
I Sell Onions on the Internet - eightturn
https://www.deepsouthventures.com/i-sell-onions-on-the-internet/
======
Panino
> I backordered the domain as a spectator, but for kicks & giggles, I dropped
> in a bid around $2,200 ’cause I was confident I’d be outbid.

It's funny and beautiful how a moment of whimsy ends up being a fulcrum point
in his life.

It seems there's a lot of interest in gardening / food production among tech
people. For me, one of the reasons I love gardening is because in many ways
it's totally different from working inside with machines, but there are
important and unexpected overlaps. For example if you have a solid
understanding of the OSI model which informs your method of system design, you
can easily move into gardening where knowledge of the layers of a forest plays
a similar role. Having this experience in tech makes it easy to zero in on
similar structural principles in gardening, learn about them, and _apply_ that
knowledge whereas many others clearly don't.

Just like a person who doesn't understand the value of a proper foundation in
tech (hardware, lower protocols like DNS, etc.), a similar gardener won't
first seek to build strong healthy soil, and they will constantly fight
against nature rather than work with it, doing more work while getting fewer
results.

As an aside, regarding onions: last year I cut off some green onion bottoms
from the store and put them in the ground (including the little roots). They
grew back and gave several more green onion harvests before winter set in, and
now they're back on their own! Permanent green onion. You can do this with a
number of plants, btw. Try it!

~~~
tvanantwerp
Moments of whimsy are some of the most important. It was a moment of whimsy
that led to me studying abroad in college, and another moment of whimsy that
led me to meet my wife while I was there. Couldn't have been more than 5 total
minutes of thoughts no more complicated than "yeah, I guess I'll give it a go"
that shaped my entire life.

And yet, I can spend another 5 minutes in the grocery store agonizing over
which of two near-identical bags of chips to buy. Funny how that goes.

~~~
Retra
Isn't that just confirmation bias though? If you hadn't made those decisions
you just as likely could have met someone else some other way, married them
and been just as happy or successful.

~~~
Scarblac
Yes, but it contrasts nicely with those "where do you see yourself in five
years" interview questions. Life doesn't usually work like that.

------
gottebp
Just look at the dignity here in this humble creation he has made!

> [...] she interrupted me mid-sentence and hollered in exaltation to her
> husband: ” THE VIDALIA MAN! THE VIDALIA MAN! PICK UP THE PHONE!”

The happiness I feel reading that is so sublime. His work is needed and
appreciated -- and what a humble trade with a beautiful simplicity to it. It
is repeatable; others could do this too! Imagine what our communities would be
like if most families had a little something like this. It reminds me of G.K.
Chesterton's "Three Acres and a Cow" [1] slogan (implying that can be enough).

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism#Economic_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism#Economic_theory)

~~~
mathewsanders
I hope I wasn’t the only person here who thought of the egg man scene in Pink
Flamingos when they read this :)

~~~
simonebrunozzi
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elzEOs2pY38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elzEOs2pY38)

------
fma
I actually had this exact same idea in like...2011. So, ideas are worthless
without execution. I used to work in Middle Georgia where Vidalia Onions are
plentiful. I went to visit a friend in NYC, where Vidalia Onions are scarce. I
brought some with me on the plane...

The plan was I'd just run to the local grocery store and just fulfill online
orders and if demand was there, purchase from local farmers. I didn't get any
further than than just mentioning the business idea. Kudos to Peter for
executing and meeting a need. Looks like he also owns onions.com, so they are
making enough money to acquire that domain name.

~~~
anthony_doan
> So, ideas are worthless without execution.

This is such an excellent quote and motivational.

~~~
rorygibson
So much so that I made this for fun a few months ago :)

[https://www.ideasarecheap.net](https://www.ideasarecheap.net)

------
eightturn
Peter here (author) - happy to answer any questions..

~~~
ignoramous
Hi Peter,

Congratulations! You're an inspiration. A few questions, if I may:

1\. Do you plan to expand to other produce other than just the onions?

2\. How did you arrive at your current business model (like min order
quantity, areas served, return policy, shipping rates etc)?

3\. How do you deal with customer complaints, in particular, with something as
prone to decay as organic produce?

4\. What significant part of the way you do this business changed after v1?
Esp, as multiple customers would have inevitably given you comments and
suggestions.

5\. You mentioned you're registered as a LLC. You don't intend to raise VC
money? For instance, YC prefers not to invest in LLCs.

6\. What does the tech stack look like (Shopify? Weebly? AWS? Frameworks?
Payments? etc)?

~~~
eightturn
1\. Right now, we're concentrating on just Vidalias. We continue to grow at a
pace I'm happy with, so there's no need to get complicated. 2\. We learned it
as we went along, really. ie, "Oh crap, X happened.. what do we do?" And then
we figure out what's best for the customer, and do that. 3\. We listen, and
empathize. I want all our customers to get the onion they're expecting. If
they don't, I'll cover the cost to get them more that meet their needs. 4\.
The logistic changed the most, by far. Our second year, we added order
tracking, and that helped a lot too. (Our first season, the customers would
call me and ask where their order was, and I'd manually look it up) 5\. We're
profitable. I have no interest in raising money or taking direction from a VC.
6\. Tech stack (if I even understand what that means).. Wordpress, Shopify

~~~
simonebrunozzi
Just chiming in to say that I loved reading your article, and I really wish
you all the very best. I'm you have inspired many people in one way or
another!

------
baldeagle
This is an American dream-esque article about a boy and a domain name. They
meet, he wins the auction, and they start spending time together. The domain
name, she calls to him and eventually they hook up with an industry group and
bring onions to the world. While on the face of it, this may not seem like the
best business plan - I actually really like it. He found something personal
(domain knowledge from his home state industry), something with a good
customer need, and filled a niche of better customer service and process.
Here, everyone wins... So I guess it is also an 'invisible hand of the free
market' dream too.

------
jrochkind1
I want someone to write some analysis of this particular... voice, or style of
writing, being used here.

"I'm a web guy. I’m not a farmer."

I already knew that, because in just a couple paragraphs, I was already
recognizing the style of writing as... SEO, "influencer", I don't know what to
call it?

It's a personal first-person voice, which right off the start tries to
establish that the author is a human being writing about their life -- but
also that they are an expert in what they are going to tell you about, and
_very successful_ too.

