Project Artichoke

Kerem Alper Marc Manara

Jake Miller Mark Wittman

Building a food brand that supports a healthy life style

Total Interviews: 128

The Dream Team: when four became one

Food Waste

Sustainable

Supply Chain

Healthy

Eating

Food Tech

Fridgecam – automated home food inventory

Fridgestagram – crowd-sourced market research

Rice Paper Rolls – healthy fast-food

BMC: Week 1

#1: Fridgecam – Automated home food inventory

• Know what food

you have at home

• Know when your

food is expiring

• Avoid buying

redundant items

• Recommend

recipes and

shopping lists

based on home

food inventory

“Connecting your food experiences at home with your

experience at the store”

Shopping takes too

much time!

I don’t want to waste

food, but it’s not a

priority.

A camera sounds kinda

interesting. Maybe that

would be useful.

I can’t imagine paying

for something like

that, but it sounds cool.

I want more variety in

my cooking.

I buy things solely based

on what deals are

available

We talked to 30+ consumers

People weren’t crazy

about fridge cameras……but we learned what

does matter to people

Big ideas from the FridgeCam phase

The best way to learn how to interview people is to

get out and do it…it gets easier

People dislike food waste, but…they care a lot

more about time efficiency, deals, and variety

Do we need hardware? Why build a camera when

we all have them in our phones? No friction!

#2: Fridgestagram

BMC - Fridgestagram

We are dealing with a multi-sided market

Primary research expensive

“Nielsen nickel & dimes you”

Low resolution data`

Planning for groceries

Finding the best deals

Better ethnographic data

Direct connection to user

Creativity

Entertainment

Pains Gain

s

We tested with an MVP

A classic:

Have some onions?...why not try some bison meatballs?

Recipe test: 28

Coupon test: 14

+

Fbookads, Adwords, Craigslist posts

We worked hard to test the product

30+

40+

28 users

4 CPGs

3 image recognition experts

Send us a picture of your fridge/pantry

Take a survey so we know what you like

We’ll send you back a recipe

TRANSACTION DATA

monopoly

anonymous

expensive

not real-time

We learned how CPGs do market research

PRIMARY RESEARCH

expensive

time consuming

low resolution

small data set

So…there could be something there

VALUE PROPOSITION

Cheaper, higher resolution

primary market research

for CPGs

Findings

Technology feasible

CPGs interested

Value to customer needs work

But…

What happens when the dog catches the car?

food waste healthy food sell more Oreos?

So…back to the drawing board

What did shoppers tell us?

Food shopping is annoying b/c it takes too much time

Many are trying to eat healthy, but don’t have time to

cook … Eating out more

Decision fatigue is a problem for people shopping after

work

Rice Paper Rolls – Healthy Fast Food Concept

Fresh / Healthy

Delicious

No added sugar

Quick

Fun to eat

Portable

Served with healthy

snack for later

“Fresh, delicious food that doesn’t need to hide behind

a tortilla”

BMC #3: Rice Paper Rolls fast food concept

We interviewed a lot of people and ran tests

We interviewed:

Conducted

MVP:Cooked & sold rice paper rolls in Palo

Alto and on campus

Tested “snack after lunch”

End

Customers

Produce

Wholesalers

Food

Distributors

Restaurant

Operators

Food

Entrepreneurs

Industry

Consultants

Value Chain / Areas for Innovation

Supply Chain

Preparation CookingFinal

Packaging

Selling / Queue Mgmt

Real Estate /

Distribution

Experience

Customer

Acquisition

1 2 3 4 5

Year

Financing - Friends and Family; Angels; Crowdfunding

Ops: 1st Unit - 1 or 2 locations; Proof of Concept

Financing - Angels; VC

Ops: Multi-Market - Market Expansion; Scalability; Execution Risk

Financing - Private Equity; Corporate Partner

Operations: National Roll-Out

What we learned: Finance and operations timeline

Where do we go from here?

1 Return to testing / refining the product.

2 Determine Distribution Points

Catering

Drop-off

Brick & Mortar Restaurant

Vending Machines

Pop-up Kitchens

Our goal is to became a

branded food company that

consumers trust as a partner

in their quest to eat healthy

and sustainably.

Team Artichoke’s big ideas for the class

Getting out of the building teaches you something in

and of itself

How to ask better questions

How to be tenacious

How you operate as a

team

Make sure you want what you’re chasing

Nothing replaces vision, but these are skills

you can improve with practice