Critique my idea

[Baker]

Baby food made with real ingredients, conveniently frozen and delivered straight to busy mothers around the country on a weekly (subscription) basis. The idea is to replace the need for busy mothers who dont want to buy packaged (shit) baby food to have to make their own fresh food, as it can be time consuming and tedious.

The food will be a variety of vegies, fruit and quality meats (beef and chicken) cooked, mushed up and frozen. There will be different 'meals'. For example, chicken and (vegies). The food will be frozen into ice cube-like trays so portions are easily tracked.

I want to set up a website where the parent can make an account, choose the amount of food their baby needs each day and select which meals they want each day. This will then be delivered straight to their house (outsource logistics and delivery to freezer specialists) once a week so all they have to do is microwave the number of 'food cubes' they need for that meal and feed their child.

After Ive gained some significant market share and have alot of customers with a subscription I want to start evolving my brand to include other baby and toddler needs such as milk formula, accessories and etc.

There is currently no other companies doing this in my country so I think it could work quite well if I create a trusting brand. Thanks for reading and please leave your criticism! Tell me what you think!

 

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[Daytraderz]

Baby food made with real ingredients, conveniently frozen and delivered straight to busy mothers around the country on a weekly (subscription) basis. The idea is to replace the need for busy mothers who dont want to buy packaged (shit) baby food to have to make their own fresh food, as it can be time consuming and tedious.

The food will be a variety of vegies, fruit and quality meats (beef and chicken) cooked, mushed up and frozen. There will be different 'meals'. For example, chicken and (vegies). The food will be frozen into ice cube-like trays so portions are easily tracked.

I want to set up a website where the parent can make an account, choose the amount of food their baby needs each day and select which meals they want each day. This will then be delivered straight to their house (outsource logistics and delivery to freezer specialists) once a week so all they have to do is microwave the number of 'food cubes' they need for that meal and feed their child.

After Ive gained some significant market share and have alot of customers with a subscription I want to start evolving my brand to include other baby and toddler needs such as milk formula, accessories and etc.

There is currently no other companies doing this in my country so I think it could work quite well if I create a trusting brand. Thanks for reading and please leave your criticism! Tell me what you think!

As for the food; you say it will be frozen (which usually means it is going to go through some type of process to allow it to stay fresh, unless you were to ensure freshness by exporting it in a pre-determined time frame and ensured it was consumed before said time frame), how do you plan to ensure the nutritional quality of this product to the consumers who are baby mamas that usually don't feed their newborns processed stuff.

I think this could be a good idea, if there is truly no other competitors like you say, but you need to really focus your efforts on the quality of the food and the quality of the service, don't let profits ruin your business proposal. Find out why you are doing this, why are you providing baby food to families? then figure out the different possible ways of how you're going to it, then execute it and really get it going. This is an important mindset to have I believe when you're doing anything related to an elastic consumer (such as parents of infants). You have to make sure you specifically and extensively focus some efforts on this matter.

 

[Jonathan Polley]

Real ingredients?

Could you define a fake ingredient?

I also think there are huge issues regarding transporting frozen food, to individuals, have you found a company that will do this on a small scale? Otherwise you run the risk of a subpar product. Which in terms of baby food is a huge issue if you end up with a food poisoning case.

 

[tigerscent]

Baby food made with real ingredients, conveniently frozen and delivered straight to busy mothers around the country on a weekly (subscription) basis. The idea is to replace the need for busy mothers who dont want to buy packaged (shit) baby food to have to make their own fresh food, as it can be time consuming and tedious.

The food will be a variety of vegies, fruit and quality meats (beef and chicken) cooked, mushed up and frozen. There will be different 'meals'. For example, chicken and (vegies). The food will be frozen into ice cube-like trays so portions are easily tracked.

I want to set up a website where the parent can make an account, choose the amount of food their baby needs each day and select which meals they want each day. This will then be delivered straight to their house (outsource logistics and delivery to freezer specialists) once a week so all they have to do is microwave the number of 'food cubes' they need for that meal and feed their child.

After Ive gained some significant market share and have alot of customers with a subscription I want to start evolving my brand to include other baby and toddler needs such as milk formula, accessories and etc.

