Stuggling Entrepreneur

[nassirkhan]

YC community; I started a coffee subscription business 4 months ago but I am having a difficult time growing. I was hoping I could get some honest feedback about my site on this forum. I am not a programmer, so I used wordpress to build out the site. We have partnered with one of the bay area's premier roaster to offer the most in-demand blends, and a portion of our sales go to support local non-profits. We have been trying to acquire customers on twitter, facebook etc, but the cost of customer aquisition has been astronomical and infeasible to justify continued operation.

Your feedback will be apreciated and might just save our business.

www.enods.com

support us by buying minibags: http://enods.com/subscription/product/mini-coffee-bags/

[jeffmould]

Several things that jumped out at me, in no particular order:

1. The site was extremely slow for me. Not sure if you are getting a lot of hits from this post or what, but it was so slow I almost navigated away.

2. Lose the mailing list pop-up that appears as soon as the page loads. I don't know what you do yet, and nothing personal but I don't know you or what you do, so I most likely am not going to give you my email address.

3. Tell me more on the homepage. If I had not dug into the site more, it would appear that all I am doing is ordering coffee and a portion of the proceeds go to cause of my choosing. It is not clear it is a subscription service.

4. On the Cause pages (except for the Human one), it says coming soon at the top. So where is my money going in the meantime for the others. Tell me more about how my money gets to these causes.

5. Nothing major or critical, but spend a couple dollars and get a better logo.

6. I would research how you can make the purchase tax-deductible. Maybe not now, but down the road. You may run into some people that are turned off completely by not having a tax deduction.

7. Tell the user more about the coffee. Why is it special or different? Why should they order your over my Starbucks subscription or Craft Coffee subscription?

8. Get some testimonials from people about the quality of the coffee. Also get some testimonials from the causes that are being donated to and link to the cause.

[nassirkhan]

Thanks so much for this feedback. We will definitely put most of these on our immediate to do list.

[jeffmould]

No problem. Good luck.

[Cypher]

1. slow site, make it snappy.

2. the drop down menu is disconnected https://i.imgur.com/v9ixj6g.png

3. I hate the timed pop up asking for my email, I usually close page. I want a good experience not nagging one.

4. It feels like Bland coffee for a Bland cause. Human Animal, Environmental. I'm not feeling connected enough to the coffee or the cause. I don't get the sense paying extra is going to make me feel good. Either focus on giving me the good coffee experience or make the stories more appealing with testimonials.

[edoceo]

Focus on your customers, not the site. You're solving the wrong problem.

Traction isn't about your site design, its about YOU UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMERS.

So, do some (~100) customer interviews. Then you'll know what to build - and why. Money will follow.

[nassirkhan]

Much appreciate the wisdom.

[RogerL]

Who is your intended customer? I can't identify any demographic that I think would want to order from you.

You say "coffee flavors". Peru is not a flavor. It's an origin. This is going to turn off anyone that knows anything about coffee.

Your coffee flavor page states "Learn about all our delicious coffee flavors:" But there is nothing on that page that teaches you anything. There is no information. What's a "viennese roast", for example? (I know, you don't need to explain). What towns in Peru did that coffee come from? Who's the farmer? What's the difference between various South American origin coffees? There is no information on this page.

The descriptions of the coffees all sound the same. One has a "rich finish", the next has a "rich flavors and a smooth finish", and the other a "rich, smooth finish".

As a point of contrast, go to Sweet Marias and read their descriptions. I'm not saying you need to go to their level, but "rich" is not descriptive. At most its evocative. And it means nothing when all your choices say "rich". Are their fruit notes? If so, which fruits? Are there cacao flavors? Is there sweetness, or funk? Are they wet or dry processed?

Next, go here: http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/products/coffee That's informative. There prices are in line with yours, but they are offering single origin, sourced coffee - you are buying coffee from one collective or even one farmer, and a specific harvest date. You know what friggin altitude the coffee was grown at. If you want your coffee ground, you get 14 grind choices.

It's places like Sweet Maria's and Intelligentsia that are doing good in the world. They form relationships with the farmers, they help educate them on what the market wants from coffee, they offer a dependable demand so that the farmer can trust that if they make an investment that the product will find a market, and they help raise support premium prices so the farmer can make a good wage and justify growing premium coffee (as opposed to pumping out mid grade, forgettable beans to be sold by Starbuck and the like). In contrast, I read your faq. You sell "fair trade" coffee. That's a pretty meaningless term. Are you associated with Fair Trade USA (note the capital letters), the non profit that certifies transactions? Or what? Fair trade is pretty well considered a scam - for a farmer to get certification often costs more than the increased bean price yields him. Direct trade is far more beneficial to the farmer.

I just don't get the impression (from the site) that you know anything about coffee. And you only have 3 choices. Why would I buy from you? I guess the causes? Of the $20 you want for 12 ounces of coffee (ouch), 2 goes to a cause. I click on animal cause. Nothing there but coming soon.

Why would I choose you over, say, blue bottle (I'm going to guess they are your roaster)? I can get that 12 oz bag for $14 from them, there are far more choices, I can get single origins instead of blends, I can get equipment, etc. You can cancel a subscription at any time with them. With you, tough luck, you're paying for, and getting coffee for a year no matter what.

Your subscription choices are extremely limited. Who is into coffee enough to pay $26 dollars (with shipping) for 12oz of coffee, and then only drink 12oz in a month? That's one week of coffee, maybe two, depending on the person.

I try to place an order, just to see all the info. Earlier, when I clicked on 'animal causes' it just said coming soon. So, being a bastard, when you ask me to specify a cause I choose animal causes, because I wanted to see what error you pop up. Nope, you take it. Hmm. Are you just taking my money too, or are going to use that $2 "at some point"? You tell me "local nonprofits", but the animal link I clicked showed an elephant. It's not adding up. I clicked around some more, it looks like you sent $50 to Muira Village. That ain't local. The last progress report was in October! No way I'd ever send money to a website like this, the information is mostly nonexistent, and the info that does exist contradicts itself.

