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Juicero Is Shutting Down

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Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#241

Post by rdl »

ogreface wrote: post #156
rdl wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the founders did come from that world and tried to consumerize it. If they'd focused on per-juice-cost (thus, high volume) and gone from attended to semi-attended (office) or unattended (vending machine) it might have won. They also could have just built a "scrappier" v1.0 hardware product at a lower cost (maybe with rollers or something) at 50% BOM cost and subsidized it a bit more. At $200 + $6-8 per…

Rollers were my immediate thought as to how to get the juice out. Would love one of their engineers to chime in and talk about the reasons they built it that way.

The AvE teardown mentioned this. It does give you uniform force across the entire work surface, which is theoretically superior, but I think it's a case where a 5% improvement in results does not warrant 75% increase in BOM cost and design, at least in v1 of a relatively virgin market (if the market were flooded with roller systems, you could possibly differentiate with a press based 1.0, but no need to do that out the gate in a virgin market.)

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#242

Post by _jtrig »

yahna wrote: post #231
_sentient wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer to this is fairly straightforward: VCs don't actually expect (or need) every investment to be successful, they just need it to have the potential to be huge if everything works out. Laypeople always seem shocked when a VC-funded company implodes. We should actually be surprised if we didn't see routine flame-outs, as that would mean VCs aren't taking on appropriate quantities of risk for the asset class. A…

It's not that a VC company failed, it's that the entire idea looks completely ridiculous from the start.

You could say that same about Soylent as it's simply a Pediasure/Ensure marketed towards hipster 20-somethings. People love drawing the conclusion that superior marketing/design equates to better products.

Often times, if you can make a consumer happy with the experience, they don't care if they're overpaying for a terrible product.

The problem with Juicero is that their user experience laid bare how futile and ridiculous their product was by having consumers manufacture the product themselves.

If the Juicero simply made those juices in a bottle (EVEN IF the nutritional value was lost during bottling) I can see them succeeding based purely on their marketing and people suspending disbelief to support their idea they were being healthy while looking cool.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#243

Post by danielfoster »

johnhenry wrote: post #205

I simply do not understand the mindset of silicon valley investors. I used to think that perhaps they had some edge that helped them to get behind successful companies, but looking at this -- how much money they raised and from whom -- I think that there are just a bunch of people who have so much money that they can afford to risk throwing it away on something that will not likely succeed. Can someone watch the vide…

If "knowing your users" applies to startup success, it should also apply to VC startup success. I think most VCs are simply out of touch and thus don't understand what average consumers want, leading to poor investment decisions like this.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#244

Post by pfarnsworth »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #238
johnhenry wrote: post #205

I simply do not understand the mindset of silicon valley investors. I used to think that perhaps they had some edge that helped them to get behind successful companies, but looking at this -- how much money they raised and from whom -- I think that there are just a bunch of people who have so much money that they can afford to risk throwing it away on something that will not likely succeed. Can someone watch the vide…

What I don’t understand is how they flopped after getting so much publicity? Was the price too high? Didn’t manage to turn PR against them? Was it designed to fail? I think the product is awesome in every possible way. The model worked for Nespresso (Kruger or smth in US), printers, dishwashers, Soylent, etc.

I know a couple of people that worked at Juicero. The news article that humiliated Juicero came just as they were about to get another round of funding. All of the investors pulled out, so they basically ran out of cash. This is completely due to the negative publicity generated by that one article that went viral. It couldn't have come at a more inopportune time for them, it's almost as if the reporters wanted to do as much damage as possible to the company.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#245

Post by FICO »

na85 wrote: post #225
frobozz wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> keeps you from cooking with rotten food If only we had some kind of olfactory or optical equipment stuck on the front of our faces that could help determine the rottenness or mouldiness of food. Failing that, perhaps producers of packaged food could use some kind of common standard system to inform consumers of the date by which the food should be used by, or before which it might be at its best.

Your point is valid, but recently here in Canada there was a recall on contaminated flour. Can't remember if it was anthrax or E Coli. Your eyes/nose won't pick up bacteria in the flour.

