Hey, I just googled. I think it is Guerrilla Marketing. However, I do like the idea of Gorilla better. 
LOL, absolutely correct. Forgive my old eyes and lazy typing skills.
Don’t be. I do honestly like gorilla. I secretly wish I am as strong as a gorilla. If only…
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But the company’s target audience, according to the initial post, would be consumers like beginning cooks and new divorcees. How many beginning cooks and divorcees normally shell out $200 for one knife? I’ve been cooking for years and years, and I still don’t have a $200 knife. I think my most expensive knife was around $80, but I don’t think the average home cook would spend even that much. That’s why stores sell knife sets that cost $50-$200 – most people (not avid cooks) would buy something in that price range.
Plus, if I have to go to the post office to mail the knives back (because my mailbox won’t hold a package like that), I might as well go to the knife sharpening place, which is about the same distance from my house.
I admire Knifey’s effort, but I think this is such a narrow market that it’s going to be difficult to grow a very specific business like this.
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I’m surprised how opposed to this idea so many of you are. I can totally see a market for this. Maybe not for me, but with some tweaking - like experimenting with different knife styles - I could see giving it a shot. I may subscribe to a service that let me play around with different knives (western, Asian, varying lengths, etc) and then even order them through that device.
I also never imagined there would be a service for the Blue Aprons out there. Totally not for me and I haven’t tried them but clearly it is a real market that someone is going to figure out. Gotta start somewhere.
Speaking for myself, I thought the original post was encouraging feedback and once the owner of Knifey joined the conversation, I thougt the feedback was worthwhile. No one has a crystal ball over business ideas and fwiw I ran two successful businesses for 55 years and still learn new things all the time. What I think is valuable is forums like this with the potential for a great many perspectives and we are all consumers, so…
We shouldnt confuse critical thinking with opposition. The question was, would you use this service?
Even successful ideas have a shelf life.
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I also wonder how many knife sets must be kept in inventory to keep the flow of deliveries on target. I know in the days of DVD rentals with Netflix, I could wait days for a popular title to be available to me…
Thank you all for the feedback, both positive and negative. In some ways, the negative/constructive is even more helpful than the positive. While I get the opportunity to interact with our customers, it is often hard with an online business to understand what keeps some visitors from becoming customers, so having feedback in a forum like this one is very helpful.
This whole thing started as me trying to figure out a way to solve what I think is a somewhat common problem: too many kitchens have dull knives. Why is that? Well, dull knife owners basically fall into one of two categories: (1) folks don’t value sharp knives, or (2) folks that find it more difficult than they want it to be to keep their knives sharp (for a multitude of different reasons).
For folks in the latter of those two groups, I think it could be an interesting solution. But it’s not for everyone, and it’s good to hear people’s reactions. I think Blue Apron (and the rest of the meal services) offer an interesting comparison. It’s people who want to cook, but are busy and want it to be easier. Looking up recipes, shopping, and learning how to cook all take time. Some folks are willing to do that work after what is already a long work day, and others would rather hang out with their kids, play golf, or whatever floats their boat. And that doesn’t necessarily make someone lazy. Some people might call it smart: paying relatively small amounts of money to do more of things you enjoy and less of things that you don’t. Most of us don’t churn our own butter or change the oil in the car at home anymore.
As for Knifey, we’re just getting started and have had great initial response, but we’ll see how it goes. I appreciate all the feedback. Keep it coming. Also happy to answer any questions: starting this business has been a fun journey and I’m happy to share with others (the same way you’ve all been nice enough to share with me).
With only one style of knife (currently) and a set sharpening schedule, some of the guesswork is taken out of this - we know exactly when we need to have replacement knives ready and can plan for it. Netflix was a little more unpredictable as you did not always know what titles customers would want and when. That said, we do need more than one set of knives per customer (it’s not 2 sets per customer, but more than 1).
Knifey
I have a feedback. I agree with you. People who don’t care about knives at all are not your customer target. People who buy a $500 custom knife are not your target neither.