The text includes many one or two sentence paragraphs, and has aggressively
styled pull quotes and/or callouts. Short sentences too. Not entirely complete
sentences. Interspersed.

It makes sure to open up with some kind of very short story that is only
tangentially related to the content but is folksy and cute. (Smuggled
vidalia's onto cruise ship).

The information is very cleverly structured to keep you reading, by dropping
_just enough_ of the actual info, page to page, to pique your attention and
make you think there's an interesting story here, but not enough that you can
leave having actually learned anything before you've read a pretty big chunk.
And is written artfully for this purpose, it works, and keeps you reading.
Sometimes at the end you feel rewarded, other times you feel like it was a
shaggy dog story. The best authors leave you happy, of course.

It's got information to convey, but the goal is not to convey the information
as effectively as possible, but to keep you reading as long as possible --
and, usually, to sell you something.

I don't know if I have a value judgement on it exactly -- okay, I'll admit it
annoys me, perhaps because it _all sounds the same_ while trying to convince
you it's a folksy authentic voice. But either way, it's a _thing_ , a genre
even, that I'm not sure I've seen anyone comment on.

It's: "Content Marketing Voice".

(Also selling people onions on the internet is "purpose over profit", really?
What the world needs now is frictionless access to vidalia onions shipped
directly to your home?)

~~~
duckface
I think it's possible to be using a genre voice unconsciously, or doing it
consciously but for your own purpose. Just because the genre is X, doesn't
mean we can assume the purpose.

I think you missed the point about "purpose over profit", it really gave this
guy a feeling of that. And him telling that personal story is valid. It's
interesting to think about why you seem to have deliberately side-stepped the
point of the story.

Actually, analyzing and thinking about the way you wrote this comment, it
seems you're just bitter that someone found something they really liked, that
gave them a sense of purpose, and now you're trying to find some way to
diminish that to yourself, to make yourself _feel_ better, without actually
taking the responsibility to _do_ something to make your life better. Which
tells us that you wished you had that purpose, but you feel you don't.

Some free advice: go about making that purpose for yourself, rather than
making yourself feel better by trying to diminish the achievements of others
that trigger you right in the feels. Another way to say it is, instead of
making it all about this guy, when you get triggered, stop and think about
"why do I feel that way?" and go deep into that. It's not about other people.
What you feel is about you. Learn from that. Don't project, don't take it out,
don't blame others, just learn from that uncomfortable emotion you're writing
this thing to avoid.

Don't get me wrong, this is more than advice. I've seen that attitude cause a
lot of unnecessary hurt and conflict in the world and in relationships, and I
want people to stop it.

It's a pattern I've see a lot. Definitely has it's own genre voice as well.

~~~
jrochkind1
> I think it's possible to be using a genre voice unconsciously, or doing it
> consciously but for your own purpose. Just because the genre is X, doesn't
> mean we can assume the purpose.

Certainly. It is still interesting to analyze as a genre, this is how we make
sense of the written world. Perhaps you are doing that same assumption of
purpose with my writing.

> I think you missed the point about "purpose over profit", it really gave
> this guy a feeling of that.

Is the point of "purpose over profit" to engender a _feeling of purpose_ in
the people who think they are doing it? Is that the "purpose"?

I think everyone should endeavor to treat their customers, suppliers, and
coworkers with respect as human beings, instead of trying to take them for all
they are worth. I agree doing so _will_ make you happier. Which can perhaps be
surprising to someone who tries it and has never done it before, how much it
improves their own life. This is called being a decent human being, and
there's no reason for everyone in every job not to do it. There's nothing
wrong and a lot right with trying to behave like a decent human being in
whatever business you are in, it's commendable, but it's not "purpose over
profit."

I think it's disingenuous to elevate the idea of "treating people like humans
instead of just instruments for my own profit, while at my profit-focused
endeavor" to "purpose over profit", and disrespectful to people who really do
make significant material sacrifices for a non-profit-oriented purpose.

What do you think his "purpose" was here, and in what ways were any profits
sacrificed for it?

------
michaelbuckbee
This was really fun, so I checked out the site

\- Least expensive order is a 5-pound box for $34.95

\- Runs on Shopify

\- As they're seasonal, there are some built-in scarcity aspects I hadn't
thought of (which is kind of neat business wise).

Two aspects I might try if this was my business:

1\. Some kind of "Chef/Restaurant" option

2\. An option to send 1 beautiful onion (ala the referenced Harry and David's)

~~~
WrtCdEvrydy
Seconded: I would totally pay for 'ship this person an onion'

~~~
cwkoss
Grade your onions and sell the top 10% at a premium!

I sincerely believe that our society would be much happier and healthier if
top-shelf/"celebrity" vegetables existed that could cost $XX, sort of like in
Japan.

Someone would probably pay $1000+ for "The best dozen onions of the season"

~~~
sorenjan
It's the opposite that's a bigger problem, a lot of all fruit and vegetables
are thrown away because they're not perfect looking.

[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/13/us-
food-...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/13/us-food-waste-
ugly-fruit-vegetables-perfect)

~~~
bduerst
"You eat with the eyes first" is a common cross-cultural idiom. I'm not saying
it justifies the waste, just that it's probably an evolved human behavior that
we're stuck catering to. At least there is a counter-culture _ugly produce_
movement right now.

------
padobson
I spent a minute thinking about a product local to me that had the same
appeal. I typed [http://michiganlamb.com](http://michiganlamb.com) into the
browser and discovered the concept is not uncommon.

~~~
mooreds
Yes, I think it's pretty common (here's one around me:
[https://locavoredelivery.com/](https://locavoredelivery.com/) ), but still
delivers value and can be a good business.

Reminds me that middlemen provide value in a lot of ways, even though they are
hated and everyone thought the internet would disintermediate them all.

~~~
jeromegv
Yep. Even if it has never been easier for the maker/producer to setup their
own Shopify store, it's still not enough. Sure a decent website on shopify is
better than nothing, but most likely only your current customers will go. You
need extra skills to bring NEW customers: marketing, SEO, social media, etc..
and chances are that it's someone else that will have those skills.

