#Ep: 85 How The Software Company Hotplate Is Helping More Bakers Have Pop Up Success - Baking For Business Podcast

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[00:03]
A
Hey, sweet friends. My name is Chef Schomburg. I started my baking business with a bottle of Di Sereno and one bundt cake pan. Fast forward to today. From news to magazines, speaking on national stages and more, I can truly say that baking has changed my life. So now as a bakery business coach, I get to help others have the same success. I've helped hundreds of my students across the world and my global membership program create six figure businesses, mainly from home. The Baking for Business podcast is an extension of from actionable tips to valuable tools and resources that can impact you as a business owner. I truly believe y'all, we would never have been given a gift if we couldn't profit and prosper from it. So come on, darling, what are you waiting for? Hey, what's going on, you guys? And welcome back to the Baking for Business podcast. I'm super excited because we have an amazing guest today. So Rishi is actually one of the co founders of Hot Plate. And Hot Plate is a software company, an online ordering platform which is dedicated specifically to helping those chefs and bakers with pop ups and online ordering. And so as we know right now the porch pop up movement, or any pop up in general, is really booming, especially when it comes to cottage food operators, cottage food producers, and just food entrepreneurs in a whole. So to find out more about how Hot Plate can help us, I decided to bring Rishi on. So, Rishi, you so much for being here.
[01:37]
B
Thank you so much, Amanda for having me. Super excited to chat. This is gonna be great.
[01:42]
A
Absolutely. And so for those who are a little unfamiliar with Hot Plate, how did this kick off? Do you have a love for food or what really inspired you guys to, to start it off?
[01:54]
B
Great question. I'm a huge foodie, so, like, I think we both share that same sentiment. I think anyone listening to this podcast is probably gonna be a huge foodie, I'd imagine. Right. And no, I'd always been obsessed with food. I come from like an incredible background of Indian immigrants and my grandmother, you know, was like a personal chef of mine for years. Right. Like, cooked for a whole family. And I just got to experience the love of her cooking and the familiarity and the, the family bonding that it created for our whole family from both her and my mother. So just come from a long, beautiful background of incredible cooks. And that love of food really translated into like the work I wanted to do. So I was soon at UT Austin and that's actually where I met my co founders at the time, Ben and Andy. And we kind of just, you know, we're all really into food, but. And we're all, like, tinkering around with different ideas. But the actually first version of hot plate actually came from my mom. So my mom had this idea for a marketplace of home cooked food because she was actually trying to find authentic Gujarati Indian food. I'm Gujarati, by the way, from Gujarat, India. And she was trying to find authentic Gujarati Indian food where she was getting treatment at the time. She's totally fine now. But when she came to me and she was like, you know, there's no way to get authentic home cooked Indian food, I was like, that's a really good point. Like, why is there an easy way to be able to access the regional cuisine that I grew up eating? Right? So the first version of hot plate was a way to solve that problem for her and others like her. And so to test it, we want to test the ability of, like, can I just start a food business out of, like, my house and just start selling food? We actually, like, rented an apartment, like, in West Campus.
[03:32]
A
Oh, wow.
[03:33]
B
UT Austin, and just started selling food out of this restaurant. And that we did that, funny enough, in March of 2020, which, as you probably know, was like, not the best time to be like, you know, starting a food business, because Covid happened and totally, you know, decimated the restaurant industry. I think the effects of that are things that we're still recovering from today to some degree. And I think Covid really exposed some of the flaws, like the brick and mortar business model. We've been serving food this way for hundreds of years, but there hasn't really been a ton of innovation on it. And I think when people stopped coming in person and started buying food online, I think restaurants were really hurt by that. They were forced to use third party delivery apps, for example. It just created a really broken system and business model for selling food. At same time, there were tons of folks that were, you know, selling food from home, whether it was baked goods or other things, and just sharing them on Instagram and saying, like, hey, DM me to order, right? And so we started talking to a lot of those folks and realized that beyond the marketplace that we were, like, trying to focusing on, there was a real huge opportunity to tap into that group of people that were trying to unlock their culinary creativity and just kind of like, you know, share their passion with the world. So we pivoted hotplay in late 2020 and launched this version of Hotplay that we are now in late 2021 to enable anyone to easily start, grow, and manage a Food business. You know, we spoke to a lot of the folks that were using the marketplace and they said, honestly, Rishi, you're not really driving any demand to us. Like, we're not getting any new customers from you guys. But the backend tools that you've built to help take the orders, streamline the prep and packing lists, automate the text message reminders, like all that sa hours of time and headache. So we pivoted away from the marketplace to focusing on what we call like more of an online ordering platform for popup chefs and bakers. And since then it's been two and a half, three years, and we've grown to serving thousands of chefs across the country and processing millions of dollars of payments for people, whether they're selling one loaf of bread or they're like a viral popup, like pop up bagels in New York. Absolutely, yeah. Killing the game.
[05:53]
A
That is so amazing. Because even though a lot of people who listen are cottage food producers, there are a small amount of storefront owners also. And you said something really unique. You're right. Normally whenever people want to pivot to that online ordering system, they generally do go through third parties. I actually used to sell on third parties myself. Waiter, Uber Eats, Grubhub. But you're looking at anywhere between 20 to 35% off of every single sal.
[06:23]
B
Totally. Totally. And again, I think those platforms, right, have their use, have their benefit. Especially like before COVID they were really marketing themselves as like, hey, we're going to help you with getting incremental orders and help you with marketing. And then when the pandemic happened, you know, people there was kind of the main platform that people were using to get orders, right? But even beyond that, right, when we spoke to a lot of food owners, we have customers, for example, that have been restaurant owners for 20 plus years who have said that like since starting on Hot Plate, it's really changed the way they thought about starting a food business in general. Because most people have an idea for a food business, right? And the first thing they think is, okay, so I gotta spend like a hundred grand on a lease, right? Or like I gotta get, you know, spend like $6,000 a month in rent. I gotta get a space, I gotta get staff, I gotta staff it up and then I gotta go live, right? And the problem with that is that restaurants have a really high failure rate, the really high fixed costs, as we just said, and they're really low in profit margin because of that. And when we started talking to folks that were like cottage food bakers selling out of their house. They were like, I don't even need to get a space. Like I have my house, you know, like people just come and pick up for my porch or pick up for me. Personally, I can limit the amount of orders I want to sell. I pre sell all of it. So I know exactly what I need to make for each day and time, no issues. And I actually am walking out of this making like 40, 50, 60%, 70% profit margin on my food, which is like the type of margins you see in software, not even like in stuff. And so like it was kind of like game changing for some people. We have a user named Joan who runs a pop called Mama Fish in Seattle and she was telling us, you know, she started restaurants for 20 years and has been like public speaker featured all over. And she said like, I'm not going back like this. This model is game changer because it gives me control, it allows me to do what I want, which is focus on the food and not have to deal with all the fixed costs or added labor that comes with starting a brick and mortar business. So I think beyond just the third party delivery apps, I think what Hot Plate has shown is that you can actually rethink the entire restaurant and food business model to be chef first instead of customer first. And I think that's what we're all about at Hoplite is enabling anyone to easily start, grow and manage a food business.
[08:38]
A
Absolutely. And that works in favor for so many women also who I know want to contribute to the household. It used to be so many people would always assume, okay, well I bake from home first and that's just what I do to start and then I get the storefront. But I see now people are looking at it like, no, wait a minute. There's actually a hell of a lot more benefits to just operating within this model. And so pop ups literally I feel the past decade have taken on a whole new thing because now we see so many micro influencers and people just making a thing out of it. You know, like, hey, I'm going to be here, I'm going to be there and just really killing it. And it's kind of like this fun vibe now.
[09:24]
B
I was literally going to say the same thing. It's turned into this like whole lifestyle that's like absolutely such a vibe. Right. And people are really crushing it. Like we have tons of users who are able to make this their full time job, take care of their kids. You know, we have one, one user named Noel and she runs L Bread shop, right? Just five kids. And the income from Hotplay enables her to, like, spend more time with her kids, focus on just baking. You know, she can go to farmers markets for distribution, like, getting the word out there about her business, but isn't completely tied to them because she has systems. Like, Hoppy just has the preorder pickup model to be able to also, like, you know, be with her kids while she's doing pickups, for example. And something you said that I love is that that really does enable a whole class of people who typically don't, you know, aren't able, you know, they have to leave the house, they have to go work, right. And aren't able to really spend time with their kids. And I think that's what we're all about at Hopway. It's just increasing the diversity and accessibility of food. Right? And I think that's not just like just getting, like, chefs from restaurants to use it. Right. I think that's like enabling whole groups of people, like my mom, right, who previously wouldn't have been able to start. My mom would never even conceive of starting a food business. Right. But, you know, with Hot Plate, she's actually talking to me about, like, hey, can I sell my rotis? Like, can I, like, sell to these? And it's like, kind of like unlocking her, like, creativity, right? Which is, like, what we're all about. It's like, so cool to see all the different things that people have been able to use Hot Plate for.
[10:51]
A
I love that. I love that. And so speaking of Hot Plate, I'm pretty sure people have questions, and so I came up with a couple. But let's just say, even though I know the answer, but let's just say I know some baker out there is listening, and they're going to say, okay, but chef, but, but Rishi, I'm not that big. So what happens if I. I sign up for Hot Plate and maybe I oversell and I put myself in a jam. But with Hot Plate, that's actually not possible. So talk about what features enable a person to kind of have that type of control.
[11:26]
B
