Recap: GoMeat Team AMA
Date: 15th August, 2021 at 2PM UTC
Hosted by: GoMeat
Speakers: Waqas Siddiqi, Syed Hamed Ullah Quadri, Kanwal Sultan and Rahat Ul Ain
Kanwal Sultan: I’ll go ahead and introduce myself first. My name is Kanwal Sultan and I am the ICO Lead for GoMeat. I have been associated with GoMeat for over a year and during this time I have worked with roughly every department be it customer service or driver onboarding. Working on GoMeat ICO and seeing this community grow every day has been a wonderful experience and I am very excited for this community grow as we start our main ICO.
Rahat Ul Ain: Hello everyone! My name is Rahat and I am the Assistant ICO Lead at GoMeat. I have been a part of the GoMeat family for almost a year, mainly working in community management, marketing and graphics. It’s enthralling to see the GOMTeam grow and become what it is today. Taking pride in our vision, we’re striving to make GoMeat a successful venture, I am excited for the future of GOMT 🚀
Waqas Siddiqi: Thanks Kanwal and Rahat! It is absolute pleasure and honor to be part of this amazing community and GoMeat team! I am the CEO and the co-Founder of GoMeat and also guilty for building up and orchestrating. this awesome band. from the very beginning :)
Introductory Questions
1-What inspired you to open a meat distribution company? from @Dave 79
Waqas Siddiqi: So first of all this is something we want to emphasize that we are not meat sellers or distributors and we will cover it more in details later on as well! GoMeat is a blockchain based online ordering and delivery services, providing transparency and traceability to our consumers for the authentication of Specialty (Halal/Kosher) meat – we are a Tech company rather than a meat store or just a logistics provider and trying to solve an everyday common problem of billions of consumers world wide! We can proudly say that we are the first ones who have started catering to the needs of. this niche market of $1.7 Trillion globally!
Kanwal Sultan: Exactly, I wouldn’t call us a meat distribution company. Technology and logistics would be a more apt description!
Waqas Siddiqi: The idea originated in 2017 as at that time on demand ordering and delivery services actually started getting traction and crypto was taking a new beating! As a consumer of Halal meat and a frequent traveler I lived through the pain points myself and was waiting for some large companies to start such service for this target market – however, it never happened and being a Tech professional my entire life, I decided to give it a try and started putting the band together with my other co-founders and our GoMeat Team. We launched. our Test platform with one Pilot store in Dec 2018 to test the market but then with the traction we got, we never looked back since then! Also just to add that we wrote our first version of white paper in 2017!
2- What improvements are you planning to make to the marketplace? from @Bath
Waqas Siddiqi: In order to understand the improvement let’s first understand who are the key stakeholders of our marketplace, what are their pain points and what is our value proposition for each of them instead of getting into a function and feature conversation straight away. Let’s also keep in mind that current GoMeat marketplace, apps and service offerings are at par with any other online delivery services operating in non-niche area.
Our biggest differentiator is our presence to address the niche market, it’s specific problems and pain points and the resolution we have come up using Technology, blockchain and traditional. Also let’s not forget that it’s a $32 billion market in US only and $1.7 trillion market globally, and so far there is no such marketplace like ours catering to this niche market segment.
Our primary stakeholders are:
1) Specialty meat customers specially in Western countries who have to wait in long lines to get this premium specialty meat as these prices are not regulated, who do not have any authentication to determine if what they are buying is really halal/kosher and rely solely on guidance from stores
2) Specialty Meat Stores – who are small shops mostly family owned, short on manpower due to high wages, source specialty meat from speciality slaughterhouses, are not digital and do not have the bandwidth to afford their own delivery services, do not have the resources to spend heavily on digital marketing or promotions, takes orders manually on phone resulting in errors and inefficiencies, takes time in processing the order due to shortage of manpower – the person who is taking the order on phone is also processing the order and he is also processing the payment at checkout and keeping his customers waiting in line while many times missing the orders on phone as he does not have the time to pick up the phone specialty on the weekends and rush hours.
3) Halal/Kosher Certification Boards who are “not for profit” religious bodies with limited funding and resources to track and maintain certifications for each stores and subsequent follow ups to get it renewed when they are expired.