------
garren
That's awesome. A couple responses to yesterday's thread regarding bookmarked
hn quotes really opened up my eyes regarding building and maintaining side
projects. I picked up a book, "Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to
Launching a Startup" which has been informative (if a little dated). This
article is a great supplement to that book, and is inspirational to a 9-5'er
like me.

[0][https://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-
Launching...](https://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-
Launching/dp/0615373968) | [https://startupbook.net](https://startupbook.net)

~~~
rwalling
Author of Start Small, Stay Small here.

>> if a little dated

Argh! I know. I literally opened the Doc this week to start to parse out
sections to update. It’s overdue ;-)

~~~
simonebrunozzi
This is one of the reasons why I love HN so much.

------
overcast
This story brings a tear to my eye.

I'll see myself out.

But seriously, this is the type of side projects I dream of. Not the next soul
sucking social network, but rather something meaningful and real.

~~~
rorykoehler
Your comment resonated with me. I'm just about the launch the a social
network. Our whole goal was to design around authenticity, something that is
severely lacking in other offerings.

~~~
ehnto
If I were to offer some unsolicited advice. Authenticity arises out of real
communities, and that is something social networks are quite bad at. They
often focus on the self much more than communitiy participation. I think
that's why old chat networks and forums were so good at building communities,
as you had to truly contribute to be part of them. You didn't even have an
identity until you contributed to the community and revealed it while doing
so.

Current social networks allow you to hit "join" or "like" and that's all the
participation you need to get your validation. You're part of the group just
by signing up, rather than because you helped make it a community by
contributing.

That's probably why this story resonates with people here so much. It's not
just a tech business, it's an attempt to contribute and be an integral part of
the local community. Not something every startup gets to do.

~~~
rorykoehler
Absolutely agree. We have made some design decisions to force consideration
into the social aspect in the aim of increasing the quality of interactions.

------
iheartpotatoes
It sounds like he created a co-operative. This is the case in Oregon where
lots of milk growers...er...dairy farmers pool their resources into a funnel
organization, Tillamook Farmer's Co-op, that handles packaging, distribution
and marketing. This is such a wild story tho, I loved reading it.

~~~
moate
Not really a co-op. Unless I misunderstood something, he contacted a single
farm and is basically acting as their digital marketing side. They got so good
at this that the other farms in the area decided to stop competing on this
front(DTC online sales) and focus on other segments of their business. That's
what I assumed he meant when he said "other farms started sending people our
way".

I believe M&T is a single farm/growing operation.

~~~
brodouevencode
There are very few co-ops in the South as compared to other parts of the
world. There is a lot more direct-to-mass production/buyers farms here as well
as a lot of "factory" farming.

That being said what he's doing is something that is hard to reproduce simply
because Vidalia onions cannot be grown except in a certain geographic area.
You can take the same onion and grow it elsewhere, it will taste exactly or
very close to the same, you just cannot sell it as a Vidalia. I'm surprised
that there aren't more of the boutique style shops for things like Vidalia
onions, Georgia peaches, etc.

Source: born, raised, lived whole life in Ga within a farming family.

~~~
tialaramex
It's weird that this was done with special legislation. I see that the US does
not have any general mechanism for such situations, although it has done this
for these onions and for Tennessee whiskey specifically.

The EU has a system-wide concept of products (mostly but not exclusively
foods) that are by definition produced in a set region, by a particular method
etcetera called the Protected Designation of Origin. This is inspired by laws
in some of its member states (most famously France's AOC laws which protect
Champagne) but because it's a system rather than being stapled into the law
for one specific product it makes it practical to use for less famous things
where the heavy lifting of actual legislation would be too much to ask. If
your town produces a peculiar furry hat, and then one day sales of the furry
hats begin to drop off because it turns out somebody is making replicas in
China and selling them under your town's name, applying for PDO is a
relatively straight forwad way to fix that across the entire EU without trying
to attract attention from legislators in two dozen countries.

Of course PDOs can be abused (e.g. arguably protection of Newcastle Brown Ale
was pointless, its only producers were indeed in Newcastle, but when they
decided to move they simply applied to discontinue the PDO status...) but
overall it seems like having a framework makes more sense than only doing this
as actual national legislation (a rule saying Vidalia onions are from Georgia
only works because the US government enforces it, the part in Georgia state
law has very little effect)

~~~
brodouevencode
The effort was initially at the state (Georgia) level in 1986. Then the
producers pushed to have the Department of Agriculture make the area the
official designation at the federal level. This was done later in 1989.

------
jamiegreen
As of 5 minutes ago I am now the proud owner of VidaliaOnions.co.uk..... UK
vidalia market here I come!

~~~
echelon
Vidalia onions come from Georgia, in the agricultural belt south of Atlanta.

I know you're probably joking, but you should order some. They're delicious.

~~~
jamiegreen
I actually wasn't joking, I did buy it (it was unregistered so it was only 6
quid), but now perhaps it was rather pointless if Vidalia onions only come
from around Georgia. I just read the article and then googled to see if the uk
domain was free.

------
Marazan
The most impressive thing was the bit where he spent 2 grand on a domain name
he didn't want and didn't think "Oh shit, I've just blown 2 grand I needed
to..."

~~~
bduerst
I've worked in the domain space. Two grand is not that bad of a deal for a
semi-common object, especially if there is an industry behind it.

------
DomainerDrew
Turning a domain name into a business.

Even more simple than that really, taking an existing industry and using a
domain name to create a front end to that industry.

There is opportunity everywhere. Especially if you don't require creating a
billion dollar company.

Thanks for sharing Vidalia Man.

------
njepa
It was a fun read. But also a bit sad that it takes thousands of dollars and a
lot of available time (which many people don't have) to do something as
fundamental as this.

~~~
latexr
I have available time. Get me someone with thousands of dollars (and willing
to risk them) and let’s collaborate!

~~~
phil21
I've thought about this a lot lately. I have (some) money, but not a whole lot
of time. It's really hard to find reasonable direct investments for "down
payment on an investment property" style money, with "rent from an investment
property" expected returns. Seems all that's available at that level is more
or less gambling on potential unicorn style stuff.

Or put other way - I'd love to find some great "regular" business ideas to
both fund and assist in getting off the ground to the tune of $5-50k, and if
successful make a few thousand a month down the road in a couple years - not
millions on some future exit.

