🍳 Every day, home cooks waste food because recipes serve the wrong number of people.
Professional caterers lose money on events because they miscalculate ingredient amounts when scaling recipes.
The recipe app market hit $5.8 billion last year, but there's still no affordable tool that uses AI to scale recipes intelligently.
You can build this app in a few weeks using no-code tools and tap into both consumer and professional markets simultaneously.
This edition shows you how to build an AI-powered recipe scaling app that automatically adjusts ingredient quantities, cooking times, and techniques for any serving size.
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Today’s Idea
An app where users paste any recipe URL or snap a photo of their cookbook, input how many people they're cooking for, and instantly get perfectly adjusted measurements. The AI handles tricky ingredients like salt and spices that need different adjustments than everything else.
The recipe app market hit $5.8 billion in 2024 and will reach $14 billion by 2033. Home cooks want convenience, but most recipe apps still require manual math or multiply everything equally (which ruins recipes).
Professional caterers pay $500-3,000+ annually for commercial kitchen tools, leaving a huge gap for an affordable solution.
Your app uses AI to understand cooking science. When you double a cake, the baking powder needs less than double or the cake tastes metallic. Cooking times adjust based on batch size and pan dimensions.
Realistic First-Year Target: $120,000-180,000 ARR
Available Domain: RecipeScaler.ai
Ideal Customer
Consumer Market:
Busy parents adjusting recipes for varying family sizes throughout the week
Meal preppers who batch cook but need exact serving counts with no waste
Home bakers who know baking requires precise measurements
Couples constantly encountering the "serves 6-8" problem and wasting food
People who want to host dinner parties without stressing over recipe math
Professional Market (3-5x Higher Revenue):
Catering companies managing 10-50 events monthly, scaling dishes from 6 to 500 servings
Private chefs serving multiple clients with different household sizes weekly
Meal prep businesses producing 100-1,000 meals weekly and needing consistency
Restaurant R&D teams converting home recipes to commercial batch sizes
Culinary schools teaching proper scaling techniques to students
Food trucks and ghost kitchens optimizing batch sizes on tight margins
Why It Will Succeed
Dual market opportunity: Consumer volume plus professional high-value customers. One catering company subscription ($348/year) equals 87 consumer monthly subscribers.
AI solves real problems: Basic calculators multiply everything equally. AI understands that salt needs 85% when doubling, not 100%. This matters enormously for professionals where mistakes multiply across hundreds of servings.
Underserved professional segment: Existing tools cost $199-299/month and target big restaurant chains. Small caterers and meal prep businesses have nowhere to turn.
High retention through saved recipes: Users return repeatedly to cook the same dishes. Professionals integrate it into their daily workflow. Caterers build client quotes around your cost calculations. Meal prep companies rely on your scaling for weekly production runs.
Network effects in food service: One catering company tells others at industry events. Culinary grads bring it to their first jobs. Chefs share it in professional groups and online communities.
Getting Started and Building an MVP
Core Features:
Recipe import via URL paste or photo upload
Smart scaling with AI adjustments for different ingredient types
Dual modes: "Home" (1-20 servings) and "Professional" (20-500+ servings)
Cost calculator for ingredient pricing
Team workspaces for catering companies
Kitchen-ready printable formats
No-Code / Low-Code MVP (Perfect for Non-Developers)
No-Code Build (2-3 Weeks):
Use Bubble.io for your app, OpenAI GPT-4 for the AI brain, and Airtable for storing data. Connect Google Cloud Vision for reading recipe photos. Build the workflow: paste recipe → AI parses and scales → display results. Start with URL import only to keep it simple.
Key tip: Write detailed instructions for GPT-4 with rules like "reduce salt by 15% when doubling" and "increase baking time by 30-40% for doubled batches."
Code-Based Build (4-6 Weeks):
Next.js frontend, Node.js backend, PostgreSQL database on Supabase, OpenAI API for AI, recipe-scrapers library for grabbing recipes from websites, Stripe for payments. Build separate scaling logic for consumer (simple) and professional (precise at scale). Add team workspaces, cost calculators, and recipe version tracking for business users.
Key tip: Test extensively with real caterers before launch. Offer free accounts to 5-10 local catering companies for feedback.