Oh, thank you so much. We should get you as a salesperson, really get it. So Hotplate is built for. To give the chef control of their food business. So with Hopplate, what you can do is instead of having like an always on store, like with Square and other systems, right, that you kind of have to, like, swap out, Hoplite lets you set up events. So let's say you're doing like a porch picker for the week, Right. With Hoplite, you can create an event called like, Weekly Porch Pickup. You can set when you want your orders to open and close automatically. Right? So you know you're offering your customers a limited window, but instead of having to like, publish and unpublish the menu, the system just does it for you automatically. Right. You can set specific dates, times, and locations. So let's say for the week, you not. You're not just doing the porch pickup, but you're also doing like a pickup at a farmer's market, right? Well, you don't have to create two separate menus for that or anything. You can just say like, hey, Wednesday from like 5 to 9, I'm doing porch pickup at my house. And then Thursday from like 7 to 10, I'm doing the farmers market. Right? And so it gives you that super granular flexibility. And lastly, you can set up your menu items, inventory and restrictions to your point, just for that sale. So if you want to say, like, hey, I'm selling sourdough, but I want to limit it to like 20 loaves of sourdough, once you sell that 20, it'll be sold out. And the reason for that is because Hop actually functions like Ticketmaster. Not the Taylor Swift version, I would say we're a lot. We're a lot better than that. But Hotline actually functions like Ticketmaster. When you add something to your cart, the customer has a set amount of time to check it out that you can set. What? That ensures that you're never, like, getting to the customer's, never like hitting the add to cart button or checking out and then finding out that someone else took that loaf that they wanted to get right. They're always getting every single thing that they ordered and they have a set amount of time to check it out. And it also ensures that Chef never oversells. You know, if you set an inventory of 10, you're going to sell that 10, and once you sell that 10, it'll stay sold out.
[13:21]
A
Wow. Okay, so that is amazeballs. I love that. So I know you touched a little bit on how it helps for those who want to do porch pop ups. And I actually shared with you one thing that I love, which is amazing, right? We can stay at home and have people come to us. One thing that I actually love is mobile pop ups where we can also load the car, offer customized delivery, and go to our clients. And I believe you guys have a SMS feature for people who want to take advantage of that, which really will allow to allow that business to have a more branded experience. So tell us about the text features that you guys have with Hotplate.
[14:03]
B
So one of the greatest things that Hot Plate offers is that when you create a hot Plate storefront, right, Customers can actually go to your storefront, put their phone number in, and they'll get a text when orders open. And so what that does is it, it unshackles you from Instagram and like social media, right? Because a lot of people are really dependent and really tied into social media for their marketing, right? And the problem with that is like, let's say you go and you put up a post in social media and no one sees it, then you're not getting orders, right? But if people sign up to your Hot Plate storefront, they get that text orders open, and some of the some folks sell out in like less than 30 seconds. It's crazy, right? So with Hot Plate, you don't have to worry about the customer communication. Again, every time you post a new sale, Hop automatically sends out that drop text, letting people know like, hey, my orders are opening. Get them before. Get them before it's gone, right? And so you can focus less on like wrangling your customer communication or like letting people know on Instagram and more time actually focusing on the food. We actually have customers who sometimes they'll do a flash sale and they won't even post on Instagram because they're like, I have my audience on Hot Plate. I just want to like sell via Hot Plate. And they sell out via like 30 seconds on that. It's absolutely bananas, right? And for smaller chefs, right, like you met, you mentioned earlier, like a good question, which is like, let's say I'm a small baker, right? Like, what should I do? Right? What I always tell folks is like the one crazy lesson I actually learned from a program that Hot Plate went through when we were starting out. It's called Do Things that Don't Scale. So funny enough, like we're talking about all these super scalable features, right? But in the beginning of your food business, you know, you always just want to make sure that you have an audience of a few people that really love what you're making, right? And so with Hot Plate, we actually spent the first few years only working with a solar people to really make sure that the platform is a purpose built for their way of selling food. So that way, when we scale to what we are now, we still have that love and support from everyone, right? I want a lot of people do is when they come to us, they're like, I need to grow. I need to like, focus on scaling. I need to like, make a ton of money, right? And I'm like, a couple things, like, do you have a product people love? Because it's better to make something that like 10 or 100 people love, like, absolutely love, than something like a thousand people kind of like, right? Because if you make something that 10 or 100 people love, there's. You're going to generate that word of mouth. Your friends are going to see that you're buying those. Your. Your friends or your customers are going to see that you're. They're buying your food, they're going to sign up for your Hot Plate storefront and then to grow via word of mouth. The businesses that I see that grow via word of mouth have invested a lot of time into making a quality product and really building their customer relationships and hoping is a tool that amplifies that. Right? But like, I would say that, like, you know, we don't help you with the cooking, right? Like, we don't help you make like no online ordering platforms that help you make good brand. Right? But by like really cultivating those relationships, Hotplay allows you to put the fuel in the fire. They'll really take your business to the next level.
[17:03]
A
I love that. So rather than just an example like most people do, making something, taking a picture, posting it on social media, hoping someone sends, then having to build a separate email, then emailing the people, hey, this is what I have. And then now we're already at two platforms. Whereas if I listed on Hot Plate, you're saying with the SMS service, they automatically. There's a way for them to get a blast and know the word.
[17:29]
B
Exactly.
[17:30]
A
So we don't have to show up and dance and twerk. We just get right to, this is what I got. It's ready to be purchased.
[17:37]
B
Exactly. And the thing is, like, email. Email lists are super helpful. Like, I'm all about email, right. We kind of took a hard line in the banning. As a startup, you got to be really focused, right? And we really focus on texting just because with a new day and age, everyone's on their phones, right. Everyone's like always checking their texts, right. And we just saw a much higher conversion rate from people buying and clicking the link via text and buying compared to email. We definitely have plans in the near future to kind of streamline the email experience more. But I think by starting out with texts, we actually are enabling our vendors to reach more of their audience. Right. And actually converting more of those People to buyers, as opposed to like, you get that email might be buried in your inbox. Again, it's kind of like social media. We're like, yeah, how many newsletters is everyone signed up for nowadays? Right? Like, you got to make sure you're paying attention. That being said, email is not going anywhere. But yeah, we're really all about texting here.
[18:33]
A
But I love that because sometimes so many newbies it takes time to, to start a list and to even learn the name of the game. With email, you're focusing on subject lines and what do I write, what do I say and all this. And so yeah, text is much more easier. And you said it yourself, everyone always has their phone in their hand or near them.
[18:53]
B
Exactly, exactly.
[18:55]
A
So for people who say, well, I know I have a group of customers who love to be on brand, you know, like, okay, well hot plate is your thing. How does this seemly build into my brand? So what features do you have if a person wants to. Can they make it a certain color? Customize?
[19:15]
B
Yeah, totally. So like our goal, one of our things with Hotplay is we want to streamline your existing workflow, not add more complexity to like added workflow. Right. So you just mentioned it yourself, like having like three different systems or having to like wrangle like email lists and like this list. Right. Like people do it on Hoplite. Totally. But our goal with Hotplate is to kind of like streamline a lot of the headache that you're dealing with so you can focus on the food. Right. And so what we do is we have a really simple way for people to customize their Hot Plate storefront. So you just go to settings, you can add your colors, you can add a little banner photo to your website, you can add your logo, your social media links. A little about section takes like less than five minutes to build. I always tell people, part of my friends, no one is at all. But Hot Plate is definitely stupid proof. Like it's not, it's not like I'm not at all saying anyone is dumb, but like even me, like I come from like a tech background and I clearly a talker as you can tell. And I'm not the most like the most tech savvy person and I've been using, I mean I'm also biased on one of the founders, but like I've set up like thousands of Hot Plate storefronts and I still to this day it blows in my mind how easy it is to use the platform. And so the cool thing about Hotplate is you can Definitely add your logos and colors and stuff. And if you have an existing website, like on Square other platforms, you can just add a button that links to your Hot Plate page. And a lot of folks don't even notice. Like, they'll see that you're going a new platform, but, like, it's so seamless that they don't really think about it. But it does streamline a lot of the headache that you'd have to deal with by having, like, those other platforms as your, like, e commerce site, if that makes sense.
[20:52]
A
Absolutely. And so what are some things, if there is any feature that we haven't touched on that you think people should really know about or use more? Is there a cool feature that you think people tend to overlook?
[21:04]
B
One of the. So actually, that's a great question, by the way. Thank you so much. You're nailing this one of the first. You're so easy to document. One of the best things we've built is actually the Prep and packing tab within Hot Plate. So Hotplate, when all the orders come in, actually automatically generates a prep list that tells you exactly what you need to make for each day and time. So it's actually the first thing we built for Hotplate. So when we pivoted to this version of selling food where we enabled people to, like, have a storefront as opposed to, like, being a marketplace. Right. And pivoted to, like, this, like, more E commerce version of Hot Plate, we actually started by interviewing, like, two to 300 chefs and bakers that were on Instagram. I'm a hustler. I just, like, want to really make sure I'm building stuff that people need. Right. And the thing we kept hearing over and over again is like, I'm using spreadsheets a lot. Like, I'm having to export my orders and I have to, like, tally up, like, Samantha ordered, like, two loaves of bread, and, like, Carl ordered six loaves of bread. Okay. So I got to make, like, 15 loaves of bread, right. And we actually talked to this one guy in San Francisco named Rise Up Sourdough. Z is amazing. He's, like, so awesome. I'd highly recommend everyone checking him out. His story is also just incredible. And Z was telling us that he had to hire someone to, like, do that job for him. And that person quit because it was just so, like, annoying to, like, have to go through all this data and, like, you know, calculate the prep list. Oh, you're like, that doesn't make any sense. Like, we can automate this in, like, five minutes. So we built a, like, we started hop again doing things that don't scale. We built actually a CSV uploader where people would send us their spreadsheets. We would upload it in the Hoplite and give them just like the totals of what they need to make. And then from there we started solving other problems for bakers. That was actually the first one we built. So one of the things I would highly recommend is like, if you're like wrangling spreadsheets or like having to deal with like inefficiencies in that regard, definitely give us a, give us a look. Because that's one of the things where you'll definitely save like hours of time and headache. Right? Especially like if you're like a bagel vendor, if you're a pizza vendor, if you're selling like ice cream baked goods, like getting those orders and having to be like, okay, so I gotta make like 30 poppy and like 40, you know, whatever from like 20 dozen bagels that people. It's just a nightmare. It's a nightmare. So not having to deal with that math and be able to again, just like focus on orders come in, I can go on vacation and then I just need to fulfill them and then I just give them to the customer. It just makes your life so much easier.