Basically I want to seed-fund/invest in/be involved in what HN calls
"lifestyle business" \- just a regular old sustainable business expected to
grow 10% a year and comfortably employ a couple founders and employees.

Many good reasons this market doesn't exist and is "hard", but one can wish.
It would feel fare more satisfying to invest money in actual hard working
people with real but boring (read: low risk) business models than tossing it
into the S&P500 or engaging it yet more rent-seeking by buying up small
properties to turn into rentals.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
I listened (again) to an Indiehackers podcast with Rob Walling this morning
where he described pretty much that problem. He had "lots of" cash and
"little" time to spend in building a business from scratch. What worked was to
find a business he liked that wasn't making much money, but could be bought
for cheap (he overpaid!) and turned into something that made money.

To respond to the "rent from investment property" concept, you can get in on
investment properties at a fairly low price (IIRC 40% discounts) if you invest
when builders are looking for prospective buyers. i.e., before anything is
built. I looked into doing this some time ago, but the builder couldn't find
enough buyers, so the property was never built.

~~~
benj111
"you can get in on investment properties at a fairly low price (IIRC 40%
discounts"

I've been trying to work this out, that seems like a massive discount, what's
the expected profit margin for the builder? Surely not much more.

Why not get a loan? Would be cheaper, certainly on the land. I don't get it,
something doesn't add up for me.

~~~
voidmain0001
In a number of situations that I have been involved in (Canada), the builder
cannot get funding from traditional sources because there's no tangible asset
to fund, and the builder still hasn't obtained permits from the municipality,
etc (the necessary boilerplate to get going on construction). In these cases
some builders will seek out a lawyer that will pool together funds from
various investors and the loan rate is typically 15%-25% which makes for a
nice profit, but with the knowledge that it could blow up. Once the permits
are in place, then traditional funding comes a lot more readily.

~~~
benj111
I mentioned land, that's a (the?) tangible asset.

The situation you're describing seems to suggest that it would be better to
split up the permitting and the building.

Company A buys land, gets permits, then either sells on to a builder, or
contracts a builder.

But then I don't understand why so much capital would be required just for
getting permits.

I'm guessing it's another example of different countries doing house
buying/building differently, and none of them optimal.

~~~
alasdair_
>But then I don't understand why so much capital would be required just for
getting permits.

There are lots of permits that only become available much later in the
process. For example, an occupancy permit is only granted once the building is
in a habitable state.

There are always permit delays of some kind or another because no matter how
much research and planning you do, there are things that are simply unknown or
that have to be changed (and thus re-permitted) at the proverbial last minute.

------
laurex
Couldn't help but think of this [Planet Money
episode]([https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/14/448718171/epis...](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/14/448718171/episode-657-the-
tale-of-the-onion-king)) about a man who cornered the onion market with some
repercussions.

------
air7
> universally, the domain name always comes first, the business idea comes
> second.

I wonder what others think about this quote. Could he not have started the
same exact business with another domain? Is owning the "right" domain that
important that is should "come first" and be forgotten without it? naively I'd
think Google@2019 gives more importance to content then to the domain name.
No?

~~~
bytemut
Feels like that's just his way of brainstorming ideas for side gig. Some of us
get inspiration from problems we run int ourselves, some actively read blogs,
blogs, trends, etc and try to find opportunities, while this man gets his from
finding descriptive domain names.

------
IgorPartola
It seems like operating an online business is 5% software hackery and 95%
finding a cool thing to sell, finding a supplier, building a supply chain and
fulfillment system, and customer support. Think about it like this: if you can
find a thing to sell on a street corner, you can sell it online. Seriously.
Say you found these awesome fucking USB-C cables for about $1/each from a
Chinese supplier. You think people will pay about $15/each for them, so you
set up `awesome-fucking-cables.com` and start selling them. Registering a
domain and setting up a web shop is the easy part, but it tends to be what
people focus on.

Some ideas of the stuff you could sell:

\- Kombucha

\- Specialty sodas

\- Heirloom seeds

\- Specialty light bulbs and/or batteries

\- Spice packets

\- Carpet cleaning powder

\- Dice

\- Specialty candles

\- Prepared origami paper

\- Specialty pens/pencils/crayons

\- Funky hair accessories (someone recently asked me why there aren't many
superhero themed ones because it would be a huge market)

~~~
bduerst
My wife paid for her grad school entirely by selling direct-from-manufacturer
fashion goods, from China, to middle-aged upper/middle-class women in central
Europe. The crazy thing that made it all work, IMO, was that the website was
invite only. The women used the exclusivity as a status in their social
circles, and invites as favors.

It's fascinating how these small market niches exist but it really is the
other 95% that makes them take off.

------
barillax
Great story. One quick bug report: your Bulk & Wholesale page has a broken
contact form: [https://www.vidaliaonions.com/bulk-
wholesale/](https://www.vidaliaonions.com/bulk-wholesale/)

~~~
eightturn
darnit.. thank you.. now fixed.

------
ddtaylor
Originally I was expecting an article about mining .onion domain names, but
this is good too!

~~~
theandrewbailey
Though vidalia.onion would be a stylish domain name. It'd be better than
vidaliaonion.io.

\s

------
allnacho
Lots of posts nowadays are just people humble bragging. This was read as an
honest account of an enjoyable business ride.

Thanks for sharing this!

~~~
eightturn
you're welcome! Thank you for that feedback - I was concerned that it'd come
across as a humblebrag.. I just like sharing neat things people can do on
great domain names.

------
anonytrary
I buy domain names for weird and random ideas that come to me. I really like
the reverse concept of buying interesting domain names and then letting them
turn into something that you never anticipated. That sounds like a really fun
and potentially highly rewarding hobby. It also seems to break every Startup
book's rules, since you're looking for a problem to a solution, but who cares?
This guy is having tons of fun and learning a lot, so good for him.

Edit: Looks like they have some competition:
[https://www.vidaliaonion.org](https://www.vidaliaonion.org)

~~~
shanecleveland
That looks like more of a marketing arm of the state of Georgia or some
regional agricultural or co-op entity. Not selling onions directly.

------
retreatguru
Thanks for such a great read. I have a somewhat similar story.

