
Launch HN: The Buttermilk  Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes - mitraraman
Hey HN,<p>I’m Mitra Raman, the founder&#x2F;CEO of The Buttermilk Company (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thebuttermilkco.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thebuttermilkco.com</a>). We help you make authentic, fresh Indian food in 5 minutes by just adding water to our products.<p>As an Indian-American in my 20s, I grew up eating my mom’s homemade Indian food everyday. When I moved away from home to attend Carnegie Mellon University, I was homesick for the first time and realized how hard it was to find anything that resembled my mom’s food. I either had to make it myself (finding the Indian grocery store + following my mom’s recipe took way too much time) or would settle for whatever generic dishes at the local Indian restaurant. The options were expensive, time-consuming, or tasted horrible.<p>Two years into my job as an Software Engineer at Amazon, I asked my mom to help me make her rasam. She gave me all the ingredients in a ziploc bag and told me to just add hot water! I asked my friends about how they coped with homesickness and realized that most parents were also figuring out their own ways of getting their kids’ favorites foods to them when they moved. That’s how the idea for Buttermilk started!<p>We crowdsource our recipes from real people (keeping our product truly authentic) and develop them into products that are super easy for our customers to make. If you’ve ever asked your mom to send a family recipe to you, you know how hard it is to get this right! Our team spends hours in the kitchen tweaking each recipe so we can prep and cook it just enough that the customer can complete the cooking with water. We have to be careful to not over-prep such that the taste and nutritional value erode over time.<p>We use fresh and non-GMO ingredients, make everything from scratch (seriously, even the garam masala), and deliver our perishable products in sustainable packaging. Our production is extremely detail-oriented and time-consuming because we are recreating recipes for one family into large-scale batches that need to maintain the quality of its original recipe. To improve efficiency, we have built software to track food production, predict incoming volume, and help our production and fulfillment teams communicate. We’re also exploring new shelf-life extension technologies (such as HPP) so our products can last a lot longer. Currently, they must be refrigerated for 5-7 days or frozen for up to 3 months -- if you don’t eat them before then, that is!<p>In terms of market size: there are over 4 million Indian immigrants in the U.S. This demographic, like all other ethnic groups, is poorly served by the existing food options when it comes to their cuisines. And of course there is the population of everyone who just likes Indian food and can’t find or make it! Though we are starting with Indian cuisine, we definitely don&#x27;t plan to stop there. The market for ethnic foods in the U.S. is at least $5B. But in good startup style, we&#x27;ve started with the specific problem we ourselves had.<p>We’re super eager to hear your feedback, ideas, and experiences in this space or as it relates to our type of product.
======
t1o5
You will have a hard time balancing the spice levels. You can't satisfy both
Indian and non-Indian demographic or you will have to have a spicy, less spicy
type of each item. As an Indian, I cant stand the westernized non spicy
versions of the supposedly authentic Indian foods. So I wouldn't buy them nor
eat in those type of Indian restaurants. Its the same case vice versa. Non
Indians may not like the spicy versions.

Another thing to note that though its called "Indian food", there is no thing
as an "Indian food", just like not everyone from India knows Hindi.

Indian food varies drastically as you travel from North to South, East to
West. But for westerners, its mainly butter
chicken/daal/Vindaloo/Paratha/Chapathi. For someone from South India, it will
be Dosa/Appam/Idly/Idiappam/Pongal/Avial/Sambhar/Rasam or Fish curry. One of
your challenges lies in catering to the Indian & Non Indians palettes alike.
Greetings from Canada.

~~~
learc83
In my experience non-westerners tend to underestimate the level of spiciness
that westerners can handle (particularly westerners who are culinarily
adventurous), and overestimate the average spiciness of their cuisine.

If it's too spicy for me, it's too spicy for 99% of the population of any
country, but it's damn near impossible to convince servers of that.

~~~
js2
A bunch of us Westerner looking types went to a Thai restaurant in Mountain
View. This was many years ago and I don't recall the restaurant. We ordered
some shared dish and were asked how spicy we wanted it, 1-10. We said 10. The
whole "are you sure?" thing a few times. They brought the dish out. We said
"this really isn't 10 spicy." The server said, "next time say you want it 10
on the Thai scale". Sigh.

I live in NC now. There's an ice cream place here that has you sign a release
form before they'll let you try their "Cold Sweat"[0] made with habanaro,
ghost pepper oil, etc, ice cream. I tried it. It was pretty amazingly hot, but
while eating it I noticed they had a flavor called "Exit Wound." I asked what
it was. "Oh, that's even hotter." Didn't try it... the Cold Sweat was really
hot.

There's something wrong with an America where the spiciest food I can get is
ice cream. :-)

[0] Cheesy food network video -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8oy_zYRTZ0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8oy_zYRTZ0)

~~~
tptacek
I think this may be a thing with Thai restaurants in general; it's not just
spiciness but also level of fish sauce and even the way the dish is prepared.
There's a thing in Chicago about "secret menu" Thai restaurants, which are
often written in Thai language (food nerds in Chicago have translated and
published them). It might be possible to order things "Thai style" in any good
Thai restaurant and get a different, better dish.

~~~
cbhl
Anecdote: Had a (caucasian) friend who spent a four-month co-op term as a
student in India, and when they came back they also had to insist to the local
Indian restaurants "yes, I want it extra spicy, like you would serve to an
Indian person".

(Like, I realize this is frustrating, but how is the waiter going to know --
from your appearance -- that you spent four months eating Indian food in
India?)

~~~
faragon
Indians are caucasian, too.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
More to the point, "caucasian" is an obsolete and ill-defined term that was
interpreted in various ways throughout its history:

 _The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid[1] or Europid)[2] is a grouping of human
beings historically regarded as a biological taxon, which, depending on which
of the historical race classifications used, have usually included some or all
of the ancient and modern populations of Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia,
South Asia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa.[3]_

 _Since the second half of the 20th century, physical anthropologists have
moved away from a typological understanding of human biological diversity
towards a genomic and population-based perspective, and have tended to
understand race as a social classification of humans based on phenotype and
ancestry as well as cultural factors, as the concept is also understood in the
social sciences.[8]_

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race)

~~~
faragon
Sure, I forgot the quotes, thank you. The whole "race" thing is ridiculous, in
my opinion.

------
neya
How is this any different from MTR's line of products?[1]

And given that MTR's products cost just $2.50 per pack where I currently live,
$24 isn't exactly cheap. I haven't tasted your product, but I have tasted the
MTR ones and they seem pretty authentic. And MTR being a very old, traditional
brand, it's as authentic as it gets. Would love to hear about your
differentiation strategy.

[1] [https://www.mtrfoods.com/products/ready-to-
eat](https://www.mtrfoods.com/products/ready-to-eat)

~~~
infinite8s
Haven't tried any food from buttermilk, but if their shelf life is any
indication their food is much fresher than MTRs. MTR's packets are good for at
least a year (and taste like it - they are passable in a pinch but definitely
have that preservative taste to them). I think buttermilk is competing with
freshly made or restaurant quality food.

Edit: was wrong about MTR using preservatives, but I've always found their
food to have an off taste.

~~~
neya
MTR doesn't use preservatives, the whole food is just sealed air-tight with
extra oil covering the food to prevent it from rotting. It's a combination of
package engineering and food engineering.

------
dotBen
I think you should consider your addressable market to be greater than Indian
expats - I'm a Brit and I miss my curry living here as much as anyone from
India!

Two quick thoughts:

1) I don't get your branding, especially the company name, and especially as
all of your meals are vegan.

2) Shipping meat-based meals is presumably a very different and more expensive
logistical challenge so I get the reason why there's no meat in these but it
seems as though these packets could easily be combined with pan-cooked chicken
to make a more substantial meal - is that the case and is that something
you've considered promoting as part of the marketing?

I wish you the very best of luck!

~~~
vram22
I saw Mitra's reply downthread, but adding my 2c as an Indian:

Buttermilk is commonly drunk with meals in India (both North and South,
although lassi is very popular in the North too), and also separately as a
refresher, more so in summer, often lightly spiced with cumin, hing
(asafoetida), etc. and sometimes with a few green chillies in it (for the
brave - heh:), and is considered a soothing drink, and also healthy and
wholesome. In fact I remember a childhood friend of mine saying that (as we
both drank a glass each of buttermilk at lunch at his house), and it stuck in
my memory. And it is really that - soothing.