[23:34]
A
I love that I usually see bakers, a lot of them playing tic tac toe, you know, just with pen and paper. It's like, okay, I know this many chocolate chips, I need this many sticks of butter.
[23:45]
B
So yeah, it was literally. There was literally a guy, one of the first people we ever Ombuds Florida. He was badly Burger club in Austin and he had a notebook, it's still on his Instagram. He had a notebook pre hot plate of like just like when burgers would come in, he would just tally up like, okay, one, two. And he had just like 200 burgers. So like how, how what? Like that is just absurd. And so yeah, he said using pop, they felt like hiring like a second employee for him, which was like great.
[24:16]
A
That's, that's amazing. And so what, what future plans do you have for hot plate? What are. If you can share any juicy tidbits. What are some things that you guys are looking forward to add in the future?
[24:30]
B
Totally. I mean, like, you know, there's definitely features that we're working on and building that I think will definitely make lives a lot easier for folks. Like we're relaunching two way customer communication. So that way like people can not only like send These blasts on Hotplay but also get texts back if like they have questions or issues. So again, eliminating the need for folks like dm, you and Instagram, right. Is one of our big goals. But beyond that and like a few other like tactical features for just helping people just kind of like streamline their business, I really think the, the big thing for Hot Plate is just growing awareness of this business model because honestly speaking, like, it kind of blows my mind how many people when we talk to them are like, well, you know, I sell at farmers markets or like, oh, I sell baked goods, but like I can never do this. Or like, oh, like this wouldn't work. Or like, oh, this doesn't make sense. And it kind of, it's crazy to me because I'm like, people are on Instagram, like people are on social media. Like instead of going where they are in person and like all the fixed costs that come with that, just go where they all are online. And once you crack that game and you build hype around your business and people come to you, you just save so much time, money and costs. Right. Like, one of the examples I always love highlighting is Sarah Sourd know Sarah is just like an amazing baker. If you're a baker, give her a follow her. And Little Pearl breads are two people that I think are like Macy from Little Pole Breads as well. Those are two bakers that I think even outside of just like the porch, pick a model. Just like if you're a baker wanting to learn more about like baking and like getting more resource on baking, they're great people to follow. They talk all the time about how like they don't even go to farmer's markets anymore as much because like again, you got to stand out there. It's really hot, right? And sometimes it rains and then you're just sitting there potentially with unsold bread. Right. And then I talked to folks, they're like, but I'm at the farmer's market, like, what are you going to do about it? I'm like, well 100. Like you could still use Hot plate to do pickups at the farmers market. Take pre orders and ensure that you pre sold some of your inventory so that you like, you know, sell out quick. Yeah. Reduce waste. You have more consistent income. Exactly right. So that's like really the biggest thing for Hoplite is I think that like the pre order pickup model represents a paradigm shift in how people think about food. But it's kind of crazy. Like a really funny example I'll give you is like There was a. There was a pop up that we worked with for a while. They're now a restaurant, right? And they were featured in the New York Times by Pete Wells, who's like the food critic for the New York Times, right? If you read this article on him talking about hot plate, like, so much love to Pete Wells. He's been like, absolutely. Like, I mean, I read all this stuff, like, I'm a huge fan, but it was crazy. Like, one of our first press experiences about Hotplay was just him being like, this doesn't make sense. Like, I don't really get this. Like, they're kind of a restaurant. They're kind of a pop up. Like, they're kind of like, what are they? Like, you're getting them, you're getting the stuff online. Like, none of this really makes any sense. And I think it's just people can't like, wrap their head around it, right? You gotta, like, try and experience it. And that's something I think we're really working on, is figuring out how to, like, democratize this model more. Because I really do believe that, like, you know, hot plate again, absolutely, is not gonna, like, replace restaurants. I don't think, like, farmers markets are going anywhere. I don't think they should go anywhere. But I do think this, like, online pop up model that you talk, like, the mobile pop up, like, the online pop up, I think it's here to say, you know, it's kind of something that started during COVID but I really think it's something that, like, over time, more and more people are going to adopt. And I think it's just our job and one of our focuses to like, educate people on the model. Because again, like, anybody can do this. Like, my mom can figure this out. And that was one of my dreams with Hotplay is that someone like, my mom can actually sell the food they want to make and not be at the whims of, like, the margins or the market or like, you know, I just don't want to see, like, I grew. I. Every Indian, every time we eat Indian food, you know, you're gonna go, and they're gonna be like, all right, so what, like, curry do you want, right? Or like, you know, like, do you want chicken tikka masala? And I love chicken tikka masala, don't get me wrong, right? But it's like, if we could live in a world where like, everyone could share, share and showcase the cuisines that they grew up eating, it would just be such a better world. By increasing the diversity and accessibility of the food that we all eat. We would just live in a much more diverse world. And I think food is a vehicle for connection in that regard. And, yeah, there's just so much promise and so much potential that can come from shifting the way we think about food, from being consumer. First, I gotta start Punjabi Indian restaurant that makes chicken to masala, so I can survive to, like. I can start. I can sell Gujarati food authentically, or I can sell Vietnamese food that's authentic, because I'm not worried about those constraints. And that's really what's the most exciting thing about Hot Plate to me, is the potential for, like, what it can do for the food industry and for the type of food that we all eat.
[29:39]
A
Absolutely. Well, you summed it up beautifully. Thank you so much for coming on today, for taking your time to tell us more about the software, about how it can help, and. And your plans on serving so many more chefs and cottage food producers and bakers, and it was just really refreshing hearing what all goes into this software, but also how people can utilize it in their business. And before I let you go, we have to play a round of lightning round. Are you ready?
[30:10]
B
Let's do it.
[30:11]
A
All right, Rishi, what is your favorite color?
[30:15]
B
Blue.
[30:17]
A
Blue. Awesome sauce. And who is your celebrity crush?
[30:24]
B
Mila Kunis.
[30:26]
A
Okay, great answer. What is one dessert you cannot live without?
[30:34]
B
Cheesecake.
[30:35]
A
Cheesecake. Oh, okay.
[30:37]
B
I had that one so fast. I'm like, I love cheesecake. Oh, my God.
[30:42]
A
All right, what is your favorite kitchen utensil?
[30:46]
B
A fork.
[30:49]
A
That's the best answer we've had so far.
[30:53]
B
It's just so versatile. Like, I don't even have ramen. You struggle a little bit, but, like, it's worth it, you know?
[31:01]
A
All right, and what is your favorite book?
[31:06]
B
Good to. Great.
[31:08]
A
That's a good one.
[31:10]
B
Yeah, it's great.
[31:13]
A
Yeah. He didn't do it.
[31:16]
B
He didn't do a good job on that one. Otherwise he would have not lived up to the title. Absolutely.
[31:21]
A
Absolutely. From the bottom of my little southern heart, thank you so much for coming on and joining us today. It really was a pleasure, and I loved hearing all about your company, and.
[31:32]
B
Thank you so much.
[31:33]
A
Again, I want to say a special thanks to Rishi from Hot Plate and the entire Hot Plate team. They're always so responsive. Their content is always amazing, and it's just really, really wonderful to see a software company that comes out that really supports this movement. You know, a lot of times when we get started, we always talk about sales, and too often people Say markets and pop ups and festivals, and those are great. But not everyone is in a position that they can afford to get started with markets. Some people, their markets are booked. Other people, there are markets that they just do not have success in. And so it's always just straight to hear things from the horse's mouth, AKA you guys. And Hot Plate does that because it literally cuts down on all the noise. It allows your consumers to, at the top of a button, hear automatically about your sales. And that's not something that you get with social media. You know, too often we post on social media and it is a game. It is a game of showing up, of being consistent. It is a game that you play in, in the long haul because when you make a post, not everyone sees it. But with Hot Plate, as you collect subscribers, everyone is notified about your posts, your offerings, what you do with the push of a button. Replay what I just said back in your head because that is really one of the things that makes the Hot Plate software so powerful. You know, Rishi was telling me about someone who generated over a million dollars in revenue selling ice cream on Hot Plate. There was another young man in New Orleans who did like $13,000 worth of sales in just seven minutes on hot Plate. So many of you guys struggle to build your email list or you struggle building your text list, and this is actually doing both of those for you because you're collecting subscribers that you can text while you post your sales, all on one particular software that is free to get started. So, so you can check the show notes and learn more about Hot Plate yourself. All in all, I hope that today's episode helped you to think differently. Even if you decide to not look into it at the current time, but to just think differently about what can you be doing? What porch pop ups can you be doing? How can you amplify your baked sales or. One of the things I like to teach my students is, is mobile pop Ups their personal campaigns. Because not all the time do you even want people coming to your home. So what ways can you amplify those mobile pop ups, those pop ups, whatever you have, so that we can get the goodies that you make directly to consumers. That's what it's all about. If you are in the entrepreneur community, hop into the group, ask me any questions. I would love to help you plan, execute and promote your mobile or porch pickup. Again, check all of Hot Plates information in the show notes and thanks so much for listening you guys. As always to episode 90 of the baking for Business podcast. Take care and bye for now.