There is currently no other companies doing this in my country so I think it could work quite well if I create a trusting brand. Thanks for reading and please leave your criticism! Tell me what you think!

Speaking as a mum, I'm not sure. I used ice-cubes of frozen fresh food for my kids BUT it's really not much hassle to make them at home yourself (there are even all-in-one steamers/blenders for this purpose that you just set and forget). So you need to be really clear on the value proposition. With talk of packaged/fake baby food, I sense you're straying into organic territory. Probably the right way to go, but it's a whole other ballgame and there are well established brands in this space, like Ella's Kitchen. (I used Ella's Kitchen a lot as it's portable, so great for outings).

Having said this, out of curiosity I googled frozen baby food and voila: http://www.kiddiecubes.com/

 

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[David Young]

I quite like the ideal. It is not completely original as here in the UK we have some premium baby foods that make the claim to be organics and all that. A number of previous posts have also pointed out potential issues with distribution etc. Could these problems justify a pivot in the proposed business model. You make and refine your recipes and distribute locally - over coming some issues with shipping, preservation etc. If you can build the business locally and it generated a good revenue you could then look to Franchise the brand/ business model to other parts of the country or directly employee local manufactures: orders taken through a centralized web portal but manufacture and distribute local to demand. I have no doubt there are some stay at home parent who would love the extra income! food for thought.

 

[LateStarter]

I'm not that big a fan of the subscription model when it comes to consumables with variable consumption. Who much you kid east this week doesn't mean they'll eat the same next week. How do I adjust my volume? I'd just start a product line and sell it.

Further...Why freeze it? This company started their own line of organic baby food, appeared on Dragon's Den (Canadian Shark Tank) and recently sold for over $5M.

 

[Roli]

I agree with Latestarter; why freeze it? Is there a particular reason?

It seems the freezing process adds quite a bit to your costs and logistical intricacies, whether you go fresh or not, why not trial the idea in local stores and small markets. Also give the product out to some mother and baby groups, maybe some sub-group on Mumsnet.

It's a good idea in principle as you are going after the convenience market, because as tigerscent points out, it is quite easy to do at home, but the convenience market is big.

So, I have no idea how far you are along with your figures/research etc. but what I would say in conclusion is, get the product out there, get it into a multiple and even if it does end up being online subscription you will have the double advantage of having offline presence and perhaps a store chain willing to take the cost of storage and delivery.

 

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[Summer Adams]

This sounds really promising, but it sounds expensive and it would be very difficult to please the target market(mothers with babies) and compete with other well known baby brands. Not to mention young children have a whole range of allergies, catering to each and everyone of on your consumer base will be time consuming...I think the accessories ideas sounds smart, mothers are always conscious of child development and ensuring their child has their best to play with.

 

[Coalission]

Ask your target market instead, most of us would just be guessing.

Join Group Discussions with Other Moms - CafeMom
Circle of Moms - Online mom groups, mom blogs, and parenting resources around motherhood, new moms, pregnancy, babies, toddlers, parenthood, and more
Reddit Parenting - For those of us with kids of any age • /r/Parenting
http://www.rookiemoms.com/

(or put up a Coming Soon page with a description of the product and collect some emails to gauge interest)

 

[fhs8]

Bad idea. The costs go up significantly because the food has to be delivered frozen and stay frozen for a while after being left on the porch plus lawsuit liability from listeria, allergies, etc... You know how lawsuits are in the US. If one baby gets sick they'll blame you and then you'll have to spend at least 100k+ to defend against a 7 figure or even 8 figure lawsuit. Ten years of hard work can be instantly erased. Most food poisoning deaths happen to the very young and very old.

 

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[becks22]

I like the idea but I am not in the food industry and don't know too much about it. I am also not a mom. Another idea if you think baby food might get to risky is cloth diapers. My mom used cloth diapers on both me and my sister.

She had a truck deliver them and pick the soiled ones up. Apparently she loved them and all her friends used the same delivery service. Cloth diapers help prevent diaper rash better, at least according to my mom.

The company isn't open anymore (I'm 24) and there probably aren't too many still open around the US. Middle class and upper middle class Consumers are starting to move into a healthy, environmentally friendly, organic, upscale direction. Organic Cotton Cloth Diapers and a service that picks them up and cleans them might be easier to execute (and not have a lot of risk involved)

Just a thought....

