4 ms·

"It'd be a strange thing to pitch to investors too." I think there is something here actually. For example it's a constant annoyance to me that when I get chi

by larrys 13y ago

"It'd be a strange thing to pitch to investors too." I think there is something here actually. For example it's a constant annoyance to me that when I get chinese food or sushi from the same places on a regular basis I actually have to make a phone call and talk to someone. At one place where they know me they actually make me give them my phone number which allows them to pull me up in their system. Just having to recite my phone number annoys me to no end. I am sure there are obviously people who have solved the problem of using a smartphone or a simple web interface to help order pickup food (or delivery). But they haven't made any headway in the major city suburb where I am located. For the life of me I don't understand why someone doesn't create a "bingo card creator" [1] type business to serve this market at a reasonable monthly fee. Most ideas on HN are "start by getting funded or incubated" as opposed to things that actually could be sold, proven, and then scaled. Write the app then knock on some doors and sell it (after giving it away to test restaurants for free). [1] http://www.bingocardcreator.com/ http://www.bingocardcreator.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11 Sometimes called on HN "lifestyle" business.

sib 13y ago
When I lived in NYC in the '90's, I used to place the same order from the same pizza place often enough that the calls went like this: Me: <dials number> Them: <Answers phone, sees caller ID> "The usual?" Me: "Yup, thanks" Them: <Delivers pizza in 20 minutes> Seems like recently startups are finally starting to get to that level of knowing the customer...
- larrys 13y ago
  Might be a kickstarter opportunity for a device that does the following: Gets the caller id and when person who answers hits a button prints out an order form with the customers name. Later version could actually store info about the customer in the device. The point of this device is to have as little disruption to the existing work flow as possible. Just plug it in to the incoming phone line. Probably could be prototyped using a small linux box where you get a local restaurant that you know ("you" means person who does this) to validate the idea. Small box isn't the final product or form factor only a way to see if the idea provides value.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
    Probably already exists. I know that there is contact management software that does similar tasks. Perhaps that's the key: scan GitHub/SourceForge (is SF still around, anyway?) for an OSS base you can build this new app on. It has to exist already. The main challenge will then be selling it to restaurants.
eigenvector 13y ago
This already exists in Toronto: http://just-eat.ca/ http://just-eat.ca/ From what I understand, the restaurant doesn't even need an Internet connection. The service can send them the orders by fax.
- scrollaway 13y ago
  Just Eat is very popular in the UK as well. http://just-eat.co.uk/ http://just-eat.co.uk/
dangrossman 13y ago
What area are you in? The simple solution to that is to get local restaurants to join an online ordering site like GrubHub -- I would be surprised if you're in a major suburb and none of the restaurants are already enrolled there or on a similar site. They're the "BCC" for online-enabling restaurants. The thing that makes it so easy is that it operates on fax. It seems antiquated, but that means any restaurant with a phone line can offer all the modern conveniences without even having a computer on-site. Small business owners are super busy and constantly being pitched to buy services they don't have time to set up, but this takes no setup -- sign this contract giving us $x for any new orders we send your way, tell us your delivery radius, put a fax machine in your store, and you're now online. GrubHub can do the hard work of putting their menu online and running the website. When a new order comes in, the restaurant gets a fax (and fax machines confirm receipt, so GrubHub knows it got there). You, as the customer, now get online ordering, re-ordering of previous orders with just a few clicks or taps, prepay with a credit card (or not), etc. https://www.grubhub.com/ https://www.grubhub.com/
- larrys 13y ago
  Amazingly the restaurant I am referring to is on grubhub. So the questions is, why didn't I know that? Back when we were selling (in the early 90's) advertising to restaurants and shops we provided them with window decals and things for placement at the register to alert customers. This isn't happening here. Also the other place isn't on grubhub. Nor have I seen others just checked a few. Grubhub looks good. But I was thinking of something that would be an app specifically for the restaurant. Developer writes app for restaurant (using same one that has been developed for the test market) and customer downloads app. Or an html5 page I guess would work as well hosted by the "aas" provider. Do you know what grubhub charges the restaurant? Next time I'm picking up I'm going to ask the owner how it is working. (They have already given thumbs down to groupon and a few other things they tried).
  - fiatjaf 13y ago
    I've been thinking about this for various weeks and thinking about implementing something like (no, not like, it is exactly what you described) this, but everybody I ask to comment on the idea tells me about Grubhub and similar services, and they just don't understand why there would be other kind of service. The great thing about automatically building webapps for delivery restaurants is that this can work even if you have just 1 client, while Grubhub only works because they have lots of registered restaurants (and, as you said, it doesn't work, because the restaurant doesn't tell anybone it is on Grubhub, probably because of the fees or the inexistence of a unique readable URL to the restaurant's page on Grubhub, or because if the restaurant's client go to Grubhub he will see a lot of other restaurants besides the first). FDRAaaS (Food Delivery Restaurant Apps as a Service), is the blog service, while Grubhub is Facebook.