Summary5 min read

Episode #85: How The Software Company Hotplate Is Helping More Bakers Have Pop Up Success

Baking for Business Podcast – Hosted by Chef Amanda Schonberg

Introduction

In episode #85 of the Baking for Business podcast, Chef Amanda Schonberg engages with Rishi, co-founder of Hotplate, a software company revolutionizing the way bakers and food entrepreneurs manage their businesses. Released on August 21, 2024, this episode explores how Hotplate is enabling home-based bakers and cottage food operators to achieve pop-up success and scale their ventures efficiently.

Background of Hotplate

Rishi begins by sharing the personal and cultural inspirations behind Hotplate. Coming from a Gujarati Indian background, he witnessed firsthand the importance of authentic home-cooked meals in fostering family bonds. This experience, combined with his passion for food, led to the creation of Hotplate.

“At [01:53], Rishi explains:

“My mom had this idea for a marketplace of home cooked food because she was trying to find authentic Gujarati Indian food. I thought, why is there no easy way to access the regional cuisine that I grew up eating?”

Hotplate initially launched as a marketplace to address this gap but had to pivot quickly due to unforeseen circumstances.

Pivot During COVID-19

The pandemic struck Hotplate’s early operations in March 2020, coinciding with the global COVID-19 crisis. This period highlighted the vulnerabilities of traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants and the inefficiencies of third-party delivery apps, which often took a hefty 20-35% commission on sales.

“At [03:33], Rishi shares:

“COVID really exposed some of the flaws, like the brick and mortar business model. When people stopped coming in person and started buying food online, restaurants were really hurt by that.”

Recognizing a shift in consumer behavior toward online ordering and home-based food sales, Hotplate pivoted from a marketplace to an online ordering platform tailored for pop-up chefs and bakers. This strategic shift allowed Hotplate to focus on providing backend tools that streamline order management, prep lists, packing, and automated communications.

Key Features of Hotplate

Hotplate offers a suite of features designed to give chefs and bakers greater control over their businesses:

Event-Based Ordering: Hotplate allows users to set up specific events (e.g., weekly porch pickups, farmer’s market sales) with automated opening and closing times. This flexibility prevents overselling and ensures that businesses can manage their inventory efficiently.

“With Hotplate, you can create an event called like, Weekly Porch Pickup. You can set when you want your orders to open and close automatically.” [11:26]
Inventory Management: Users can limit the quantity of each item, ensuring that once a product is sold out, it remains unavailable, thus avoiding customer disappointment and inventory issues.

“You can set specific dates, times, and locations... And you can set up your menu items, inventory and restrictions to your point, just for that sale.” [13:20]
SMS Integration: Hotplate’s SMS feature allows chefs to communicate directly with their customers, notifying them of new sales and ensuring higher engagement and conversion rates compared to traditional email marketing.

“When you create a Hot Plate storefront, customers can actually go to your storefront, put their phone number in, and they'll get a text when orders open.” [14:03]
Prep and Packing Lists: Automatically generating prep lists based on incoming orders saves chefs significant time and reduces the risk of errors in production planning.

