Congratulations! You're an inspiration. A few questions, if I may:
1. Do you plan to expand to other produce other than just the onions?
2. How did you arrive at your current business model (like min order quantity, areas served, return policy, shipping rates etc)?
3. How do you deal with customer complaints, in particular, with something as prone to decay as organic produce?
4. What significant part of the way you do this business changed after v1? Esp, as multiple customers would have inevitably given you comments and suggestions.
5. You mentioned you're registered as a LLC. You don't intend to raise VC money? For instance, YC prefers not to invest in LLCs.
6. What does the tech stack look like (Shopify? Weebly? AWS? Frameworks? Payments? etc)?
1. Right now, we're concentrating on just Vidalias. We continue to grow at a pace I'm happy with, so there's no need to get complicated.
2. We learned it as we went along, really. ie, "Oh crap, X happened.. what do we do?" And then we figure out what's best for the customer, and do that.
3. We listen, and empathize. I want all our customers to get the onion they're expecting. If they don't, I'll cover the cost to get them more that meet their needs.
4. The logistic changed the most, by far. Our second year, we added order tracking, and that helped a lot too. (Our first season, the customers would call me and ask where their order was, and I'd manually look it up)
5. We're profitable. I have no interest in raising money or taking direction from a VC.
6. Tech stack (if I even understand what that means).. Wordpress, Shopify
Just chiming in to say that I loved reading your article, and I really wish you all the very best. I'm you have inspired many people in one way or another!
no kidding, here was the first negotiation. I'm at the shed, in the front office with the farmer. We talk about whether this could work. We realize it might. I then bring up how to split money. From my side, it seemed fair to pay him more, so I suggested they keep 60% of profit, and I keep 40%. He nodded, and agreed. So we went with that. We changed it slightly over the years, but it still falls around that range. You wanna know funny thing? UPS makes the most on the entire transaction (as we roll in shipping costs on all our orders).
Not even. Tried to start a small (friends and extended family) coffee roasting business. Most of the margin shipping a 12oz bag of coffee after all other costs is eaten by flat rate USPS shipping. Only made economic sense at a much greater scale, or for orders > 5lb.
Loved this story. Your writing style is succinct & speaks to the heart. You really should write more essays if possible (found only 4 here: https://www.deepsouthventures.com/essays).
What's been your feeling on generalizing the idea to other products?
There's certainly value in being The Vidalia Man, having connections within the industry, and owning the domain. At the same time, the lessons you've learned (not to mention the platform you've built) could apply to just about any other niche agricultural product, such as ramps in the northeast, or southern flour.
How do those two tensions play against each other when it comes to deciding where on the spectrum between "I sell onions and only onions" and "I will become the next Amazon" to fall?
Honestly, I don't want to build an amazon size business, so there's no tension. Too complicated. I sorta follow the same path at Paul Jarvis, and his book https://ofone.co/ . Right now, from a product standpoint, I focus on one thing, Vidalias. But I'll have to note that we also own the domain name 'Onions.com', so there's possible opportunity for growth down the road. Not right now, though.
I'm quite fond of buying domains myself. I just came here to tell you I'm so happy to have found someone with a hobby like mine, though it is more accurate to call yours a business. My wife hates it, but many of the ideas I have had, have started with a domain name and that being my lift off point.
I tend to buy 1 year registrations for $8 like they're lotto tickets or something.
You mention putting purpose over profit, but I assume you still make a reasonable living doing this from the sounds of things. Is this your only job currently? What's the tech stack like?
thank you so much! We'll start shipping next Monday, 4/29, and your order will leave the farm that week. We'll also send you a tracking link when UPS gets their hands on your box (fyi)
Could it be a good idea to combine a few orders for San Francisco customers like me? And then use the opportunity to just meet and share our 10 pounds of Vidalias and shake hands?
How close is M&T's operation to "organic"? I know some farmers follow a lot of the practices, but don't necessarily want to bother with the cost & hassle of the formal certification. Would love to see them or some future partner get into that. Any interest in that direction, or obstacles in the way?
We're about as close to organic without putting the label on it. But we are test growing some 100% organics now, trying to determine next steps with that..
Wouldn't it be better to be a direct redirect to vidaliaonions.com or maybe even have the website under both domains? onions.com is a great domain and it seems a bit of a shame to have the landing page about the domain name rather than the product
Where do you go to get the box made? What is its cost? And what is shipping cost (for ex within GA) per box? Does shipping cost increase by weight too?
Do you know anything about the demographic of your customers?
Are they people who graduated and moved away, looking for a little bit of home? I'm suspecting a fair number of Gatech alumni, for one. Or people like me who have to negotiate the onion content of dishes very carefully with friends and family (shallots and Vidalias make that easier).
Typically older demo.. over 35 usually.. I only know this cause I speak to so many customers on the phone.. Most customers are folks who are foodies and have read about Vidalias, or are already familiar with..
More seriously, how much interaction do you have with the farmer(s)? Seems like there would need to be a lot of communication to make something like this work.
Great question (do I like Vidalias).. I was indifferent on them at the start. But when you're surrounded by them, you start eating them. And now, I put Vidalias (or other sweet onions) on virtually anything. Eggs, Chili, burgers, list goes
on..
And yes, I communicate quite frequently with the farmer. We got along quite well, and I'm fortunate for the friendship I have with him & his team.
Hah, same here. I was indifferent but introduced to sweet onions while in Mexico when they were being served, grilled whole, by a street vendor. I have been hooked since and buying them now whenever in season.
We're an LLC. Regarding tasks -- there really wasn't any deciding. We just starting doing stuff. The farmer grew the Onion, and I built out all the online stuff and logistics. When pain points arose, I tried my best to find software to shoulder those loads. But I made sure to never outsource my phone calls. I answer those. I wanna talk to my customers.
Sometimes I print the orders in my office and physically take them to the farm. Other times, I transmit the orders to them online, and they print them at the shed.
These days, the farmer and I are equally devoted to this. If the farm goes away, the farmer and I will start again somewhere else. Highly unlikely the farm goes away though.. The farm could possibly change names down the road.. small things like that.
A lot of different ways. A lot through word of mouth now. Some paid search, some organic search, some through other farms pointing customers our way, some though our billboard on i-95, and some through the magnets I have stuck on my car.
if you're referring to that 360-degree photo, you can make the same kind of image through the Google 'Street View' app.. you'll then upload to your Google account and share..
