Catering companies, ghost kitchens, and multi-location restaurants struggle to reliably scale and re-cost recipes for constantly changing headcounts and serving formats, so they fall back to brittle spreadsheets that break when menus, yields, or portion sizes change.
Small to mid-sized catering businesses, ghost kitchens, meal-prep operations, and independent restaurant groups (1–20 locations) that already manage recipes digitally or in spreadsheets and need dynamic batch scaling and costing for 50–5,000 servings; there are tens of thousands of such businesses across North America and Europe alone based on the existing market for food costing and scaling tools.
Experience with TypeScript, Next.js (App Router and Route Handlers), Prisma schema design for multi-tenant apps, and basic payment and email API integrations with Stripe and Resend
Medium – outbound to restaurant and catering operators plus community posting is needed, but each account can be worth meaningful ARR and word-of-mouth within local hospitality circles is strong
$500-$1,200/yr per customer (assuming $45-$99/mo per account depending on locations and event volume)
3-6 weeks from start to first paying customer, assuming 1-2 weeks of validation, 2-3 weeks of MVP build, and converting at least one pilot kitchen to paid within a week of launch
Existing tools bundle recipe scaling inside large, complex back-office suites, while this product focuses narrowly on fast, event-centric yield scaling and prep planning for small to mid-sized kitchen operations.
Meez offers robust recipe management, costing, and scaling but is a broad platform aimed at larger operations, leaving smaller teams overwhelmed and lacking an event-focused yield planning workflow.
MenuSano focuses on costing and nutrition with recipe scaling as an add-on, but it does not center around per-event scaling scenarios and simple prep sheet generation for dynamic headcounts.
Recipe Costing Software provides end-to-end restaurant management including costing, inventory, and POS integrations, yet its recipe converter sits inside a heavy all-in-one suite rather than a lightweight, event-centric scaling planner.
Use these to sharpen positioning or carve out a narrower wedge.
Focus on franchise groups that need centrally controlled recipes and automated scaling across dozens of locations, with head office controlling yields while local stores generate location-specific prep sheets
Target meal-prep and frozen meal brands that batch-cook for weekly orders and need to scale recipes to fluctuating order volumes while keeping per-portion costs and macros in line
Serve schools, hospitals, and corporate cafeterias that must scale recipes to hundreds or thousands of servings while meeting strict budget and nutritional constraints
Aim at ghost kitchens frequently testing new menu items who want to rapidly prototype recipes, scale them to different brands or virtual concepts, and understand cost impact before fully rolling out
Break the build into phases with rough timing and concrete tasks.
Confirm that catering operators and ghost kitchens see enough value in dedicated yield-scaling plus costing workflows to pay for a focused tool instead of general recipe software
Recommended tools for this idea — with the reason why each one was chosen.
Renders the dashboard where users manage recipes, servings, and saved scaling presets.
Styles the recipe calculator, saved preset views, and account settings UI.
Handle scaling calculations, saved recipe actions, and billing webhooks.
Maps recipe records, ingredient ratios, and saved user presets to the database safely.
Stores recipes, ingredient data, saved presets, and account records.
Handles subscription billing for premium recipe collections and team features.
Sends account emails, shared recipe notifications, and billing alerts.
Sends optional kitchen or team SMS alerts for prep reminders and shared updates.
MVP = Minimum Viable Product — the smallest version you can ship to real users and learn from. Keep it narrow enough to launch and validate quickly.
Tiered subscription
Single user, up to 10 recipes and 2 scaled events per month, with basic prep sheet export and no vendor price lists.
Multi-user access with unlimited recipes, unlimited scaled events, vendor price list management, and priority support for troubleshooting scaling and costing setup.
$49/mo
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