My brother and I started our company the moment after we bought our domain
name: retreat.guru. We actually wanted a different domain but didn’t get it;
retreat.guru was the runner up. Then we had a spontaneous 3 hour call where we
mapped out the entire global wellness retreat marketplace we would build - all
based off the domain name! 5 years later we are still going strong.

We are based out of a small mountain town in B.C. Nowhere near the buzz of
Silicon Valley. We gradually took investment and grew from revenue as well. We
are very vision driven.

‘I sell ayahuasca retreats on the internet’

:D

------
rdiddly
What I liked most about this story was the fact that he went into it kind of
ass-backwards - domain name first (almost by accident too), then the business.

~~~
bduerst
That's what makes this story unique. The domain speculation industry thrives
almost entirely on the opposite.

------
coderintherye
Sort of ended up in a similar boat: I sell hemp on the internet at
[https://www.cascadiablooms.com/direct](https://www.cascadiablooms.com/direct)

These stories are good to tell, sometimes what can help a farmer the most is
just someone who can help market and sell their crop.

------
dwighttk
I’m a sweet onion fan. I didn’t realize that Texas sweet onions were a
different variety: [https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/the-texas-sweet-
onion/](https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/the-texas-sweet-onion/)

(They’re real good)

------
rmellow
Why didn't the farmers just independently open an Amazon shop before he came
along? Is it just the case that they're not tech savvy enough?

I'm not downplaying what he did - it's really cool - what I'm trying is to get
a better sense of the business dynamics here.

~~~
grecy
Like the other reply says, it's probably just the farmers don't have time or
don't want to.

I expect you could make the same comment about just about everything on the
planet that is grown or made, but then sold by someone else. The original
person could try to sell it to consumers, but that would take so much time and
effort they wouldn't have time to grow/make the thing in the first place!

------
sanjayts
Great read! The blog has another post which I found personally interesting --
Slow Down & Wander [1]

[1] [https://www.deepsouthventures.com/slow-down-
wander/](https://www.deepsouthventures.com/slow-down-wander/)

------
mywittyname
This is really inspirational: who knew that such a rudimentary site could be a
viable business?

~~~
sethhochberg
Craigslist, or perhaps Tarsnap, or many others providing services to people
who know exactly what they're looking for.

Being flashy helps sometimes if your customers are fickle and you need to sell
them on something they didn't know they wanted, but if you've got an
enthusiast audience or specialized product, substance is all that is required
- at least at a fundamental level.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Every junkyard website is basically just a business card with the ability to
search their inventory (or the fraction of it they choose to list) on car-part
iframed in.

------
nkrisc
Thoroughly enjoyed this. I'd love to read a bit more detail on his process of
spinning up the customer relations sides of the business that he mentioned.
What was the hardest thing to get right? What were the unexpected pitfalls?

~~~
eightturn
Peter here (author).. happy to share a little more. I oddly enjoy the customer
relations side the most. It's so old school - alot of my customers are
surprised when a real human picks up the phone to take their order. The
hardest thing to get right (and we continue to refine) is the logistics part.
The pitfalls I encounter are the very tight margins. If I take my eyes off of
operations, I could quickly go under water.

------
zeckalpha
Just be careful of
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act)

~~~
phyzome
Oh wow, that's wild.

------
rhacker
Buy buy buy, they are shipping soon: (I'm not affiliated in any way)

[https://www.vidaliaonions.com/](https://www.vidaliaonions.com/)

------
bbryant
How was organic traffic in the early days?

You're now ranked #1 for "vidalia onions" in Google -- but, I'm really curious
what the evolution was after buying the domain?

------
AtTheLast
Thanks for sharing your story. I think there are a lot of people out there
like me not looking to be a unicorn company, but would love to be the next
VidaliaOnions.com

------
fataliss
That's the kind of lifestyle business I dream of finding myself into. Except
maybe I'd want it less involved with customer service, but roughly similar.
Somehow that's much more appealing to me than heading the next big buck hot
startup out of my SF penthouse office. Guess there has to be some for
everybody :) That was a good read and I bet that to the core more people
resonate with this than most startup jobs!

------
JustSomeNobody
I loved this piece. I'm from Florida and Vidalias are a staple.

Whole wheat bread, lightly toasted with a smear of mayo and a thick slice of
Vidalia. Mmmm... So good.

~~~
eightturn
add cracked pepper and a squeeze of lime.. mamma-mia!

------
SonicSoul
sorry about a tangent, but that Indian Jones scene bothers me so much. i
mean... there are so many safer ways to validate you _can_ take that first
step. i'll name a few

    
    
        1. crouch down and reach out your leg gently tapping the "invisible ground" 
        2. throw a pebble. 
        3. throw a bunch of sand to see exact available surface area.
    

i mean.. he's a scientist.

~~~
overcast
It's a leap of faith, you're not supposed to cheat it. However after crossing
the bridge, he DOES scatter sand over the surface area revealing the bridge
(which was really just a camouflaged stone illusion shown by an alternate
viewpoint)

~~~
SonicSoul
_he DOES scatter sand over the surface area revealing the bridge (which was
really just a camouflaged stone illusion shown by an alternate viewpoint)_

that's the point of my rant! :)

~~~
marc_io
Yeah, but he did it AFTER the leap of faith. It makes all the difference. This
is all about letting go of your ego.

------
RandomBacon
I'm not sure I've ever seen such a highly-voted post.

I checked using the search box, and it appears this the 12th most voted post
of all time (so far!).

------
sametmax
This is what a marketing piece should be. This is an ad I'm happy to read.
Were I in the US, I would totally order onions from this guy.

------
machz
"I'm addicted to Domain Names... but for kicks & giggles, I dropped in a bid
around $2,200".

Not trying to be a killjoy, but everytime I hear about people reserving
domains for fun or future, it just tells of so much privilege. Americans and
other Westerners people have already reserved so many domains. Domain name
squatting always is a rich-get-richer story.

------
ai_ia
This is by far my favorite post on Hacker News. :D

------
swalsh
I would say this is crazy, but truth be told... if I saw someone selling like
super high quality heirloom tomatoes online... I'd probably buy some. But what
I've actively searched out, and have yet to find is someone selling lobster
stock. Sometimes if i'm lucky, I can pick up some from my local fish monger...
but it's uncommon.

