

Show HN: Beander, a platform for micro-roasters - the_french
http://beander.com
Hey, we built this during Startup Bus. Currently, specialty coffee is a 16 Billion dollar industry and there is no platform to connect small independent roasters with the large importers of raw beans. We simplify the current system which involves digging around on outdated excel sheets. We hope to help importers move their extra product and micro-roasters obtain the exact beans that they want.
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jmbmxer
I am a micro roaster myself an I will say that there is a huge need for me to
find quality coffee in quantities that are manageable for my equally "micro"
side business. I think that the homepage does not do a great job of describing
the service or who it is for. I could see some simple images and text or a
video replacing the actual product on the homepage. Details about each of the
beans is also lacking. Do you guys have coffee experts on the team? The "About
Us" page is very ambiguous..looks like a bunch of tech guys. I am excited to
see where this goes!

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the_french
Hey jmbmxer, we're currently in talks with sustainableharvest to get access to
all of their images and videos about their farms. We built this on a bus from
Seattle to San Antonio so we haven't had enough resources to fully flesh out
the imagery. We definitely have coffee experts on board, besides all being
addicts ourselves our CEO is actually the owner of two coffee shops in
Seattle! We'll definitely try to make more information visible and make easier
to understand what we provide.

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nikentic
Not much of a platform if all it does is trying to sell beans. There's barely
any info about the beans or discussion around them..

Barely a MVP.

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the_french
The difference is that we don't actually hold any product. We allows importers
to list their beans and warehouses on the sit e and provide a standard view
for them. Though I agree that there is too little discussion about the beans,
this is also a very targeted specialty market (B2B) where our customers
already know what kind of product they are looking for.

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rubiquity
I had a similar idea a year or so ago that I never worked on. It was more
focused on helping micro roasters sell their roasted beans in a subscription
service than helping micro roasters get beans to roast, though. I never really
validated the idea with micro-roasters so maybe what you're trying to do is
better.

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the_french
So far we've gotten a lot of positive responses from importers in the north
east (Seattle, Portland). We've also talked to micro roasteries both
physically and on the phone, and a lot of would be interested in a system to
make their purchasing simpler.

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atom-morgan
Is Beander managing the warehouse that "can repackage coffee into smaller
bags, bundle orders – even from multiple importers with holdings in the
warehouse – and handle shipping details"? If not, how did Beander convince the
importers to do so if it wasn't advantageous for them to do it beforehand?

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the_french
So we are collaborating with both warehouses and importers to allow the
warehouse employees to package orders that need beans from multiple importers.

The reason it hasn't been done before is because there didn't exist a single
platform that pulled all the different orders from importers and told the
warehouse exactly what needs to be combined.

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andyleclair
What does "per bag" even mean? There's no weight (or mass) listed. If you're
thinking that "bag" means "regular 1lb (or insert metric equiv. here) bag" and
the first thing you see is $110/bag, it's quite the shock.

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the_french
when you follow through onto an actual bag it lists the price with the weight.
Each bag is currently weighed at 22 pounds (10 kilos)

