I don't know much about this domain, but what's the difference between this and a mobile home?
What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
11–20 of 39 posts
Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
#12This is an odd obit. So much talk about "scaling", "assembly line", "factory", etc just to sell 10 units over four years!! I would have thought a company like this would start out maybe with 1 unit a quarter, then 1 unit a month, then 2 units/month, etc. while seeking product/market fit. Use a general contractor who's good at assembling teams. Keep the core staff minimal.
Looks like it’s 10 units _built_, but yeah, seems like weak sales regardless
Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
#13I wonder if they would have even started if they had hired a consultant who knew what they were getting into?
Seriously, look at his about page:
> I have a degree in Statistics & Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University where I stayed up all night writing algorithms that arbitraged textbooks to pay my tuition. Before, I attended Phillips Exeter Academy ...
This is exactly the type of person I expect to know fuckall about building. I read /r/Construction and it's fascinating, not to mention daunting, how much goes into modern building. Huge debates from blue collar workers on the best way to frame, or pour concrete, or the amount of reinforcements needed. It looks as complex as software engineering but much more costly to make mistakes. Compare to another tech-meets-legacy industry company like FarmLogs, that's been going for 11 years. It worked because the founder grew up and worked on his farm as a kid. He knew exactly how to improve processes because he knew them inside and out.
Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
#14This reads like the classic “tech people try to build an X company as if it were a tech company and learn that they know nothing about the X industry.” I’d love to know more about what drove the mismatch of hiring unskilled labour for the unproven production line. Or rather, what went into the belief that the production line concept would cover for a lack of technical skill. If lesson 2 was, “we should have taken the…
I don't get why there was such an emphasis on building a factory/assembly line from the very beginning. An experienced general contractor can get 650sf dwellings built pretty easily, especially in the confines of a wharehouse.
The assembly line gives the company the Tech Aura which gets them funded.
Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get why there was such an emphasis on building a factory/assembly line from the very beginning. An experienced general contractor can get 650sf dwellings built pretty easily, especially in the confines of a wharehouse.
The assembly line gives the company the Tech Aura which gets them funded.
It's not impossible and there are some advantages. I watched an entire apartment building in Oakland get assembled in like two weeks. The modular pieces were built at Factory OS in Vallejo and trucked in.
Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
#16I don't know much about this domain, but what's the difference between this and a mobile home?
Not too familiar with the domain either, seems like these are prefab units but not intentionally mobile unless hoisted onto a truck
Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
#17I don't know much about this domain, but what's the difference between this and a mobile home?
The zip code
Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
#18Huh, I could've sworn there was an HN submission where this company announced they were pivoting to a different business model. I remember being happy, because I thought "get poor people to pay to live in a poverty box in their betters' back yards" was the most dystopian shit I'd ever heard.
Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
#19Is there a typo in the intro, or did they really build only 10 (ten) houses during 4 years?
I think I could personally build ten little backyard houses in four years all by myself.
—edit—
Did some reading on this project and it seems they intended to do 10 units as a test run, just wondering if they get to keep them or if the homeowners have to buy them out?
Re: What happened to Pippin / Rent the Backyard
#20Huh, I could've sworn there was an HN submission where this company announced they were pivoting to a different business model. I remember being happy, because I thought "get poor people to pay to live in a poverty box in their betters' back yards" was the most dystopian shit I'd ever heard.
Right after college, I lived in an illegal barely dry-walled off 1BR slice of a 4BR house and later in a (probably illegal) basement apartment in a split-level.
They fit my budget/needs and were way better than being homeless. I don’t see the problem of people building housing to serve the left third of the economic distribution.