HarvestHub

Source local ingredients straight from nearby farms.

HarvestHub is a B2B marketplace that helps nearby restaurants discover, order from, and manage relationships with local farmers in one place. It reduces the friction of phone calls, manual invoicing, and inconsistent availability by making local sourcing searchable, predictable, and trackable.

Business Goals

  • Reach 150 active restaurant buyers and 75 verified farms in 6 months.
  • Generate $1.2M in annualized gross merchandise volume within 12 months.
  • Achieve 25% month-over-month growth in monthly active buyers for the first 4 months after launch.
  • Maintain a take-rate or subscription revenue model that produces at least $25K monthly recurring revenue by month 9.
  • Keep order fulfillment dispute rate below 3% of completed orders within the first year.

User Goals

  • Help chefs find local farms with available product in under 5 minutes.
  • Allow farms to receive and confirm restaurant orders without phone tag.
  • Enable restaurants to place recurring orders and track delivery status in one workflow.
  • Reduce missed substitutions and out-of-stock surprises through clearer inventory visibility.
  • Simplify invoices, payments, and order history for both sides.

Non-Goals

  • Not a consumer grocery marketplace for individual households.
  • Not a full logistics fleet or last-mile delivery network in v1.
  • Not a procurement system for national chains with complex ERP integrations.
  • Not a commodity futures, pricing speculation, or auction platform.

Chef Lena, 38 - Head chef at a 45-seat farm-to-table restaurant. She sources seasonal produce weekly and needs reliable availability, fast ordering, and proof of local origin for menu storytelling.

Chef Lena, 38

  • As a chef, I want to see what nearby farms have available this week, so that I can plan my menu around real supply.
  • As a chef, I want to place a single order from multiple farms, so that I can save time versus calling each vendor.
  • As a chef, I want to receive substitution alerts before delivery, so that I can adjust menus and avoid waste.

Farm Owner Miguel, 52 - Owns a 60-acre mixed vegetable farm and sells to a handful of restaurants. He wants to reduce admin work while keeping control over inventory and delivery commitments.

Farm Owner Miguel, 52

  • As a farm owner, I want to post available quantities by harvest day, so that restaurants only order what I can fulfill.
  • As a farm owner, I want to confirm or reject orders quickly from my phone, so that I can manage demand in real time.
  • As a farm owner, I want simple invoicing and payment records, so that I can reconcile sales without spreadsheets.

Procurement Manager Aisha, 41 - Manages sourcing for a group of three local restaurants. She needs repeatability, pricing transparency, and centralized approvals across locations.

Procurement Manager Aisha, 41

  • As a procurement manager, I want to create approved supplier lists, so that each location stays within sourcing policy.
  • As a procurement manager, I want recurring orders with price history, so that I can forecast spend and reduce variance.
  • As a procurement manager, I want exportable order and invoice data, so that I can reconcile with accounting software.

Marketplace Discovery and Search · High priority

  • Enable restaurants to find farms and products by location, category, seasonality, certification, and fulfillment window.
  • Search by radius, farm type, product category, and delivery day.
  • Show product cards with current availability, unit price, minimum order, and lead time.
  • Support map and list views with distance and service area indicators.
  • Hide sold-out items by default, with a clear toggle for out-of-stock inventory.
  • Allow verified farms to control which restaurants can see wholesale pricing.

Inventory and Order Management · High priority

  • Let farms publish inventory and let restaurants build carts, submit orders, and track status end to end.
  • Support per-item quantities, units, and harvest/pack dates.
  • Validate minimum order quantity, cutoff time, and service area before checkout.
  • Allow farms to accept, partially accept, or reject line items with reason codes.
  • Send status updates for submitted, confirmed, packed, and delivered states.
  • Maintain order history with re-order from previous baskets.

Messaging and Notifications · High priority

  • Replace fragmented phone and text coordination with in-app messaging and automated alerts.
  • Provide order-level threaded messaging between restaurant and farm accounts.
  • Send email and SMS notifications for order changes, confirmations, and delivery updates.
  • Allow quick templates for common notes like substitutions, packaging requests, and delivery instructions.
  • Keep an auditable message history attached to each order.
  • Escalate unanswered order confirmations after a configurable timeout.

Payments and Invoicing · Medium priority

  • Support secure payments and clean financial records without requiring manual invoicing for every transaction.
  • Allow card and ACH payment options at checkout where enabled by the farm.
  • Generate downloadable invoices and receipts for each completed order.
  • Support split payment rules if a marketplace fee or subscription is used.
  • Track refunds, partial refunds, and order adjustments.
  • Expose payout status to farms and settlement status to buyers.

Verification and Trust · Medium priority

  • Ensure both sides can trust the marketplace and understand who they are buying from.
  • Verify farm identities using business documents and admin review.
  • Allow restaurants to verify business accounts with tax ID and contact validation.
  • Display certifications such as organic, GAP, or local-only badges when provided.
  • Add ratings or lightweight feedback after completed orders.
  • Flag repeat cancellation or fulfillment issues for manual review.

