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Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

ogotechnology.com

71–80 of 195 posts

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#71

It's very easy to get tied up in valuations, unicorns, growth metrics and living the life as a startups with a great idea but no way to monetize it until you get 500millioner users. But at the end of the day they most optimal recipe for success still is 1) Find a real problem 2) Build a solution 3) Start selling There are alternatives to growth-hacking and content marketing and what other tricks are out there. Just l…

While I agree with the spirit of your post, let us step back and think clearly about where your criticism lies. Think about what it means to "hack" on something. Today we often use the term to describe a programmer working feverishly on his software project "hacking away". But based on your use of the term ("growth-hacking") we can see that it can often be used in the sense of hacking a problem into something more ma…

My "criticism" isn't really a criticism of the growth hackers, it's not even a criticism of anything. Sorry if it came off as that.

Just observing that a lot of talk both here on HN and in the media is about finding ways to get your product into an overcrowded market, in front of an audience trying to explain why our product is better than the competitors and often without any way to monetize that. It has it's own merits of course.

I was simply positivity surprised that there are still some people who find what I consider real problems and try to solve them. Without all the bells and whistles because the problem they solve is fundamental enough.

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#72
post #68

Looks cool, but I don't know anything about this market so I can't really comment directly on utility or prospects. But, to take a tangent: I think there's a shift that hardware oriented entrepreneurs might mine for some ideas. Around web 2.0 time there was a shift where people got more comfortable with the internet. They used real names, and pictures without expecting this would inevitably lead to serial killers at…

As a hearing aid wearer, I can probably think of a couple of ways hearing aids could be used to improve hearing of non-impaired[1] but you definitely don't want just "broad spectrum amplification" (hearing every small click, clack & whir gets old fast). Think more along the lines of decrease of external noise in a cafe so you can focus on a conversation, a tunable amplification of quiet sounds, as replacements for blue tooth headphones etc (sound quality is not great currently) stuff along that lines.

> Hearing aids are so uncool 80 year olds don't want to be seen with one. They are all about being small, flesh colored and "invisible."

This might be true for older populations but kids can get brightly coloured hearing aids and moulds[2]! When I was first being fitted for HA's (at age 32) my audiologist assumed I would want the least visible model possible but I opted for larger more visible behind the ear models...I want people who I interact with to be able to see that I have hearing loss. People tend to get annoyed if you ask them over and over to repeat themselves but are generally much more patient if they know you are hard of hearing.

[1] Just FYI The term hearing-impaired is somewhat offensive to some people (not me) who prefer hard-of-hearing or deaf, or Deaf

[2] https://www.google.ca/search?q=kids+hearing+aids&num=30&sour...

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#73

It's very easy to get tied up in valuations, unicorns, growth metrics and living the life as a startups with a great idea but no way to monetize it until you get 500millioner users. But at the end of the day they most optimal recipe for success still is 1) Find a real problem 2) Build a solution 3) Start selling There are alternatives to growth-hacking and content marketing and what other tricks are out there. Just l…

So, when do they start selling?

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#74
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree and I think the cool factor comes from the fact that users of Ogo need it in order to move without their hands being tied up and also that it actually takes a bit of muscle effort to operate. Compare to Segways, which are associated with laziness (at least in my mind).

Segways are cool. Don't have one but I got a chance to test it once. I can see how they could be useful for things like malls and factory floors, in a similar way a kick scooter is. But you know what? Kick scooter is even cooler! The speeds you can achieve on a good concrete surface are exhilarating!

You can do pretty impressive stunts with a kick scooter too!

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#76

One downside I can see for this: it looks like, if the user had a seizure, it would be extremely dangerous. It would keep them in the seat but interpret their movements as erratic hard accelerations and sharp turns.

I noticed two support wheels in the rear. I suspect it might be there to keep the occupant from hurting himself if he fall backward due to a situation like the one you described.

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#78
post #76

One downside I can see for this: it looks like, if the user had a seizure, it would be extremely dangerous. It would keep them in the seat but interpret their movements as erratic hard accelerations and sharp turns.

I noticed two support wheels in the rear. I suspect it might be there to keep the occupant from hurting himself if he fall backward due to a situation like the one you described.

The balance mechanism will keep them from falling backward - but interpret a heavy backward arch as "reverse fast" and a forward jerk as "damn the torpedoes, all ahead full" and a sideways flop as "spin wildly". So it's less a problem of them falling out or falling over, as one of them dashing around like a panicking bull, ramming things and people at 20mph.

Re: Ogo, a new take on personal transportation

#80

One downside I can see for this: it looks like, if the user had a seizure, it would be extremely dangerous. It would keep them in the seat but interpret their movements as erratic hard accelerations and sharp turns.

As an extension to your concern it struck me that this would be amazing for certain types of disabilities but completely useless for others.

I don't think it's meant to be a one-size-fits-all wheelchair.

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