~~~
selimthegrim
I wasn’t aware hing and lightly spiced could be used in the same sentence.

~~~
vram22
Ha ha, good point :) Yes, hing is a very strong spice. But it can be a light
spice, if you use little enough. Normally just a tiny pinch of it is used.
Also, in India, the packaged variety you get from shops is usually mixed with
some filler material which makes it less strong. Not sure what, need to check.
In a similar manner, for example, some mustard powder out here is mixed with
some whole wheat flour (atta) and turmeric, for the same reason. E.g.
Weifield's Mustard Powder, a common brand.

~~~
selimthegrim
Yes my impression is it’s atta

~~~
jkaplowitz
Most commonly. I'm in North America and that's also true for the hing here.
Though I have found other fillers, which is good for people who need to avoid
gluten (atta has gluten).

------
EvilEndures
This seems like you are working off of TastyBite's playbook:

[http://tastybite.com/products/](http://tastybite.com/products/)

> The options were expensive, time-consuming, or tasted horrible.

Tasty bite tastes decent, takes 60-90 seconds to heat up, and costs about
$3/package with no need for refrigeration.

\---

This seems like a YC to clone TastyBite without any differentiation beyond the
nebulous "quality food".

So....

Are you telling me your quality is so much better a household staple of my
life is going to be replaced for twice the price?

\----

[https://www.amazon.com/Tasty-Bite-Chickpeas-Tomatoes-
Microwa...](https://www.amazon.com/Tasty-Bite-Chickpeas-Tomatoes-
Microwaveable/dp/B002JF61XO?th=1)

$15 for 6 packages / 60 oz.

[https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/cha...](https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/chana-
masala)

$13.50 for 3 packages / 30 oz(?)

~~~
mitraraman
TastyBite is definitely a similar product/company. The key differentiators
are:

\- Our products are fresh and don't have any preservatives, meaning they must
be refrigerated or frozen whereas TastyBite is shelf-stable for 9+ months. Our
food is inherently fresher and tastes more homemade because of this.

\- Our recipes are crowdsourced instead of developed in our kitchen. This
ensures that the food is actually authentic with a homemade taste and we are
able to expand into a much larger variety of products much quicker. For
instance, we have a few recipes in our pipeline that you would be hard-pressed
to find in TastyBite or even regular Indian restaurants because they are
authentic to smaller regions of India.

\- I can't say that you'll definitely like our product's taste better than
TastyBite, but I do believe so :)

~~~
EvilEndures
So you are going to market as an upscale version of TastyBite with no
preservatives that sells niche Indian food?

I wish you the best of luck with that.

Personally, I find a package of Vindaloo from TastyBite, some riced veggies,
and a shredded chicken breast lasts me about 2 meals and is comparable to the
price you are charging. I really only use TastyBite as a backpacking/on-the-go
meal or as a quick curry out of laziness. I'm probably not your target market
but shelf stability has alot going for it.

~~~
mitraraman
Your use case for TastyBit makes total sense. We're hoping to be a go-to
option for a normal meal at home when you don't want to spend the
time/money/energy on making a meal from scratch.

We are starting with Indian food but will hopefully be expanding to different
cuisines, too!

~~~
sjg007
Maybe you could offer low(er) sodium versions. I find 20% daily sodium intake
is too much for a dish.

~~~
southerndrift
Do you eat more than 5 dishes per day? How are you going to get your daily
sodium dose?

~~~
emodendroket
Since most people are overshooting by huge margins, that'd be among the least
of my worries.

~~~
astura
The evidence suggests most people are not overshooting their salt needs and
especially not by huge margins.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-
th...](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-
know-the-truth-about-salt.html)

>With nearly everyone focused on the supposed benefits of salt restriction,
little research was done to look at the potential dangers. But four years ago,
Italian researchers began publishing the results from a series of clinical
trials, all of which reported that, among patients with heart failure,
reducing salt consumption increased the risk of death... Those trials have
been followed by a slew of studies suggesting that reducing sodium to anything
like what government policy refers to as a “safe upper limit” is likely to do
more harm than good. These covered some 100,000 people in more than 30
countries and showed that salt consumption is remarkably stable among
populations over time. In the United States, for instance, it has remained
constant for the last 50 years, despite 40 years of the eat-less-salt message.
The average salt intake in these populations — what could be called the normal
salt intake — was one and a half teaspoons a day, almost 50 percent above what
federal agencies consider a safe upper limit for healthy Americans under 50,
and more than double what the policy advises for those who aren’t so young or
healthy. This consistency, between populations and over time, suggests that
how much salt we eat is determined by physiological demands, not diet
choices....

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/we-
ea...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/we-eat-a-lot-of-
salt-but-scientists-say-there-are-good-reasons-for-
that/2015/05/04/69ff7058-c806-11e4-a199-6cb5e63819d2_story.html)

>People tend to consume about the same amount of sodium no matter where they
live, and this amount hasn’t changed much in decades. Those facts hint at the
biological basis of our sodium appetite.... “Over the last five decades, salt
content of commercial food in our food [in the United States] has gone up. But
if you look at people’s 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, you see that the
amounts of salt people consume have been constant,” he says. Irrespective of
age, sex or race, between 1957 and 2003 Americans have been eating on average
3.5 grams of salt a day. “This suggests that we are somehow regulating the
amount of salt we are eating,” Breslin says.... In one of Leshem’s studies,
babies who had low concentrations of sodium in their blood in the first weeks
of their lives grew up to be teenagers with a penchant for salt, even salt
that is seemingly hidden in processed foods. “Even if you can’t taste the
salt, apparently your body does. It’s working on an unconscious level to
condition a preference for sodium,” Leshem explains.

------
erikpukinskis
I haven’t tried the food, but it seems like you are making real, high quality
food. I think the “ship fresh” angle is interesting and worth experimenting
with. I wish you the best and will follow the journey on Instagram!

Others in this thread seem dubious that quality could be a differentiator, but
I think you should double down on that. It’s not just ingredients, but
technique that makes food delicious and if you can truly scale proper par-
cooking technique, that will be a strong core for your business, and difficult
to copy from the outside.

I also think you are absolutely correct to focus on a core market who loves
real Indian food. There’s no price you can put on your family’s home cooking,
which makes it a good market for you to start in low volume.

Just a random idea as you grow: you might try supporting an “experiment
community” the way Soylent did. I think that forum became
[https://www.completefoods.co](https://www.completefoods.co). They encouraged
people to share and develop their own recipes.

In the long term, you will need to compete against “monoculture” brands who
are selling one size fits all products. Because you aren’t storing inventory,
you will be positioned to sell a wider selection of products, even short runs
of one-off special foods. Could be another differentiator.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you! We agree that quality is a lot more than in the ingredients and
makes a huge difference.

That's a great suggestion about the community. We are experimenting with
community building through our recipe curators, who send in their recipes to
be turned into Buttermilk products. They receive 5% of the proceeds of their
product sales, too. There are tons of great opportunities for this!

------
ttcbj
I don't think I'm exactly in your target market, but I have a related problem:
We cook a lot of healthy foods at home (e.g. skinnytaste), and Indian recipes
are the only ones that never come out.

I suspect it is because we never get the spices right. We went to an indian
cooking class many years ago, and the woman who taught it hand ground all the
spices herself. The results were amazing, but who has the time?

If you had a service that coupled premixed spices with recipes that use them,
that would have been really exciting to me.

We can already buy various pre-made pastes/mixes at the grocery store, but
they are really unhealthy.

If we could get the spices, then have control of all the fresh ingredients
(meats, veggies) and also all the unhealthy ingredients (salt, anything with
fat, etc), that would be attractive to me.

I know that is not what you are doing, but just for the future (a) spices are
cheaper to mail and shelf-stable (b) the spice mix is probably the secret
sauce of what makes it taste good, and it is difficult to duplicate in my
experience (c) leaving the other ingredients out would allow home users to
follow either a healthy recipe (fat free yogurt) or special occasion recipe
(heavy cream!)

Anyway, FWIW, when I read the first lines of your description, that is what I
was hoping for.

~~~
justfor1comment
You just defined the concept of a masala. A masala is a mixture of dry spices
in the correct ratio for a recipe. You can find them at an Indian store. I
have also seen them at Target or on Amazon. The recipe for cooking is on the
back side of a masala packet. Here is a link to a popular brand of masalas:
[http://www.everestspices.com/products](http://www.everestspices.com/products)

~~~
ttcbj
Thanks a lot! You are right, a masala was just what I was looking for. The
Shan products mentioned below seem to have a ton of sodium, but the everest
products you mention let you add your own sodium and sugar to taste. I just
ordered some to try out.