~~~
technofiend
Probably what's holding that back is shipping cost since stock is mostly
water, quite heavy and needs to be sent frozen or at least cooled with freezer
packs, further adding to weight. My favorite place for andouille sausage [1]
will ship cooled packages but the shipping costs are roughly equal to the
product cost. So whenever I drive to New Orleans I take an ice chest with me
netting twice the product for the same price.

[1] [https://www.cajunsausage.com/](https://www.cajunsausage.com/)

~~~
swalsh
There's a way to make it by reducing most of the water away so you get a 20x
concentrate that's quite shelf stable... and probably cheap to ship. Here's an
example ([https://www.morethangourmet.com/](https://www.morethangourmet.com/))
these stocks are quite good.

~~~
technofiend
I shall bookmark that. Thank you.

------
dchuk
So, only slightly related to this article, but I’ll say it anyway:

I’ve bought domains for years. Through that process, I’ve developed a specific
routine to evaluate a name prior to purchasing.

I’ve been sketching out a plan to build a web app that largely automates this
evaluation process, that I would hope to release as a small side project SaaS
in the future.

Anyone here interested in such a thing?

~~~
RussianCow
Can you share the "specific routine" you developed? I understand if it's your
secret sauce and you want to keep it to yourself, but I also would never use
this if I didn't know how it worked.

~~~
dchuk
It's actually not that crazy/secret, it's simply compressing a many-step
process down into a single, flat step. Whenever I'm looking for a good domain
name, I'm trying to consider things like searchability, is the .com available,
are there no shorter .com's taken, are there already projects/apps/sites with
very similar names out there, do the Google SERPs come back with off-putting
results, etc.

I have done this by hand for a long time, but it's error prone and time
consuming. Very straightforward to automate down into a one step process.

------
Diederich
My wife is from Georgia, and I've visited many times.

I don't really like onions. But real Georgia Vidalias are something special.

------
jamisteven
Reading his article I cant help but wonder why he isnt scaling his entire
setup to help ALL farmers, regardless of what they are farming, to sell
online. Cant he create an online marketplace and onboard basically every
portable vegetable? He should be able to replicate this same model with every
veggie we got.

------
paulcole
Reminds me of the accidental tumbleweed magnate:

[https://www.business-opportunities.biz/2013/04/10/the-
worlds...](https://www.business-opportunities.biz/2013/04/10/the-worlds-most-
successful-accidental-tumbleweed-saleswoman/?amp)

~~~
all2
Is that a business opportunity? Something like "develop my domain"? Like a
land-owner who lets tenants develop?

So, you pay for the domain name, list it on the development site, and a
developer (say me) can pick and choose from what you have and build a product
on your property.

There's a contract, you get x% of proceeds from my endeavor, I get a domain
name specific to my needs, and we all benefit. The contract would also specify
a dwell-time. I get 12 months, or 2 years, or whatever on the property.

Then the contract comes back up for negotiation. Maybe a sale is negotiated
(you want my development, or I want your domain name).

~~~
paulcole
If I have OnlineTumbleweeds.com and you like the idea of developing it, why
wouldn't you just buy TumbleweedsOnline.com? I don't see what value the domain
owner is adding. There's not going to be a ton of SEO value to an old domain
that's just been parked.

~~~
all2
Fair enough. I was thinking that perhaps owners of desirable domain names
(short, catchy, specific, etc) who also don't have the time for development
could benefit.

But, I think you're right. There'd be a lot of not-so-desirable domains to
sort through.

------
lorenzorhoades
This was an amazing read. Not only do you sell onions on the internet but you
are an amazing writer! I had to stop and comment before I dived into what else
you've written.

I copied the quote “take the path to Nothing, and go Nowhere until you reach
it.” and got it turned into a canvas to hang above my desk.

~~~
eightturn
if you like that quote, I highly suggest reading (or listening to) the book:
The Tao of Pooh ... sooooo good.

------
yowlingcat
Agree with the other comment saying this was fun and exciting to read -- very
well written and makes a strong point. I fully hope, when I am able to get off
my lazy ass and do something, to sell a simple physical product that people
already want. Food's a great example of this.

------
jboggan
As a Georgian transplanted into California, I miss these onions so much. Great
read as well.

------
Aromasin
I've been umming-and-ahhing over an entrepreneurial endeavour for a while now.
I'm very tempted now to just go out there now and see if I can get a good
domain name. Letting the domain make the business decision for me seems fun.

~~~
jermaustin1
This is a potentially addictive and risky venture. I've personally bought
hundreds of domains over the years, and professionally in the thousands. I've
probably broken even or profited a little. Most of the domains I buy for the
name just sit there unused for 5+ years.

~~~
Aromasin
I don't necessarily mean as a career path. More-so as an out-of-work hobby to
keep me occupied. By buying a good domain name, that would probably give me
the kick I need to do something with it!

------
otikik
> I’ve been buying expired or abandoned domain names for a while, and enjoy
> developing them into niche businesses.

Am I the only one here who has a problem with this kind of "business"? I see
it as a very asshole thing to dedicate oneself to.

------
someguy1010
This post makes good use of one of the 48 laws of power.

Law 30: Make your accomplishments seem effortless

~~~
war1025
What is your opinion of that book? I just looked up the summary of the 48
rules [1] and it seems pretty morally questionable. Maybe that's the point?

[1] [http://the48lawsofpower.com/summary](http://the48lawsofpower.com/summary)

------
krisrm
This is awesome. Always great to read about someone's hard work and dedication
paying off. I love a good onion, but am not within the 48 lower states, so
unfortunately I'll have to wait for the international delivery option :(

------
peteforde
I loved this story, and you all clearly did, too.

How can I possibly be the first person to get stuck on the fact that this
fellow dropped $2200 on a niche domain without a business plan in mind?

Most people don't have that kind of whimsy cash, sadly.

------
renegadesensei
I love this and can relate to it so much. This is very similar to how I ended
up in the Japanese matchmaking industry. Noticed a good domain was available
and ended up going on an odyssey of sorts.

------
IAmGraydon
Bravo. I love his approach and his analogy with fictional characters. Such a
wonderful way to view your work - stop trying to force it and let it tell you
what it wants to be.

------
achenatx
Funny article. Like a lot of people I also collect domain names, some day
hoping to make a business out of them. :)

My current business and startup take too much time, but some day..

------
joshfraser
Had no idea when I clicked on that link that I'd be contemplating buying a box
of onions. I've never tried a Vidalia but now I'm intrigued.

