Hi there! I am developing a new food concept and wanted your take on it. I want to create a platform where students from all over the world can connect with home chefs. It will allow them to have a meal from home away from home and connect with locals. I believe loneliness and budget issues are concerns for students coming from abroad. I created a landing page to validate the concept - what are your thought on it? I greatly appreciate your feedback, thank you
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Sounds like a fun opportunity! Will this be a paid consultancy for our FTC members who are interested?
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I am starting this with very limited funds - hopefully, more will come soon!
There’s a lot of that going on, has been for years, I know an Indonesian guy who got weekly deliveries maybe 40 years ago? These days I think they’re mostly organized through Instagram or WhatsApp or the like.
They’re usually underground because in most places it violates health codes. So trying to build a business around it is problematic.
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Thanks, Robert, for your input. In this case, we are thinking of creating a platform that doesn’t aim to sell food directly but is more about nurturing meaningful connections by inviting students to join the table.
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I like the idea. How are you going to vet people?
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How would you make money?
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That is the tricky part, any suggestions would be helpful
Down the road, depending on traction, there could be a small monthly fee to subscribe
Background checks for sure on the cooks. Not sure about the college students. I guess just make sure they are going to college in the area ( a .edu email address?)
At first thought, you might need to partner with people who are local to represent Mealhug and they go on the dinners with the students the first few times a new cook is added?? Until you are comfortable with the cook. Not sure.
I don’t see how this could work as a business. You’d be competing with established informal networks that are free to cooks and customers and in their various native languages.
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This seems out of control to me . I would talk to your homeowners insurance agent . Local laws . It has disaster written all over it . Maybe if you met at a picnic table at a local park .
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Social gatherings are outside proscription, but once you introduce compensation at any level I strikes me as open to regulation and prohibition on many levels.
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Great idea. Exchange students might often be longing for a home-style family meal. And home cooking often offers dishes seldom found in a restaurant (or in the kitchen of a student on a very tight budget).
My impression is, this wasn’t intended as a business venture, just as a further resource for foreign students. On that level I think it would work nicely.