------
elhudy
Mitraraman,

The website has a really clean look - it makes the product seem delicious and
authentic. The minimalist design compliments the minimalism of the product.

I would be careful with identifying your target market. I live in Chicago,
which I believe has one of the highest percentages of Indian immigrant
populations in the nation. This might seem like your target market - but in
fact the large percentage of immigrants has led to a slew of Indian markets
and restaurants, that are likely equally delicious and cheap. It is a common
theme among my coworkers to bring in homecooked Indian meals on a daily basis.

I also noticed the Upma pack is listed as gluten-free, but contains semolina.
That's just asking for legal trouble from those with Celiac's. It might be
worth consolidating all of the different packages and their ingredients lists
on a separate page, QAing them, and making them more available to the reader
in an organized, possibly drop-down format. Hope this feedback is useful.

Cheers

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you, really happy you like our website and product! There's a few key
differences between our products and the existing Indian-based products which
I've called out in a different response.

That's a good point about the target market. There's definitely a sizable
portion of immigrants who continue to cook from scratch. There's also an
emerging part of the market who are first/second-generation and don't cook at
home as often -- either because they don't know how, don't have all the
ingredients on hand, or don't have the time/patience. We are aiming to serve
this population, and also be a nice-to-have for the former group of people!

That is a great call out on the Upma and a mistake on our end (that we
accidentally added last night!). We will fix this immediately. I also really
like your feedback about putting all the ingredients and nutritional
information on a single page. Thank you!

~~~
clarkevans
Mitra Raman, If you would please consider Celiacs... it's so hard to find
suitable/delicious food. South Indian food can be quite friendly to Celiacs.
That said, my wife is so sensitive we almost never eat out due to cross-
contamination, we even avoid products that are "made in a facility that
handles wheat". So, it's not just ingredients but the chances of cross-
contamination that matter to us.

Speaking of which, I'd love to know of Indian restaurants in Chicago, ideally
closer to south side, that are truly friendly to Celiacs. Thanks.

~~~
paulie_a
Well this might not answer your question in regards to the celiac aspect. I
will say that the Indian place in the food court of 550 w Madison is worth
checking out. It's adjacent to Ogilve. It's better than any other place I've
tried by a long shot.

------
losvedir
Congrats on the launch!

My wife's last job was at a factory that produced ice cream, and I was
astounded to learn all the stuff that goes into quality control and keeping
the food safe to eat. It's actually made me switch my cat food from those sort
of 100% organic, high quality things to more mainstream brands, since I think
_what 's_ being produced is less important than _how_ it's produced, and I
tend to trust larger factories by known quantities a little more.

Can you detail a little more your industrial process? The home page says "We
make everything from scratch in our Seattle kitchen using only locally sourced
ingredients + fresh vegetables" which _sounds_ nice at first, but actually
kind of creeps me out a little bit. I assume you have random FDA inspections
and the like? Precautions to manage listeria, e. coli? A "locally sourced"
supply chain with known quality controls, etc?

Also, is there a detailed ingredient list somewhere? My wife is allergic to
chickpeas and lentils, which unfortunately makes eating Indian food very
difficult for us, as much as I love it! I see lentils explicitly in some of
the items, but others don't mention either, but that doesn't mean it's not
used, e.g., in the flour or something.

~~~
mitraraman
Thanks for bringing this up -- food safety is super important! We work out of
a licensed commercial kitchen with all the proper permits and licenses in
place. All of our cooks have gone through extensive food safety training and
we have quarterly FDA inspections (we just passed our last one with flying
colors)! Our ingredients come from local distributors who are extremely
trusted and vetted to provide the best quality ingredients. We also double
inspect all of the ingredients to make sure they are up to our standards.

You can find a full ingredient list on each product's page under 'Benefits'.

------
bendoidic
Ordered, and excited to try! That free shipping offer got me to go back and
add an item, so kudos. Once I taste the product, I might just submit a pav
bhaji recipe.

Can't comment on pricing until I taste and get a sense of quantity. Certainly
reasonable enough to let me try.

Some feedback on the site: \- Love the pastel colors and packaging design.
Very clean, with excellent photos. Any concern about appearing too feminine
for your target customer? \- I feel like the "Details" should already be open
when I go to a product page. I ended up having to twirl it open each time I
visited a page. Also annoying that the Drift pop-up covered up those details
every time! \- I got confused about bundles, quantities, and meal counts, and
just ended up ordering enough to get free shipping. Maybe that's the intent?
\- Loved the "How to Eat" section. Helped me decide what to buy, but once
again, it was hidden. \- I would suggest left aligning your text on product
descriptions. Centered text is harder to read, especially with the bulleted
lists. \- I want more imagery of the food! Photos of the ingredients! Videos
of the cooking process! "How to Eat" as a video or photo series, instead of
text!

------
JoblessWonder
As a non-Indian who enjoys Indian food, I'd be interested in this. However, if
you want to market to non-Indians I'd suggest putting the dish description
outside of the "Details" dropdown and up where the more general description
is. Or start with the "Details" section expanded. Or rename "Details" to
something else that lets you know that is where the more detailed description
of the flavors is.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you for your feedback!

~~~
JoblessWonder
No problem. Feel free to reach out if you want to send me some samples for
White-Guy Taste Testing. :)

------
hashgowda
Great idea. I wish you nothing but success.

Few points: * If you're targeting Indians. You need to price competitively.
You need to make it hard to resist. * Find a village/s in India where you can
procure and pack. * Post some videos of how it's prepared (tasty.com style).

Minor website issues: * Fix coloring "Buy it now" barely visible -
[https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/single/products/daal](https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/single/products/daal)
* When user selects single. Images should show singles not multiple packs. *
confusing product categorization. click on "shop now" on the landing page.
goes to
[https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/all](https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/all)
I could not find "Singles" mentioned the listing. * on the shop menu it
displays "Suites, combos, bundles" confusing just keep it simple "combos" and
"singles" allow user to mix and match using cart? based on there selection
apply pricing changes and let them feel they won a lottery by choosing the
right combination.

All the best.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you so much for the feedback!

------
diiaann
Mitra congrats!

I'm dismayed by the folks harping on the sodium content (for health reasons
not taste). I think it warrants a deeper look because sodium intake is
controversial. But there's lot of evidence that people can have more than 2.3g
and still be healthy if you have normal kidney function, etc. Shrug, maybe
they just wanted to find something to hate on.

New England Journal of Medicine:
[https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1311889](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1311889)

Summary: [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-
end-t...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-
on-salt/)

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you!

------
cbhl
If you plan on targeting the college market, I would focus the pitch on
_parents_ rather than students.

For a student, the alternative is to go to McDonald's and spend $8, or to go
to an on-campus cafeteria.

For a parent, the alternative is to take a whole day (or more) to visit their
child and bring a home-cooked meal in the trunk of their car (or on the
train/plane/etc). At that price point, $24 is a steal. And the price of a
"proper" dinner kit is probably on par with gift baskets the universities sell
full of junk food/cake/candy/flowers/fruit salad.

~~~
mitraraman
That's a great suggestion -- you might be reading our minds here at Buttermilk
HQ ;) Follow us for updates on this!

------
scott00
Reactions from a non-Indian (who loves Indian food):

* I really had to dig to find descriptions of the dishes.

* The emphasis on pre-built combo packs turned me off somewhat. You've only got ~10 dishes, I'd rather explicitly pick the 3 or 4 dishes that intrigued me than sift through all the combo packs to find the one that most closely matches what I want.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you for your feedback!

\- We changed our product page design recently to move descriptions to a
different part of the page and will definitely look into redesigning it! \- We
find that pre-built packs are helpful for people who can't choose or want to
try a bunch of different ones. You can also purchase the individual products
here:
[https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles](https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles)

------
jacquesm
Very interesting. I recently invested into a US based food startup that does
interesting stuff and I learned a lot about how hard it can be to get the
recipes right and how hard it can be to produce such a product in quantity
with high confidence in quality and packaging.

Much good luck with your company, if I could make two suggestions: add a
subscription option (or make it the default), and maybe do not appeal to the
'homesick' part as much as you do now, there are a lot more people out there
that enjoy Indian food than there are Indians abroad.

Also, it appears you do not sell outside of the United States, maybe make that
more clear up-front?

------
lasekar
Your gluten free tags on many of the products seem to be wrong, Asefotida
contains gluten, and it's an ingredient in your sambar, rasam, dal recipes,
which are marked as gluten free. Incorrect health facts labeling causes
distrust.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you for pointing that out! We will review and update accordingly.

------
alphakappa
Congratulations on the launch - I love this idea. One thing that stands out to
me is your beautiful packaging. Could you shed some light into how you went
about figuring out packaging and all the logistics involved?

------
moate
IDK if you guys have a food stylist on staff, but your pictures could use
improvements. I get that you're coming from tech, where sleek and minimalist
is what people go for in design, but that's not how food photography works.

You dishes typically have 1 direct overhead picture of a bowl of the food. you
then have several styled pictures of the "combos" or of the food in a sealed
package. People eat with their eyes first. You're trying to sell comfort and
yet you present your food in a very minimalist/sterile way.

Compare your images, to someone in a similar space, hello fresh:
[https://www.hellofresh.com/menus/?redirectedFromAccountArea=...](https://www.hellofresh.com/menus/?redirectedFromAccountArea=true)

Food styling is aspirational. It's about getting the consumer to look at an
image and say "I want that". It needs to speak to those desires.

A zip-top, solid colored plastic bag does not make me want to eat what is
inside the bag.