My feedback is about your steel. I understand the attractive of going after X50CrMoV15. I get it. It is a good steel, both in strength and toughness. For a rental knife, it will stand up to abuses and many manufacturers can make this knife, and they are not too crazy expensive. Henckels uses it. The challenge of using this steel is that “why not just get an electrical knife sharpener?” I can buy a Henckels or a Messermeister chef knife and out fit with a $100 knife sharpener. I think this would be equivalent to 2-3 years of renting the chef knife from your company. In addition, most local professional knife sharpeners know how to sharpen X50CrMoV15. Your customers would be doing a mental exercise of such.
So in my humble opinion, your next knife set should use a different steel. A steel which is known not compatible on an electric knife sharpener and not so easy to sharpen. In other word, a good quality knife (still need to be durable) which works well in the kitchen, but requires greater expertise to sharpen. In this sense, you are not competing with some home electric knife sharpeners or average local knife sharpening shops. The problem is that the cost of the knives may be even greater, and also not as cheap to make…etc.
Thank you for the mutual assurances.
Do you find customers are in fact good about returns in a timely manner?
Also, could you elaborate on your educational and charitable plans, I noticed both mentioned on the website.
We haven’t been through a full sharpening cycle yet, so don’t have data on the customer returns. Time will tell.
On the educational front, I’m working on some knife skills videos with different guest chefs. We also have a couple of blog posts already posted on the website about knife sharpening myths and the most important knives in the kitchen. We will continue to add more over time.
On the charitable plans: we are working through the details of a partnership with an organization that provides culinary skills training to aid in job placement for disadvantaged folks. We will be donating knives that these students will be able to use for training and eventually on the job. I hope to have finalized soon, as I am excited to be able to give back to the community, and especially in a way that helps folks in a sustainable way. There are a couple of things on the insurance front that I’m working through to be able to get that announced.
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I appreciate the idea. We ultimately want to have many models for customers to choose from, and a more finicky steel could be interesting for all the reasons you mentioned.
As for the electric sharpeners, I personally find the edge those provide to be sub-par. But I do understand that it may be good-enough for many folks.
Go Cully, go! This is why it’s way better to exist in an environment which allows enterprise rather than somewhere where such initiatives are discouraged.
On topic: This may have been raised, but what do most restaurants do knife-wise? And for other limited life equipment?
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I believe most American restaurants use relatively cheap knives like Victorinox and Dexter Russell. The burden is on the restaurant owners to provide the kitchen knives to the cooks, no different than pots and pans. Knives are sharpened by professional knife sharpeners on a regular basis. Because of the proximity and volume, knife sharpeners often stop by the restaurants to collect and to drop off knives. There are also knife rental service as well for restaurants.
However, in Japan, the kitchen knives are often the responsibilities of the cooks. The cooks buy their own knives and leave with the knives when they switch workplaces. Therefore, nicer knives are used by Japanese chefs because they view the knives as their personal tools. Sushi chefs particularly invest a lot, which is why you see these >$1000 knives for sushi culinary. It would have never happened if it is the restaurant owners responsibility. This is also why the sushi chefs in the same restaurant use different brand of knives. Now, in this case, Japanese chefs tend to sharpen their own knives.
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I would add a third category of dull knife owners: those who don’t really know how sharp a knife should be. I don’t see these types of people being good candidates for your business unless there is a whole lot of education to go with your advertising.
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Thanks for the encouragement!
As Chemicalkinetics said, restaurants tend to provide extremely cheap knives to their kitchens and sharpen them every 1-2 weeks. There are a couple of relatively big companies out there that charge something like $2 per knife per week, and come and round up all your knives and leave new ones on a regular schedule. If you are a cook who doesn’t want to use these knives, you procure your own which you bring and maintain yourself. Of course, there are exceptions, but this is the most common approach for kitchens.
That’s a fair point. I do get feedback along the lines of: “I am careful with my (low to mid-range) knife and it’s been 3 years and it’s still super sharp.” Well, if you’re cooking any reasonable amount for 3 years, your knife isn’t going to be as sharp as it should be. I have cut a couple of videos of tomato drops and doing a push cut on paper to show how sharp knives should be (not yet on website), but I do think people’s expectations around “sharp” vary substantially.
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It’s easy to sharpen chef knives, I watched a video on YouTube and talked to a friend who is a chef. So, a 10 minute investment allowed me to sharpen my own knife. Also, knives are as expensive as you want them to be, but if you have a cheaper knife it must be sharpened more often.
Just doesn’t seem like a rental service that many people will make use of.
