Would a "Vivino for sake" solve any real pain for you? (asking before I build it)
Hi r/Sake,
Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I'm a marketer in Tokyo working in B2B SaaS, and on the side I'm thinking about building something for international sake fans. Before I sink 4 weeks of nights and weekends into it, I wanted to gut-check the idea with this community.
The idea: snap a label → AI auto-recognizes the brand/brewery/grade in English → keep tasting notes → see where to buy globally. Basically Vivino, but for sake — and English-first.
I've looked at the Japanese apps (Sakenowa, Sakenomy), but they're built for the domestic Japanese audience. Labels, notes, recommendations — mostly Japanese only. There doesn't seem to be a decent English-first option for international sake fans.
Genuinely curious about a few things from this community:
When you drink a sake you love at a bar/restaurant, how do you remember it later? Photo? Notes app? Memory & hope?
After you go home, can you usually find that exact bottle to re-order somewhere — or do you give up?
If a tool did this well, what's the ONE killer feature for you? (label OCR / taste recommendations / where-to-buy-globally / community / something else)
Would $5/month for unlimited recording + recommendations + export feel reasonable, or is this strictly a free-app territory?
No links, no app to install, no "join my mailing list" — there's literally nothing yet. Just trying to make sure what I build solves real pain for real people, not just for me.
Happy to share progress (and an early invite) here if there's interest.
Thanks 🙏
— a curious sake-loving dev from Tokyo