~~~
mitraraman
Appreciate the feedback! It's on our to-do list :)

------
pravint
\+ Good name

\+ Good package design especially color palette

\+ Good website

\- Expensive for packaged food

\- Nothing that stood out (from comments) as strong differentiator from
competitors (that they can not do)

\- Unclear target market, this is what I gathered from comments, people

    
    
        * Who don't have access to Indian restaurants
    
        * Who don't have time or know how to cook Indian food at home
    
        * Who don't have access to competitors products 
    
           ** Hard to make case here as all major retailers sell one or other Indian food packages, and for everyone else there is Amazon Prime
    
        * Who have access to restaurants, have time or know how to cook but would instead prefer to spend about same amount of money on packaged food as they would by ordering it with food delivery services.
    
    

I might be completely wrong but IMO this is commodity business, unless you are
building robots which can cook millions of packages of custom made Indian food
for everyone.

------
opportune
I have to say I’m impressed at the price at which you’re able to deliver these
meals - I would have expected them to cost 25-50% more a la Blue Apron (which
I don’t use due to the price). I’ll have to try these!

Have you thought about trying to sell your products, or similar products, to
people who camp/hike/etc? I think the fact that the meals are dehydrated and
easy to cook would appeal to them

One point of constructive criticism I would offer is that I find the
nutritional information hard to find and read in some circumstances.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you! Definitely -- we are a Seattle-based company so we have a huge
community of campers and hikers eating our meals! Our products are not
actually dehydrated, so they are great for 1-day hiking and camping excursions
but not for much longer unless you're able to keep them cool.

That is a great point, and we will definitely update our website to make the
nutritional information more readable.

~~~
vram22
Mentioning on the packaging and/or site, how you make the product dry (after
assembling and cooking it), may be of interest to readers (unless you cannot
because it is some proprietary technique). I know I would be. Just a thought.

~~~
mitraraman
We don't actually dry or dehydrate our products in any way, but can definitely
include more information on how we create and package our products.

------
anonu
Best of luck! I remember the good 'ol CMU days when we'd hit up "IG" (aka
India Garden on Atwood - now closed) or "Taste" (aka Taste of India)...
Certainly a far cry - I can imagine - from a good home-cooked meal.

My suggestion: was looking for a video on your site... Something like that on
the very first page might help people understand better what is being offered
and how easy it is to prepare.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you!! I "fondly" remember IG as well :)

That is a good suggestion -- we've actually been talking about that internally
recently and will revisit it.

------
gyani95
Hey!

I'm am an expat who lives in the UK. I'm from India as well. $24 for 3-4
vegetarian meals seems really expensive, will you adjust pricing as you scale?

How do you plan on preserving taste and the "home cooked feeling" as you
scale? This might be an absurd question at this stage, but a friend and I who
wanted to get in this space couldn't come up with a good answer.

Personally, I just cook a lot of food whenever I cook so that I am able to do
a couple of meals. I've recently considered having a soylent for dinner and I
just ordered my first pack of Huel. I can cook whenever I want to eat really
authentic food.

Here in the UK a lot of house wives provide a tiffin service. Is there
something similar in the US?

Great website. Nice story. I wish you luck :)

~~~
bambataa
What is this 'tiffin service'? I'm from the UK and have never heard of it.

~~~
gyani95
A "Tiffin" in India is a meal in a box. There is this website
[https://tiffinplanet.co.uk/](https://tiffinplanet.co.uk/) that provides a
tiffin service. That is serves Indian food to you for lunch/dinner. You can
find similar services on Gumtree. I briefly subscribed to a Tiffin service
that would advertise the food a day before and you could decide whether you
were interested or not.

------
maxharris
Can you please offer a fructose-free option? Or at least tell your customers
which products contain added fructose?

This matters because there is an ever-growing _mountain_ of evidence that
shows that fructose is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM)

~~~
buildawesome
Do you mean to say sugar-free option? Or high fructose corn syrup?
Tangentially, I would argue that fructose isn't the primary cause of obesity
but the excess of sugar (fructose, glucose, sucrose) consumption.

~~~
maxharris
No, I mean _specifically_ fructose, no matter what the source (sugar, honey,
agave, HFCS, natural fruit that has been turned into pulp or frozen, etc.)

Regarding your tangential point, watch
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM).
I used to be quite the Atkins dieter, and I didn't gain any weight when I
started eating _some_ non-fructose carbs. Thanks to the fact that weight tends
to correlate with age, I look a lot younger than most people think I am. (I've
been doing this for nine years...)

------
iamshs
Good luck to you. I absolutely abhor MTR and other Indian meals out there.
They taste yuck and are unappetizing. Hopefully your company will change that.
I like how you named it after lassi but buttermilk is not really lassi. I
absolutely have no hesitation in saying that you will be successful, if your
rasam tastes as good as you say it is. Hopefully you start doing saag soon.
One of the old world Punjabi foods, before Portuguese came with their fancy
la-de-da tomatoes. It is just mustard stalks, ginger, salt and chilli for the
most part. So sits right there with your company's vision. If you are looking
for an Australian contact, I will be happy to hear from you.

~~~
sumedh
> They taste yuck and are unappetizing.

Have you done a blind taste test?

------
harigov
I think the food is slightly overpriced but I would be willing to pay for high
quality organic food. However, my key concern is how you deal with allergens.
I am very sensitive to certain food items like gluten and dairy which makes it
hard for me to find food when I travel. If you can handle food contamination
and provide organic gluten/dairy free food, consider me a customer. I can
totally see myself buying these for my trips.

BTW, when I say gluten and dairy free, I am talking about celiac friendly
food. You need to ensure that gluten content is below 20 PPM.

~~~
mitraraman
I understand your concern, and we're very careful to not cross-contaminate.
All of our products are vegan and the only dishes that are NOT gluten-free are
khichdi, upma, and our rices. We use our own kitchen appliances and actually
cook the gluten-free and non-gluten-free dishes on separate days to ensure
that we're being careful. You're right, these are great for trips!

~~~
Zamicol
I'm also a celiac. I'm surprised there's nothing about gluten free products on
the FAQ page.

I'm also sensitive. This kind of product would be excellent for me if I knew
it wasn't poisoning me.

This is a big issue for celiacs. We get treated like trash (not as bad as a
decade ago) and have been burned countless times with so called "gluten free"
food. One example, there was a local chief telling people that he was a celiac
and then cooked "gluten free" noodles in the water with gluten noodles. We
later found out he didn't have celiac, it was only a marketing ploy.

We've learned just not to trust people unless they are serious and "get it",
show genuine understanding of our concerns and the serious consequences of
cross contamination.

Best of luck, I hope this prospers.

------
koala_man
Right up my alley. Thanks for using Amazon/Paypal/Google checkout integration
properly, and not just to pre-fill some info while making me create Yet
Another Shopping Account.

One bug: the Amazon cart discarded my old items after I added new ones.

Steps to reproduce: 1\. Add a sampler to the cart 2\. Try to check out using
Amazon 3\. Discover that shipping is $6, or free shipping at $35+ 4\. Go back
and add a few more items 5\. Try to check out with Amazon again

Expected result: The items all show up, now at the $35 level

Actual result: Only the newly added items were show

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you, happy to make the shopping experience easier for you!

Very sorry to hear about that issue and thank you for the debugging
instructions. We will look into it immediately!

------
agentultra
This sounds awesome. As a person who grew up eating boiled vegetables, roast
beef, and chicken I've come to love Indian cooking with an undying passion. I
could eat it all day, every day.

Fresh and convenient? Sold.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you! Happy to hear it.

------
frabcus
Curious, why's YC investing in this?

Is there some new technology element?

Or a tech switch happening making this possible?

------
apatters
I love this idea. It occurs to me that the category of non-shelf stable, just
add water meals is really interesting. You are going to be able to produce
something more high quality and authentic. And I'd guess that large companies
who like to focus on shelf stable products to minimize inventory/supply chain
costs will be averse to producing something like this. If I was in the US I'd
buy it immediately.

I am in Thailand and this approach would be very interesting for a number of
Thai foods as well. The king of ready-made or easy-prep meals here is 7-11.
They even microwave, toast, add hot water, etc. in the store for you. This
would be a direct upgrade to many of the Thai meals they offer.

------
srinivasan
I did my BS at CMU as well, though it's been around 3 years since I graduated.
The Indian food options were not great in Pittsburgh; I remember one
restaurant that got shut down by the Allegheny County Health Department. A
service like this would have been perfect for me, easy to prepare in crowded
shared kitchens or even in my dorm room.

The other options all have their downsides. The imported pre-packaged stuff
has a lot of oil (and has an overwhelming amount of garlic) and honestly
smells rancid. Frozen options like Amy's are alright, but quite bland. And
restaurant delivery, even if available near you, is not very healthy.

It looks like this won't have any of those drawbacks. Excited to try it out.

------
karthikpaga
I believe there's a lot more to serving this customer segment. Especially, in
terms of engaging the. Often, times it is the details in the "home-made"
dishes that differentiate from everything else. It is quite exciting to have
the building blocks for having an amazing meal, but the scope of the twist
should be customizable. If you could incorporate, a video series like
[https://www.youtube.com/user/BonAppetitDotCom](https://www.youtube.com/user/BonAppetitDotCom)
while using your ingredients (by the way I can get Basmati rice, from any
grocery store in US!) and other common ingredients - that would fundamentally
improve the experience.

