What is Virtual Kitchen Operator and what is "Building in Public"?
A series of 50 posts in 50 days - Day 1/50
What is Virtual Kitchen Operator?
I recently left my job at BCG to pursue something that gets me more excited - FOOD. I am launching a virtual kitchens business. For anyone unfamiliar, virtual kitchens = Pickup + Delivery only model, no dine / front-of-house. Technically theres a ton of different models, but thats the gist. Almost all of the customer relationship is sourced and carried out digitally. Will share a post on definitions later in case most of this sounds like nonsense.
When I left my job, I had a working knowledge of the virtual kitchens space, and knew that I was bullish on it in the long term. I also had some operational advantages that got me excited to pursue this as they tipped the scaled more in my favor.
As I have jumped in head first, I have learned a ton. I plan to publish content about what I have learned both on twitter, as well as under the brand of "Virtual Kitchen Operator" at virtualkitchenoperator.com (probably where you went to subscribe to receive this email).
I am building Virtual Kitchen Operator (VKO) for 3 reasons:
Help others who are wishing to launch something in this field
Refine my own knowledge and force myself to think critically on my business
Position myself as a thought leader in the virtual kitchens space
My audience for VKO is not future customers of my virtual kitchen(s). My audience is instead:
Other Virtual Kitchen Operators
Potential future partners (brand/creative partners, media partners, distribution partners, real estate partners, investors/exit opps, etc)
What is Building in Public?
My strategy to grow VKO is "Building in Public" (BIP). This means I will be basically live-tweeting and emailing the creation/growth of my business over the next several years, starting with a “50 posts in 50 days” content series
I like writing. So this will be fun for me. I will be sharing:
Real problems i'm facing
Decisions I make + why
Customer segmentations
Cost analysis
Demand forecasting/projections
Where we're spending/investing money + why
Tech stack options + our choices
Mistakes we make
How we "build a brand"
+ lots more (i’ve got 50 days of content to churn out!) I’m doing this because I’ve seen other people do this and it always leads to a positive outcome.
Whether its fully committing to "building in public" and building a business from the ground up, or just sharing their experience transparently to help others.
I've seen people do this in the tech world:
@suhail has done this for Mighty App
@janelsgm with BrainPint / NewsletterOS
@shl with Gumroad and many other ventures
@whizzzoe i've read about your growth from @meetkevon (whom i've also learned a lot from)
I've also seen this transparency in Real Estate:
@fortworthchris growing Fort Capital
@moseskagan with Adaptive
@realEstateTrent never thought i'd learn so much on strip malls
@bobbyfijan same^^ but for floorplans
@seandsweeney with his Minneaplis RE co + journey
And for small businesses:
@sweatystartup made self storage cool again
@SullyBusiness sharing real experiences and numbers of his SMB
@wilsoncompanies and @RandLarsen1 buying SMBs up in Cleveland
@liamkircher - cleaning biz + now STR mgmt biz
@SamtLeslie's HVAC biz
In countless other niches, people have made me a fan of what they are doing just by being transparent:
@dickiebush FYI this "50 in 50" series is inspired by you + Ship 30for30
@iiiitsandrea on upcoming f&b trends w/ the Snaxshot
@AlexAndBooks_ for readers and books
I haven’t seen too many restaurant folks building in public on twitter. But shoutout to @arestaurant_guy. He runs a traditional restaurant, and I’m taking a different route with off-premise… but many principals are similar. Hiring, running a P&L, etc. and shares great stuff.
In the restaurant space in general, there are many people that I’d love to connect with as I go through this journey:
@JensenDCummings - has a clubhouse series on virtual kitchens + the work you do with Best Served Podcast is 🔥🔥🔥
@KyleInserra - has virtual kitchen + real estate knowledge which is a rare blend
@ShawnPWalchef - creating and scaling a barbecue business in San Diego called CaliBBQMedia
@paulbarron - Hosts ghost kitchen trends podcast, leading the way in discussing this emerging field
@kh - has a newsletter @ReadExpedite that is really good. Learn a lot from her on restaurant ops/tech
@nabeeleats - CEO of lunchbox, who I’m blown away by with everything they release. The rate they ship code, the recent rebrand, the support for smaller restaurants. They’ll be successful.
My list could go on and on, but I’ll stop there for now.
For any virtual kitchen operators reading this, I hope you find it valuable.
Based on where the VK market is going, I think there will be a lot more curious operators in the next few years in this space.
Quick background on me
Lived in Chicago last 6 yrs, now back to hometown of Columbus
Most recently was a Product Manager at BCG
I love Golf
Spent the last 12 mos living out of Airbnbs
Own like 62 domains for pie in the sky ideas
Love Real Estate (invest in Short Term Rentals)
To recap - here is what you can expect:
I'm building a virtual kitchens business and will try and be transparent about it along the way
I'll publish content on twitter + Virtual Kitchen Operator (virtualkitchenoperator.com)
I'll be launching and growing this business in Columbus, OH (but with plans to scale)
FYI some of these posts will be a catch up / recap of the first few weeks of my journey just to fill you in. But pretty soon we'll be at "present day". Im starting today because I'm hoping to sell real food from my first concept on 12/2, which is exactly 50 days from now.
I'm aware that building in public and growing a digital audience is not easy, and typing this thread isn't a free ride to followers and success. I assume most of my posts will get zero engagement.
But i'm confident that its a much better strategy than building in the dark!
Thanks for following along,
Sam