On GoMeat marketplace a customer can place an order hassle free online from the store of his choice, from the convenience of home or any other place, avail exciting discounts and get it delivered at his doorsteps same day. Similarly, a store on GoMeat marketplace is essentially digitalized without any cost, can increase its online revenue where they can focus on processing the order and making it ready with increased efficiencies as they have documented order in their phones/tablet with customer instructions and they don’t have to waste time in payment processing or checkout, can save on rent as they don’t even need a store front and can be fully digitalized and can leverage on heavy digital marketing campaign run by GoMeat for all stores! They can even run flash sales for their specific stores or on specific items. All these features and functions are already available and in operations. Lastly, the value proposition for Halal/Kosher certification boards, which is our use case for blockchain as well and will be added as part of our ICO scope, where the halal/kosher certifications can be maintained for each store using blockchain via smart contract and as soon as the certification is expired the store will be delisted from the Marketplace compelling stores to renew the certification ASAP and thus providing the biggest value proposition ie transparency to the customer if the store is selling authentic Halal /Kosher meat. In future, besides certification transparency, we also plan to provide traceability via our platform to the customers using blockchain from slaughterhouse to store and to the customer taking it to the next level of confidence and trust for speciality meat consumers!
3- What marketing strategy plans do GoMeat have? from @MannenIGaten
Waqas Siddiqi: We are in operations in USA since almost 3 years now and so far expanded from 1 store at 1 location with few customers to 300 stores in 10 cities in 6 US States with about 4,500+ GoMeat customers. Just a reminder, there is a $32 billion market for Halal meat in US only with about 10,000+ meat stores. Let’s keep in mind that these numbers do not include Halal food and Halal restaurants which are over 300,000 in US only!!. Over this execution phase we have had enormous learning in each aspect of operations and specially Marketing. Our growth strategy is simple – we have proven a business model and now
1) innovate and. scale the platform
2) increase number of Partner Stores and
3) Increase number of Customers: run promotions, generate more orders to increase gross volume and consequently increase GoMeat revenue as a share from Gross Volume.
We have learned that Marketing is absolutely crucial for our success, to be developed on top of high quality Tech platform, supported by exceptional customer services.
We have refined our Marketing Strategy identifying target audience and locations, structured based on key stakeholders of our marketplace i.e targeting Stores, Customers and Drivers separately.
We have developed a focused GoTo Market plan for each stakeholder broadly split into digital marketing and traditional marketing. For instance our Marketing Plan for Stores on-boarding comprises of a range of initiatives, such as from relying on friends and family network, introducing store referral programs to establishing Sales Agent network, organizing Store sign up events and awareness conferences to sending marketing mailers to stores.
Similarly our Marketing Strategy for Customers includes Targeted Print Marketing, running digital marketing campaigns for discount and promotions, sponsoring key events and conferences and offering attractive loyalty points / reward system.
This is the reason that if you analyze our fund utilization plan, about 50% of the funds generated will be used for Marketing and Promotions!!
4- A- What prevents a competitor from copying your business model in the delivery space? from @FrJCG
Kanwal Sultan: We are operating in a $1.7 Tril market globally so I’m sure there will be competitors in the future. But please keep in mind that we started our operations in 2019 and in over 3 years we have garnered 4.5k+ customers, we have over 300 stores onboard and an efficient delivery network setup. We are already 300 stores and 4.5k + customers ahead of any competitors and have. 3-years of experience over them. 🥳
We are highly welcoming of any competitors, After all this will only encourage us to up our game and provide the highest quality of services! 😁
Waqas Siddiqi: Just to add that one of the primary reason of our funding is not just to develop platform BUT to pump up our scale and adoption as strongly as we can so we step up the growth and becomes an everyday brand for our consumers and thus increasing our services replacement costs even for any large existing players.
B- If the funding raised is not enough to really scale operations (lets imagine the project goes way above expectations) how will you proceed?
Waqas Siddiqi: As I mentioned earlier the first version of our white paper was written in 2017. We could have launched the ICO at that time based on the concept only. However, we have been patient with our ICO and we purposely planned it this way that before we launch any ICO we will prove the concept first, develop initial platform, raise our own confidence, learn about the business from grass root level, refine the business model and the expansion plan and once ready with full our confidence as a revenue generating company, launch an ICO . In last 3 years the company is fully funded by the Founders who not only believe in this venture but are also committed to make it a success and our confidence is just getting higher as there is no such services operating even on our current scale serving our niche market. Besides this, we believe our ICO offering is lucrative as we are already in revenue generating phase, with limited token supply, deflationary Token economics with a robust burn mechanism and a reasonable price and above all an amazing community that we have built so far, we will be able to hit our fund raising targets.
In all transparency we have gone through our fair share of struggles in the past and have always came out even stronger and wiser than before and have not stopped moving forward. We are thorough but flexible in our plans and have the courage to make changes as per the situation to improvise, adjust and adapt.
Since we have already crossed our soft cap targets, worst case, if we are not able to hit the hard cap, our Founders will stay committed to the venture as in the past and will not hesitate to adjust our target and expansion plans for the continuity and success of GoMeat.