~~~
beering
This is part of the marketing too, right? Reach more potential customers by
writing an article and getting it to the top of a popular news aggregator.
Especially with an audience that 1) will find it genuine, and 2) is likely to
try out an interesting online product.

------
h4t
Boy did this article surprise me. Glad I clicked on this!

------
m52go
Okay since no one has asked this yet, I will...does this man have an onion
site?

Because I'm a big fan of onions, but an even bigger fan of onion sites...

------
adriansky
> I got along quite well with the 3rd farmer I met, so we decided to partner &
> give this a shot.

Just curious, how were the first two farmers you met?

~~~
eightturn
They were all great, honestly. The first 2 had different operations. Farmer #1
would have worked, but they didn't have a packing shed. Farm #2 seemed
ambivalent, so I was concerned whether my orders would go out on time.

------
apercu
This is posted in so many subs on reddit in the last 24 hours. Including
unrelated subs. Please don't encourage spammers.

------
jeandejean
That's a great story... And a perfect timing for an amazing marketing campaign
with seasonal shipping starting next week.

------
d--b
Awesome post. I am dying to try these onions now!

Who would have thought that content marketing would work to sell onions
through hacker news!!

------
rick22
Seriously can't understand why this post is getting upvoted so much(2896) as
of now. Is there something i am missing.

------
diNgUrAndI
I wonder about the domain name snapping business. Are there people doing this
full-time, buying expired domains in bulk?

------
StopHammoTime
What a wild ride. Can you give us more information about the boxes? I feel
like I need to know more about the boxes.

~~~
eightturn
The box integrity entirely failed in-transit. Rips, tears, bottoms falling
out, tops crushed, everything. I had to refund and re-send orders as make-
goods, in better boxes. When my customers showed me pics of the box conditions
after delivery, it made my heart hurt (no lie). I thought it was all over.
These days, we send all orders in a double-walled cardboard box, with a
locking bottom, and aeration holes throughout. It's a tank of a box.

------
Jsharm
My understanding was that the actual domain name doesn't make much difference?
I setup
[http://www.drivinglessonslimerick.com](http://www.drivinglessonslimerick.com)
for a friend (I'm not a web dev) and it is on the second page of results when
I search for Driving Lessons in Limerick. $2200 seems way too much, the value
here is in this Onion business not the domain.

~~~
xeromal
It's definitely the domain if you understand the clientele. I'm also from GA
and old southerners are pretty particular which can be both good and bad. They
only will search Vidalia Onions in google so having that domain + some good
SEO definitely delivers them to you. I bet repeat customers still search that
term instead of going directly to the domain.

Their benefit is that they love local things such as vidalia onions or boiled
peanuts that they know are grown locally. I'd wager most of this guy's sales
come from the south.

~~~
rpeden
I don't think it's just old southerners.

I know quite of young people for whom Google basically _is_ the internet. They
never enter addresses in the address bar, and always do a Google search for
the site they're trying to get to.

These aren't dullards, either. They're smart people who are talented in their
own fields. They're just not techies and the Googling-for-everything workflow
works well for them.

------
magoon
Unintentional ad, in a way —- one that caused me to visit, delighted me, and
makes me delighted with HN.

------
docuru
Feel sorry for the writer that Google Map folks some in and smash the whole
onion field (last photo) :D

~~~
eightturn
I took that photo : ) and then uploaded to Google Maps...

------
dustinkirkland
Am I the only person who saw the headline and assumed this was about onion
routing?

------
ycombonator
What an incredible story. Encapsulates American entrepreneurial excellence !

------
zaphirplane
You just have to post here on the affect of a having this STORY on HN

------
guest2143
I thought this was going to be a new version of the onion router.....

------
everdev
> I dropped in a bid around $2,200 ’cause I was confident I’d be outbid. 5
> minutes later, I was the proud owner of VidaliaOnions.com

For those that are looking to replicate the success of this Vidalia Onion
business only have a $10 budget for a domain here are some other options:

onlyvidalias.com

vidalias.net

tryvidalias.com

yummyonions.com

ordervidalias.com

buyvidalias.com

organicvidalias.com

vidaliafarm.com

allvidalias.com

simplyvidalias.com

~~~
dmix
SEO is more than just keywords in domain names, you're buying into a long-term
investment. His domain cost $2200 because it likely had lots of backlinks and
page rank in Google, which is how he was able to get 600 orders (about $30k in
revenue if my math is right) in the first year.

It's also the perfect combination of the two keywords with nothing else.
You'll automatically be at a disadvantage.

But every large market typically has 1 leader and 1-3 other smaller companies
who can survive. I doubt this is a large enough market where being #2 or #3 is
going to be lucrative. You might as well find other niche premium vegetables.
Like 1-800-Flowers and Harry & David (which the author mentioned) does...

[https://www.wolfermans.com](https://www.wolfermans.com) made a decent-sized
business selling premium english muffins.

~~~
everdev
It was a joke :)

~~~
dmix
Oh true. The author was also promoting domain name driven businesses [1] so I
was mostly replying to that idea and other thoughts I had to sound off on the
topic :p

[https://www.deepsouthventures.com/build-a-side-
business/](https://www.deepsouthventures.com/build-a-side-business/)

------
jve
2396 upvotes and counting. How much more onions do you sell now? :)

------
vram22
Cool image. Can drag / rotate it, etc., along at least 2 axes.

------
brainpool
Wonderful! This quote sums it all up for me: ”I didn’t have other projects
that were this front-facing, customer wise. And I discovered I immensely
enjoyed it”. Wow, does it show :) By the way, the quote was not a TL;DR - it
was an invitation to read a great story. I am glad I did.

