I love rabbit holes. And by rabbit holes, I mean going deep on a single topic and learning everything about it.

Meaning hours of youtube, reddit, wikipedia, blogs, testing things yourself, courses- you name it.

One particular topic: the impending robot revolution, always seemed fascinating.

And prophetic.

Gotta wash the car? There’s a robot for that. Got to do the dishes? There’s a robot for that too. Gotta make some boba? There’s definitely a robot for that (as we’ll see below).

Like apps on the iPhone, I’m super bullish on automation and robots in the real world. Pair that with Generative AI? Now we’re entering a whole new world.

Anyway, we did a segment on boba startups in the past, which was very popular.

So, we knew we had to dig a little deeper, and give the people what they want.

And so, we just interviewed the CEO of Bobacino, Darian Ahler.

We’ll let Darian do the talking, but as an intro: Bobacino is a food automation startup completely changing the way boba is both created and served in a restaurant.

Well, that’s enough rambling from me.

Let’s dive in.

Sit back, grab a paperback notebook (yes, I just said that), and enjoy this interview. It was really something special.

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Interview (key parts of the conversation):

Prithvi from The ZenPreneur: Hey, Darian on super honored to be speaking with you today. I've been researching Bobacino and all the things you guys have done. And I just want to say the robot is Super Beautiful. And so I just want to dig into like how you got into that and the story behind it.

Darian from Bobacino: Thank you. We're really proud of what we built to date. To give you some background, I have a degree in mechanical engineering and pretty much the entirety of my career. Post-college has really been at the intersection of food and automation. It was more industrial applications to start in the meat industry and reforming and then about five years ago, I co-founded to a start-up called True Bird in New York. That was similar to boccino, but a coffee application.

Prithvi: What happened next?

Darian: I managed that for a couple of years and then life pulled me and my family to the West Coast and so fortunately, I wasn't able to take that company with me but I was able to leave it in good hands and it was very happy to do that. And so coming out to the West Coast was kind of looking for The next thing. And I was really excited, especially making that transition to more customer-facing robotics.

And so I got connected to Buck Jordan at Bibu Labs previously wavemaker. And this is something that’s kind of been big on there. You know, started kind of spitballing some ideas and I don't remember exactly how we landed on it. But both there's like kind of discovered that we're big, you know, boba enthusiasts. And the space was super interesting- it wasn't The biggest market. Obviously, it's huge and you know, kind of across Asia. But in the United States, it had this really dedicated following and was going really fast. What was still a pretty small market?

You see something growing really fast that can be leveraged, you know, and expanded with automation. And this is like, a largely untapped market. We see kind of the intersection of a big opening in the market and strong growth. It's a delicious beverage like we're both big fans and so it's like, Hey, let's, let's find a way to do this and so we did. And so in 2020, it was all like, the chief part of the pandemic- it was just kicking off. Now, feels like a thousand years ago like we've always been in this like post-pandemic world but like you know, this was Mid 2020. Everything was shut down. Essential workers is everything like small, businesses were closing left and right.

Helping those small business owners be able to expand their impact and get revenue in a place. That was also very food. Safe, you know, know it like no contact, literally, no contact. Um, and so, it's really like a perfect storm of how you're able to help the small business owners from, you know, staying in business. How you expand their impact and reach how you maintain a more food-safe environment and how you're able to get this thing that like into a growing market that people already love into more people's hands.

Prithvi: What specifically led you to like saying -Oh, this is the automation idea we need to run with? I'm sure you, you're thinking, maybe we could do it with other things- are you a Boba super fan?

Darian Ahler: I love it and like I've always enjoyed it and in starting this have like fallen even deeper in love with it and I guess specifically talking about it like, it's Unique in, you know, especially in the American market. It's got a really dedicated following in certain stores when they have special releases. You see lines around the blocK- it was interesting. There's something really interesting about it of like the dedication and the growth of the market and like the opportunity and like, you know, the playfulness of the drink and the playfulness of the interaction with automation, like, felt like a really good partnership. And so that's really kind of started. Just stick with it and go like we do, we got to start trying this out.