5- Almost all delivery (food delivery) company that exist, focus on a revenue-based model instead of profit based, and considering the limited number of halal delivery that occurs, I’m sure GoMeat is doing the same. How do you plan on cutting cost, if possible, do profitise the company? Or are you simply increasing clients to be bought off etc.? I’ve always been curious about this. from @shah
Waqas Siddiqi: Amazing question, deep and relevant! As mentioned earlier, over the last 3 years we have evolved significantly! We started with same model as mentioned in the question like all other food delivery services and at some point in past we even explored the possible “exit strategy” after scaling to achieve a Network Effect. However, operating in niche markets and with our actual data points we realize that the meat products we are dealing with falls in premium category where a customer is willing to pay a premium price as long as he has the confidence and trust on the authentication that it is really Halal or Kosher. We can compare the prices of non-halal / non Kosher with Halal / Kosher meat and we can confirm that easily. Further, our average order price (refer Meaty The BOT) is about $90 as compared to a usual food delivery order which is usually in the range of $30 to $50. All other such established food delivery services charge about 25%-35% from restaurants (commission) and about 10%-15% from customer (convenience fee) where as currently we are charging only 8%-15% from stores and 7% from customers and there is a massive room for improvement subject to how strongly we can establish ourselves with quality offerings and build a strong brand – with this possibility of future upside on Revenue side and our lean operational cost where we are leveraging on offshore / onshore model but still maintaining the highest quality of service, we realized that our revenue per order is higher than others and so it gives us confidence that subject to proper scale and subject to appropriate control over the costs there is a possibility to “profitise” the company and this conclusion excites our leadership team enough to put our best efforts to reach to that stage sooner than later. Let’s not forget the global market size of $1.7 trillion of this niche only!
Twitter Questions
6- In the original roadmap, there would be focus on expansion in Europe. In the revised roadmap, this milestone was postponed. When do you think there will be focus on this milestone? Europe is an interesting market. from @CryptoMichael13
Rahat Ul Ain: Europe is definitely our next huge market for this service based on the need and the problem we are solving for consumers and meat stores.
We are regularly approached by consumers and even stores asking for our services availability specialty in UK and Germany. Some European setups have reached out to us proposing partnerships to launch our services there. With revised plans which are essentially driven by uncertainties related to COVID-19, We have pushed our launch in Europe to 2023, hoping that situation will get better by then.
Although, the launch is in 2023, we will for sure start preparing for our expansion in Europe as soon as next year. We fully understand and appreciate that the need is essential and the problem is real that if we don’t do it, someone else will do it soon. 🙂
7- From my experience, almost 80% of investors only focus on the token price in the short term rather than understanding the true value of the project. Can you tell us about the motivations and benefits for investors to hold your tokens long term? from @pandalucu66
Waqas Siddiqi: So we have already re-organized our company into two broad areas:
1) Operations including executing our expansion plan
2) Token management – making sure how can we maximize the token value in crypto world –
Both areas working jointly and in parallel to produce the optimum results for Customers, Partner Stores and above all our Token holders. We have a professional and experienced team and some great advisors supporting us in both of the broad areas. Our plan is simple, add partner stores, increase more customers, keep our GoMeat team happy, generate more orders, increase gross volumes and revenues, increase token utility over time, burn tokens, regulate Token circulation and so increase token value.
All of this is ofcourse heavily influenced by macro crypto economy and market trends which have been quite volatile as we all have experienced so far and this volatility is expected to continue for a good while.
We need to keep in mind that we are not releasing a utility token based on a concept only, but is backed up by actual revenue generating company with a well thought out expansion plan and an exceptional professional team.
However, there are always investors with short term views and without sharing much atm, we are exploring plans along with our exchange listing plans and in discussions with our very experienced advisors in this domain on how can we motivate the token holders to retain instead of selling. More to come on this subject as we move ahead with our ICO 🙂🙂
8- What is the current weakness/threats to GoMeat in terms of tech, ops scaling, competitors, halal/kosher certifications and state regulations for using GOMT as payment? from @coincise168
Waqas Siddiqi: Yes! We have a long way to go and many challenges ahead. The best thing is that never hesitate to recognize these challenges and also appreciate the scale and gravity of them! We may not have all the answers specially around state regulations for using GOMT as payment etc as this is a global crypto space dilemma and gets more challenges being operational in USA! All we can say is that our confidence levels are high with the support of a very professional team that we will be able to address these burning topics and will strengthen GoMeat as an organization in the process! Also – each of these areas brings a different set of challenges and hence are addressed as such – step by step, one by one, with patience and with best resilience :)
9- Can users who would like to consume Halal meat completely trust you? How serious are you for providing halal and hygienic meat? Do GoMeat team have enough knowledge for providing HALAL meat? from @ketuart02
Waqas Siddiqi: This is a great question and it’s been chosen so we can clarify some core philosophy of our GoMeat vision. GoMeat is NOT a meat seller, we are NOT a religious body and we will never be. There are strict religious beliefs, guidelines and interpretations associated with processing of Halal and Kosher meat established since more than a thousand years and we will never have the competence to question that! We are a blockchain based Technology company connecting the niche consumers to the speciality stores facilitating online ordering and same day home delivery services and providing blockchain based authentication process for the stores from the religious bodies who are a key stakeholder of our marketplace and own the responsibility to certify the stores as Halal or Kosher. Our focus is limited to provide to our customers, the transparency and traceability of the meat with authentication on certification process. It is always and will always be a customer choice to decide and order where they have the trust based on the transparency we will provide. We will however ensure that we establish underlying business process compelling stores to maintain their Halal/Kosher certifications valid at all times and will be delisted from GoMeat Platform if they are not current or valid. We will also ensure that we maintain excellent quality of service and user experience from online ordering until home delivery which is our core services.
