My job brings me business ideas, that I like to write and discuss later with the future entrepreneurs I meet.
Those conversations are way more interesting than the ideas in themselves. So I thought I would put this process on steroids and share those ideas on the internet.
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DTC brands may not be the best decacorn candidates. But they are definitely entertaining, which we all deserve after another intense week (Don’t worry, the time of distributed load balancers will come.)
Sell magical powder on the internet?
Selling powder on the internet is a great business: lightweight, concentrated, malleable, secable, rugged, with almost infinite shelf life: atoms that behave like bits! Plus they are consumable, which most bits can’t say.
These remarquable properties allowed the growth of many interesting businesses, from Soylent/Feed/Huel (calories) to Aime (beauty) through Foodspring (proteins) or Care/of (vitamins). Not to mention drugs, be it in their Pfizer or dark web versions.
Spices are a particularly interesting type of powder: In addition to the aforementioned properties they are also tasty, and can be visually pleasant.
DTC Spice brands (like Just Spices in Germany, which just raised €13m) consequently make a lot of sense.
Product
The powder format allows for infinite combinations of tastes and visual effects. Particularly useful health-oriented foodies willing to pimp their steam-cooked chicken breasts and showcase them between two unicorn buoys on Instagram.
Market
Food means large. Strictly speaking the spices market is about $17b globally, but could you double or triple your spices consumption if you knew how to get healthy and irresistibly delicious ones?
Plus provided it’s natural / organic, it’s one of the only kind of food everyone can eat no matter his diet.
Business Model
Acquisition
Instagram foodies using your spices to pimp the visual rendering of their avocado toasts can be a strong acquisition lever. Remember the unicorn frappuccino?
Unit Economics
Spices are used in small quantities, which means with the right mix of tastes and visual effects you can combine high margins and low prices. If it’s good, even cash-strapped consumers can’t see the difference between 10 and 30 cents a serving.
Retention
It’s cheap, infinitely various and potentially delicious food ;)
Do not hesitate to sign up, it’s like paying but with dopamine.