“Hotplate actually automatically generates a prep list that tells you exactly what you need to make for each day and time.” [21:03]

Benefits to Bakers and Food Entrepreneurs

Amanda and Rishi discuss the significant advantages Hotplate offers to a diverse range of users, from home-based bakers to seasoned restaurateurs. Hotplate not only reduces reliance on high-commission third-party platforms but also enhances profit margins by allowing direct customer interactions and pre-sold orders.

At [06:22], Amanda highlights:

“This model is a game changer because it gives me control, it allows me to do what I want, which is focus on the food and not have to deal with all the fixed costs or added labor that comes with starting a brick and mortar business.”

Rishi adds that Hotplate has transformed how chefs think about starting and scaling their businesses, enabling higher profit margins akin to software businesses.

“We’ve grown to serving thousands of chefs across the country and processing millions of dollars of payments for people, whether they're selling one loaf of bread or they're like a viral popup, like pop up bagels in New York.” [05:53]

Future Plans and Vision

Looking ahead, Rishi shares Hotplate’s plans to enhance two-way customer communication, making interactions more seamless and efficient. Additionally, Hotplate aims to increase awareness of the online pop-up model, encouraging more diversity and accessibility in the food industry.

“At [24:29], Rishi states:

“We really think Hotplate can contribute to a more diverse and accessible food industry, where anyone can share and showcase the cuisines they grew up eating.”

He underscores the importance of democratizing the food business model, allowing diverse culinary traditions to thrive without the constraints of traditional restaurant operations.

Conclusion

Amanda wraps up the episode by emphasizing the transformative impact Hotplate has on the baking and food entrepreneurship community. She highlights success stories and the platform’s ability to consolidate customer communication and order management, making it an invaluable tool for bakers and food entrepreneurs.

Amanda concludes: “With Hot Plate, you collect subscribers that you can text while you post your sales, all on one particular software that is free to get started. So you can check the show notes and learn more about Hot Plate yourself.”

Notable Quotes

Rishi on the inspiration behind Hotplate:

“Hotplate was a way to solve that problem for her and others like her.” [01:53]
Amanda on the benefits of Hotplate’s model:

“This model is a game changer because it gives me control, it allows me to do what I want, which is focus on the food and not have to deal with all the fixed costs or added labor that comes with starting a brick and mortar business.” [06:22]
Rishi on customer communication via SMS:

“When you create a Hot Plate storefront, customers can actually go to your storefront, put their phone number in, and they'll get a text when orders open.” [14:03]
Rishi on the future vision:

“We really think Hotplate can contribute to a more diverse and accessible food industry, where anyone can share and showcase the cuisines they grew up eating.” [24:29]

Final Thoughts

Episode #85 offers an in-depth look into how Hotplate is reshaping the landscape for bakers and food entrepreneurs. By providing tools that enhance control, reduce costs, and streamline operations, Hotplate emerges as a crucial resource for those looking to thrive in the competitive food industry. Listeners are encouraged to explore Hotplate’s offerings through the show notes to elevate their own baking businesses.