10- What are the reasons that GoMeat has to change the certification mode of specialty meats? Do you consider that Blockchain-based certification will be the new certification method? from @JaLakb4li
Waqas Siddiqi: Ok so this question kind of relate to the previous question – so atm the only Certification available with these stores is a generic certificate manually given by the certification boards (not for profit religious bodies as mentioned earlier) that the meat stores buy their meat from certified slaughterhouses. The process is completely manual, disconnected and broken as many times those certificates are just obtained initially by stores but not kept updated! There are many fraudulent cases observed which has broken the trust of these consumers on the stores and they do no have a way to verify and validate and depends on words of mouth only! Let’s keep in mind that eating these Speciality meat slaughtered as per the religious guidelines is an essential part of faith for billions and they will NOT purchase if they have the slightest doubt! We are trying to automate the process leveraging the capabilities of blockchain and address this burning issue since ages! as I said, in the end it will always be consumers choice but we will facility the decision making :)
Kanwal Sultan: Before we end this session, we have a final question on behalf of the entire admin team. In the great Moolisa vs Miss Steak showdown. Who are you supporting? And why. 😂
Community Questions
1- A- That was great, thank you for detailed answers! However, one key question remains: how was the goat delivered in that big order from two days ago? I think Haros asked that 😊😁 Also, I was surprised to read about the up to 25% charge to stores and restaurant by delivery services. Had no idea it was that big. GoMeat is up to 18%, but still, that sounds big for a small store owner, no?
B- I’m curious how the total token supply was chosen. We had discussed this in here about two months ago. Isn’t rather small, given your expansion plans? Won’t there be issues with liquidity once the token is offered on exchanges? Most people will hodle, I’m sure. from Azulene
Waqas Siqqidi: A- We deliver chilled meat NOT frozen as it stays fresh! Also these are retail orders so even if they order a full goat, it’s cut in customized pieces usually and is reduced considerably in size! Lastly, our drivers are delivering in cars most of the times instead of bikes :)
Our commission range from 8% to 15% from stores which is decently acceptable as these stores operate on almost 40% to 50% margins and it varies from kind of meat.
B- That’s an awesome question and took us the longest time while designing our ICO. We strongly believed that the funding needs should be determined based on a comprehensive business plan and not just out of thin air because everyone is doing 21 million so we should also do the same. We determined that for us it’s more important to increase the utility of the token and so the value and if we are able to execute the expansion plan as envisioned than these 5 million tokens in term of valuation can be astronomical itself!
2- It seems like the admins live on telegram and are always working really hard. Do any of you ever feel exhausted? Or is this project so much fun it doesn’t even feel like work? What is the strategy for approaching restaurants? Do you have someone who goes to talk in person? Or call on the phone? Or just hope they see an advertisement or hear about it? from Matt
Rahat Ul Ain: Yes, indeed. We are currently renting but plan to make telegram our permanent residence 😅
As for store on-boarding, we have the initial dealings over call by one of the on-boarding specialists after which we have a representative go over with the agreement and their tablet computers. Stores do reach out to us after having seen an advertisement.
3- I want to know more about expansion beyond specialty meats since you already have the setup to deliver almost anything. You previously hinted to some other ideas. Could you expand on this topic? Is there room for another uber eats or is that market overly saturated already? At what point in time will you know you are ready for additional delivery services? from Haros
Waqas Siddiqi: So food delivery is already saturated and the market is way bigger than just halal meat! Atm we are focused on our niche of halal meat but we do have some limited halal restaurants and some grocery stores as well. In order to penetrate in that area we will need heavy marketing budget and it may be not worth it at this time! However, we have develop a consumer base of halal /kosher consumers and we can imagine that at certain point in time we can expand to anything halal/kosher as there are way many halal/kosher products than just meat and food!
4- I am curious – if you already have demand from EU countries and potential local partners (as well as all the tech ready) why not pilot a partnership in one European city to expand, and learn from that, already now? from Martin
Waqas Siddiqi: As Rahat mentioned – we are already getting queries specially frok UK and Germany and we are evaluating such interest on case by case basis :)
