Amon Anderson, Victoria Beasley, Horacio Diaz, Andy Mai
Week 9 Interview Count: 9, 134 totalReducing produce waste and increasing profit for farmers…
...providing affordable produce for consumers
We were Funky FruitReducing produce waste and increasing profit for farmers providing affordable produce for
consumers
operating in a juicy market
Operating in the $100 Bn fresh produce market in the US targeting major metropolitan
areas
Amon Anderson● Chief Structurer & Jack of all trades
● Stanford MBA and background in
agriculture investing in East Africa
Team
Andy Mai● Chief Scientist and Jack of all
trades
● Stanford CS Master
● Worked on Doordash logistics
platform
Horacio Diaz● Chief Farmer Officer & Jack of all
trades
● Stanford MBA and background in
consulting, agriculture technology
and cattle ranching
Victoria Beasley● Chief Enthusiast & Jack of all
trades
● Stanford MBA and background in
finance and cleantech
manufacturing
Week 0: Our world view
“We are very focused on
the supply. If we can
crack this, we are on our
way...”
“We can solve social
problems with this…
provide cheap access
to produce”
“How do we get this to
consumers… Can retail
be a channel?”
“Everything is
going to be
funky
looking”
“The value prop here
is price….”
“The tactics of the
business are going
to be really easy...”
“We can create so many
cool apps to collaborate
seamlessly with farmers”
Business model canvas after Week 1Key Partners
• Suppliers = local produce
farmers. We’ll source
cosmetically challenged
produce, providing a new
distribution channel and
incremental revenue
• Leverage CropMobster as
an early hack to source non-
retail produce at a discount
• Good Eggs?
• CAFF?
Key Activities
• Source farms/produce
• Optimize pickup/delivery
• Marketing to consumers.
See brilliant “Inglorious
Fruits & Vegetables”
campaign
Value Proposition
• For farmers who need to
increase their farm’s
financial productivity, our
technology and service give
farmers the platform they
need to sell their
cosmetically challenged
fresh produce
• For consumers who need
affordable produce and
want to reduce food waste,
our direct-from-the-farm
service is a convenient way
to get fresh, local produce
for less
Customer Relationships
• Utilize Tilt-like model
within locales to concentrate
sales and minimize delivery
costs
• Consider hiring
neighborhood reps
• Advertise where
customers shop / work /
play
Customer Segments
• Budget-conscious moms
looking to make her family’s
meals healthier by including
more fruits and vegetables,
but without breaking the
bank
• Community- and
environment-advocating
foodies looking to support
their local food system and
reduce food waste
• Busy working
professionals who value
local, sustainably grown
produce but want a faster,
more convenient way to get
it
Key Resources
• App for farmers
• Backend platform to
aggregate produce
• Sorting/packing facility
• Pickup and delivery
• Produce traceability
• Stand at farmers’ mkt
Channels
• TBD, but consider direct to
consumer through home,
school & workplace
delivery
Cost Structure
• Materials cost: cosmetically challenged produce (discounted), packaging
• Distribution costs: labor for pickup and delivery. (Idea is to avoid vehicle
CapEx by employing an UBER-like model.)
• Marketing costs: fliers, AdWords, Ads
• Fixed costs may eventually include warehousing, packaging equipment
Revenue Streams
• Revenue comes from sale of produce; target recurring revenue
• Pricing tactic is simple: our direct-from-farm produce is priced at a 30%
discount to what customers can buy in retail. Produce is fresher and just as
nutritious; however, it’s simply cosmetically challenged and is therefore
priced at a discount.
Week 1: got Out of the Building to start
talking to customers and farmers
“The important part
is how fresh the
produce is, not how
it looks,” Nira, Milk
Pail Customer
...but faced some early challenges on the
supply sideStarted validating the consumer market...
“20% of apples I produce
are disfigured. But I still
sell them at the farmer’s
market, to restaurants, to
make jellies or to juice,”
Nick, farmer
“Whole Foods has really
high standards so we need
to find alternative uses. We
sell them in the market, feed
them to chickens or
compost,” Sean, farmer
Week 2: Where is all this funky produce?
“I manage my off-spec
produce fairly efficiently; not
enough volume to worry
about,” Caleb, Farmer with
a basket of unsold squash
ready to feed pigs
“There is a huge supply
of off-spec produce. I buy
truckloads of oranges
from the largest citrus
grower,” Seconds’ broker
“Fresh fruit sells for 5-20x
the fruit we sell for juicing.
It’s a huge economic
loss,” CFO large citrus
grower
Learning: Maybe we need to focus on large farmers
First sale
● Started selling through our web-page and
advertising on Facebook to direct traffic to
our website
● Found that highlighting price
competitiveness of our product was a key
driver of traffic to our website
Week 3: let’s run an MVP to prove that
people will buy this
We said NO to enterprise sales We focused on consumers
“We focus on produce
yield and have all
these and those
requirements,” --
Enterprise buyer Further confirmation of
consumer demand: funky /
glut produce at a discount
at a local store
Week 4: successful consumer-focused MVP
1.0 but still struggled with suppliers
Did we learn from MVP 1.0? Oh yeah...And back to small farmers because we
learned about a little blue book...
