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For anyone interested in starting a brewery, my startup [1] does Flavor Profiling and Statistical Quality control for small to medium sized artisan beer, coffe

For anyone interested in starting a brewery, my startup [1] does Flavor Profiling and Statistical Quality control for small to medium sized artisan beer, coffee, and spirit producers. We use machine learning and data-science to quantify the flavor profile of products, detect flaws, and pinpoint the sources of batch variation. [1] www.Gastrograph.com

contingencies 13y ago
Looks great but too much subscription money for a startup. I'd suggest per-test pricing with discounts for repeat business or agreement to be listed in an "as used by..." page as an alternative sales strategy.
- JasonCEC 13y ago
  Maybe. We've considered lowering prices - but $500 / month is far less than what any company (startup or not) would need to spend on hiring an employee with quality control experience. We do far more than most QA/QC teams ever could... unless they have individuals with an advanced math degree, expansive analytical chemistry knowledge, and production experience - and paying that team won't be $500 / month!
  - contingencies 13y ago
    That's one way of looking at the market: as an alternative to hiring someone and getting them access to appropriate lab gear. Another would be looking at the probably much larger layman's market... if you can get your flavour profile priced low enough to become normalized as a standard record at some competitions, for instance, then you may have ten times the market in half the time.
    - JasonCEC 13y ago
      That is very interesting to me... When this first became a business a few years ago, I had hopped that we could get `laypeople` to review products, and then use a mass of consumer data to sell our services. This has not paned-out in practice; doing reviews on our system is not difficult but it is involved - you have to care about flavor and what you're tasting to do it. Also, going Standards/consumer route puts us into direct competition with many of the trade organizations that our clients belong to, like the SCAA and the BA - they try to sell their own sensory systems from 'partner companies' (that then donate money back to the organization...). I think it is better for us to gain the trust of a set of clients who are looking for a better way to taste products for quality control (based on science), and charge them for a service than to gamble on general consumers in the short term. In the long term.... I would love to have 1M+ random people using our app to review beer, coffee, and etc. [Do you still live in Kunming? // I use to live right around KNU!]
      - contingencies 13y ago
        Sounds fair enough, I hadn't considered trade associations and existing claws in the pot. Still, you could try approaching the infinite number of local wine competitions with freebies for their winners in order to garner discount promotional coverage. I live just south of Kunming on Fuxian lake. Kumming aint what it used to be, but it's still clean and relatively natural down here!

contingencies 13y ago

Looks great but too much subscription money for a startup. I'd suggest per-test pricing with discounts for repeat business or agreement to be listed in an "as used by..." page as an alternative sales strategy.

JasonCEC 13y ago
Maybe. We've considered lowering prices - but $500 / month is far less than what any company (startup or not) would need to spend on hiring an employee with quality control experience. We do far more than most QA/QC teams ever could... unless they have individuals with an advanced math degree, expansive analytical chemistry knowledge, and production experience - and paying that team won't be $500 / month!
- contingencies 13y ago
  That's one way of looking at the market: as an alternative to hiring someone and getting them access to appropriate lab gear. Another would be looking at the probably much larger layman's market... if you can get your flavour profile priced low enough to become normalized as a standard record at some competitions, for instance, then you may have ten times the market in half the time.
  - JasonCEC 13y ago
    That is very interesting to me... When this first became a business a few years ago, I had hopped that we could get `laypeople` to review products, and then use a mass of consumer data to sell our services. This has not paned-out in practice; doing reviews on our system is not difficult but it is involved - you have to care about flavor and what you're tasting to do it. Also, going Standards/consumer route puts us into direct competition with many of the trade organizations that our clients belong to, like the SCAA and the BA - they try to sell their own sensory systems from 'partner companies' (that then donate money back to the organization...). I think it is better for us to gain the trust of a set of clients who are looking for a better way to taste products for quality control (based on science), and charge them for a service than to gamble on general consumers in the short term. In the long term.... I would love to have 1M+ random people using our app to review beer, coffee, and etc. [Do you still live in Kunming? // I use to live right around KNU!]
    - contingencies 13y ago
      Sounds fair enough, I hadn't considered trade associations and existing claws in the pot. Still, you could try approaching the infinite number of local wine competitions with freebies for their winners in order to garner discount promotional coverage. I live just south of Kunming on Fuxian lake. Kumming aint what it used to be, but it's still clean and relatively natural down here!