~~~
mitraraman
That's a really great suggestion, hopefully we can do that in the future!

------
hueving
Curious, do you offer GMO products for people that care about sustainability
and the environment or is it too hard to serve both markets?

------
adamnemecek
I've wished this were a thing before! I'm glad someone's doing it! Right now,
the only alternative is like ramen or smth.

You should mention that it's vegan more prominently, might sway some people
even faster.

~~~
mitraraman
Happy to hear! Thanks for the feedback :)

------
glial
Mitra - Cool idea! I was always a bit envious of my Indian and Bangladeshi
friends in college who came to campus on Monday with a Tupperware container
full of food. Now I can try it out myself. Just ordered some.

FWIW, I really like the website and personally I do like that you sell it in
pre-set packs. I don't know my way around non-Americanized Indian food very
well and would be happy to try anything - happy to let you all pick what that
is at first. It's nice that you let people buy multiples of 1 pack once they
find something they really like.

------
akshatpradhan
Nutrition Label upfront, in words and text. I know there is a picture but I
missed it, some of the nutrition labels are like the 4th picture.

Some of the starter packs don’t have nutrition label on it either.

~~~
mitraraman
Great feedback. We will update our website accordingly!

------
kamaal
I really hope you do well. But most of your customers are going to be in US
cities, basically the Bay Area, NYC, LA etc. And those places are over flowing
with Indian restaurants. Like fresh food cheaper than what you are selling(You
can buy a unlimited buffet for as little as $11). Combined with things like
Door Dash and Uber eats, the delivery problem is solved too.

There are restaurants at all cost points.

Pre packed food is a huge turn off for most Indians, and Indian-Americans. I
mean people who have immigrated, not their kids born in America. Plus Indians
are cost conscious.

I see you are selling that curry pack- Rice + curry for $28. You could a month
worth Indian food with that kind of money. Indians are very cost conscious
people. The bag of Basmati rice(5 kg) costs $15, you also get Idly/Dosa
batter, heat and eat chapathis for pretty less too. And even if you shopped
lavishly, the grocery bill is a lot less than anything you can sell.

Plus you have to also fight the affiliation people have towards things like
Maggi Noodles, MTR and MDH masalas.

The other part making your case worse is the huge supply of Indian shops in
most economic centers. Everything is available, like everything- Including
cooking equipment. Heck, I had more diverse Indian food in Sunnyvale than I
have eaten in Bangalore.

------
technological
Hi Raman

Firstly congratulations on launching the product.

Being myself from india, I love cooking and really like the choices what you
have.

However I notice one main thing which may cause issue

"Made in a facility with meat, wheat and nuts"

As you know few majority of Indians prefer vegetarian food and they may be bit
skeptical of eating if it was processed in facility with meat.

Also you did not mentioned what kind of meat ? As you know we have different
religions and people have certain restrictions

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you for the support! Being a strict vegetarian myself I understand the
concern. We operate out of a shared kitchen space, so other clients in the
space make a variety of dishes which include meat, wheat, and nuts. We use our
own kitchen utensils, dishes, pots/pans, etc to avoid contamination as much as
possible. Maybe one day we can share a video of a "day in the life" of our
kitchen staff to show you, but rest assured that we take it very seriously to
not cross-contaminate :) Per FDA regulations, we must include that information
on our packaging.

------
chamakits
I think I’m your perfect “people that just like Indian food” target audience!

The only thing from just skimming the site (haven’t dove deep in just yet) is
that it seems it’s only veggie dishes right? Not a deal breaker, but if you
had at least easy to follow recipes accompanying these on how to add some meat
to them, this might turn into 100% of my meals

Anyways, will be ordering when I get home. Good job launching and good luck!

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you! Yes, everything is vegan but I totally understand your need for
more meat dishes. Under 'How To Eat' on each product page we've added what
meat we suggest mixing with the dish. More detailed recipes to come! Thanks
for the feedback.

Example:
[https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/sam...](https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/sambar)

~~~
23andwalnut
Just curious, is the decision to keep everything vegan tied to the 5 minute
requirement?

~~~
sealthedeal
Shipping meat in package seems like a great way for regulators to step in :|

Also it just sounds naaaaaaaaaasty lol

~~~
exolymph
No reason for the above comment to be dead, so I vouched it.

However: Shipping meat in packages is pretty commonplace, you just need to
keep it sufficiently chilled. (Maybe only frozen is acceptable?)

Check out Crowd Cow.

------
hpagey
I was very excited to see this but after looking at the nutrition details, I
was dismayed.

Upma 1 serving has 660 mg of sodium. Khichdi has 1760 mg of sodium. The daily
requirement is 2300 mg of Sodium and if you are hyper tensive the requirements
are lesser. Is there a reason it has such a high sodium content?

The pricing also seems high to me. I think your should rethink pricing. For
staple items like khichdi, upma you should drop the pricing. I am confident
that you will make it up with volume. If you price staple breakfast and dinner
items too high, you will drive away your core customer base of Indian
students. You want Indian students to buy your items in bulk for a month. Will
a Indian student spend 200 dollars per month (20 * 10 (1 khichdi + 1 upma)) on
your food items? You can use these staple items as lead gen tools to establish
a long term relationship with your customers.

~~~
sissyFuss
Sometimes food is prepared for flavor, based on a consensus of what tastes the
best.

If more people affirm that a given recipe is the most desirable, it would be
completely ridiculous to impose a lesser recipe upon the menu, if it sells
poorly.

I can easily prepare low sodium pretzels, and try to sell them at the county
fair, but what good would that do, if every passer by takes one look at my
pretzels and asks, “Where’s the salt?”

Then I’m selling maybe 90% fewer pretzels, but wow! Look at the complements I
get from those one or two people who appreciate the effort, but still don’t
necessarily buy anything.

If three or four people out of one hundred are apt to complain about a detail
like sodium, that the rest happily ignore, then keep the preferred recipe, and
offer a separate low-sodium menu, optionally.

~~~
jeffreyrogers
We know that high sodium intake is a leading cause of high blood pressure
which in turn leads to heart disease. I also don't buy products with high
levels of sodium and I think this is true of a growing number of people as
awareness spreads of the issue.

I read the OP as explaining why they won't currently buy the product, but what
might change their mind in the future. Further, what's the problem with
holding companies to a high standard? If the world consumed less salt health
would improve.