 

[Roli]

Baby food made with real ingredients, conveniently frozen and delivered straight to busy mothers around the country on a weekly (subscription) basis. The idea is to replace the need for busy mothers who dont want to buy packaged (shit) baby food to have to make their own fresh food, as it can be time consuming and tedious.

The food will be a variety of vegies, fruit and quality meats (beef and chicken) cooked, mushed up and frozen. There will be different 'meals'. For example, chicken and (vegies). The food will be frozen into ice cube-like trays so portions are easily tracked.

I want to set up a website where the parent can make an account, choose the amount of food their baby needs each day and select which meals they want each day. This will then be delivered straight to their house (outsource logistics and delivery to freezer specialists) once a week so all they have to do is microwave the number of 'food cubes' they need for that meal and feed their child.

After Ive gained some significant market share and have alot of customers with a subscription I want to start evolving my brand to include other baby and toddler needs such as milk formula, accessories and etc.

There is currently no other companies doing this in my country so I think it could work quite well if I create a trusting brand. Thanks for reading and please leave your criticism! Tell me what you think!

I saw this idea on Dragon's Den a couple of years back, they didn't get any investment for a couple of reasons.

1. Incredibly short shelf life of the food
2. Food in jars is huge, there is a massive variety and they are convenient, therefore it will be hard to break this market.
3. Making food for your baby in this way is not that much of a hassle and is not time consuming
4. In order to scale this business you would have to essentially become another baby food product in a jar; which would mean you'd have to ditch your "frozen" USP.
5. Baby food is quite cheap and the margins tiny; thus the volumes you would need to sell are pretty high.


There were a couple of other reasons I think; like I said it was a while back, so I'm quoting from memory.

 

[mgrowan]

As @LateStarter mentioned the not frozen great alternatives. I've got 4 children and we got the equivalent of these a lot. A great product. But we already get delivered groceries and just ordered it each week with all the other food.

 

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[strobe]

I don't know why you would freeze them. I don't have children so I don't know what they are supposed to eat so can't comment but my advice would be to find facebook groups or blogs or find where parents hang out with babies and ask them, set up a landing page, go direct to the source. Ask at day care groups in your community, if it is a real problem if parents wished there was a better way to feed their baby or if they are happy buying it with the groceries already.

 

[Andy Black]

Baby food made with real ingredients, conveniently frozen and delivered straight to busy mothers around the country on a weekly (subscription) basis. The idea is to replace the need for busy mothers who dont want to buy packaged (shit) baby food to have to make their own fresh food, as it can be time consuming and tedious.

The food will be a variety of vegies, fruit and quality meats (beef and chicken) cooked, mushed up and frozen. There will be different 'meals'. For example, chicken and (vegies). The food will be frozen into ice cube-like trays so portions are easily tracked.

I want to set up a website where the parent can make an account, choose the amount of food their baby needs each day and select which meals they want each day. This will then be delivered straight to their house (outsource logistics and delivery to freezer specialists) once a week so all they have to do is microwave the number of 'food cubes' they need for that meal and feed their child.

After Ive gained some significant market share and have alot of customers with a subscription I want to start evolving my brand to include other baby and toddler needs such as milk formula, accessories and etc.

There is currently no other companies doing this in my country so I think it could work quite well if I create a trusting brand. Thanks for reading and please leave your criticism! Tell me what you think!

There's a great book by Dan Norris called "The 7 Day Startup".

In it, Dan suggests thinking about Product-Founder fit.

Some ideas may be good for one person, but not good for another person - based on life experience, business experience, network, access to capital, and infrastructure already built.



Building the next Facebook might be a good idea for Snapchat, but not for me or you.

Building a software product that requires $50k in funding will be a better idea for someone who's built successful software products before and either has $50k lying around, or can get access to it easily.


Can *you* launch this business in 7 days?

Can *you* get a sale in 7 days?

Dan humbly suggests that if you can't, then look for an idea you can launch quicker.


Consider Product-Founder fit when you're evaluating an idea.

Is the idea good for *you*?


Hope that helps.