FoodCostSnap - Instant Food Cost Calculator

Construction & Trades
🔥
9/10
Demand Score
Restaurant owners literally spend 3+ hours daily on food costing, directly impacting their ability to go home to families. A 1% calculation error can mean thousands in lost profit monthly.
🌊
8/10
Blue Ocean
Competition Level
💰
$149-299
Price/Month
Predicted customer spend
⏱️
45 days
Time to MVP
Difficulty: Moderate

The Problem

Project Scheduling and Gantt Charts:

🔗 Validated by Real User Complaints

This problem has been verified through 1 real user complaints:

Competitor Landscape

  • MarginEdge - Too complex and expensive ($300+/month) for small restaurants
  • Restaurant365 - Enterprise solution, requires extensive setup
  • Excel/Google Sheets - Manual, error-prone, time-consuming

Must-Have Features for MVP

OCR receipt scanning with 95%+ accuracy
Daily variance alerts via SMS/email
One-click discrepancy identification
Vendor price history tracking
Export to accounting software

⚠️ Potential Challenges

  • Getting restaurants to trust automated calculations
  • Handling varied invoice formats from different suppliers
  • Integration complexity with different POS systems

Risk Level: Low

🎯 Keys to Success

  • Mobile-first design for on-the-go use
  • Setup in under 10 minutes
  • Accuracy validation in first week
  • Clear ROI demonstration (time saved)

Ready to Build This?

This moderate-difficulty project could be your next micro-SaaS success.