as I love deep dish and their specific pizza they don't really show up when I try to search for pizza around me. There are dozens of mediocre places with less than 100 reviews and art of Pizza shows up way down the list with thousands of reviews that are much higher up and me being well within their first choice delivery zone. Maybe they are specifically good for pizza shops but they are pretty useless when you want good pizza and are searching for what's around you.

oftenwrong 6y ago

Slice hijacks Google Maps listings with their own websites that mimic local pizzeria websites. For example: Mario's Pizza in Dorchester, Massachusetts The Google Maps listing [1] links to https://www.mariospizzeriadorchester.com/ https://www.mariospizzeriadorchester.com/ , which is a site owned and operated by Slice. The ACTUAL Mario's Pizza site is https://www.pizzabymario.com/ https://www.pizzabymario.com/ . This "growth hack" was previously discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16824992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16824992 [1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mario%E2%80%99s+Pizzeria,+197+Humboldt+Ave,+Boston,+MA+02121/@42.3130031,-71.0897931,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e37b0a4d75e7bd:0xe3d0c651dc5a72b https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mario%E2%80%99s+Pizzeria,+...

hef19898 6y ago
So another "tech" start-up using (VC?) money to outby competitors and others on SEO and marketing. And pretty sneaky, registering duplicat websites for pizzerias in order to divert traffic and a take 20% share for that "service". EDIT: The pitch they used to get pizzerias on board has nothing to do with the "growth hack" described in OP's link.
yvoschaap 6y ago
The Google search results do show the owner' site as #1. https://seobrowse.com/share/25c8f9129eaea94bf34531dd780a9438028e9636407f4bd05ac28e69ee2d161f@2x.png https://seobrowse.com/share/25c8f9129eaea94bf34531dd780a9438... But if you look at the right sidebar under Menu and Order, you get all the Valley players who are trying to get a cut from the order... Update: wow this is even worse. Slice is "verified" by Google as owner and abuses this by posting their coupons as "news" in the sidebar (look at "Mario's on Google" part lower down). https://support.google.com/knowledgepanel/answer/7534902?hl=en https://support.google.com/knowledgepanel/answer/7534902?hl=...
- yvoschaap 6y ago
  Looked into what tricks they are doing in a short write-up here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23348815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23348815
  - kevingadd 6y ago
    Sucks that it seems like it got flagged off the front page almost immediately, thanks for doing the research and writing it up. I'm surprised to see just how aggressive Slice is about this, they must believe the upside outweighs any associated risks from being caught. Wouldn't be the first startup I've seen try to play games like this with Google though...
    - yvoschaap 6y ago
      I'll try again: https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=23349819 https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=23349819
desigooner 6y ago
This may be a bit off-topic but their pizza is actually pretty decent by Boston standards.
oftenwrong 6y ago
UPDATE: looks like Google finally accepted the website change, which had been pending for many months at least. I must assume these posts had something to do with it.

slashblake 6y ago

So now we start unbundling grubhub and local shops start losing even more?

jevans22 6y ago

I love startup stories like this. Cleverness + determination = :thumbsup:

MobileVet 6y ago
Where you see cleverness, I see unethical behavior (Google hijacking) linked with powerful knowledge. Instead of using their knowledge and skills for good, they are exploiting loopholes in technology to take a slice of others' businesses that were built with real hustle and determination. Edit: to clarify the unethical piece (which is left out of the op)... nothing wrong with the in person sales pitch and fax optimization
dev_tty01 6y ago
Regulation and laws need to catch up with this nonsense. Identity theft plain and simple. If it crosses state lines it should bring federal civil penalties and sanctions. I'm ranting a bit of course, but this is disgusting. On the other hand, perhaps you were just being sarcastic...

jugg1es 6y ago

I especially liked the part where he converted the online orders into faxes.

tristor 6y ago
That was basically the only part of this story that showed an actual value-add rather than just injecting himself into the revenue stream of existing businesses via unethical "growth hacks".

peruvian 6y ago

I was happy my local pizza place set up their own ordering system so I could stop using Slice and the rest. These "growth hacks" are just another example of our awful startup/VC model.

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago

I suspect that part of the reason that these types of things are so successful, is that restaurants tend to have God-awful sites, if any site at all. The good ones work by word-of-mouth, so SEO doesn't mean squat to them. They also run on razor-thin margins, so they don't spend a dime they can't see immediate, measurable ROI on. I have a couple of friends that own restaurants. One of them is a really well-known (local) place with a tasting menu that costs about $250/per person (cash-only). When I was getting started setting up Web sites (I did a lot, but always for free, for NPOs), I offered to do their sites for free. They declined, and their sites sucked, for YEARS. Didn't hurt their business at all. Now, they have sites, but their domains are an SEO graveyard, because they waited so long (I guess an AngelFire subdomain wasn't really that good an idea, in hindsight, eh?). I'll bet they are representative of many restaurants, which tells me that this is a well-fertilized field for this kind of scam.

itake 6y ago
> They also run on razor-thin margins, so they don't spend a dime they can't see immediate, measurable ROI on. You're not wrong, but if their margins are so thin, where is slice making its money? VCs? Or is slice raising prices (Delivery fee, increase per item cost, etc). Couldn't these restaurant owners just increase their prices to what Slice is charging?
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
  > Couldn't these restaurant owners just increase their prices to what Slice is charging? Not possible (in the traditional market). Competition is ferocious. Maybe that will change, with all the interceptors and delivery companies. It's a miserable market. I don't think I'd last five minutes in it.

floatingatoll 6y ago

Another post today focuses on how Slice is running an SEO scam on Google to get free top placement in results without having to pay for ads: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23349819 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23349819