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Transcript51 lines

[00:03]
A
Hey, sweet friends. My name is Chef Schomburg. I started my baking business with a bottle of Di Sereno and one bundt cake pan. Fast forward to today. From news to magazines, speaking on national stages and more, I can truly say that baking has changed my life. So now as a bakery business coach, I get to help others have the same success. I've helped hundreds of my students across the world and my global membership program create six figure businesses, mainly from home. The Baking for Business podcast is an extension of from actionable tips to valuable tools and resources that can impact you as a business owner. I truly believe y'all, we would never have been given a gift if we couldn't profit and prosper from it. So come on, darling, what are you waiting for? Hey, what's going on, you guys? And welcome back to the Baking for Business podcast. I'm super excited because we have an amazing guest today. So Rishi is actually one of the co founders of Hot Plate. And Hot Plate is a software company, an online ordering platform which is dedicated specifically to helping those chefs and bakers with pop ups and online ordering. And so as we know right now the porch pop up movement, or any pop up in general, is really booming, especially when it comes to cottage food operators, cottage food producers, and just food entrepreneurs in a whole. So to find out more about how Hot Plate can help us, I decided to bring Rishi on. So, Rishi, you so much for being here.
[01:37]
B
Thank you so much, Amanda for having me. Super excited to chat. This is gonna be great.
[01:42]
A
Absolutely. And so for those who are a little unfamiliar with Hot Plate, how did this kick off? Do you have a love for food or what really inspired you guys to, to start it off?
[01:54]
B
Great question. I'm a huge foodie, so, like, I think we both share that same sentiment. I think anyone listening to this podcast is probably gonna be a huge foodie, I'd imagine. Right. And no, I'd always been obsessed with food. I come from like an incredible background of Indian immigrants and my grandmother, you know, was like a personal chef of mine for years. Right. Like, cooked for a whole family. And I just got to experience the love of her cooking and the familiarity and the, the family bonding that it created for our whole family from both her and my mother. So just come from a long, beautiful background of incredible cooks. And that love of food really translated into like the work I wanted to do. So I was soon at UT Austin and that's actually where I met my co founders at the time, Ben and Andy. And we kind of just, you know, we're all really into food, but. And we're all, like, tinkering around with different ideas. But the actually first version of hot plate actually came from my mom. So my mom had this idea for a marketplace of home cooked food because she was actually trying to find authentic Gujarati Indian food. I'm Gujarati, by the way, from Gujarat, India. And she was trying to find authentic Gujarati Indian food where she was getting treatment at the time. She's totally fine now. But when she came to me and she was like, you know, there's no way to get authentic home cooked Indian food, I was like, that's a really good point. Like, why is there an easy way to be able to access the regional cuisine that I grew up eating? Right? So the first version of hot plate was a way to solve that problem for her and others like her. And so to test it, we want to test the ability of, like, can I just start a food business out of, like, my house and just start selling food? We actually, like, rented an apartment, like, in West Campus.
[03:32]
A
Oh, wow.
[03:33]
B
UT Austin, and just started selling food out of this restaurant. And that we did that, funny enough, in March of 2020, which, as you probably know, was like, not the best time to be like, you know, starting a food business, because Covid happened and totally, you know, decimated the restaurant industry. I think the effects of that are things that we're still recovering from today to some degree. And I think Covid really exposed some of the flaws, like the brick and mortar business model. We've been serving food this way for hundreds of years, but there hasn't really been a ton of innovation on it. And I think when people stopped coming in person and started buying food online, I think restaurants were really hurt by that. They were forced to use third party delivery apps, for example. It just created a really broken system and business model for selling food. At same time, there were tons of folks that were, you know, selling food from home, whether it was baked goods or other things, and just sharing them on Instagram and saying, like, hey, DM me to order, right? And so we started talking to a lot of those folks and realized that beyond the marketplace that we were, like, trying to focusing on, there was a real huge opportunity to tap into that group of people that were trying to unlock their culinary creativity and just kind of like, you know, share their passion with the world. So we pivoted hotplay in late 2020 and launched this version of Hotplay that we are now in late 2021 to enable anyone to easily start, grow, and manage a Food business. You know, we spoke to a lot of the folks that were using the marketplace and they said, honestly, Rishi, you're not really driving any demand to us. Like, we're not getting any new customers from you guys. But the backend tools that you've built to help take the orders, streamline the prep and packing lists, automate the text message reminders, like all that sa hours of time and headache. So we pivoted away from the marketplace to focusing on what we call like more of an online ordering platform for popup chefs and bakers. And since then it's been two and a half, three years, and we've grown to serving thousands of chefs across the country and processing millions of dollars of payments for people, whether they're selling one loaf of bread or they're like a viral popup, like pop up bagels in New York. Absolutely, yeah. Killing the game.
[05:53]
A
That is so amazing. Because even though a lot of people who listen are cottage food producers, there are a small amount of storefront owners also. And you said something really unique. You're right. Normally whenever people want to pivot to that online ordering system, they generally do go through third parties. I actually used to sell on third parties myself. Waiter, Uber Eats, Grubhub. But you're looking at anywhere between 20 to 35% off of every single sal.
[06:23]
B
Totally. Totally. And again, I think those platforms, right, have their use, have their benefit. Especially like before COVID they were really marketing themselves as like, hey, we're going to help you with getting incremental orders and help you with marketing. And then when the pandemic happened, you know, people there was kind of the main platform that people were using to get orders, right? But even beyond that, right, when we spoke to a lot of food owners, we have customers, for example, that have been restaurant owners for 20 plus years who have said that like since starting on Hot Plate, it's really changed the way they thought about starting a food business in general. Because most people have an idea for a food business, right? And the first thing they think is, okay, so I gotta spend like a hundred grand on a lease, right? Or like I gotta get, you know, spend like $6,000 a month in rent. I gotta get a space, I gotta get staff, I gotta staff it up and then I gotta go live, right? And the problem with that is that restaurants have a really high failure rate, the really high fixed costs, as we just said, and they're really low in profit margin because of that. And when we started talking to folks that were like cottage food bakers selling out of their house. They were like, I don't even need to get a space. Like I have my house, you know, like people just come and pick up for my porch or pick up for me. Personally, I can limit the amount of orders I want to sell. I pre sell all of it. So I know exactly what I need to make for each day and time, no issues. And I actually am walking out of this making like 40, 50, 60%, 70% profit margin on my food, which is like the type of margins you see in software, not even like in stuff. And so like it was kind of like game changing for some people. We have a user named Joan who runs a pop called Mama Fish in Seattle and she was telling us, you know, she started restaurants for 20 years and has been like public speaker featured all over. And she said like, I'm not going back like this. This model is game changer because it gives me control, it allows me to do what I want, which is focus on the food and not have to deal with all the fixed costs or added labor that comes with starting a brick and mortar business. So I think beyond just the third party delivery apps, I think what Hot Plate has shown is that you can actually rethink the entire restaurant and food business model to be chef first instead of customer first. And I think that's what we're all about at Hoplite is enabling anyone to easily start, grow and manage a food business.
[08:38]
A
Absolutely. And that works in favor for so many women also who I know want to contribute to the household. It used to be so many people would always assume, okay, well I bake from home first and that's just what I do to start and then I get the storefront. But I see now people are looking at it like, no, wait a minute. There's actually a hell of a lot more benefits to just operating within this model. And so pop ups literally I feel the past decade have taken on a whole new thing because now we see so many micro influencers and people just making a thing out of it. You know, like, hey, I'm going to be here, I'm going to be there and just really killing it. And it's kind of like this fun vibe now.
[09:24]
B
I was literally going to say the same thing. It's turned into this like whole lifestyle that's like absolutely such a vibe. Right. And people are really crushing it. Like we have tons of users who are able to make this their full time job, take care of their kids. You know, we have one, one user named Noel and she runs L Bread shop, right? Just five kids. And the income from Hotplay enables her to, like, spend more time with her kids, focus on just baking. You know, she can go to farmers markets for distribution, like, getting the word out there about her business, but isn't completely tied to them because she has systems. Like, Hoppy just has the preorder pickup model to be able to also, like, you know, be with her kids while she's doing pickups, for example. And something you said that I love is that that really does enable a whole class of people who typically don't, you know, aren't able, you know, they have to leave the house, they have to go work, right. And aren't able to really spend time with their kids. And I think that's what we're all about at Hopway. It's just increasing the diversity and accessibility of food. Right? And I think that's not just like just getting, like, chefs from restaurants to use it. Right. I think that's like enabling whole groups of people, like my mom, right, who previously wouldn't have been able to start. My mom would never even conceive of starting a food business. Right. But, you know, with Hot Plate, she's actually talking to me about, like, hey, can I sell my rotis? Like, can I, like, sell to these? And it's like, kind of like unlocking her, like, creativity, right? Which is, like, what we're all about. It's like, so cool to see all the different things that people have been able to use Hot Plate for.
[10:51]
A
I love that. I love that. And so speaking of Hot Plate, I'm pretty sure people have questions, and so I came up with a couple. But let's just say, even though I know the answer, but let's just say I know some baker out there is listening, and they're going to say, okay, but chef, but, but Rishi, I'm not that big. So what happens if I. I sign up for Hot Plate and maybe I oversell and I put myself in a jam. But with Hot Plate, that's actually not possible. So talk about what features enable a person to kind of have that type of control.
[11:26]
B