Prithvi: I have a question in terms of like the evolving landscape right now, like, obviously lots of new tools, like AI coming out and lots of more automated systems are progressing, especially in robotics. Do you think that Like this kind of technology can be applied more broadly to more of a greater set of applications other than food or do you think. I know you talked about in another interview like coffee tea and like those kinds of Things like that.

Darian: yeah, well I will for the sake of Brevity all avoid AI for now and… :)

Prithvi: Okay, it’d be like a two-hour discussion. :)

Darian: When it comes to bobichino we do see broader applications. The biggest one is helping. You know, we're seeing labor shortages across the board when it comes to food service. Especially in like quick service, restaurant sector and like anything that takes a couple of minutes like it's really it's getting harder and harder to find.

People to work in this industry, for very understandable reasons like- the pay is generally low, the work is hard. I worked at Starbucks for six years, like, I've been an out of coffee shops since I was, you know, 18, you know, and, you know, small restaurants and stuff like that. Like, it's, it's tough work and like, it's not a whole lot of reward and I think, you know, the pandemic kind of made it very clear people like, I don't want to do this anymore.

For Bobacino, the applications can be broad, and with our partnership with Fibu labs that like that, that labs is also exploring as well. That of like what is the broader application for automation in these, you know, quick-service restaurant applications

Prithvi: Also maybe to acquire those smbs that would really want to use the technology. Walk me through that. Like did you get any harsh challenges like, was it smooth sailing all the way?

Darian: Like, you know, we're still getting our first field unit out and like In general, with. Stuff, I've worked on the stuff I'm working on now, stuff, I've worked on the past, like the general response. You know, there are a few different directions you can get when you're this early and we've interviewed and met with a good number of, you know, as like small business owners, we've met with some larger corporations.

If you've got a decent product market fit, some need responses that look great. Let me know when I can try it. And if you're not meeting that need and you're not meeting the market, then they're just like it's a soft pass. And so a lot of what we've heard from the people that we've talked to is “that looks great. Let us know when we can try it.”

And so that's what we're anxiously trying to get to is this first field deployable unit that we can get it in front of.

We need to make it just like plug-and-play. Very simple to use like definitely you know covering a gap in their market you know very simple economics and everything consumer. Like it's got to be fast and it's got to be good and it's got to be affordable.

Prithvi: What type of user and locations do you think would be perfect to use this?

Darian: These pods, or Mini Boba shops that were developing, We think there's a good use case for them. Especially if you look at airports malls- high traffic, high volume areas where a lot of people are passing by like those really those end up being the highest cost retail locations as well. And so by maintaining a small footprint and not having to have any meaningful labor to maintain it there. It’s a perfect application.

at the store level, I need help now, and so, if we're already able to take this like complex technology and shove it into a tiny box. I’m thinking, why can't we uh leverage certain parts of that technology to help them at the store level?

If you're in a bar and you see like you know, for a bunch of beer, like we can do that, but now it's automated. So just put cups underneath and like and so that's, that's now tightening that part up and the biggest issue they've had other than labor is accuracy. And so, by implementing these, these little like a la carte pieces of technology that we've developed in this, in this box, we're now starting people to meet the customers where they're at in their stores.

Prithvi: Ever thought of adding a B2C element, or are you mainly only doing B2B work with Bobacino?

Darian: I'm a hundred percent hellbent on B2B. Like it's a really Dangerous trap that I've seen too many people fall into where, you know, you launch a product like this is supposed to be for, you know, more commercial applications and higher throughput. And you get all these responses of, as I love. This would want one of these might help. like, No, you don't like no, you don't. This is This is bigger than an arcade, and it takes to like 220-volt power, right? And like, does 200 drinks a day you want that and you know, you have to clean it. Like no, you don't. Like I am very I love you to use that.

