[ig1]

I was surprised that you can get still get to the interview stage at YC without having a prototype.

Am I right in guessing that your business was bringing the home-cooked food selling model to the US ? (like http://www.super-marmite.com/ is doing in France).

Congrats on making the jump.

[richpalmer2]

Thanks! Yes, that is really similar to what we had planned to do.

[ig1]

What made you give up on the idea ?

[richpalmer2]

We haven't given up on it just yet. What came out of the whole process was that we are up against big hurdles - including legal obstacles that might make the business model impossible in the US.

What we took to heart was that we needed to really get more in touch with our end users, validate that they would use the service in spite of these issues, and understand what it would take to get the public past the potential discomfort of buying food from strangers. Actually seeing it work on a small scale would go a long way towards proving that it would be worth our time (and other people's money) to pursue the idea.

In the meantime, we are applying this thinking to two other ideas to see if we can't come up with a more compelling business.

[ig1]

I looked briefly at the possibility of applying the business model to the UK, I found a good source for legal info to be farmers markets and local food markets where people already sell homemade foods as the organizers have often already put a lot of work into researching the legal (and insurance) issues surrounding the business.

Also if you want to get some initial providers onboard, checkout Craigslist/Gumtree as often people sell home cooked food services on there.

[maxstoller]

I was rejected by TechStars NYC with the same idea. My partner and I were really excited by the idea, but like you, ran into a wall of both legal and social boundaries.