What NY startup entrepreneur doesn’t believe that he or she have the juice to make it in this town?
Some founders take it more literally than others, but Farmivore founders Greg Levitt and Ray Xiong take it to a whole other level.
Farmivore is the leading subscription commerce service for the at-home juicing and smoothie market, delivering pre-portioned ingredient kits that make healthy, nutritious, great-tasting juices and smoothies, using only organic produce.
CEO Levitt tells us more about the product, and what they’ll be whipping up next.
Tell us about the service.
Farmivore provides curated organic produce subscriptions for people who want to lead a healthy lifestyle. Our first product, The Farmivore Juicing Box, launched last June. In the box, you receive pre-portioned recipe kits with 100% organic vegetables and fruit that make healthy and tasty juices!
How is it different?
We save our customers hours of time each week that they would otherwise spend planning, shopping, and prepping ingredients. Plus, because we work with a wide network of farms and suppliers, we can offer more interesting ingredients than you are likely to discover on your own, e.g. organic turmeric root, tatsoi and celeriac.
How did participating in ER Accelerator help your company?
ERA has been a fantastic partner in helping the company develop its market-entry strategy, as well as providing introductions to business partners and potential investors.
What market are you attacking and how big is it?
Over $2B will be spent in 2015 on organic produce, just for making juices and smoothies at home. Juicers and high-performance blenders (e.g. Vitamix) are the fastest-growing home appliance category, growing at over 30% a year. Many Americans are trying to get healthier and we want to help!
What is the business model?
We are a subscription service with weekly or bi-weekly home delivery. Our boxes come in three sizes: Small ($25.95), Regular ($39.95) and Large ($69.95). Retention rates have been very high, which I completely attribute to the amazing recipes developed by my co-founder, Ray Xiong.
Which are your most popular boxes?
Customers choose between our Green Juicing Box (with only recipes for green juices), or Mixed Juicing Box (a mix of recipes for green and non-green juices). Around 2/3 of our customers go for the Mixed, because they like the ingredient variety. But the 1/3 who ‘go green’ are a passionate and loyal bunch.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
We launched the company with one product, in one geographical region (the Northeast), which has enabled us to test and optimize our recipes and operational processes. In 2015, we will be expanding nationally and rolling out new products in adjacent categories.
If you could be put in touch with one investor in the New York community who would it be and why?
I would love to meet Rohan Oza, who is the marketing genius behind hyper-growth brands like Vitaminwater, Smartwater, and VitaCoco. Rohan is helping entrepreneurs launch brands around the world, so he’s been hard to pin down!
Why did you launch in New York?
The food-tech scene in New York has exploded the past few years, led by companies like Blue Apron, Plated, and Seamless. It turns out that many techies are also foodies who are into organic food, so NYC is the perfect place to build a company like Farmivore.
Which is your favorite bar, when you’re in the mood for something a bit stronger than juice?
Funny you should ask. We have certain juice recipes that make top-notch mixers, so one of the perks of the business is being able to unwind at the office with fresh juice cocktails.