I would love to be able to get like what you but you thanks is a fun thing and Product management where it's like, you know, Rule One is, listen to your users and then rule two is never listen to your users. And so like, you know, what we're doing is we're taking that is like, well you don't actually want it in your home. What you want is easier access to consistent and delicious boba. We can do that. Like, we can like, we can, you know, by being able to develop this chaos and putting more locations and being able to expand. We can get them in your home by getting them closer to where you live and faster. And you can start to integrate these things with automated, delivering, all these things. So like you can get in your home experience but like

Darian: You don't actually want one of these things in your home and like, again, I've seen too many people fall into those traps of like, you know, commercial-grade coffee machines or juicers or whatever. And they try to develop a home version of these things and then people realize how much it takes to clean them or maintain them and they're like and then they get gross and then like they're dealing with all sorts of headaches of maintenance issues and…

Prithvi: What's your vision maybe like five 10 years down the line Where do you want to take Bobacino? Like as a company and product.

Darian: Five is pretty clear to me. It's, it's developing, you know, these units at scale and really starting to dial in the number of offerings that we have in these things.

All the different toppings, you can get all the different like mixes all the different types of teas, the sweeteners, and like the milk, um, honestly work, like we're never going to be able to

by five years, we will figure that out and we'll be manufacturing these things at scale and deploying them, you know, as, as many places we can, as well as I think by that point, we'll start being in the stores themselves leverage, being able to parallelize, you know, development either by augmenting, existing labor, or having a like an actual machine in their store, as well.

When it comes to 10 years. um, I'm not like I've got thoughts but like I think five years out is a pretty exciting vision.

I don't want to get ahead of myself. I mean, the only thing I would say is that, like, within we'd start to explore. Other Applications for the technology, Like, great, like, in five years, we're really serving the boba market, we can expand on that.

And really, you know, meet the operators where they're at and then like do we look at, you know, other beverage verticals or are we doing smoothies? Are we doing coffee? I don't know. It really just depends like are Do we stick with Boba for 10 years? Because sure we could go other places but like, man, we've got a great product for a great market. Like, let's just drive it home and…

Prithvi Yendapally: like a multi-billion dollar industry and it's growing every day like so it's like there's unlimited potential and just boba.

Darian Ahler: It's like in the broader scheme of F&b in the United States I mean even globally. It's a relatively. Small market. Frankly, it's a couple of billion. It's gonna turn to 4.3 which is like I'm not trying to say, it's not exciting. It very very much is like we're talking about you know billions of dollars and I think we can we've got a market that's really gonna be able to tap into it.

So it's like, you know, the sky's the limit and always like feel it. So it's a cheesy thing to say as a startup but like I think there's a really cool market here and I'm very excited to continue moving along.

Prithvi: I know like a lot of people like stress over the fundraising process. Like Do you have any tips? Because I know you've done very well. Like, you guys have raised a good amount.

Darian: We'll have to leave it there. But you know, in my previous company we did traditional fundraising bobachino is largely been funded by equity. Crowdfunding they're a completely different beast. But what is, what is similar? It's a grind And you have to like there's a lot of

Like frankly, shameless self-promotion. That you have to do like you know, with you know VC funding, you have to go out again and you're just getting doors slammed in your face until you get somebody to say yes.

That's gonna come through in the way that you pitch and the way that you're selling yourself and you're in your company and your product, um, and it's gonna make it a hell of a harder. To. Sell it and to be able to raise money and so like you really have to. It's a good forcing function of Making sure. That you are making something that you truly believe in and that you're you're approaching it the right way because you're going to be asked, a lot of hard questions about it.

Favorite flavor of Boba:

Prithvi: That's awesome. And thank you for that. Before we sign up, I got to ask you, what is your favorite flavor for Boba? What is your go-to order?

Darian Ahler: Um, I'm a Pretty plain Jane about this. Like I do like, just a classic, you know, milk tea with Boba. I almost like Even you know my criticisms of the gallery count earlier aside like well will not get a drink without it just like it's- I love it.

I usually go half-sweet. I've been if they've got it, I'll get some cheese film on top because I think it's like you know, the salt cheese foam is delicious. um, That's about it. I've had some other ones but, you know, like some shops will do like, like a green tea and like matcha and strawberry. That's all.

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Hope you enjoyed that interview!

Let’s give a huge shoutout to Darian and Bobacino.

In fact, if you’re reading this, make sure to schedule your next boba run for this weekend.