Fast Onboarding to First Order

  • Choose role: restaurant buyer, procurement manager, or farm seller.
  • Create account with email, phone, and business details.
  • Complete verification with basic business information and service area.
  • Set sourcing preferences or inventory profile in under 10 minutes.
  • Browse matches and place the first order within 15 minutes of signup.
  • Receive confirmation and delivery timeline immediately after checkout.

1. Discover Nearby Supply

  • Restaurant users land on a curated list of verified nearby farms with live product availability and service area fit.
  • Default search radius is 50 miles, adjustable by user.
  • Handle no-results states with suggested broader radius and category filters.
  • Surface high-signal cards: availability, price, cutoff, and delivery days.

2. Review Product and Farm Details

  • Users inspect harvest dates, units, certifications, and fulfillment terms before adding items to cart.
  • Show minimums, packaging units, and substitution policy on every product page.
  • Prevent checkout on items past cutoff or outside delivery window.
  • Display farm profile with photos, story, and compliance badges.

3. Build and Submit Order

  • Buyers add items from multiple farms, review totals, and submit one or more orders depending on seller rules.
  • Support combined cart view with per-farm subtotals and fees.
  • Validate quantity, unit compatibility, and payment method before submission.
  • Warn users when an item has limited inventory or requires manual confirmation.

4. Confirm and Coordinate

  • Farms receive order requests, accept or modify them, and communicate changes through the platform.
  • Allow partial acceptance with line-item edits and notes.
  • Notify buyers instantly when a seller changes price or quantity.
  • Keep order state synchronized across web, email, and SMS.

5. Fulfill, Pay, and Reorder

  • After delivery, the system finalizes payment, archives the invoice, and makes repeat ordering easy.
  • Mark delivered with timestamp and proof-of-delivery attachment if enabled.
  • Trigger receipt and invoice generation automatically.
  • Offer one-click reorder from prior week or prior month baskets.

Power Features and Edge Cases

  • Recurring standing orders for weekly demand.
  • Multi-location restaurant ordering with location-specific budgets.
  • Farm-side batch upload of inventory from CSV or Google Sheets.
  • Conditional pricing by volume, season, or customer tier.
  • Manual approval workflows for new buyers or large orders.
  • Dispute workflow for short shipments, damaged goods, and late delivery.

Clean, High-Trust Wholesale UI

  • Use large quantity selectors, unit labels, and cutoff reminders to reduce errors.
  • Prioritize mobile-friendly farm workflows with one-hand order confirmation.
  • Display trust signals consistently: verification badge, certifications, response time, and fulfillment reliability.
  • Optimize for speed on low-bandwidth rural connections with lightweight pages and cached inventory views.
  • Ensure accessibility with high-contrast text, keyboard navigation, and screen-reader labels for quantity controls.

Chef Lena used to text three farms every Tuesday morning, wait for replies, and rebuild her menu around whatever was still available. She often overordered or discovered substitutions too late, which created waste and last-minute scrambling in the kitchen.

With HarvestHub, Lena logs in, filters by her 20-mile radius, and sees which farms have greens, mushrooms, and herbs available for Thursday delivery. She submits one order, gets confirmation within minutes, and receives an invoice and delivery ETA in the same thread. The result is less admin work for her team, steadier sourcing, and more consistent local stories for diners.

On the farm side, Miguel can publish harvest inventory in one update, accept orders from trusted restaurants, and keep a clean record of every sale. The marketplace gives him more direct demand, fewer interruptions, and a repeatable sales channel without adding a sales rep.

User-Centric Metrics

  • 80% of restaurant users place a first order within 7 days of signup.
  • Average time from login to completed order under 15 minutes.
  • At least 70% of active buyers reorder within 30 days.
  • Average farm response time to new orders under 2 hours during business hours.
  • Order cancellation rate below 5% of submitted orders.
  • Buyer satisfaction score of 4.5 out of 5 or higher after delivery.

Business Metrics

  • Convert 20% of signups into first-time paying buyers within 30 days.
  • Reach 35% monthly buyer retention by month 6.
  • Maintain gross margin above 60% on marketplace revenue.
  • Grow active supply partners by 15% month over month for the first 6 months.
  • Drive 40% of orders from repeat customers by month 9.

Technical Metrics

  • 99.9% monthly uptime for buyer and seller workflows.
  • P95 page load under 2.5 seconds on desktop and 3.5 seconds on mobile.
  • Zero critical payment or identity vulnerabilities in quarterly audits.
  • Order and notification delivery success rate above 99.5%.

Tracking Plan

  • signup_completed
  • farm_verified
  • inventory_published
  • search_performed
  • product_viewed
  • cart_submitted
  • order_confirmed
  • order_modified
  • payment_completed
  • delivery_marked_complete
  • reorder_clicked
  • dispute_opened

Technical Needs

  • Frontend web app built with Next.js and React for fast marketplace browsing.
  • Backend API using Node.js with TypeScript and a REST or GraphQL layer.
  • PostgreSQL for relational data such as users, farms, products, orders, and invoices.
  • Redis for session caching, inventory lookups, and notification throttling.
  • Background jobs with BullMQ or Temporal for order state transitions and reminders.
  • Object storage such as AWS S3 for documents, invoices, and proof-of-delivery files.
  • Admin console for manual verification, disputes, and content moderation.

