IamA we are the founders of a company that sells potatoes on the internet that has been featured on Shark Tank, CNBC, Good Morning America, Ellen and more.

Yes one question. Why?

We've been selling products online for a few years now and thought that this was a wacky idea that had a chance to work! If you can create a business that brings out emotions out of people, you have a chance to be successful.

Did you have many orders from Latvia?

Not yet! Help us spread the word over there.

Are you doing this because your last bout of social relevance has waned and you're hoping reddit will restart it?

They're hoping to get some sales off this. It's just a shitty shill till their company dies.

We've been around for over 3 years now and still going strong. We would have died a long time ago if we relied on shills to drive sales. But thanks!

...Why?

This isn't even the fun kind of silly, it's just pointless.

People use us in many funny ways! Insides jokes, potato tag, uploading faces to the potatoes and sending them. Anonymously sending them to people. You can get creative!

Have you considered using yams?

Yams are a bit more messy to deal with than idaho russets!

How do you source your potatoes?

This is a secret my friend :)

Are you the guys who sent a potato to some NBA players? I made a post about it when it happened to Tobias Harris

Yes, we're the guys!

edit: here's the article USAToday covered on our NBA taters

Why wouldn't you use actual examples of your product (or better mock-ups at least) on your website, instead of pretty rough Photoshops? I'd be concerned about turning off customers and potentially bumping into the FTC or state TIA laws, and you could easily bump up the quality of your marketing by shipping twelve real finished potatoes to a photographer.

Good suggestion. We don't hide our process. It's all over our social media, homepage customer photos and video on the homepage. Thanks for the tip.

What kinda spud options we talking here?

Nothing says happy birthday grandma like a nice waxy fingerling potato.

We keep it simple. Idaho Russet Potatoes. And the occasional baby white potatoes (seasonal product).

This is actually fucking stupid, but congrats on tricking a swath of stupid people to give you money. Literally just Sharpie on a potato in a "pretty" box. Or maybe they printed a picture out, cut it, and glued it to the potato. That costs extra.

I mean, I'm pissed off at the lack of quality, innovation, and skill it would take to do something like this, but I'm also extremely impressed you guys actually made this viable as a product. Congrats I guess?

Our customers like our wackiness and personalization. Its a fun gifting experience and that's why we're still around, so thanks!

What is your most memorable message written on a potato?

"IF WE PLAYED HOT POTATO I'D LOSE, BECAUSE I'D NEVER LET YOU GO."

From your experience how hard is it to get a novelty company off the ground and to be a viable source of money?

It's pretty hard and you have to be able to bear the time that it takes to get to a point where you're consistently getting orders from customers to actually make it a business. You need to be creative in terms of bringing traffic and awareness to your product.

How many upvotes for free potatoes for a year?

depends on how this post does throughout the day!

What do you use to write on the potato, sharpie or something else and is it an actual person that writes the message or a machine ? And are the potato’s safe to eat after you get them?

Love the idea btw

Thank you for liking the idea! We never use sharpie. There is a real person behind every potato making your order. We use only high quality art writing materials.

We do not recommend eating the potato after receiving one, however we encourage you to plant the potato once it has reached the end of its life to grow more. We also donate 1 potato for every 1 sold to local food banks who then distribute them to people who need food.

How did you guys get on all these TV shows?

Just by offering a unique product! People slowly started taking notice. Shark Tank led to a lot of other article features and awareness for us.

What is Ellen like off screen? Hear she's a bitch! 😋

Ellen spoke about us on her show for a bit and then said she was going to create a competitor service called Ellen's Yam Grams. Didn't see her in person!

Is kevin still working on your company?

He is still involved with us as an investor, yes!

How did you decide what variety of potato to use? Also, any favorite potato recipies?

We needed a type of potato with the skin texture what was writable and one that images could be placed on.

I'm curious to know about your strategies for customer stickiness. I could see someone seeing a show and sending a few spuds to buds, then never engaging again with your brand. How much of your business is repeat business, and how many customers reach out again after the first month?

About 15% of our customers are repeat customers.

You don't even laser etch the images or message on it but use a marker? seems half-assed for a half-assed idea.

laser etching actually isn't a good solution because it cuts into the skin of the potato and makes it spoil very quickly!

What are the typicals reasons people use your service? What was the greatest/ more chilling message you had ever had to print on a potatoes?

Our customers use our service as a replacement to greeting cards or flowers, however we are more fun, anonymous and random!

The majority of messages customers enter are normal ones you might think of (happy birthday, i love you, congrats, etc), but we've seen some some graphic messages, nude images, and stalking messages. FYI we don't send these types of messages as we don't want to hurt peoples feelings!

The worst thing I have personally seen as a message was one woman was confessing to another woman her husband was cheating on her with multiple women and that she did too! Also, saw ones where someone put the other person's license plate as the message. Super stalker type stuff! Again, we read each message and if it is harmful or threatening, we don't send it out.

Great question!

Is there one variety of potato that's ideal for writing on?

We prefer idaho russet potatoes!

Why do we care?

You totally don't have to care! But let us know if you have a question :)

You guys are awesome! I bought a spud and sent it to my buddy, who’s live in gf left on business for like a month. He’s pretty helpless and I was concerned he’s was going to starve so I sent him a spud with the message “ in case of emergency” on it. It was funny as I didn’t tell him and then forgot about it, until one day he was like, I got this potato in the mail.......lmao! Also you gots were from Denton, TX. We are both Mean Green Alumni! So here’s a question. Does the post office want to peel and deep fry you?

Love that! Luckily they don't know whats in the package, but if they did i'm sure they would.

Besides writing on a potato, what is your favorite way to potato?

potato au gratin :)

Do you think all the people hating on your idea are just jealous because they didn't think of it first?

we welcome the haters.