Consumers bought our idea. They loved how
cheap and how convenient it was
They had mixed reaction to our product mix
● Amount: Some wanted more, some
wanted less
● Balance: Some wanted more fruit others
wanted more veggies
● New: Some weird produce variety (not
just funky)
“I don't deal with anyone outside of the Blue Book. I can't technically sell to someone who is not in the book because in this industry many people have gone belly-up, and my bank looks at that,”
-- Large Farmer
After 4 weeks, here we were with lots of
things in our plate
Week 5: set the stage for MVP 2.0
Need to figure out supply
Q: What’s our ideal farm archetype(s)?
A: after much debate...we settled for small
farms that already sell at farmers’
markets.
We got out of the building and started
talking to farmers at farmer’s markets...
Sounds good, but we don’t
know volume and pricing
until 2-3 days prior to
purchase. Call us back.
Okay! We will call you
back on Thursday.
11 farms indicated interest
Hi! Can we buy your
seconds?
Week 6: MVP 2.0, farm supply + Stanford
demand
Supply Demand
40% Gross Margin
● 25% of purchases agreed prior to market;
25% from farmers with relationship; 50% at
the end of the market from farmers with no
“previous relationship”
● 45% of produce was funky
● Secured great deals: ~50% off retail
prices
● Began relationships with farmers
● Miss sales target; 35 orders out of 50
target
● 25% of MVP 1.0 customers purchased
again
● No orders outside of Stanford (are we
building something for our friends only??)
● Customer satisfaction issues: packaging
+ quality of produce
Need to improve the
experience for consumers
MVP 2.0 in Pictures
Source Pack
Deliver
Week 7: distilled learnings and refocus
BIG supply news…
Coke Farm, a medium-sized
organic farm, wants to supply usFocus on packaging and branding...
Sturdier boxes and a trusted
brand (affordable + healthy) for
customers
Small farmers like us...
Marsha, a small farmer we
worked with, asked if we wanted
to buy from her again
Get out of the Stanford bubble...
Target families and offices in
RWC, EPA, and PA
BIG demand news…
Farm Hill wants us to
supply their kale + lemons
BMC after Week 7
Week 7 in Pictures
Marsha’s surprising
text
Brainstorming session on branding and
hypothesizing our non-Stanford customer
segments
Week 8: prepped for MVP 3
Marketing lessons: word-of-mouth has highest efficacy; first company push
(yielded 8 orders at one drop-off location); non-GSB customers
We landed on a farmer archetype: medium-sized diversified organic farms
Packaging research
Went out tour of the
SF Wholesale Market
Saw pro operations @
The Fruit Guys
MVP 3 snapshot
● Sold & delivered 64 boxes, for a total of 120+
boxes sold; new + repeat customers
● Satisfied first enterprise customer, wants to
buy more this week
● New ideas for distribution (one-to-many)
● “AWESOME!!” “Expand it to SF.”
● “I'm a big fan of Bounty Box and have been
telling friends about it - I hope it continues! I
tend to get into a rut of buying the same
produce and this will help me to cook/eat a
variety of fruits and veggies and try new
recipes, too.”...expanding value prop
● “I didn't get a celery root in my bounty box :(“
...QA issues
● “The portions of a lot of the vegetables don't
work for cooking for a family.”...consider less
variety, greater concentration
● “I was really disappointed that after having my
box for two days, I had to throw away 5 items
because they were moldy (mostly oranges.)
This felt like a huge waste and a bummer! : (“
...how do we get people to refrigerate? (and
screen for bad produce?)
● Packaging better, but still needs refining
The good... ...and the constructive feedback
MVP 3 customer survey results
● Survey respondents...n=34; 22 new customers, 12 repeat customers
● How likely is it that you would recommend Bounty Box to a friend or
colleague? (1-10 scale) Average 7.82
● Reasons for purchase were myriad, but preferenced in this order: 1)
supporting local farms, 2) price, 3) waste reduction story, 4) convenience
● Favorite items: broccoli, kale, carrots, apples, beets
● Over half of respondents wanted recipes printed and emailed
● Was Bounty Box a good deal? 53% yes; 16% no; 31% didn’t know...that
last # tells us customers don’t know what they spend on produce
● 97% reported Bounty Box produce was as fresh or fresher than what they
normally buy
● Nearly 70% of our customers buy their produce at chain grocery stores
● 88% usually buy at least some organic produce
And so here we are in Week 9
What did we learn?
RH side of canvas...consumers and the
importance of finding a real need, marketing
LH side of canvas...farmers, the wholesale
ecosystem, partnerships, distribution
Bottom of canvas...scalability, unit-level
economics
The process...get out of the building,
interview fearlessly and tirelessly, test
hypotheses, MVP, iterate, interview some
more
Do we think this is a viable business?
YES. And we like that we were cash-flow
positive from Day 1.
What about scalable? We hope so, but
recognize these key conditions/questions:
• Must nail target customer...how big is
that market size?
• Which geographies?
• Can we scale beyond immediate truck-
delivery zone? What structure?
• Can we keep operating costs low?
Bounty Box will live on with a subset of our (beloved) team
Appendix
MVP 2.0 Payment Flow
Customer
$19.99 for Bounty Box
$6.00 for home delivery
Deliver box direct-to-home or
for centralized pick-up
1
2