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I created a saas site (https://www.menutail.com https://www.menutail.com) which does nutrition analysis and generates pdf labels for nutrition facts labels. Th
by palidanx 13y ago
I created a saas site (https://www.menutail.com https://www.menutail.com) which does nutrition analysis and generates pdf labels for nutrition facts labels. The main demographic are small food vendors who are interested in entering bigger markets such as whole foods.
The idea came about from a pivot from a failed app (http://fs.howcookingworks.com/ http://fs.howcookingworks.com/). In that app, users can take pictures of food, and get nutrition info back. It turns out that the need for nutrition analysis is needed much more in the enterprise space.
The validation of the idea came when pitching my local restaurants if they needed nutrition facts labels. It turns out that one restaurant did. After that, I hit the road visiting all my local farmer's markets and have been and gathered my first set of clients from those visits.
- vijayr 13y agoVery interesting, thanks for the reply. I'd have never thought menu labels could be a business.
- bliti 13y agoAlmost any label can be a business. All you need to figure out is which one is easy enough to generate on the fly but hard enough that people can't do it without a lot of work.
- bliti 13y agoYou pricing model is a bit strange. Say I only have one product to sell at a farmer's market. Your subscription model will have me paying $100 a month for one label. Which if I only have one, means that I will pay for one month. It will cost $100 for the label. I feel that could be an issue with this type of market.
- palidanx 13y agoYou pretty much hit on a pretty big problem I'm facing. Initially, I charged $40 a month under an unlimited subscription assuming a vendor would have a new product every month or so. However, it turned out that most vendors only needed the service for a month or two in order to churn all their labels out then cancel. In terms of price sensitivity, current vendors are charging $100-$150 a label, so the subscription plan is either an average deal, or a great deal if they have 5 labels. The subscription model stems from a problem in purchasing an individual label. If vendors purchase say one label, there is a possibility where they might have made a couple of mistakes and they have to fix their label. The thing is I don't really know if they are fixing the label, or generating an entirely new label. At the end of the day my goal is to be as hands off as possible. Of course, I'm open to ideas though.
- bliti 13y agoYou can operate from the standpoint that most people will be honest (which is the correct assumption). Grant them a given set of corrections before they can contact you. For example, charge them $99 per label with up to 5 corrections. If they need a correction afterwards then have them email you. Which at that point they will be looking at a new label anyways (charge them again). Anyone can modify the PDF file and change the settings. What they need is access to the nutrients calculation logic (which is the actual product you sell). Or you could do like it is done with barcodes, and charge a low fee per label generated. Say $20 for every label with no corrections. Just state it very clearly in there. Twenty dollars is low enough that they won't try and scam you out of things. Plus you can also sell them a package deal where for $99 they can get 6 labels (5+1 free). It will make sense in their heads because the $99 deal seems to be the better value. So: $20 per label or $99 for 5 labels plus get one FREE.