Integration Points

  • Stripe for payments, refunds, and payouts.
  • Twilio for SMS alerts and two-factor authentication.
  • SendGrid or Postmark for transactional email.
  • Google Maps or Mapbox for geospatial search and radius filtering.
  • Plaid or accounting export hooks for bank reconciliation and bookkeeping workflows.

Data Storage & Privacy

  • Store only necessary business and contact data, with explicit consent for SMS and email notifications.
  • Encrypt sensitive data at rest and in transit using industry-standard TLS and managed KMS keys.
  • Support GDPR and CCPA requests for data export, deletion, and consent management.
  • Separate payment data from core app data and rely on PCI-compliant providers like Stripe.
  • Keep audit logs for order changes, verification actions, and payment events for at least 24 months.

Scalability & Performance

  • Design search indexes for geospatial queries and inventory filtering to keep search under 500 ms.
  • Use event-driven order state updates so notifications do not block checkout flows.
  • Cache popular farms and categories by region to reduce repeated database reads.
  • Plan for seasonal spikes around harvest days and restaurant ordering windows.

Potential Challenges

  • Inventory accuracy may be stale if farms update late; mitigate with cutoff times, auto-expiry, and availability prompts.
  • Restaurants may want different payment terms; mitigate with account tiers and manual net-terms approval.
  • Farm adoption could be slow due to low software comfort; mitigate with mobile-first UX and CSV import.
  • Disputes over substitutions and short shipments may increase support load; mitigate with line-item confirmation and photo proof options.
  • Geographic density may be insufficient in some regions; mitigate by launching in one metro area with strong farm concentration first.

Team & resourcing - Small team - 2 engineers, 1 designer, part-time PM, and fractional ops/support.

Phase 1: MVP Marketplace · Weeks 1-4

  • Role-based signup and verification flow
  • Farm profiles and product listings
  • Search by radius and category
  • Basic cart and order submission
  • Email notifications and admin review tools

Phase 2: Order Operations · Weeks 5-8

  • Order acceptance and modification flows
  • SMS notifications and threaded messaging
  • Invoices and receipts
  • Reorder from past orders
  • Basic dispute tracking

Phase 3: Payments and Trust · Weeks 9-12

  • Stripe payments and refunds
  • Farm payout status
  • Certifications and trust badges
  • Buyer and seller ratings
  • Audit logs and moderation workflows

Phase 4: Scale and Automation · Weeks 13-16

  • Recurring orders and multi-location support
  • CSV inventory import and export
  • Analytics dashboard for supply and demand
  • Improved search ranking and caching
  • Operational alerts for delayed confirmations

Paste this into Cursor, Bolt, Lovable, or v0 to start building.

Build a B2B marketplace web app called HarvestHub that connects local farmers directly with nearby restaurants.

Use Next.js 14 with TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn/ui, PostgreSQL, Prisma, and Stripe. Include authentication, role-based access for restaurant buyers and farm sellers, and an admin role.

Core features:
1. Restaurant onboarding: signup, business details, location, preferred radius, verification status.
2. Farm onboarding: farm profile, service area, certifications, payout setup, inventory publishing.
3. Marketplace search: browse verified farms and products by radius, category, availability, price, delivery day, certifications, and cutoff time. Include map and list views.
4. Product detail pages with harvest date, unit, minimum order, inventory quantity, substitution policy, and add-to-cart.
5. Cart and checkout: multi-item ordering, per-farm subtotal, validation against minimums and service area, Stripe payment, and order submission.
6. Order management: statuses submitted, confirmed, partially accepted, packed, delivered, cancelled; order history; reorder from previous order.
7. Messaging: order-thread messages between buyer and seller plus email/SMS notifications via Twilio and SendGrid.
8. Farm seller dashboard: manage inventory, accept/reject orders, modify quantities, view revenue and upcoming deliveries.
9. Admin console: verify farms, review disputes, manage certifications, and inspect audit logs.

Data model should include User, Organization, FarmProfile, RestaurantProfile, Product, InventoryLot, Order, OrderItem, Message, Payment, Payout, Certification, Notification, Dispute, and AuditLog.

Primary screens: landing page, signup/login, buyer dashboard, seller dashboard, search results, product detail, cart, checkout, order detail, messages, admin verification panel, and analytics overview.

Build responsive UI optimized for mobile and desktop, with accessible forms, strong empty states, and low-bandwidth-friendly performance. Include seed data, API routes, validation, and basic analytics events for signup_completed, search_performed, product_viewed, cart_submitted, order_confirmed, and delivery_marked_complete.

Implement a clean marketplace design with local-food branding, trust badges, and fast search. Provide enough structure that the app can be run locally, connected to a Postgres database, and extended later for recurring orders and multi-location restaurant accounts.

Business Idea

A marketplace connecting local farmers directly with nearby restaurants.

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