~~~
astura
>This week a meta-analysis of seven studies involving a total of 6,250
subjects in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that
cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death in
people with normal or high blood pressure. In May European researchers
publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that
the less sodium that study subjects excreted in their urine—an excellent
measure of prior consumption—the greater their risk was of dying from heart
disease. These findings call into question the common wisdom that excess salt
is bad for you, but the evidence linking salt to heart disease has always been
tenuous.... Intersalt, a large study published in 1988, compared sodium intake
with blood pressure in subjects from 52 international research centers and
found no relationship between sodium intake and the prevalence of
hypertension. In fact, the population that ate the most salt, about 14 grams a
day, had a lower median blood pressure than the population that ate the least,
about 7.2 grams a day. In 2004 the Cochrane Collaboration, an international,
independent, not-for-profit health care research organization funded in part
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, published a review of 11
salt-reduction trials. Over the long-term, low-salt diets, compared to normal
diets, decreased systolic blood pressure (the top number in the blood pressure
ratio) in healthy people by 1.1 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and diastolic
blood pressure (the bottom number) by 0.6 mmHg. That is like going from 120/80
to 119/79\. The review concluded that "intensive interventions, unsuited to
primary care or population prevention programs, provide only minimal
reductions in blood pressure during long-term trials." A 2003 Cochrane review
of 57 shorter-term trials similarly concluded that "there is little evidence
for long-term benefit from reducing salt intake."

[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-
end-t...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-
on-salt/)

[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-
th...](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-
know-the-truth-about-salt.html)

[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/08/the-
magi...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/08/the-magic-of-
salt/497003/)

------
HeyLaughingBoy
Dude, if this works, you're sitting on a goldmine!

I love Indian food, but I live in the middle of nowhere (more specifically in
a rural area 10 miles from the nearest town). The closest Indian restaurant is
at least 45 minutes away and the closest _good_ one is probably over an hour
away.

I'd buy this in a heartbeat.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you!! Everyone needs good Indian food :) Hope you try it out!

------
whoisninja
Only suggestion in my opinion that matters : the food has to really taste
great. Instant foods taste like hell generally. So this has to be
significantly better.

Specially with Indian food, most Indians cook from scratch and the food only
tastes good if cooked fresh with raw items/whole spices.

------
lquist
Congrats on the HN launch.

I remember you used to have more detailed nutritional information on your
website. I recall this specifically because of noticing how much sodium is in
the product. Am I misremembering? I guess a visit wayback machine would sort
this out but thought I’d ask here first.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you! We still have detailed nutrition information available on each
product page (see pictures).

------
ajeet_dhaliwal
Good luck Mitra, I’m currently in the U.K. so can’t try it but one thing I’ve
never seen done right is Indian food when it comes to
takeaway/deliveries/orders, it’s never comes close to home cooked or
restaurant quality so it’s a tall order for sure.

~~~
Symbiote
I had an Indian flatmate in London, who sent home pictures of the food he was
"cooking". In reality, it was microwaved ready-meals from Sainsbury's. He was
satisfied enough, although he was only 18-19 and might have had different
priorities.

How would you rate the quality of these?

Regarding take-aways, Indian food has a history of being a fairly cheap option
in the UK. (Everyone's drunk? Let's grab a curry!) I'd be slightly put-off a
restaurant that said it offered take-away. There's a similar problem with
Cantonese food, and burgers.

~~~
ajeet_dhaliwal
I haven’t tried Sainsbury’s but have tried Marks and Spencer’s frozen Indian
dishes. It’s passsable if you’re desperate and missing it but the quality and
taste isn’t great imo. I think some other food like Italian lends itself
better to being reheated.

With respect to restaurants, I’m in central London, so not a suburb with many
Indians, and there’s some decent places like Dishoom, Roti Chai etc but I
wouldn’t say they’re cheap. Im thinking outer London in the west and then
places like Birmingham probably have cheaper places but I never go out that
far.

------
poisonarena
As a white American who loves Indian food. I don't associate 'Buttermilk' with
Indian food at all.. I associate it with pancakes. I have a feeling I am not
alone, and it could lead to some marketing confusion.

------
jaysonelliot
I love the family story on the site, and the design is beautiful. I agree with
others that suggest the nutrition info should be a little easier to find.

We just subscribed to the Buttermilk Suite. Looking forward to trying it.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you! Looking forward to your feedback + will definitely update the
nutrition info soon!

~~~
jaysonelliot
You did a great job of making the "love from mom" feeling come through on the
website. I think that's what made us decide to subscribe.

------
anonytrary
> In terms of market size: there are over 4 million Indian immigrants in the
> U.S.

This is the wrong market. What fraction of Indian immigrants spend over 10
dollars on a meal -- which is a waste of money at median income? How will you
satisfy the nuanced tastebuds of Indian men who only prefer their wife's
specific cooking on a daily basis? I would guess your actual market consists
mostly of wealthy Americans who think all Indian food is "the same". I don't
think too many Indians will go for this, but best of luck.

~~~
apatters
> What fraction of Indian immigrants spend over 10 dollars on a meal

The very first product they feature on the homepage, the "Out of Office" pack,
is $23.50 for 3-4 meals.

~~~
anonytrary
First, you forgot shipping, which is $5.95 (for my location), bringing our
total to $10 dollars per meal. The shipping conveniently says $0.00 until you
actually proceed to checkout...

Second, each "meal" is 340 calories, which isn't even enough calories for a
teenage boy. A teenage boy should be eating at least 700 calories per meal,
and that's on a bad day.

So, correcting for real life, these meals come out to about $20 per meal.

~~~
apatters
I'm going to have to give an upvote for this because I agree that calling 340
calories a meal is misleading

------
psram1986
one suggestion- please provide approximate shipping dates to know when it will
be shipped. You have mentioned that mostly it will take up-to 2 business days
to ship but sometimes longer. But it does not mention for each specific order
as that is the key information I was looking for when I was placing the order.
Although you provide the information that it will be delivered in 2 days once
you ship, I believe people order this primarily for the lack of time and get
it in a timely manner so would like to know the approximate time it will be
delivered.

------
umeshunni
Mitra - your check out flow is a bit confusing (not sure if it's a standard
Shopify template or whether it's something you customized).

Two things that annoyed me: 1\. In the beginning of the flow, you show logos
of PayPal and Google Pay (I'm on Android), but I didn't get a chance to pick
them later in the flow. 2\. I was asked for my address twice (once by your
flow and then again after the Amazon Payments redirect). Why didn't it
preserve my address between the redirects?

Looking forward to receiving the items I ordered.

------
kareemm
> We’re also exploring new shelf-life extension technologies (such as HPP)

What is HPP?

~~~
mitraraman
HPP = High Pressure Processing or Pasturization. It's essentially doing the
same thing to the product as dehydration would, but maintaining the freshness
and quality of the food. While dehydration makes a product shelf-stable for an
extended period of time, HPP food still requires refrigeration but can stay
fresh for up to 90 days (sometimes more)!

------
jetti
I just want to point out a small issue on your site. On the page
[https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/all/products/the-
i-c...](https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/all/products/the-i-cant-do-
spicy-food-pack) the link to the khichdi leads to the page for upma.

As somebody with dairy allergies, I was going to avoid this, given the name,
but since I saw you mentioned that the meals were all vegan (so far) I am
tempted to give it a go.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you so much for pointing that out! We will fix it ASAP.

------
jelliclesfarm
Hi! As a South Indian and knowing something about how commissary kitchens work
and having studied the NRI market base, I would strongly advise you to pivot.

You cannot compete with packaged foods wrt price point. You must also have
something unique with no competitors. This market is too crowded. You had me
at rasam and buttermilk..it’s because of the radar kinship, I want you to
succeed.

If you are interested, I can help with pivot ideas but I honestly don’t think
you can hit it at this market base with that price tag.

~~~
maxharris
If they target people like me that _absolutely will not_ eat even trace
amounts of fructose, they might get somewhere. Our options are quite limited -
most restaurants are absolutely terrible about putting sugar in food.

------
andrei_says_
How recyclable is your packaging and how much packaging do you use per unit of
food?

Large amounts of plastic waste is a big reason I will never ever use blue
apron and similar companies.

~~~
mitraraman
Our packaging is 100% recyclable and compostable! We take eco-friendly
packaging very seriously. We use a single 4"x6" aluminum packet for each
product, and ship all orders in thermal bubble mailers with compostable liners
in recyclable boxes. Orders come with 2-4 gel packs that are all reusable and
can be sent back to us if you don't need them.

~~~
bpicolo
For what it's worth, you're going to have to optimize away gel-packs somehow
if you do want it to be handled in an eco-friendly way. The vast majority of
people are going to throw those in the garbage. Sending them back to you is a
huge hassle, and upcycling them won't scale for repeat customers.

~~~
mitraraman
Totally understand. I'm working on figuring out a better solution to gel packs
for this exact reason.

------
pcdoodle
I created an account just to chime in. This is an awesome idea. I've tried the
subscription based models and hated how easy it was to lapse into another
shipment that I didn't want. Also the other players seem to make the the
recipes intentionally hard and you have to babysit the hell out of the recipes
while cooking. That's no fun. For me, I want to impress the ladies without
having to work so damn hard. Keep up the great work!

