I'm Counting On You, Cartberry

Living in New York with a small family, the weekly routine of meal planning and grocery shopping is a pain in my ass. I like to cook and I’m not bad. I’m going out to eat less than I used to. Frankly, I’d rather cook at home most nights. Mix myself a less-than-$17 cocktail, open a good bottle of wine that costs what it costs rather than a 4x markup, and whip up something that makes my girlfriend tell me I’m amazing - ok??

I have challenges: I’m busy, I hate recipe sites that are full of pop ups where I can never find the damn ingredients, I feel like I’m cooking the same stuff all the time, and I hate wasting time in the grocery store wandering around. Also I work remotely so I’m cooking 3 meals a day. And I hate how much more it costs these days - I think that the inflation we’re seeing is probably half real and half just padding the profits of food companies. There, I said it, I don’t like feeling ripped off.

Imagine me: I’m standing at home on Sunday, thinking about breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and I just give up and go to the store to get inspired. Then, I’m standing in the middle of the store, surrounded by over 30,000 items with prices that change every week. I’m somehow compiling a week's worth of meals that are affordable and appetizing. I fill my basket, I blow my budget, I make my usuals but get it wrong and watch as stuff rots in the fridge. Repeat. My girlfriend still tells me I’m amazing, but I know I’ve cooked her the same pasta dish weekly for 3 months.

Let's not even talk about attempting this with children in tow - I can’t even imagine doing that without a concrete plan in hand - a plan that will result in something the kids would actually eat too. Kudos to all you parents out there.

That’s why we’re building Cartberry, to organize the chaos and save people time and money on food. We’re going to simplify the process of cooking at home, making it not just manageable, but convenient and enjoyable. The central insight is that if you cook what’s on sale, you can save a lot of money. The central task: make that not take hours of time and research to accomplish. Make it automatic and fun.

So that’s Cartberry. It scans your go-to store for the best deals, then uses those ingredients to generate endless recipe and meal ideas. We think of it like Tinder, but for affordable, healthy, fun meals. Then you can tweak the recipes for dietary requirements and preferences and get creative. It's like having a personal chef and a savvy shopper rolled into one, ensuring you never run out of ideas and save money and time cooking meals for the week.

After selecting your meals, Cartberry produces a neatly organized list, showing what you need to buy but also how much you'll save compared to regular prices. Our goal, and our results so far, show we can save people 20% on food costs by using ingredients that are on sale and save at least an hour of time and lots of head-space. It's a game-changer for anyone trying to navigate the financial tightrope of city living.

As we build the beta version of Cartberry, I’m optimistic. This app represents more than just convenience; it's a tool designed to tackle real-life problems - it’s technology for people’s needs, not technology to try to get us to buy more useless stuff all the time.

Life is more demanding than ever, we’re all juggling too much, too fast. Any help in making daily tasks more manageable is a real benefit. So, here's to Cartberry. May we deliver on our promise to make feeding ourselves, our friends, and our families seamless, fast, and fun.

Sign up for the beta.

www.cartberry.co

Cartberry is coming soon.

Stay Hungry,

Rafael