It's been almost a week since we've launched our website and I wanted to quickly mention three additional points.
1. Crowdsourcing without the Crowdsourcer...A number of people have asked me if they can buy the Awesome in their part of the country. Right now there are only two places it's available which are sweetpotatoawesome.com and the Intuitive Forager's Downtown Third Farmer's Market (here in Vegas on Fridays from 9 am to 2pm). Selling in stores tends to be a costly endeavor for young food companies requiring significant volume to make it profitable. Freeze drying, a process that yields a unique taste, long shelf life and high nutrient retention, is an expensive process at this time. Hence, in order to keep the cost of our product down while still being profitable we sell direct to the consumer. We hope to be available in stores nationwide someday but we'll need to scale our production capacity to get there. Often you'll see a start up utilizing a company like "Kickstarter" or "Indiegogo" to raise funds to develop or produce a product on a larger scale. Essentially that's what were doing right now with sweetpotatoawesome.com. One big difference is that we'll send you the product within a few days instead of several months or more later. Selling directly to the consumer yields higher margins that can be invested back into our production capacity, allows us to experiment with different flavors/sizes and provides a more intimate connection with our customers and their preferences.
Freeze dried products are not cheap but the process used to make them is fairly simple and someday, with scale, could be made much more affordable. Sweetpotato Awesome is in part, a mission to popularize the use of a process that makes it easier for people to snack on superhealthy foods that taste indulgent without preservatives or added sweeteners. Hence, when you buy Sweetpotato Awesome, you're not just buying awesome tasting freeze dried organic sweetpotato slices, you're supporting a movement for more nutritious choices on the shelves! After all ... you=awesome...eat accordingly.
(P.S. Many freeze dried organic fruit sells for over $4/oz with little or no preparation involved. Organic freeze dried beets sell for over $12/oz)
2. No obligation or cancellation fees with subscriptions...You can save a substantial amount by subscribing to an item (see option below "One Time Purchase") and you can cancel whenever you like with no penalties. So don't be afraid to subscribe and if the Awesome is not right for you for whatever reason it's a simple process to cancel by logging back into your account or E-mailing us at contact@sweetpotatoawesome.com.
3. Please share... If you love the Awesome or just love the idea of the Awesome please share about us online! We can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram under the name sweetpoawesome .
Finally, we'll be back at the Intuitive Forager's Downtown Third Farmer's Market today (Friday) from 9 am to 2pm. Hope to see many of you Vegas locals out there!