~~~
bastijn
Little advice, it's the effort you put in that impresses the ladies more than
the final taste. Adding water to impress won't work ;).

That having said, as a European person I'm always amazed at the "instant food"
culture that seems to be the standard in US. Wonder if it will ever cross the
ocean.

~~~
pcdoodle
Don't get me wrong, I can cook pretty well, I'm going to be pouring the water
in secret if these taste good! Maximize results with minimal effort :)

~~~
bastijn
Haha. I imagine you as a little secret chef in the kitchen, keeping her out
when she wants to come in to see what's smells so delicious in there. "Oh no
no, it's my secret recipe, no peaking!".

:)

------
roguecoder
I am excited to see this, given the shortage of prepared vegan meal services.
Most of the ones that do exist are over the top hippy-dippy and expensive,
rather than catering to the "lactose intolerant vegetarian from cultures where
that's pretty normal" demographic.

I'm interested to see how filling I find them, since that's the problem I
often have with prepared meals, but lentils and beans are a good start.

------
polskibus
What's your unique value proposition? What's preventing the competition from
copying you and selling the product at a lower price?

------
alphagrep12345
Sorry if I shouldn't ask this on a public forum, but I'm pretty confused as to
'How does an international guy start a startup in USA?' I've even asked a
question here -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17770245](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17770245)

Can you please reply?

------
_hq
CMU alum '06, best of luck! I'll certainly be checking this out. Love the
design, love the packaging. A little skeptical on the taste and fillingness -
that's why I've already bought some chana masala ;) But it'd great to hit home
the taste when looking at the product pages. That'd make it easier for me to
pull the trigger and spend more money.

------
RLN
I'd love to give it a try but it looks like you only ship to the US. Are you
planning to expand in the future?

I'd say the market is certainly there, and not just from Indians. In the UK
curry is very widely eaten and many consider some dishes to be part of our
national cuisine. While I've been abroad I've often struggled to find decent
curry.

------
mywittyname
How is this different from products like Kitchens of India or Tasty Bites? Are
you looking to compete with them on price or quality?

~~~
schoen
I'm guessing quality. I just ordered and the order confirmation said

> Remember that your packets are perishable, so refrigerate or freeze them as
> soon as they arrive!

That's definitely not true of Tasty Bites. :-)

~~~
radicaldreamer
Tasty Bites are super delicious though...

------
setgree
First thing that came to mind: this might be excellent camping food. One
suggestion, OP, is to get this into the hands of the folks at Wirecutter:
[https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-camping-
food/](https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-camping-food/)

~~~
mitraraman
Thanks for the suggestion! We've had quite a few customers use this for
camping and hiking, although it's not as flexible for longer trips since it
needs to stay refrigerated or frozen.

------
ap46
Any rationale for not using GMO ingredients?

~~~
christophilus
Seems like a reasonable choice. There are people who won't buy their products
if they are GMO, but the reverse is not true. (I doubt there's anyone who will
_only_ buy GMO products.)

~~~
dx87
People won't look for GMO products, but if you have two products with similar
tastes and nutritional value, but one is more expensive because it has a "GMO
Free" sticker on it, I'd bet most people would go for the cheaper option.

~~~
anonytrary
Not sure why you are getting downvoted, because you're absolutely right.
Almost no one actually cares about "organic" and "non-GMO". Most in the United
States are working paycheck to paycheck, but people on HN seem to consistently
forget about their existence.

------
willmacdonald
Have you looked into Pataks? This company is HUGE in UK.

They provide jars with all the ingredients mixed. You need to add an onion,
can of tomatoes and some chicken/beef.

Read their story here: [https://www.pataks.co.uk/our-
story](https://www.pataks.co.uk/our-story)

~~~
mitraraman
Super interesting, thank you!

~~~
Symbiote
I used to use these sauces a lot, as a student in the UK and for a few years
after.

There's a scale:

1\. Prepare everything from scratch.

For anything that isn't fairly simple, this is reserved for special occasions.

2\. Use pre-prepared sauces like Patak's (there are also cheaper ones)

This still feels like "cooking", and scales up nicely to multiple hungry
students without costing much more.

3\. Microwave a chilled ready-meal [2]

There's a big price range for this, say £1-6 per portion. The cheap ones
aren't very nice, and the expensive ones were too expensive as students, but
were fine if I felt lazy once I had a job.

4\. Order take-away.

I couldn't afford this.

5\. Pour boiling water over instant noodles.

No-one admits to doing this sober.

[2]
[https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/chilled-/meal...](https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/chilled-/meals-
for-
one#langId=44&storeId=10151&catalogId=10123&categoryId=267480&parent_category_rn=267397&top_category=267397&pageSize=36&orderBy=FAVOURITES_ONLY%7CSEQUENCING%7CTOP_SELLERS&searchTerm=&beginIndex=0&facet=&facet=4294965042)

[N] There are suppliers in the USA: [https://www.pataksusa.com/find-
pataks](https://www.pataksusa.com/find-pataks)

------
aliakhtar
You seem to be getting some unnecessary hate in the comments here. I think
this is a good idea, although the market is a bit crowded. But as a Pakistani,
I would try this out once in a while when I'm abroad. Its also nice that your
meals are vegan. Good luck!

------
deepGem
"Our team spends hours in the kitchen tweaking each recipe so we can prep and
cook it just enough"

This is super tricky to achieve. But, are you sure that this process is what
makes your food flavoourful yet preservable by just freezing/refrigerating ?

Good luck though!

~~~
mitraraman
Yes, definitely! There is a lot of testing that goes into each recipe before
we turn it into a product.

------
jackhack
Apologies if this was covered somewhere on the web site, but I wasn't able to
find it -- may I ask what are the serving sizes? Are these individual servings
suitable for one person, or for a larger group/family (4).

------
Flowsion
Are you Tamil? I've never seen Rasam being sold online or in packets like this
before.

~~~
mitraraman
As a matter of fact, yes :)

------
daverobbins1
Are there no nutritional facts for these items? I can't seem to find them on
the site.

~~~
mitraraman
There are! You can find them on the single product pages on the last picture.
(Ex upma:
[https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/upm...](https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/upma))

~~~
opportune
I would suggest making these either a bit clearer or easier to find. For
example, on this page the image with the nutritional information is pretty
small.

Pictures can be ok but I would really prefer the info in text/chart form

~~~
mitraraman
Noted. Will definitely update the website accordingly. Thank you!!

------
socratees
Congrats on the launch. I haven't heard of other businesses approaching the
market, with similar angles (fresh, non-GMO). There's a trend now for boutique
food brands - maybe you can ride this wave well. Goodluck to you again!

------
victor106
Great idea, will definitely check it out. Love Indian food. The packaging
looks great too.

I am not sure about the name though. Buttermilk though is consumed in India
more than other countries it does not seem to resonate with your product.

Good luck with the launch

------
albertzeyer
I'm from Germany and I really like all Indian food I tried so far, also when I
was in Sri Lanka (and I will be in India soon). So I would love to try
something more authentic. When could I expect to order this in Germany?

~~~
mitraraman
That's awesome! We don't have international shipping on our near horizon but
hopefully will be able to, soon!

------
aagha
Desi here.

I want to try your channa and dhaal. That's it.

Why can't I seem to order just those two? I don't want a pack of 3 channa. I
don't want a pre-made pack. I want a la carte. Why can't I have it?

------
hydromix
Love the idea.

What would also be cool is if the consumer could possibly know the people or
story behind each recipe. It would create a nice connection with each meal
prepared, maybe adding it on the back of each pack...

Just a thought..

------
Ar-Curunir
For some positivity, I would love to have an option of actual, everyday Indian
food available as an option to me. Indian restaurants in the US by and large
suck, so I'm hoping you're successful!

~~~
emodendroket
I highly recommend the Instant Pot Indian cookbook if you want to try making
stuff yourself.

------
mortenjorck
As a non-Indian who loves Indian cuisine, I’m intrigued to see some dishes I
don’t recognize from the usual options at restaurants and in packaged goods.
Are some of these regional specialties?