Oh, thank you so much. We should get you as a salesperson, really get it. So Hotplate is built for. To give the chef control of their food business. So with Hopplate, what you can do is instead of having like an always on store, like with Square and other systems, right, that you kind of have to, like, swap out, Hoplite lets you set up events. So let's say you're doing like a porch picker for the week, Right. With Hoplite, you can create an event called like, Weekly Porch Pickup. You can set when you want your orders to open and close automatically. Right? So you know you're offering your customers a limited window, but instead of having to like, publish and unpublish the menu, the system just does it for you automatically. Right. You can set specific dates, times, and locations. So let's say for the week, you not. You're not just doing the porch pickup, but you're also doing like a pickup at a farmer's market, right? Well, you don't have to create two separate menus for that or anything. You can just say like, hey, Wednesday from like 5 to 9, I'm doing porch pickup at my house. And then Thursday from like 7 to 10, I'm doing the farmers market. Right? And so it gives you that super granular flexibility. And lastly, you can set up your menu items, inventory and restrictions to your point, just for that sale. So if you want to say, like, hey, I'm selling sourdough, but I want to limit it to like 20 loaves of sourdough, once you sell that 20, it'll be sold out. And the reason for that is because Hop actually functions like Ticketmaster. Not the Taylor Swift version, I would say we're a lot. We're a lot better than that. But Hotline actually functions like Ticketmaster. When you add something to your cart, the customer has a set amount of time to check it out that you can set. What? That ensures that you're never, like, getting to the customer's, never like hitting the add to cart button or checking out and then finding out that someone else took that loaf that they wanted to get right. They're always getting every single thing that they ordered and they have a set amount of time to check it out. And it also ensures that Chef never oversells. You know, if you set an inventory of 10, you're going to sell that 10, and once you sell that 10, it'll stay sold out.
[13:21]
A
Wow. Okay, so that is amazeballs. I love that. So I know you touched a little bit on how it helps for those who want to do porch pop ups. And I actually shared with you one thing that I love, which is amazing, right? We can stay at home and have people come to us. One thing that I actually love is mobile pop ups where we can also load the car, offer customized delivery, and go to our clients. And I believe you guys have a SMS feature for people who want to take advantage of that, which really will allow to allow that business to have a more branded experience. So tell us about the text features that you guys have with Hotplate.
[14:03]
B
So one of the greatest things that Hot Plate offers is that when you create a hot Plate storefront, right, Customers can actually go to your storefront, put their phone number in, and they'll get a text when orders open. And so what that does is it, it unshackles you from Instagram and like social media, right? Because a lot of people are really dependent and really tied into social media for their marketing, right? And the problem with that is like, let's say you go and you put up a post in social media and no one sees it, then you're not getting orders, right? But if people sign up to your Hot Plate storefront, they get that text orders open, and some of the some folks sell out in like less than 30 seconds. It's crazy, right? So with Hot Plate, you don't have to worry about the customer communication. Again, every time you post a new sale, Hop automatically sends out that drop text, letting people know like, hey, my orders are opening. Get them before. Get them before it's gone, right? And so you can focus less on like wrangling your customer communication or like letting people know on Instagram and more time actually focusing on the food. We actually have customers who sometimes they'll do a flash sale and they won't even post on Instagram because they're like, I have my audience on Hot Plate. I just want to like sell via Hot Plate. And they sell out via like 30 seconds on that. It's absolutely bananas, right? And for smaller chefs, right, like you met, you mentioned earlier, like a good question, which is like, let's say I'm a small baker, right? Like, what should I do? Right? What I always tell folks is like the one crazy lesson I actually learned from a program that Hot Plate went through when we were starting out. It's called Do Things that Don't Scale. So funny enough, like we're talking about all these super scalable features, right? But in the beginning of your food business, you know, you always just want to make sure that you have an audience of a few people that really love what you're making, right? And so with Hot Plate, we actually spent the first few years only working with a solar people to really make sure that the platform is a purpose built for their way of selling food. So that way, when we scale to what we are now, we still have that love and support from everyone, right? I want a lot of people do is when they come to us, they're like, I need to grow. I need to like, focus on scaling. I need to like, make a ton of money, right? And I'm like, a couple things, like, do you have a product people love? Because it's better to make something that like 10 or 100 people love, like, absolutely love, than something like a thousand people kind of like, right? Because if you make something that 10 or 100 people love, there's. You're going to generate that word of mouth. Your friends are going to see that you're buying those. Your. Your friends or your customers are going to see that you're. They're buying your food, they're going to sign up for your Hot Plate storefront and then to grow via word of mouth. The businesses that I see that grow via word of mouth have invested a lot of time into making a quality product and really building their customer relationships and hoping is a tool that amplifies that. Right? But like, I would say that, like, you know, we don't help you with the cooking, right? Like, we don't help you make like no online ordering platforms that help you make good brand. Right? But by like really cultivating those relationships, Hotplay allows you to put the fuel in the fire. They'll really take your business to the next level.
[17:03]
A
I love that. So rather than just an example like most people do, making something, taking a picture, posting it on social media, hoping someone sends, then having to build a separate email, then emailing the people, hey, this is what I have. And then now we're already at two platforms. Whereas if I listed on Hot Plate, you're saying with the SMS service, they automatically. There's a way for them to get a blast and know the word.
[17:29]
B
Exactly.
[17:30]
A
So we don't have to show up and dance and twerk. We just get right to, this is what I got. It's ready to be purchased.
[17:37]
B
Exactly. And the thing is, like, email. Email lists are super helpful. Like, I'm all about email, right. We kind of took a hard line in the banning. As a startup, you got to be really focused, right? And we really focus on texting just because with a new day and age, everyone's on their phones, right. Everyone's like always checking their texts, right. And we just saw a much higher conversion rate from people buying and clicking the link via text and buying compared to email. We definitely have plans in the near future to kind of streamline the email experience more. But I think by starting out with texts, we actually are enabling our vendors to reach more of their audience. Right. And actually converting more of those People to buyers, as opposed to like, you get that email might be buried in your inbox. Again, it's kind of like social media. We're like, yeah, how many newsletters is everyone signed up for nowadays? Right? Like, you got to make sure you're paying attention. That being said, email is not going anywhere. But yeah, we're really all about texting here.
[18:33]
A
But I love that because sometimes so many newbies it takes time to, to start a list and to even learn the name of the game. With email, you're focusing on subject lines and what do I write, what do I say and all this. And so yeah, text is much more easier. And you said it yourself, everyone always has their phone in their hand or near them.
[18:53]
B
Exactly, exactly.
[18:55]
A
So for people who say, well, I know I have a group of customers who love to be on brand, you know, like, okay, well hot plate is your thing. How does this seemly build into my brand? So what features do you have if a person wants to. Can they make it a certain color? Customize?
[19:15]
B
Yeah, totally. So like our goal, one of our things with Hotplay is we want to streamline your existing workflow, not add more complexity to like added workflow. Right. So you just mentioned it yourself, like having like three different systems or having to like wrangle like email lists and like this list. Right. Like people do it on Hoplite. Totally. But our goal with Hotplate is to kind of like streamline a lot of the headache that you're dealing with so you can focus on the food. Right. And so what we do is we have a really simple way for people to customize their Hot Plate storefront. So you just go to settings, you can add your colors, you can add a little banner photo to your website, you can add your logo, your social media links. A little about section takes like less than five minutes to build. I always tell people, part of my friends, no one is at all. But Hot Plate is definitely stupid proof. Like it's not, it's not like I'm not at all saying anyone is dumb, but like even me, like I come from like a tech background and I clearly a talker as you can tell. And I'm not the most like the most tech savvy person and I've been using, I mean I'm also biased on one of the founders, but like I've set up like thousands of Hot Plate storefronts and I still to this day it blows in my mind how easy it is to use the platform. And so the cool thing about Hotplate is you can Definitely add your logos and colors and stuff. And if you have an existing website, like on Square other platforms, you can just add a button that links to your Hot Plate page. And a lot of folks don't even notice. Like, they'll see that you're going a new platform, but, like, it's so seamless that they don't really think about it. But it does streamline a lot of the headache that you'd have to deal with by having, like, those other platforms as your, like, e commerce site, if that makes sense.
[20:52]
A
Absolutely. And so what are some things, if there is any feature that we haven't touched on that you think people should really know about or use more? Is there a cool feature that you think people tend to overlook?
[21:04]
B
One of the. So actually, that's a great question, by the way. Thank you so much. You're nailing this one of the first. You're so easy to document. One of the best things we've built is actually the Prep and packing tab within Hot Plate. So Hotplate, when all the orders come in, actually automatically generates a prep list that tells you exactly what you need to make for each day and time. So it's actually the first thing we built for Hotplate. So when we pivoted to this version of selling food where we enabled people to, like, have a storefront as opposed to, like, being a marketplace. Right. And pivoted to, like, this, like, more E commerce version of Hot Plate, we actually started by interviewing, like, two to 300 chefs and bakers that were on Instagram. I'm a hustler. I just, like, want to really make sure I'm building stuff that people need. Right. And the thing we kept hearing over and over again is like, I'm using spreadsheets a lot. Like, I'm having to export my orders and I have to, like, tally up, like, Samantha ordered, like, two loaves of bread, and, like, Carl ordered six loaves of bread. Okay. So I got to make, like, 15 loaves of bread, right. And we actually talked to this one guy in San Francisco named Rise Up Sourdough. Z is amazing. He's, like, so awesome. I'd highly recommend everyone checking him out. His story is also just incredible. And Z was telling us that he had to hire someone to, like, do that job for him. And that person quit because it was just so, like, annoying to, like, have to go through all this data and, like, you know, calculate the prep list. Oh, you're like, that doesn't make any sense. Like, we can automate this in, like, five minutes. So we built a, like, we started hop again doing things that don't scale. We built actually a CSV uploader where people would send us their spreadsheets. We would upload it in the Hoplite and give them just like the totals of what they need to make. And then from there we started solving other problems for bakers. That was actually the first one we built. So one of the things I would highly recommend is like, if you're like wrangling spreadsheets or like having to deal with like inefficiencies in that regard, definitely give us a, give us a look. Because that's one of the things where you'll definitely save like hours of time and headache. Right? Especially like if you're like a bagel vendor, if you're a pizza vendor, if you're selling like ice cream baked goods, like getting those orders and having to be like, okay, so I gotta make like 30 poppy and like 40, you know, whatever from like 20 dozen bagels that people. It's just a nightmare. It's a nightmare. So not having to deal with that math and be able to again, just like focus on orders come in, I can go on vacation and then I just need to fulfill them and then I just give them to the customer. It just makes your life so much easier.
