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Silicon Valley's $400 Juicer May Be Feeling the Squeeze (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares a Bloomberg report: One of the most lavishly funded gadget startups in Silicon Valley last year was Juicero Inc. It makes a juice machine. The product was an unlikely pick for top technology investors, but they were drawn to the idea of an internet-connected device that transforms single-serving packets of chopped fruits and vegetables into a refreshing and healthy beverage. Doug Evans, the company's founder, would compare himself with Steve Jobs in his pursuit of juicing perfection. He declared that his juice press wields four tons of force -- "enough to lift two Teslas," he said. Google's venture capital arm and other backers poured about $120 million into the startup. Juicero sells the machine for $400, plus the cost of individual juice packs delivered weekly. But after the product hit the market, some investors were surprised to discover a much cheaper alternative: You can squeeze the Juicero bags with your bare hands. Two backers said the final device was bulkier than what was originally pitched and that they were puzzled to find that customers could achieve similar results without it.
I confess, I RTFA.
Bags are $5-$8 and produce about 8 fluid ounces of juice. There are a lot of chumps in the world, but this is just pushing stupid a few steps too far. Even the special kind of 'stupid' that comes from lack of meat in the diet won't fall for this crap (outside LA anyhow).
The company obviously doesn't understand it's own business model. They are now only selling the bags to known machine purchasers. Apparently to stop 'hand squeezers'. Would HP refuse you printer ink because you hadn't registered your inkjet?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Consider this quote from TFA: "Tech blogs have dubbed it a 'Keurig for juice.'" Then consider how Keurig machines and the coffee pods they use have sold over the past few years. Nobody ever went broke overestimating people's laziness.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Um, no. There is no WTF in the flyover states. But there is a lot of WTH, as in WTH are you doing here. Get back on the plane and go back to your big cities, your crime, your crazy housing prices, your traffic, your pollution, your starless night skies and don't come back here with your snotty, better than everyone else attitude. Life is just fine without your kind wandering around our neighborhoods.
The selling point is that each bag has a QR patch on the back that is read by the machine when you hook the bag up. It's connected to the internet so that if you attempt to use the bag past it's freshness date, which is on the QR patch, the machine won't let you. The bags are also reusable; the company comes to our office and picks up the used bags and then reuses them (presumably after washing them) to redeliver more juice bags at a later date.
The QR patch and internet connection also allows info to be sent if there's a recall on a bad batch of juice. I would also suspect the company is collecting data on which juices are the most popular and adjusting their products accordingly, as I haven't seen the "Spicy Greens" juice packs in my office in a while, as it seems no one but me was drinking them.
This is not a product for the average user. It's sold I would suspect to companies with a fair amount of employees who can go through the packs regularly and make it worthwhile for the company to purchase packs on a constant basis. The average user probably wouldn't get a great deal of value out of it. But for our company, it is used regularly and often. It's pretty good juice, no doubt about it.