We started this project with a very broad domain of interest: to help people try new foods. We saw this project going in various potential directions, including helping picky eaters branch out of their routine eating habits or helping travelers try to explore cuisines from the cultures they are interacting with. To refine our domain of interest a bit more, we conducted need-finding interviews and discussed our results to come to a cohesive vision/mission as a team.
Interviews
My first interview was with Benjamin, a white, 29-year-old travel nurse who recently moved to the Bay Area. Benjamin is from Colorado but has also traveled to various parts of the US, including Nebraska, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. He also enjoys traveling internationally, with one of his favorite trips being his trip to Japan. Throughout this interview, I found the following key insights:
- “Japanese cuisine tends to have trends that are so bizarre…well maybe not bizarre. But they focus on food trends that not only taste good but diverge from the norm.” One thing that I thought was interesting about this statement was the excitement that he said “bizarre” with. He jumped up with energy and felt excited by the idea of foods diverging from the norm. Being bizarre wasn’t a deterrent, but rather a stimulator.
- “When I was in Japan, I only went to Mcdonald’s once. Even though the food is different in Japan, it just didn’t feel authentic.” Despite the fact that Japan has unique options that represent Japanese cuisine and palletes, he still felt this lack of authenticity. When probing further about he defines authenticity, he really struggled to conceptualize it in words. He claimed it meant “not as touched by the US” as McDonalds had US influence.
- “If I wanted authentic foods, I would just go to ‘hole-in-the-wall, mom-and-pop’ shops.” When asked to describe these shops, he stated “well the restaurant is usually owned by a cute couple and people actually know the owners. Usually the owners lived right above the restaurant.” I thought it was interesting how the idea of family, home and community intersected with the sense of authenticity of the dish. There is a sense of tradition that is associated with homes, making them feel authentic.
- “Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed by having so many options in an unfamiliar territory.” Because of his lack of familiarity with the cuisine, he wouldn’t know what to order and felt like he was going to order something that he wasn’t going to like. There was no bridge between his own palette and that of the culture he was exploring.
- “I feel better when I’m eating with someone that knows that culture’s cuisine or comes from that culture.” When asked why, he said “It makes me more comfortable because I feel like I have guidance. Then I end up trying more new foods than I would have.” He talked about how he would always default to something he recognized, but having a knowledgeable buddy made him more geared towards exploration.
My next interviewee was Devika, 20 year old international student from India who’s family recently moved to the United States. I thought Devika would bring an interesting perspective into this conversation as she is coming from a context outside of the US, which is commonly normalized. Devika is also within our target market as she is a college student who commonly orders food online or eats out at restaurants.
- “The most popular Chinese restaurant in my town had a lot of history. Everyone knew the owner and the owner knew the customers. It felt like it was part of the community.” Despite growing up in India, the Chinese business became successful because of their orientation towards community.
- “When I first tried Chinese food, I didn’t feel uncomfortable because the food had been ‘indian-ized'”. Dev brought up an interesting perspective on the idea of fusion foods and how they can create a bridge between people’s cultural cuisines, making them more accessible.
- When talking about why that Chinese restaurant was so popular compared to others, Dev discussed how the others didn’t felt “like a business and not an investment in the people that were actually eating the food.” When people try new foods, they want to be cared for, rather than simply given the food as a way to make profit.
- When asked about what motivates her to try new foods she had a simple answer…”boredom. Trying new foods just makes life more fun. Like a little adventure”. I thought it was interesting that she phrased food as a form of adventure or a way to entertain herself.
My final interview was with Aru, a 20 year old Indian-American student from Wyoming. I thought she would give an interesting perspective along side Devika, since she was also Indian, but coming from a completely different cultural context. The Indian population in Wyoming is incredibly small, she her conception of cultural familiarity was confined to the home.
- “In Wyoming…well I didn’t have any options.” Despite living in America, which tends to be referred to as a melting pot, her regional location simply did not have the diversity to provide options for cultural exploration.
- “I didn’t really start exploring foods other than Indian food until I came to Stanford, theres so much more here.” Being surrounded by a diverse set of restaurants was enough motivation for her to try new foods. She simply needed to be placed in a different context.
- “I feel like a large part of me exploring was meeting Stanford students. When I met *******, Korean BBQ was a huge part of her food culture. So I tried it because I wanted to experience it with her.” Here Aru explores how food is a form of intimacy and enhances her friendships.
Market Size
From our need-finding interviews, we narrowed our domain of interest to helping people transform their homes into ‘mom and pop shops’ and provide ‘authentic’ eating experiences for consumers. Our vision is to create opportunities to try cuisines from unfamiliar cultures. By allowing families to take ownership of the perception of their culture’s cuisine, we redefine authenticity within a place where culture thrives: the home.
TAM – Our total available market can be estimated as all United State citizens with a smartphone or laptop. Since this will likely be an app and website, the user would need internet access and some device in order to use the application. Although we would like to target college students in our app via branding, we understand that this product would likely be accessible to everyone with access to the required technology. The number of US citizens with internet access is about 307 million, comprising 90% of the US population. Should we choose to only create a mobile app, our TAM would then reduce to the number of US adults with smartphones. This is approximately 85% of the US adult population, With 210 million US adults (18+), we would then have about 178.5 million users in our TAM.
SAM – Our serviceable available market would be approximately all college affiliates within the United States who have a cell phone/laptop. We are going to estimate that the vast majority of college students in the US do have access to this technology for simplicity. There are approximately 19 million college students in the United States. 63% of students have food delivered from off campus, leaving us with about 12 million students.
To get a stronger understanding of potential revenues, we see that the food delivery industry has been consistently increasing its revenues, with platform-to-consumer delivery earning $28.12 million in America. We know that the average American spends about $1,850 annually on food delivery. This would equate to $22.2 billion dollars in revenue annually.
SOM – Our Serviceable Obtainable Market can be estimated by the Stanford student population. We envision this to be a very valuable piece of our market because undergraduate students tend to have restricted food options based on the dining halls. Being in an area with some of the most expensive restaurants in the United States, the market for more financially accessible food options is fairly less competitive. Currently there are approximately 17,000 students at Stanford. If we wanted to be more specific about our market, we could isolate the 7645 undergraduate students, as these are the ones that are typically without access to a kitchen and are forced to be on meal plans, making it impossible to create home cooked meals themselves. Stanford is the university that uses Doordash the most, so we believe that this SOM is the perfect starting point for our company. The relative isolation and limited number of nearby affordable options expand our market. If we continue with the understanding that the average American spends $1850 annually on delivery, then we would predict that we would earn about $14 million annually.