~~~
mitraraman
Yes! Most of our starting dishes are South Indian and we are expanding into
other regions soon! Our goal is to make authentic dishes more accessible so
happy to do so :)

~~~
kreeWall
I personally, as a North Indian, appreciate that these are authentic South
Indian dishes because these are the most difficult to find in my Nebraska
home, but also simultaneously, are my fav things to eat for breakfast.

------
ganwar
When can I have it in Toronto?:D

Looks like a cool idea. I definitely need something like this.

------
senthil_rajasek
Oh boy! This could be the mother of all Indian food discussions. I know how
Indians love to argue about their food. Seriously though, congrats on the
launch. Can't wait to get a taste.

------
Jaruzel
If you launched this in the UK, people would be falling over themselves to buy
from you. The UK is massive on a) quick meals, and b) Indian food (all types).

------
t1o5
There will be many "unauthorized to work" highly educated Indian H4 spouses in
the US delivering Indian food around your area. Please buy from them to
support them.

------
rkho
I have such a visceral reaction to the clickshaming "I don't want 10% off"
footer in your email list CTA. Please consider removing this.

------
starving_coder
I see you are talking about non-GMO ingredients. Are you also planning USDA
certification for all/subset of your products?

Wish you better than the best.

~~~
mitraraman
Yes! We are also working on all-organic ingredients.

------
matt_the_bass
Do you have any allergen info? My child has a severe peanut and tree nut
allergy. Can he be accommodated?

------
cmuugcolumbiag
CMU Alum here. Just wanted to say congrats on this big step and hope you have
all the success in the future!

------
myrandomcomment
Can you add a clear label of gluten free to the items that are please? Not a
hipster, it makes me sick :)

~~~
mitraraman
Yes! Good suggestion.

------
kreeWall
Hi Mitra, I had a specific question and was wondering how I could get in touch
with you. (Email in bio)

------
shaunxcode
Where is the nutritional info? It looks delicious but I need to know if it
fits my macros.

~~~
mitraraman
You can see it on each product page on the last picture (ex:
[https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/khi...](https://thebuttermilkco.com/collections/singles/products/khichdi))

------
DanBC
Looks amazing. Don't forget the english ex-pats too - the Daal Pack looks
lovely.

~~~
mitraraman
Thank you!

------
desireco42
I feel like my Indian friends will just frown at this, most of them take pride
of home cooked meals and they love to share it with us.

Having said that, I wish you luck, this is better business and idea then last
5 that were posted here (which I will not mention). It is like YC can find
original people any more.

Anyhow, good luck!

------
cmuugcolumbiag
Former CMU grad. Happy to see this. Wish you all the success in the future!

------
cncrnd
Has YC become a meme? Yet another company doing the same thing, and claiming
subjective advantages over the competition.

Almost like companies are selected for being part of a story ('poor college
student craves mums food') rather than being an actual business.

~~~
Rotdhizon
You can appreciate the willingness to jump and start a business and take it as
far as being ready to ship out your product, but I agree this product just
seems redundant. It has so many flaws that people have pointed out. Literally
the only point the founder made that separated this from the competition was
that 'ours tastes better', even though it is way more expensive.

~~~
cncrnd
Perhaps I was too dismissive, I wish them the best of luck. Maybe it's
actually that delicious.

I'm just surprised to see another food company pop up, it's kind of like the
latex mattress boom (Casper, leesa, etc) but those mattresses are ridiculously
high margin products.

------
randomaccount1
Remove the "$" signs from your pricing on your website.

~~~
emodendroket
Removing dollar signs usually suggests to me "upscale and very expensive." Is
that what's intended here?

------
rahuldhamecha
Keep up the good work. All the best for your endeavor. Cheers.

------
christophilus
This looks great. I'm curious if your packaging is BPA free.

------
holic
Can you share more about the "sustainable packaging"?

~~~
mitraraman
Yes! \- Our packets are made from 4"x6" aluminum, FDA-approved packaging. \-
We ship in thermal bubble mailers (also aluminum) inside of recyclable boxes
with compostable liners. \- We include ice packs in each order that are
reusable. You can also send those back to us if you don't want to keep them!

------
smnrchrds
When do you plan to offer your products in Canada?

------
transfire
Where's the Korma?

------
knodi
Hmmm, no Guju packs...

~~~
mitraraman
Our daal is extremely Gujurati tasting! If you have a recipe you don't see,
feel free to submit it here: [https://thebuttermilkco.com/pages/submit-a-
recipe](https://thebuttermilkco.com/pages/submit-a-recipe)

------
bluGill
You are feeding into the irrational fear of GMO. I'm not interested.

------
sgoel
Why is the sodium level so high? The dal pack has 1220 milligrams of sodium
per serving? It seems rather unethical for you to be marketing high sodium
products to a group of people that should not be eating a daily amount of
sodium in one sitting.

~~~
mitraraman
We don't alter our recipes at all, so the sodium amount is unfortunately
what's in our products to begin with. We are actively working on a low-sodium
option to be released in the Fall!

~~~
keithpeter
UK, Birmingham: most local street food places use a lot of salt, as do my
neighbours, and most of the 'convenience' prepared masalas mentioned up
screen.

Oddly enough, the salt levels seem a tad lower in the family restaurants (big
evening meals).

------
kobebryant8th
Did you ever shop at Kohli’s on Craig St?

------
randomaccount1
Looks great, remove the "$" form your pricing.

------
staunch
I checked just a few items and saw 910mg, 1220mg, 1430mg, and 1760mg of sodium
per serving!

That's an incredibly high amount of sodium. It would probably be unhealthy for
most people to eat one per day, let alone 2-3. Maybe you can do something
about lowering the sodium levels, but until then I don't think "healthy" is a
fair word to use.

~~~
mitraraman
Yes definitely. We are actively working on creating low-sodium options of
these dishes. Unfortunately, the sodium comes from the traditional Indian
spices used in each dish so it's an intricate process to adjust the levels and
keep the same quality and taste.

~~~
bogomipz
>"The sodium comes from the traditional Indian spices used in each dish so
it's an intricate process to adjust the levels and keep the same quality and
taste."

The majority of Indian spices are mostly single element spices - cumin,
coriander, fennel, fenugreek, garlic etc.

Even Garam Masala probably the most widely used multi-spice doesn't contain
any salt.

Could you elaborate on which "traditional" Indian spices have salt in them?

~~~
mitraraman
Sorry for the confusion! I meant to specify that the traditional spices like
you mentioned contain sodium, not salt. We include red and green chillies,
homemade garam masala, ginger, etc. all of which add up to increased amounts
of sodium in the product. We are working on lowering sodium in each product
while maintaining the taste and flavor.

~~~
GordonS
Sorry, but this really doesn't add up. Chillies, ginger and spices (e.g. black
pepper, cloves, cinnamon, cassia, mace, cumin, coriander) barely contain any
sodium. In the quantities such ingredients will be present in each meal, the
sodium content is completely negligible.

As an example, you'd need around 5 _kilos_ each of both ginger and chillies to
come close to the sodium content of one of these meals!

Personally, I don't have a problem with them having a high sodium content -
but I _do_ have a problem with nonsensical claims by the maker.

------
MrEfficiency
>The options were expensive

5 Spice packets for 24$ isnt what I consider cheap, given I eat for an entire
week on ~20$, including a curry chicken dish.

If I misunderstood(like veggies and beans are included), could you mention
that in the product page?

~~~
J_cst
Do you mind to share what you eat for 20usd/week and, more importantly, in
which region you achieve that? I am in Italy, and I believe that budget would
suffice for maximum one day. Thank you

~~~
opportune
I have lived on that before in the US and it’s not _that_ hard. You just need
to buy macro-nutritionally dense food at super markets - rice, chicken, beans,
cooking oil, butter, oatmeal, noodles, etc.

Of course the problem is that you don’t get a super varied diet which can be
problematic both mentally and nutritionally. It can also become a bit harder
to incorporate fruits and veggies into your diet when they’re not on sale. And
you also need to cook a decent amount

When I was in Rome I found that I could eat on less than $20 a day extremely
easily so unless you’re going to restaurants every day I’m not sure how you
spent so much

~~~
J_cst
That's what I actually said: here in Italy I'm spending about 20usd per day.

Thank you for your reply and your insights!

------
theNextEpisode
Hey, best of luck to you! I'm in the UK so unfortunately can't try this out.
Your product looks great though!

To the rest of you - why is there so much negativity and doubt in this thread?
HN generally has some negativity but it feels like there's a lot of
mansplaining in here. Stop it.

~~~
anonytrary
> it feels like there's a lot of ideas in here. Stop it.

If you read the comments, you'd know that there's an unclear market which is a
totally reasonable concern. HN _is_ a place where people share their thoughts
and concerns.

