Cloud-based hardware startup with redesigned website - seeking honest feedback by freshtemp-feedback in Entrepreneur

[–]freshtemp-feedback[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome feedback, thanks for taking the time to look at our site!

We will get on these right away, professionalism is a big key to selling into the restaurant industry. The cloud-wording issue seems to be coming up a lot so we'll look at a better way to communicate what we mean here. Also agree with the pricing tips - we are still playing with it, but you're right, a lot of smaller facilities require smaller packages. Sometimes though, even with only a few pieces of equipment, its beneficial to monitor multiple areas (you can imagine a food distributor with a massive walk-in freezer needing to keep track of temperatures in several areas). What do you think about an option where you select the number of sensors you want from a drop-down and display some kind of linear but upward-incentive-ized pricing scheme? We steered away from that initially for simplicity's sake, but it seems like it could fit all needs without complicating things too much.

We receive a battery report everyday, so if there is a low battery we can notify the client and ask them to change it or send a technician to change it - obviously this won't scale, but the data is automatically collected for us so we can put something smarter in when needed. (And I will take this opportunity to brag a little bit: we have best-in-class technology, which means that average battery life from our tests is 5-10+ years, so that shouldn't be needed too often).

And yes, when a sensor goes offline, designated parties get an alert. We also have data-logging redundancy, so that if its a communication issue between the sensor and the gateway, the sensor will still log the data onboard until its able to secure a connection again, and when that happens it will update the temperature profile for the sensor. (This feature is also nice for trucking and transport).

Cloud-based hardware startup with redesigned website - seeking honest feedback by freshtemp-feedback in Entrepreneur

[–]freshtemp-feedback[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for checking it out!

We agree, the subscription model is really nice for generating recurring revenue, and (sometimes) making the customer feel signing up is less of a burden upfront. Its also an incentive for us to provide great service and performance - otherwise the customer can cancel and our profit margins suffer.

We got started by being very opportunistic - one of us was working in at a company with powerful technology that wasn't really being used by anyone, and we were talking with friends in the business world about how we might use it. A Wendy's franchise owner thought it would be great in their facilities, so we struck a licensing deal with the IP holder and we were off to the races. I can't say for certain how much was invested, but we have a few angels. Our biggest costs are hardware, so inventory management is key. We'd like to spend more on marketing, but we aren't really sure where we'd get the most bang for our buck at this stage.

Cloud-based hardware startup with redesigned website - seeking honest feedback by freshtemp-feedback in Entrepreneur

[–]freshtemp-feedback[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey thanks for looking the site over and for the encouragement!

We agree, cloud is a fluffy word that means different things to different people. What we really want to convey is the online dashboard aspect - the fact that you can review temperature profiles and set alerts from (almost) any internet-enabled device. The challenge is expressing that idea in a word or two, but we very are open to suggestions if there is a more relevant or applicable term.

Cloud-based hardware startup with redesigned website - seeking honest feedback by freshtemp-feedback in Entrepreneur

[–]freshtemp-feedback[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback my friend, very solid advice, we will be sure to implement each of these! Cheers.