Anyway, there is nothing on your site to create a customer, so I'm not surprised your customer acquisitions costs are exorbitant. You must have to make the sale elsewhere, because you aren't doing it on your site.

Are you into coffee? Do you enjoy coffee? Do you know coffee? What's the game plan here? To me it seems like you are buying beans from somebody else, and don't understand coffee terms or consumption patterns. If true, is this the right business for you? If you are knowledgeable and passionate about coffee, then please show it on your site.

Probably not a fun thing to read, but bottom line, why would a customer choose you over Intelligencia, Espresso Vivace, Counter Culture, Terroir, Klatch, etc? Because they are your competitors; there is no extra friction for me to click on their link instead of yours, and the prices are the same. Give me lower costs, give me more selections, give me a better education, give me better ordering choices, give me something to choose you over award winning, well known brands with strong roots in making the lives of coffee farmers better (trying to tie in the non-profit, help the world angle you have).

[nassirkhan]

Your criticism is valid. Believe me, our heart is in the right place - our execution needs to be improved, and I will use feedback such as this to do just that.

I love coffee and our education is ongoing. We will do a better job of better educating our audience.

As for the non-profits, we are on-boarding 5 new non-profits and will present their information on the site soon.

Thanks again

[bigiain]

As a coffee person, there's not _nearly_ enough information about the coffee. If I were considering your subscription service you'd be competing with places like:

http://fourbarrelcoffee.com/product-category/coffees/

http://ritual.myshopify.com/

https://bluebottlecoffee.com/at-home

https://www.sightglasscoffee.com/store

I've got no idea who roasted your coffee - if they're a "premier roaster" tell me who they are! If you can't or wont, then you're missing a lot of what I need to know to buy coffee. (I'm _way_ off the spectrum this way, but it's been years since I bought coffee that was roasted by someone I wasn't on a first name basis with...)

Unfortunately the words "fair trade" and "organic" on their own are a turn off for many serious coffee people - "fair trade" in particular is widely considered to be a trademark owned by rentseeking marketers that does little to benefit producers (and I don't know about the US, but of you use the words "fair trade" in your marketing without the blessing of the Fair Trade(tm) organisation in Australia, you should expect a nastygram from their lawyers fairly promptly).

Compare your description of "Mexican Fair Trade Organic light roast" with any of Four Barrel's coffee descriptions - they know how to market to "coffee people". If I care enough about coffee to subscribe to a delivery, I probably want to know more about it that what's written on the side of a Folgers can...

Critically, you're priced fairly high compared to your much more coffee-credible competition - even if I were writing off the 10% you're donating to charity, I can still buy beans from any of those four directly at lower than 90% of your pricing. Four Barrel's house blend (which to be honest, you're unlikely to be able to match quality-wise) is only $17 for 12oz without a subscription commitment.

And final point - and I'm on less certain ground here, I think you're also way too short on information about the cause as well. I suspect if you compare the brief information you have for the Muira Village Health Center Project to "leading charity websites" you'll come up short in very similar ways.

(Cold hard truths follow here - as constructive criticism of what you're showing us not a personal attack...)

Your site seems to not know enough about either coffee or charity to be credible. The numbers in my head seem to say you're skimming 3 or 4 dollars per delivery to get me to buy coffee of unknown provenience and quality from you at top dollar, trying to justify that with some feel-good "donating a coupe of bucks to a cause".

I'm probably not sure who your target market is (quite likely not me), but the numbers get _worse_ for you as the expectations of world-class coffee go down. If your typical buyer's usual alternative is a 2lb can of Folgers from the supermarket, it looks like you're pocketing closer to $10 per delivery.

I know a business needs a business model and a margin, but I can't see anywhere you're bringing value to the transaction that makes it worth my while paying your cut. As a coffee drinker with philanthropic tendencies, there are more effective ways for me to spend my money.

Good luck with it - I suspect with a _lot_ more information about the coffee, the roasting, and the charities; the outlook and value would improve, but I think you need to think very carefully about who you're targeting with this idea, and why they'd pay you instead of buying coffee from a great roaster and donating to their chosen charity.

[mc_hammer]

can try different front pages

i would try:

i would talk more about 1 type of coffee (say the most popular, or your favorite), convince someone to drink 1 cup in a paragraph and put that on the front page.

try just put 1 cause on the front page with your blurb "support multiple causes" or "choose" or whatever

(this is like a/b testing right, so whatever sells more we go with, improve and test again, if it doesnt sell more revert)

i read a nice blurb from a advertiser, he said he tested selling watches in New york times. most advertisers put 5 watches. he put an add with just 1 watch, and sold 1000% more watches than the other ad.

a good thing about a business like this is you can rebrand it and have 2 websites 2 company names and ship the same product. set up a site with a diff name and no cause stuff, and try to just sell the coffee. (tbh i like the cause stuff, but this is an idea, maybe its something else also)

you can get feedback from a few customers if possible (just send a hand written email? if you feel like it you can offer discount or free month for response or something.)

i would ask what made them purchase. and then i would ask someone to visit your site and tell you why they wont purchase.

one thing that i dont like so much is the outside pics. i dont associate the poor black kids and the dogs with drinking coffee, so maybe a lively pic of a wonderful home kitchen with some coffee. or maybe a pic of a coffee shop would sell better.

the website is very nice and call to action is clear though so gj. many business struggle for the first 12-18 months as far as ive read.

[nassirkhan]

Really appreciate your feedback. I will definitely look into implementing some of your pointers.