I used to send care packages to my highschool buddies deployed, and one time I chucked in a couple of those Starbucks packets I had given to me on campus. Hadn't even tried them, just thought "neat, instant coffee."
A few weeks later I get a call in class. Ignore. Listen to the voicemail after. "It's Jeff. I'm paying 10$ to call you international. Send more of those Starbucks packets, we're going to have a fucking riot here if we don't get more."
I started sending boxes. Apparently they're 100x better than whatever coffee the military was providing. So, @Sudden Coffee, try sending to troops, apparently they have a refined taste when it comes to instant coffee.
We're sending 300 tubes to a guy who's a big fan. He'll send those out to his buddies who are deployed around the world. Really excited about this! Also - we just had a subscriber in the Canadian army posting about their coffee break in the woods
Co-founder here - it's miles better than Via. Sometimes we include a packet of Via in our shipment so you can do a taste comparison (thinking about making this standard). You'll definitely notice the difference side by side.
As part of your marketing budget you should offer a free sample on your homepage. One tube of sudden and one packet of Via.
Maybe it won't convert well enough to justify cost but I bet it would. You get someone to input all their shipping data etc and an email (which pre-validates them as someone likely to buy), then you can email market them the day the package gets to them via tracking code. They try it, then can immediately order via the email if they like it.
A week after they have received it send them another email with a X% discount on first Y months subscription if you haven't heard back from them.
I do. I met one of the founders about six months ago and got a single serving to try (before they started using the tubes).
A couple weeks ago I compared it head to head against starbucks Via while backpacking.
Sudden Coffee totally blew Starbucks Via away. It's about as much better than Via as Via is compared to the horrible Nestle stuff.
It's not going to replace my daily pourover, but for future camping trips I'll be drinking Sudden. For this use-case, the subscription model is a pain. I'd prefer to just buy two or three cases to have a supply and give some out to my outdoor friends/family.
Via makes a decent cup of coffee which is good as "back-up" for situations where you can't make coffee in a normal way. It's cost/serving is comparable to what you would pay for good beans. I am thinking something like 12oz of La Colombe Corsica ($12) @ 20g/dose => $0.70/serving.
$2+/serving for Sudden seems "out there" for a subscription service which, by definition, is intended for regular use.
A few weeks later I get a call in class. Ignore. Listen to the voicemail after. "It's Jeff. I'm paying 10$ to call you international. Send more of those Starbucks packets, we're going to have a fucking riot here if we don't get more."
I started sending boxes. Apparently they're 100x better than whatever coffee the military was providing. So, @Sudden Coffee, try sending to troops, apparently they have a refined taste when it comes to instant coffee.