#dinnr

dinners almost ready guys :D

#husband making our #birthday #dinnr in the #slowcooker. @meryxavaras #love #ilovemylife #bestie #family #ohana #sister (at Leominster, Massachusetts)

Dinnr was a startup which delivered pre-measured ingredients as per a chosen recipe. So all customers were required to do was cook the meal upon arrival, something in between take away, frozen meals and cooking for yourself. Dinnr's CEO Michal Bohanes recently blogged (Alternative link) about his startup's failure which also was featured on Hacker News and led to some discussion. The founder outlined seven lessons he learnt from the failure of his company. We will go through them one by one. Lesson #1: Are you solving an actual problem? The founder stated that he interviewed people and they said they would be willing to become a paying customer. However often people will say that they will become paying customers however do not sign up. One way to avoid this is to ask them to become a paying customer (Or filter them into a beta), yes's quickly become no's. This mistake led to a large outlay of capital on floor space which went largely unused. Make sure the demand exists before large outlays of capital. Lesson #2. The fact you haven't started a company before is not a reason to go with something easy The founder discusses that despite your current skillset, it is very unlikely you will find an idea that will fit it perfectly. You need to teach yourself new skills and areas to rise to the occasion e.g. learn how marketing, how the industry works, etc. Lesson #3: A concept’s success elsewhere is a small nudge, not half the journey. Although I think this point is a little off the mark in that moving a product/service from one market to another regardless of cultural differences needs some adjustments/education, it is still possible and has been proven by many customers. The founder talks about the problems he had with using an existing business model from Sweden and putting it into the UK which was met with cultural resistance. Lesson #4: Be your own worst critic, especially early on I definitely have to agree with this point, being critical of your own work is important. If this is difficult for you, find a person who doesn't mind being critical of your work/ideas, they can bring a lot out of you. Don't confuse this with being negative. Lesson #5: Run a tight ship with development and design This is a recurring lesson I see, not having tech inside the organisation even in his case with a low tech service. There are many hidden costs to outsourcing software, even with textbook concrete specifications, etc. Steve Blank also talks about the need for needing to know how to code to iterate quickly. Lesson #6: Professional design will not improve the business fundamentals With this point, the founder seems to be a bit sour. He paid a lot for professional design and seen no real results. This point is a double edged sword, if design is a limiting factor in your business (E.g. a scarey looking payments page) then improving it is the only natural recourse. Lesson #7: Expect results faster and attach consequences to goals not reached This last point is very interesting and I am sure many of us are guilty of it. Setting goals for the business however not meeting them and having a set of consequences attached to it is a big problem. This is very much a problem with self-discipline. This article is a very interesting read and presents a lot of lessons for a potential entrepreneur. Source here

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