Yummy Future (YC S19)

In 2018, Guangzhe and Yueming started Yummy Future in their apartment after graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

We brought our original prototype to market after just 6 months after founding the startup and started earning revenue, significant press, and interest. Shortly after, we became a Y Combinator company and we have been refining our product since then.

Our mission was to improve the coffee shop experience for both customers and store owners. Despite the high gross margin, increasing labor cost do not leave room for unpredictable events or seasonality of the business.

Yummy Future helps coffeeshops build resilience from market volatility by reducing labor cost using robotics technology.

Coffee shops average 5% operating profit with around 50% of total revenue attributable to labor costs. During peak seasons, coffee shops are able to achieve 85% gross margin and 40% profit margin, but this is not enough to offset the fixed costs when demand is lower.

Yummy Future has built a robotic coffee shop that is capable of handling high customer volumes in peak season and reducing business running costs during the off-season by developing a cost-efficient optimized robot operating system and combining innovations from IoT, consumer robotics, and 3D printing. The result is a revolutionary system designed to fundamentally change the coffee retail industry.

At Yummy Future, better is possible. Our system produces a cup of coffee in as few as thirty seconds. Our task scheduling optimizer, powered by edge computing, ensures that our robot can process multiple orders in parallel and deliver your drinks as efficiently as possible.

That is not all, of course. Because Yummy Future is able to work independently of full-time human operators, it is much, much less expensive than traditional preparation and service systems.

This is not the same thing as a coffee machine, though. Our system is a true master of coffee, and it is doing more than brewing grounds. It takes care of tedious, repetitive work, and because it does, we can spread our cost among better brewing techniques, organic fresh milk, and premium daily roasted beans that would be way too luxurious for regular coffee shops to use. But we still achieve 6X profit margin increase!

We tuned the system with optimal temperature, timing, and pressure to extract the essence of flavor from each brew so that it is neither too strong nor too watery. Each sip, when it comes from a Yummy Future cup, will be an ideal balance of deliciousness and energy.

We have established partnerships with the University of Illinois to test and refine our robotic coffee experience and received 25+ preorders from businesses.

Our nationwide expansion will focus on universities, airports, convention centers, and independent coffee shops across the country.

Installing our coffee machine is also way easier and more mobile than you could imagine. You can add it to an office space or park it on a trailer for on-the-go service. We have also designed deployment plans for an EV charging lot – so that people can plug in their electric vehicles and go green while they are getting their caffeine.

Your investment

We have a goal of $500k for the Wefunder community raise. These funds will be used to further polish our robotic coffee shop, begin production, fulfill pre-orders, and fuel sales nationwide.

Thank you for taking your time and interest in Yummy Future. We look forward to sharing this journey with you!

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