Recommended Reading: Big Desk Energy
If you're serious about building something, subscribe to Big Desk Energy by Tyler Denk.
Tyler is the co-founder/CEO of Beehiiv and was an early employee at Morning Brew, where he helped scale it to millions of readers and millions in monthly revenue. Every Tuesday, he shares behind-the-scenes strategies and stories from actually building and scaling startups—real tactics from the trenches, not theory.
Over 100,000+ readers give it a 4.9/5 rating. If Easy Startup Ideas gives you the what to build, Big Desk Energy shows you how to build it right.
Monetization Strategies
Consumer Freemium ($4.99/month or $39.99/year): Basic scaling free with 10 recipes/month limit, unlimited with premium. Family plans at $6.99/month for 2-5 users.
Professional Tier ($29/month or $249/year): Unlimited scaling to 500 servings, team workspaces for 5 users, cost calculator, equipment recommendations, commercial exports, priority support. Most profit comes from this tier.
Business Tier ($99/month or $899/year): Unlimited team members, API access, custom ingredient pricing, recipe costing with markup calculators, dedicated account manager. Target mid-size operations.
Enterprise Licensing ($500-3,000/month): White-label for meal kit companies, bulk licensing for restaurant groups, custom integrations. Negotiate pricing based on usage.
Food Supplier Partnerships: Partner with Sysco and US Foods for 3-5% commission on bulk orders. Average order values run $500-5,000.
Equipment Affiliate Revenue: 5-8% commissions on commercial kitchen equipment through restaurant supply partnerships. Orders typically range $200-2,000.
Recipe Marketplace: Take 15-20% commission on premium recipe collections from professional chefs. Let smaller caterers license proven recipes from successful companies.
Marketing Strategies
Consumer Acquisition:
Partner with food bloggers for "Scale This Recipe" widgets, offer 20% affiliate revenue
TikTok and Instagram videos showing common scaling failures and how to fix them
Pinterest SEO targeting "recipe scaling calculator" and similar searches
Google Ads for high-intent keywords, budget $1,000-2,000/month initially
Professional Acquisition:
Direct outreach to catering companies with 60-day free trials and personalized demos
Culinary school partnerships where students get free access and become advocates
Exhibit at National Restaurant Association Show and Catersource Conference
LinkedIn ads targeting catering managers, executive chefs, meal prep business owners
Referral program offering one month free per professional referral
Case studies showing measurable ROI: "Reduced food waste 23%, saves 8 hours weekly"
Both Markets:
Engage authentically in Reddit (r/Cooking, r/Catering) and Facebook cooking groups
Blog content: consumer guides on scaling recipes at home, professional guides on recipe costing
Expanding and Improving
Voice assistant integration through Alexa and Google Assistant for hands-free scaling while cooking
Smart appliance connections for automatic time and temperature adjustments
AI ingredient substitution when users need dairy-free or other modifications
Inventory management integration so professionals can track stock levels automatically
Supplier partnerships enabling one-click ingredient ordering at contracted prices
Recipe costing with profitability analysis for caterers planning events
Nutrition tracking and FDA labeling compliance for meal prep businesses
Recipe version control for quality assurance in larger operations
Event management tools for caterers planning multi-recipe events with cost estimates
API access so meal kit companies and event planning software can integrate your technology
The Bottom Line
Realistic First-Year Target: $120,000-180,000 ARR
Revenue Breakdown:
15-20 professional accounts at $29-99/month = $5,220-23,760/year
500-800 consumer subscribers at $4.99/month = $29,940-47,904/year
Professional accounts provide stability and high profit margins
Consumer volume drives word-of-mouth and validates the product
Launch Strategy:
Build no-code MVP in 3 weeks
Target local catering companies with free trials first
Land 5-10 paying professionals within 90 days
Layer on consumer marketing through food bloggers and social content
Why This Works:
One professional customer = revenue of 70+ consumer subscribers
Consumer volume creates network effects that drive professional discovery
Dual-market positioning gives you two paths to growth simultaneously
I am glad you made it this far. If you have been inspired by any of our ideas, I would love to hear about them. Reply to this email or connect with me on X @nocoderyan
Ryan Stax
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