Sure, food recalls happen all the time. However, they are selling as a subscription service- they know what packets they shipped you. If there's a recall they should email you, snail mail you, and automatically issue you a refund on your credit card. WiFi is beyond overkill.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#246

Post by FICO »

abawany wrote: post #224
FICO wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will probably be available on eBay cheaply now that they are paperweights for those who bought them.

Maybe I misread but apparently the company is offering refunds up until Dec-31 to anyone who purchased one of these.

That doesn't mean they are going to require you to ship the machine back to them.

(I'm assuming there's tons of people who are going to miss that deadline anyway)

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#247

Post by Laforet »

_jtrig wrote: post #242
yahna wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that a VC company failed, it's that the entire idea looks completely ridiculous from the start.

You could say that same about Soylent as it's simply a Pediasure/Ensure marketed towards hipster 20-somethings. People love drawing the conclusion that superior marketing/design equates to better products. Often times, if you can make a consumer happy with the experience, they don't care if they're overpaying for a terrible product. The problem with Juicero is that their user experience laid bare how futile and ridic…

>The problem with Juicero is that their user experience laid bare how futile and ridiculous their product was by having consumers manufacture the product themselves.

Blue Apron and every other meal kit delivery business sits on the other end of the same road, yet they seem to be doing okay and without the same level of ridicule.

I wonder whether Juicero could have avoided this outcome had they mailed their customers whole fruits and asked them to peel and fill their own juice bags, that way people will not be able to put two and two together to realise that it is just another beverage maker with DRM.

P.S. I remember Juicero being rather well received by the resturant industry as it is fully automated and requires minimal cleanup, so perhaps they marketed to the wrong crowd after all.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#248

Post by FTA »

danielfoster wrote: post #243
johnhenry wrote: post #205

I simply do not understand the mindset of silicon valley investors. I used to think that perhaps they had some edge that helped them to get behind successful companies, but looking at this -- how much money they raised and from whom -- I think that there are just a bunch of people who have so much money that they can afford to risk throwing it away on something that will not likely succeed. Can someone watch the vide…

If "knowing your users" applies to startup success, it should also apply to VC startup success. I think most VCs are simply out of touch and thus don't understand what average consumers want, leading to poor investment decisions like this.

While I agree, I don't think it's the case every VC desires to appeal to the average consumer. Companies ranging from Gucci to Rolls Royce to Tesla have made a good business for themselves knowing what the above average consumers they want to cater to like. Thus VCs, like any company, should be judged as to how well they know their target audience. At their price point, Juicero clearly wasn't wanting to appeal to the average consumer. But they instead missed the mark in appealing to their target market--the wealthier than average.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#249

Post by david927 »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #244
dzhiurgis wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don’t understand is how they flopped after getting so much publicity? Was the price too high? Didn’t manage to turn PR against them? Was it designed to fail? I think the product is awesome in every possible way. The model worked for Nespresso (Kruger or smth in US), printers, dishwashers, Soylent, etc.

I know a couple of people that worked at Juicero. The news article that humiliated Juicero came just as they were about to get another round of funding. All of the investors pulled out, so they basically ran out of cash. This is completely due to the negative publicity generated by that one article that went viral. It couldn't have come at a more inopportune time for them, it's almost as if the reporters wanted to do…

Most companies get hard press. This report went viral and shut down the company because it exposed the product as being ridiculous.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#250

Post by briandear »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #239
smartician wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You see a juice shop sprout at every corner of your yuppie neighborhood, and you read about the success of Keurig, who married the coffee machine with the consumer-level printer, which allows you to control which consumables go into your machine, and you think that this can somehow be translated to said fresh juice craze. So I don't think it's completely crazy. But a back-of-the-envelope calculation should have shown…

Juice is not addictive as caffeine, perhaps that’s why.

It is probably because I can go to the store right now and buy pretty great Odwalla stuff that tastes good and is healthy. However, pre-brewed coffee from a bottle isn’t at the same level as fresh coffee. The point is that there are reasonable substitutes for a Juicero, but coffee at home is something people already make but most people don’t care about making their own juice — and if they were aficionados, they would have a real juicer. Juicero just didn’t make much sense. It wasn’t solving a problem most people had.

Many people make coffee each day and they might even drink juice, but most people drink juice from bottles, so Juicero was solving a problem that didn’t really need solving for the average consumer.

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