The holidays are all about sharing a table. Your customers are hosting, gifting and putting together spreads, and that makes it the perfect time of year to team up with another chef.
Collab drops let you team up with other Hotplate chefs on a single drop. You sell one menu together, you each bring your customers, and Hotplate takes care of splitting the money.
What's a collab drop?
A collab drop is one drop shared by two or more chefs. The host chef sets it up and invites collaborators, and each chef adds their own items to the menu. Customers check out once, just like any other drop, and every item shows a badge with the name of the chef who made it.
1. Holiday customers want the whole spread
During the holidays, customers love a bundle: bread with something to spread on it, cookies with coffee, a main dish with all the sides.
You’re probably known for something, while someone else specializes in the perfect accompaniment. A collab lets you sell the whole spread together, in one checkout.
2. You'll reach each other's subscribers
Here's the best part: when orders open, the drop text goes out to the subscribers of every chef in the collab. Each subscriber's link opens the drop through the storefront of the chef they follow, so your branding stays front and center. And customers who subscribe to more than one of you only get one text.
That means each chef gets in front of a whole new group of customers, who are hearing about you from a chef they already trust. Two Hotplate chefs can lift each other up.
Bread, beans or the combo: Holly Made Bakes x Dwell Coffee Co.
When Holly Made Bakes heard we were looking for chefs to test collab drops, she thought of the locally roasted coffee she buys every week from Dwell Coffee Co. A few texts later, they'd planned a joint drop where both of their customers could order bread, coffee beans, or the combo. Who wouldn't want to start their week by picking up a fresh loaf and a bag of beans from a neighborhood porch?
"I was able to get new customers from their customer base and they got some of my customers. It was awesome." — Holly Montie, Holly Made Bakes
3. You can pool your audiences with even more chefs
Collabs aren't limited to two. Bring in a third or fourth chef, and every one of your subscriber lists hears about the same holiday menu. Think of it as a holiday market, online: a few chefs, one menu, and a bigger crowd than any of you would reach alone.
4. Give a new chef a head start, and earn referral credit for a year
Collabs aren't just for chefs who already have a following. If you're teaming up with someone brand new to Hotplate, inviting them to your collab shares their food with your list from day one. Instead of launching to an empty room, their first drop goes out to customers who already love buying from you.
Bonus: if a chef signs up for Hotplate through your collab invite, you’ll get referral credit: 20% of their Hotplate fees for a full year. Helping a friend get started pays off for both of you.
From first collab to his own drops: A to Z Creamery x Creme Foods
Zach from A to Z Creamery was one of the very first chefs to drop on Hotplate, so it felt right that he led one of our first official collab drops, with Bilal from Creme Foods.
Creme Foods wasn't on Hotplate yet. After the joint drop, his subscriber list took off. With a community of people waiting to try his cakes, he's been running his own solo drops on Hotplate ever since, and his orders and repeat customers have grown week over week.
5. Hotplate splits the money for you
Collab drops are built to save you time. There's no tallying who sold what or sending money back and forth after the drop.
"Setting it up was a breeze. We could each add our items to the menu, and then the system easily split the revenue for our items. They got paid directly and we didn't have to do any additional work." — Holly Montie, Holly Made Bakes
Your own items: each chef adds items from their own item library, and the revenue from those items goes straight to that chef.
Revenue split items: for something you make together, like a gift box or a dinner party ticket, turn on Revenue split on the item. It splits evenly by default, or you can tap the gear icon to set custom percentages or dollar amounts.
Tips: split automatically, based on each chef's share of the order. If your items make up 60% of an order's subtotal, you get 60% of the tip.
Payouts: each chef’s revenue goes into their own Payout tab.
You can mix and match, too. A collab menu can have each chef's own items alongside a few shared ones.
Holiday collab ideas
A bread and butter box. A baker's loaves with a jam maker's preserves or a cultured butter.
Cookies and coffee. A cookie box paired with beans from a local roaster.
A holiday dinner party. A savory chef handles the main, a pastry chef handles dessert, and tickets are a revenue split item.
The whole Thanksgiving table. One chef's smoked turkey or roast, another's rolls and sides, and a baker's pies.
A New Year's brunch box. Bagels or pastries from one chef, spreads or a quiche from another.
How to set up a collab drop
In the portal, go to the Drops tab, click + Create a drop, then Create collab drop.
Fill out the Info, Menu and Schedule steps like you would for any drop. There's also a Collab step.
In the Collab tab, click + Invite and search for the chef by business name or storefront URL. If they're not on Hotplate yet, click Copy to get an invite link and send it to them.
Your collaborators accept the invite. (They'll need a Hotplate account with Stripe set up first.) Then they can add their items and set inventory in the Menu tab.
In the Collab tab, set the tipping, tax rate and fee settings for the drop. They default to the host's settings, so agree on them together before you publish.
Write your drop text and publish. You can publish once at least one collaborator has accepted.
For the full walkthrough, see our collab drop help article.
Finding a collab partner
The best partners make something that goes with your food, not something that competes with it. Start with chefs you already know and like: the vendor next to you at the farmers market, the roaster who supplies your coffee, or a chef whose customers would love what you make.
FAQ
How many chefs can be in a collab? As many as you like. You need the host plus at least one collaborator who has accepted.
Who controls the drop? The host controls the drop info, collab settings and schedule. Collaborators can add items and set inventory in the menu.
Can I invite a chef who isn't on Hotplate? Yes. Send them the invite link. They'll need to create an account and set up Stripe before they can accept. You’ll earn referral credit for a whole year.
Will my customers get more than one text? No. A customer who subscribes to more than one chef in the collab only gets one text.
Can I sell gift cards on a collab drop? Not right now.
Plan your holiday collab
Think of a chef whose food goes with yours, and send them an invite.
Getting ready for the season? Work through your Hotplate holiday checklist, or find more ideas in Holiday HQ.
