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Juicero Is Shutting Down

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Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#281

Post by wpietri »

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…

You talk as if the negative press wasn't justified. And as if journalists were supposed to consider a company's convenience when writing about them. And as if investors were such empty vessels that they are blown hither and thither by each thing they read.

If one negative article about your product can kill your company, your problem is not a couple of journalists. It's your product.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#282

Post by Powerofmene »

adwn wrote: post #37
Powerofmene wrote: post #12

It is a shame that Juicero could not develop a product with a lower price point that could reach a much broader marketplace. With the initial price point they should have clearly seen that their customer pool was going to be smaller than that of a lower cost product. It seems that they did not have enough time and money to right their ship. It is sad to see a dream die even if you don't agree with the product or busi…

> It is sad to see a dream die even if you don't agree with the product or business plan. Why is that sad? They were trying to solve some made-up problem in a way that would have wasted resources and created a lot of waste. They didn't do this to make the world a better place, their goal was to get rich (which isn't immoral by itself), so why should we – as a society or as individuals – be sad that they failed?

Whatever their motivation, there are employees who had no say in the decisions the founders made who are now out of work. It is sad that the founder and those who make product decisions etc did not think of their employees when they went off in a direction with little hope of success and mainly because they failed to carry out basic business research.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#284

Post by krrrh »

_sentient wrote: post #216
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…

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…

The reason people are shocked isn't that VCs are willing to take a risk on an idea that appears ridiculous at first blanche, it's that Juicero had 4 rounds of investment before they launched, which amounted to $118.5M. That includes a $70M Series B in 2016-03 which was quickly followed by a $28M Series C one month later. [1]

Few would be surprised by a few million being spent looking for a market fit on a wacky idea, it's the scale and obvious demand to get involved at such a late stage.

[1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/juicero#/entity

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#285

Post by eh78ssxv2f »

FICO wrote: post #169
Spivak wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should probably split hairs here. I would love for all of my appliances to be networked -- just not on the public internet. - Preheat the oven as I'm driving home - Alert me when my laundry/dishes are done - Alert me if my air filter needs replaced. - Manage my AC/Heating for maximum energy efficiency. - Real time energy usage monitoring. - Turn on/off lights when I arrive/leave.

Idk... I wouldn't want to have my oven on when I am not home- it might just be me but it seems dangerous to leave a hot oven unattended. I always check the oven before starting it to make sure it's empty. I guess I am somewhat paranoid that something somehow ended up in there. The rest of the stuff I, personally, don't see any value in other than energy efficiency and that doesn't really require networking. My fridge…

> I wouldn't want to have my oven on when I am not home- it might just be me but it seems dangerous to leave a hot oven unattended.

Well, then you are in the market for an IoT oven that is connected to your phone and car. A device that can continuously track your phone and car location, and turn off the networked oven if you are outside the house.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#286

Post by krrrh »

tesin wrote: post #269
marcosdumay wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- A capsule coffee machine is way cheaper than an expresso machine. - Expressos are minimally hard to make correctly, and those capsules are above even the quality of some coffee shops. - There is a big movement of gourmet coffee that favors high priced drinks with the correct marketing (not perfectly correlated with quality). None of those seem to apply to Juicero. They may have aimed at the last point, but I don't…

It's espresso, not expresso. Capsule is far more expensive over the it's lifetime than something like a Gaggia Classic. Capsules aren't anywhere near the quality of coffee shops, unless you're counting Dunkin.

> It's espresso, not expresso.

Nitpick on your nitpick. While the word originated in Italy as espresso and that is mostly what we use in the English-speaking world, expresso is not totally uncommon and it's not necessarily a misspelling or folk-etymological error. French and Portuguese use the expresso variation for instance, and the x spelling is considered 're-latinized'.

Depending on where you live the beverage may have entered your culture via French or Italian influences, perhaps one reason why expresso seems more common in Canada than in the US (though espresso dominates in Canada as well, no doubt helped by the ubiquity of Starbucks).

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#288

Post by subcosmos »

hwillis wrote: post #188
microcolonel wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does, it is shredded vegetation in a bag which is squeezed by an amazingly overengineered solid steel screw press with giant, beautiful one-piece plastic moldings on the back. It is also true that you can extract the vast majority of the fluid without the press just fine. It is not "chopped" into "smaller" pieces, but literally shredded.

Nope; check it out: https://vimeo.com/214030931 That's mostly carrot (+lemon and orange) but still it's very dry. See also AvE's video[1] where he opens a bag and its full of processed but still largely intact pomegranate. You can squeeze most of a first glass out by hand[2] but that's about it. To get the rest out a press really is necessary- but Juicero isn't just a press. It's massive machined aluminum billets and…

He says in the video, "Ain't no kill like overkill"

LMAO

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#289

Post by dunmalg »

tesin wrote: post #269
marcosdumay wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- A capsule coffee machine is way cheaper than an expresso machine. - Expressos are minimally hard to make correctly, and those capsules are above even the quality of some coffee shops. - There is a big movement of gourmet coffee that favors high priced drinks with the correct marketing (not perfectly correlated with quality). None of those seem to apply to Juicero. They may have aimed at the last point, but I don't…

It's espresso, not expresso. Capsule is far more expensive over the it's lifetime than something like a Gaggia Classic. Capsules aren't anywhere near the quality of coffee shops, unless you're counting Dunkin.

Actually, ANY coffee brewed in a proper machine is going to be better than keurig, even from a Dunkin Donuts. Coffee needs three things to be ok: recently roasted grounds in suffice quantity, hot enough water, and long enough brew time. You can skimp on one of those three and still get barely passable coffee. Fall short of two of those marks and the coffee is crap water. Keurig machines fail at all three. The only redeeming quality of Keurig is a convenient single serving format.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#290

Post by ericd »

chrischen wrote: post #259
_jtrig wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Pediasure/Ensure show that the market that Soylent enters actually exists.

Odwalla/Naked Juice?
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