[23:34]
A
I love that I usually see bakers, a lot of them playing tic tac toe, you know, just with pen and paper. It's like, okay, I know this many chocolate chips, I need this many sticks of butter.
[23:45]
B
So yeah, it was literally. There was literally a guy, one of the first people we ever Ombuds Florida. He was badly Burger club in Austin and he had a notebook, it's still on his Instagram. He had a notebook pre hot plate of like just like when burgers would come in, he would just tally up like, okay, one, two. And he had just like 200 burgers. So like how, how what? Like that is just absurd. And so yeah, he said using pop, they felt like hiring like a second employee for him, which was like great.
[24:16]
A
That's, that's amazing. And so what, what future plans do you have for hot plate? What are. If you can share any juicy tidbits. What are some things that you guys are looking forward to add in the future?
[24:30]
B
Totally. I mean, like, you know, there's definitely features that we're working on and building that I think will definitely make lives a lot easier for folks. Like we're relaunching two way customer communication. So that way like people can not only like send These blasts on Hotplay but also get texts back if like they have questions or issues. So again, eliminating the need for folks like dm, you and Instagram, right. Is one of our big goals. But beyond that and like a few other like tactical features for just helping people just kind of like streamline their business, I really think the, the big thing for Hot Plate is just growing awareness of this business model because honestly speaking, like, it kind of blows my mind how many people when we talk to them are like, well, you know, I sell at farmers markets or like, oh, I sell baked goods, but like I can never do this. Or like, oh, like this wouldn't work. Or like, oh, this doesn't make sense. And it kind of, it's crazy to me because I'm like, people are on Instagram, like people are on social media. Like instead of going where they are in person and like all the fixed costs that come with that, just go where they all are online. And once you crack that game and you build hype around your business and people come to you, you just save so much time, money and costs. Right. Like, one of the examples I always love highlighting is Sarah Sourd know Sarah is just like an amazing baker. If you're a baker, give her a follow her. And Little Pearl breads are two people that I think are like Macy from Little Pole Breads as well. Those are two bakers that I think even outside of just like the porch, pick a model. Just like if you're a baker wanting to learn more about like baking and like getting more resource on baking, they're great people to follow. They talk all the time about how like they don't even go to farmer's markets anymore as much because like again, you got to stand out there. It's really hot, right? And sometimes it rains and then you're just sitting there potentially with unsold bread. Right. And then I talked to folks, they're like, but I'm at the farmer's market, like, what are you going to do about it? I'm like, well 100. Like you could still use Hot plate to do pickups at the farmers market. Take pre orders and ensure that you pre sold some of your inventory so that you like, you know, sell out quick. Yeah. Reduce waste. You have more consistent income. Exactly right. So that's like really the biggest thing for Hoplite is I think that like the pre order pickup model represents a paradigm shift in how people think about food. But it's kind of crazy. Like a really funny example I'll give you is like There was a. There was a pop up that we worked with for a while. They're now a restaurant, right? And they were featured in the New York Times by Pete Wells, who's like the food critic for the New York Times, right? If you read this article on him talking about hot plate, like, so much love to Pete Wells. He's been like, absolutely. Like, I mean, I read all this stuff, like, I'm a huge fan, but it was crazy. Like, one of our first press experiences about Hotplay was just him being like, this doesn't make sense. Like, I don't really get this. Like, they're kind of a restaurant. They're kind of a pop up. Like, they're kind of like, what are they? Like, you're getting them, you're getting the stuff online. Like, none of this really makes any sense. And I think it's just people can't like, wrap their head around it, right? You gotta, like, try and experience it. And that's something I think we're really working on, is figuring out how to, like, democratize this model more. Because I really do believe that, like, you know, hot plate again, absolutely, is not gonna, like, replace restaurants. I don't think, like, farmers markets are going anywhere. I don't think they should go anywhere. But I do think this, like, online pop up model that you talk, like, the mobile pop up, like, the online pop up, I think it's here to say, you know, it's kind of something that started during COVID but I really think it's something that, like, over time, more and more people are going to adopt. And I think it's just our job and one of our focuses to like, educate people on the model. Because again, like, anybody can do this. Like, my mom can figure this out. And that was one of my dreams with Hotplay is that someone like, my mom can actually sell the food they want to make and not be at the whims of, like, the margins or the market or like, you know, I just don't want to see, like, I grew. I. Every Indian, every time we eat Indian food, you know, you're gonna go, and they're gonna be like, all right, so what, like, curry do you want, right? Or like, you know, like, do you want chicken tikka masala? And I love chicken tikka masala, don't get me wrong, right? But it's like, if we could live in a world where like, everyone could share, share and showcase the cuisines that they grew up eating, it would just be such a better world. By increasing the diversity and accessibility of the food that we all eat. We would just live in a much more diverse world. And I think food is a vehicle for connection in that regard. And, yeah, there's just so much promise and so much potential that can come from shifting the way we think about food, from being consumer. First, I gotta start Punjabi Indian restaurant that makes chicken to masala, so I can survive to, like. I can start. I can sell Gujarati food authentically, or I can sell Vietnamese food that's authentic, because I'm not worried about those constraints. And that's really what's the most exciting thing about Hot Plate to me, is the potential for, like, what it can do for the food industry and for the type of food that we all eat.
[29:39]
A
Absolutely. Well, you summed it up beautifully. Thank you so much for coming on today, for taking your time to tell us more about the software, about how it can help, and. And your plans on serving so many more chefs and cottage food producers and bakers, and it was just really refreshing hearing what all goes into this software, but also how people can utilize it in their business. And before I let you go, we have to play a round of lightning round. Are you ready?
[30:10]
B
Let's do it.
[30:11]
A
All right, Rishi, what is your favorite color?
[30:15]
B
Blue.
[30:17]
A
Blue. Awesome sauce. And who is your celebrity crush?
[30:24]
B
Mila Kunis.
[30:26]
A
Okay, great answer. What is one dessert you cannot live without?
[30:34]
B
Cheesecake.
[30:35]
A
Cheesecake. Oh, okay.
[30:37]
B
I had that one so fast. I'm like, I love cheesecake. Oh, my God.
[30:42]
A
All right, what is your favorite kitchen utensil?
[30:46]
B
A fork.
[30:49]
A
That's the best answer we've had so far.
[30:53]
B
It's just so versatile. Like, I don't even have ramen. You struggle a little bit, but, like, it's worth it, you know?
[31:01]
A
All right, and what is your favorite book?
[31:06]
B
Good to. Great.
[31:08]
A
That's a good one.
[31:10]
B
Yeah, it's great.
[31:13]
A
Yeah. He didn't do it.
[31:16]
B
He didn't do a good job on that one. Otherwise he would have not lived up to the title. Absolutely.
[31:21]
A
Absolutely. From the bottom of my little southern heart, thank you so much for coming on and joining us today. It really was a pleasure, and I loved hearing all about your company, and.
[31:32]
B
Thank you so much.
[31:33]
A
Again, I want to say a special thanks to Rishi from Hot Plate and the entire Hot Plate team. They're always so responsive. Their content is always amazing, and it's just really, really wonderful to see a software company that comes out that really supports this movement. You know, a lot of times when we get started, we always talk about sales, and too often people Say markets and pop ups and festivals, and those are great. But not everyone is in a position that they can afford to get started with markets. Some people, their markets are booked. Other people, there are markets that they just do not have success in. And so it's always just straight to hear things from the horse's mouth, AKA you guys. And Hot Plate does that because it literally cuts down on all the noise. It allows your consumers to, at the top of a button, hear automatically about your sales. And that's not something that you get with social media. You know, too often we post on social media and it is a game. It is a game of showing up, of being consistent. It is a game that you play in, in the long haul because when you make a post, not everyone sees it. But with Hot Plate, as you collect subscribers, everyone is notified about your posts, your offerings, what you do with the push of a button. Replay what I just said back in your head because that is really one of the things that makes the Hot Plate software so powerful. You know, Rishi was telling me about someone who generated over a million dollars in revenue selling ice cream on Hot Plate. There was another young man in New Orleans who did like $13,000 worth of sales in just seven minutes on hot Plate. So many of you guys struggle to build your email list or you struggle building your text list, and this is actually doing both of those for you because you're collecting subscribers that you can text while you post your sales, all on one particular software that is free to get started. So, so you can check the show notes and learn more about Hot Plate yourself. All in all, I hope that today's episode helped you to think differently. Even if you decide to not look into it at the current time, but to just think differently about what can you be doing? What porch pop ups can you be doing? How can you amplify your baked sales or. One of the things I like to teach my students is, is mobile pop Ups their personal campaigns. Because not all the time do you even want people coming to your home. So what ways can you amplify those mobile pop ups, those pop ups, whatever you have, so that we can get the goodies that you make directly to consumers. That's what it's all about. If you are in the entrepreneur community, hop into the group, ask me any questions. I would love to help you plan, execute and promote your mobile or porch pickup. Again, check all of Hot Plates information in the show notes and thanks so much for listening you guys. As always to episode 90 of the baking for Business podcast. Take care and bye for now.