------
ggm
More detail on the cardboard shipping box debacle needed!

~~~
eightturn
see above : )

------
_tb1_
It's absurd and preposterous. I love it!

Late April: Season Begins.

------
WMCRUN
The title alone makes this worth reading.

------
giabao148
i like QA so much but i am a girl person . it is difficult for me and english
is not good .what should I do?

------
bikamonki
Wow! What an inspiring reading :)

------
eruci
As Simple as peeling an onion.

------
joshdance
Love this.

------
jbotz
+1

------
jacurtis
I just have to stop and say that this was an immensely fun and exciting post
to read.

So much of the business stuff we read now is bullshit. It is stupid people
getting lucky and riding on VC money while making more stupid decisions but
ultimately dumping enough investor money into it that it works enough to get
sold.

At which point, that founder then goes around and tells the same stereotypical
story of dropping out of college, running out of money and getting investment
on the day they were planning on giving up, etc. We have all heard the
bullshit before.

So I was genuinely grateful to read a real business story. The owner saw an
opportunity, took it when other people probably wouldn't have, and just
genuinely worked hard to get where he is.

This is inspiring because anyone here could do it too if they wanted to. I
don't mean selling onions specifically, but I mean they could just go out
there find a product, work hard towards selling it, team up with
manufacturers/producers, etc and make the dream come to life.

~~~
munificent
_> So much of the business stuff we read now is bullshit. It is stupid people
getting lucky and riding on VC money while making more stupid decisions but
ultimately dumping enough investor money into it that it works enough to get
sold._

My impression (from way outside, I'm not an entrepreneur at all) is that so
much business is VC-funded, which effectively means driven by finance people.
Everyone who isn't a VC is still chasing a VC, so VC culture ends up defining
business culture.

People, especially left-brained ones like programmers and finance nerds have
this really bad tendency to see problems in terms of their preferred
solutions. The old "if all you have is a hammer..." thing. So finance people
like to turn everything into a money problem that they can solve using
spreadsheets and Jupyter notebooks or whatever else it is they use.

Their ideal state is that "business" is just some board game where the money
is all on the board already and you're just playing the rules to move it onto
your square.

...which is of course completely antithetical to any kind of business that
actually matters to real humans. If you want to actually solve a human
problem, make peoples' lives better and maybe make a little money in the
process, Silicon Valley business culture is increasingly useless to you.

~~~
rossenberg79
If you want to understand how to make people’s lives better, first you have to
go out and actually _live_.

Scrappy college kids making a startup don’t know how to live, they’ve just
_barely_ lived. And a lot of professionals in tech have no lives outside of
work and tech: Wake up and go work in tech. Go home and go read about tech.
Attend a party and talk about tech.

How can we expect these Silicon Valley people to create anything that makes
life better? All they can do is make cheap permutations of the same tired
ideas that have passed through the lips of wanna-be gonna-be entrepreneurs for
decades. Ask them: This product makes my life better? Better for what exactly?

Here’s a man who understood that life is a bit better when you can bite into a
tasty and juicy Vidalia Onion. This is something you can only know if you stop
and take some time to _live_.

~~~
evasote
I'm reading this from the bus as the sun sets on 280, looking over south San
Francisco. You're so right. I just quit my job so I can make furniture full
time. Got accepted to a really good, niche school in a beautiful coastal town
in the middle of no where I'm moving with my partner. I'm not going to miss
this scene at all.

~~~
stephenhuey
Would that happen to be Charleston? 10 years ago, a friend from South Carolina
thought about doing an apprenticeship in custom furniture there but decided
instead on his other dream job and became an Indy Car racing mechanic after
completing a year-long course in the Jim Russell school up at Sonoma. He still
talks about possibly getting into furniture, though.

~~~
iambateman
Charleston, SC is my hometown and it’s the most underrated city in the
country.

~~~
hguant
The food scene in Charleston is amazing. I had a buddy who lived in Florence,
and every six months or so I'd make the drive down to see him for an extended
weekend. I'd never been to Charleston before and it blew my mind.

------
stephen82
This reminded me of an old friend from school. He finished high school and
decided to work any type of job would land in front of him.

Meanwhile, his closest friends would finish school, go to colleges and
universities and they would come back really proud for having a bachelor or
masters degree.

One day they met at a crepe shop. He was making his orders along with the
other folks that were behind their crepe pans.

"So...you work here mate?"

"Yep."

"Ah...shame. We make very good money, thanks to our _degrees_. Isn't a sad
thing that you are forced to work in this shitty job?"

"First of all, I enjoy doing this job; and second of all, how much are you
earning annually, if I may?"

"Around 35K euros".

He burst to hysterical laughter.

"I happen to make the least 1000 euros daily and this 'shitty job' happens to
be mine; yep, I own the place. At my highest peak I earned 1 million euros and
these guys you see working next to me are my employees which are getting paid
more or less the same amount as you."

I happened to be there when this incident took place; it was the best day of
my life! ^_^

~~~
notafraudster
Napkin math:

One million Euro a year gross would imply more or less 3000 Euro a day. Open
for 12 hours a day, that's 250 Euro an hour. At 15 Euro a crepe, that's a
customer every 4 minutes the whole day. That would be a truly phenomenal
success.

And that's gross. If you assume 50% margin on cost (insanely high) and that
cost includes the apparently very high employee salaries. Then they need a
customer every two minutes for the day. Let's say taxes take half of their net
before taxes. they now need a customer every minute for 12 hours every day of
the year to hit a million Euro net. All under a series of assumptions that are
extremely generous to the firm.

It's hard to imagine that this story, if true, didn't involve an embellishment
of scale.

~~~
lazyjones
Here are some actual numbers from Austria for some comparable venues:

\- sausage kiosk average(!) turnover 180.000 € (sausages cost 2-3€, better
kiosks make several times that easily)

\- small Subway €900k approx.

\- average McDonald's €3.2 mil

I'd imagine a decent crepes place the size of a McDonald's in a good location
could easily make €2 mil/year turnover and half that much profit in a good
year.

~~~
taurath
A 50% margin on food service is unheard of. That McDonalds is making 5-9% a
year most likely, which is in line with food trucks generally.

~~~
jholman
Agreeing with you:

When I worked in food service long ago, the managers claimed the goal (of a
Subway chain) was 30% gross margin. But that's gross margin, and doesn't
account for overhead, and thus is not profit margin.

------
_i____ii_______
Who... buys onions on the internet?

------
Not_anchovie
While unique and somewhat gratifying that you can build a business with just a
chance at a good domain and some internal motivations, do you find yourself
adding value over other means of onion sales?

Oh, and please downvote. Thank you.