by larrys 13y ago

sib 13y ago

When I lived in NYC in the '90's, I used to place the same order from the same pizza place often enough that the calls went like this: Me: <dials number> Them: <Answers phone, sees caller ID> "The usual?" Me: "Yup, thanks" Them: <Delivers pizza in 20 minutes> Seems like recently startups are finally starting to get to that level of knowing the customer...

larrys 13y ago
Might be a kickstarter opportunity for a device that does the following: Gets the caller id and when person who answers hits a button prints out an order form with the customers name. Later version could actually store info about the customer in the device. The point of this device is to have as little disruption to the existing work flow as possible. Just plug it in to the incoming phone line. Probably could be prototyped using a small linux box where you get a local restaurant that you know ("you" means person who does this) to validate the idea. Small box isn't the final product or form factor only a way to see if the idea provides value.
- HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
  Probably already exists. I know that there is contact management software that does similar tasks. Perhaps that's the key: scan GitHub/SourceForge (is SF still around, anyway?) for an OSS base you can build this new app on. It has to exist already. The main challenge will then be selling it to restaurants.

eigenvector 13y ago

This already exists in Toronto: http://just-eat.ca/ http://just-eat.ca/ From what I understand, the restaurant doesn't even need an Internet connection. The service can send them the orders by fax.

scrollaway 13y ago
Just Eat is very popular in the UK as well. http://just-eat.co.uk/ http://just-eat.co.uk/

dangrossman 13y ago

What area are you in? The simple solution to that is to get local restaurants to join an online ordering site like GrubHub -- I would be surprised if you're in a major suburb and none of the restaurants are already enrolled there or on a similar site. They're the "BCC" for online-enabling restaurants. The thing that makes it so easy is that it operates on fax. It seems antiquated, but that means any restaurant with a phone line can offer all the modern conveniences without even having a computer on-site. Small business owners are super busy and constantly being pitched to buy services they don't have time to set up, but this takes no setup -- sign this contract giving us $x for any new orders we send your way, tell us your delivery radius, put a fax machine in your store, and you're now online. GrubHub can do the hard work of putting their menu online and running the website. When a new order comes in, the restaurant gets a fax (and fax machines confirm receipt, so GrubHub knows it got there). You, as the customer, now get online ordering, re-ordering of previous orders with just a few clicks or taps, prepay with a credit card (or not), etc. https://www.grubhub.com/ https://www.grubhub.com/

larrys 13y ago
Amazingly the restaurant I am referring to is on grubhub. So the questions is, why didn't I know that? Back when we were selling (in the early 90's) advertising to restaurants and shops we provided them with window decals and things for placement at the register to alert customers. This isn't happening here. Also the other place isn't on grubhub. Nor have I seen others just checked a few. Grubhub looks good. But I was thinking of something that would be an app specifically for the restaurant. Developer writes app for restaurant (using same one that has been developed for the test market) and customer downloads app. Or an html5 page I guess would work as well hosted by the "aas" provider. Do you know what grubhub charges the restaurant? Next time I'm picking up I'm going to ask the owner how it is working. (They have already given thumbs down to groupon and a few other things they tried).
- fiatjaf 13y ago
  I've been thinking about this for various weeks and thinking about implementing something like (no, not like, it is exactly what you described) this, but everybody I ask to comment on the idea tells me about Grubhub and similar services, and they just don't understand why there would be other kind of service. The great thing about automatically building webapps for delivery restaurants is that this can work even if you have just 1 client, while Grubhub only works because they have lots of registered restaurants (and, as you said, it doesn't work, because the restaurant doesn't tell anybone it is on Grubhub, probably because of the fees or the inexistence of a unique readable URL to the restaurant's page on Grubhub, or because if the restaurant's client go to Grubhub he will see a lot of other restaurants besides the first). FDRAaaS (Food Delivery Restaurant Apps as a Service), is the blog service, while Grubhub is Facebook.