The startups I tend to get really excited about these days are solving one of two problems: “Making Life Easier” or “Making Life More Fun.”

Sprig is tackling both of those problems in the most delicious and delightful way possible. The food is great, but it’s the experience that sticks with you long after. Memorably easy. Faster and healthier than other delivery options. And at the core, both the food and the experience pay off the same need: Be good to yourself.

Huge potential, and just a fun business to think about. Here are ten ideas (based on no real data, because I don’t work there*):

New Customers

1. Revamp the Referral – Something about the code “MARTIN5507” just doesn’t feel natural on social media. Yes, I want to tell my friends about Sprig, but in an authentic way. Why can’t your referral code just be your Twitter handle? “Hey mention my name” feels a lot more natural than “Hey use this code.” Or what if we move the referral bonus to after the sale? Make it part of the feedback screen, where first-timers are asked after the order to thank a friend and treat them to a free meal.

2. Pinterest Buy Button – As Pinterest rolls out its new Buy button, why should Instacart have all the fun? Would need to think this one through in terms of how we align it to meal availability, but would be interesting to test the option to Order Now outside of the app.

Buy More, Buy More Often

3. Big Sprig – Essentially a family size option for certain fan favorites.

4. Alert when a Favorite is back on the menu – Pretty self explanatory, but could be made seamless for the customer if there’s a way to auto-create a Favorites list based on feedback ratings (or even Pins/Tweets/Likes somehow?).

5. Golden Spriget – A Golden Ticket—or Spriget—is inserted into a handful of orders, customers can cash it in for a month of free delivery.

6. Loyalty Program – Pretty straightforward but not currently in play, worth
considering, get a free meal after x number of meals ordered.

7. $10 Tuesday / Free Delivery Friday – Again pretty straightforward, and this one would be contingent on studying traffic patterns to see if there’s a low day/time to target to stimulate orders.

8. Tweet of the Day / Sprig Selfies – Give a free meal to one @Sprig/#Sprig tweet each day, hypothesis is that the ROI in repeat purchases and word of mouth will be worth it.

For the Love of Sprig

9. Donate your Cutlery – Similar to the Whole Foods option to donate the nickel when you bring your own bag, give customers the option to set “no cutlery” as their default for Home delivery and donate a small portion of each order to a food-oriented cause.

10. So Easy / So Good – Just a sprig of an idea at this point, but in thinking about the key value prop of Sprig, I can see some people falling on the side of simplicity, others falling on the side of good food. Potentially this era’s “Less Filling / Tastes Great.”

 

*Yet