Fantastic news guys! I use it every time I'm in San Francisco, and I can't wait until it's more ubiquitous.
I also love that you guys have an Android app now. Makes it much more accessible!
Our Magic
31–40 of 44 posts
Re: Our Magic
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
That you are no-one and they are a big company,mature and well organized? This is what I got as a person how know nothing about both. And I am not sure that is a point for you.
C'mon that's just not fair. The point is, in case you truly didn't get it, is that these guys are a scrappy start-up (which, we hope, isn't burning money into a fiery pit of despair), and Webvan is a too-big-for-its-britches lumbering incumbent. Good luck guys - Instacart seems like it's got amazing potential and I hope you guys do wonderfully.
It is totally fair. People (especially in the valley) tend to think small is better/more efficient than big. But what are the statistics on actual failure rates?
Start-ups that 'succeed' (buyouts, etc) for their founders can still fail before making any real difference in the actual marketplace.
Nothing against Instacart, but that first picture must become like the second before history will call them 'successful'
Re: Our Magic
#33In the UK the supermarkets offer a delivered groceries service themselves. Is this something that US supermarkets don't offer? Or is Instacart's selling point the rush delivery?
Maybe something like that does exist in the US, but I've never heard of it. Very few businesses deliver; pizza, sandwiches, Chinese food. That's about it.
Re: Our Magic
#34For anyone comparing us to Webvan - we are different. I've shared why that's the case several times before (google instacart). But, I think pictures speak louder than words: Instacart: http://imgur.com/2tWWh Webvan: http://minus.com/l2Mq5zUpwCP6E
I think this is best translated as: Back in the day you couldn't get this kind of business off the ground without a huge fulfillment center, a huge server farm and a huge fleet of trucks. Today all you need is a notebook.
And for those who aren't aware, WebVan attempted to do roughly the same thing over 10 years ago in the dotcom boom and was a poster child of the famous crash.
Re: Our Magic
#35I think Instacart is a fantastic concept / service but for me it doesn't come without some internal conflict. When I was in grad school and didn't have a car, it was a huge pain to go grocery shopping. I had to bike a mile to the nearest grocery store and I could only fit a few items in my backpack. On top of that, it would rain often (thank you Florida), making the whole experience absolutely miserable. I always wis…
The thing is that someone who is listing their services on TaskRabbit wants to exchange their time for money. If it's an amount of money that's worth it to you, it's not you who valued their time less then your own, it's they who did it. Why do law firms have janitors? Because lawyers' time is economically, if not morally, more expensive than janitors' time.
It's not a cultural failure to hire someone to do something you could do yourself, but rather wouldn't. Someone who is on TaskRabbit delivering groceries probably isn't using a bicycle, can get better at it than you can by combining deliveries, and can make money at the same time. It's a win for both parties.
Re: Our Magic
#36I think Instacart is a fantastic concept / service but for me it doesn't come without some internal conflict. When I was in grad school and didn't have a car, it was a huge pain to go grocery shopping. I had to bike a mile to the nearest grocery store and I could only fit a few items in my backpack. On top of that, it would rain often (thank you Florida), making the whole experience absolutely miserable. I always wis…
The entire purpose of the modern economy is to pay other people to do things so you don't have to do them yourself. Did you build your house from trees that you chopped down yourself? Do you grow all your own food? Do you cut your own hair?
If you think it's worthwhile to do your own grocery shopping, then you may do so. But there's nothing wrong with paying someone else for a service.
Re: Our Magic
#37I think Instacart is a fantastic concept / service but for me it doesn't come without some internal conflict. When I was in grad school and didn't have a car, it was a huge pain to go grocery shopping. I had to bike a mile to the nearest grocery store and I could only fit a few items in my backpack. On top of that, it would rain often (thank you Florida), making the whole experience absolutely miserable. I always wis…
The entire purpose of the modern economy is to pay other people to do things so you don't have to do them yourself. Did you build your house from trees that you chopped down yourself? Do you grow all your own food? Do you cut your own hair? If you think it's worthwhile to do your own grocery shopping, then you may do so. But there's nothing wrong with paying someone else for a service.
You presumably pay people for their skillsets. Screwing a light bulb in or doing your grocery shopping doesn't require a special skillset. There are some tasks that just aren't in the same ballpark as building homes, growing food, and cutting hair, and I think shopping is one of them.
Re: Our Magic
#38I think Instacart is a fantastic concept / service but for me it doesn't come without some internal conflict. When I was in grad school and didn't have a car, it was a huge pain to go grocery shopping. I had to bike a mile to the nearest grocery store and I could only fit a few items in my backpack. On top of that, it would rain often (thank you Florida), making the whole experience absolutely miserable. I always wis…
The thing is that someone who is listing their services on TaskRabbit wants to exchange their time for money. If it's an amount of money that's worth it to you, it's not you who valued their time less then your own, it's they who did it. Why do law firms have janitors? Because lawyers' time is economically, if not morally, more expensive than janitors' time. It's not a cultural failure to hire someone to do something…
I urge you to think deeper about this. You are saying these people chose to list their time, but why do they consider it in the first place and why don't you? Alternatively, think about the array of choices they have to make money and yours.
I'm not saying its an immoral service. I'm implying that "distributed labor" startups are problematic for me to participate in as a customer because I find the notion of spinning up people like we do servers to do tasks that I can buy my way out of to be problematic.
Re: Our Magic
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
C'mon that's just not fair. The point is, in case you truly didn't get it, is that these guys are a scrappy start-up (which, we hope, isn't burning money into a fiery pit of despair), and Webvan is a too-big-for-its-britches lumbering incumbent. Good luck guys - Instacart seems like it's got amazing potential and I hope you guys do wonderfully.
It is totally fair. People (especially in the valley) tend to think small is better/more efficient than big. But what are the statistics on actual failure rates? Start-ups that 'succeed' (buyouts, etc) for their founders can still fail before making any real difference in the actual marketplace. Nothing against Instacart, but that first picture must become like the second before history will call them 'successful'
I think the point of the image is more that starting small makes them less likely to fail SPECTACULARLY. There is zero chance that Instacart will lose $830 million before it sees traction, which is what happened to Webvan. If Webvan had just been a small grocery startup, nobody would have cared if it failed.
Also, "historically notable" is a pretty high bar you're setting.
Finally, I'm sure Instacart hopes to reach that kind of scale eventually. But they don't want to start there because again, that's how you fail spectacularly and lose tons of money without giving people something they want.
Re: Our Magic
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing is that someone who is listing their services on TaskRabbit wants to exchange their time for money. If it's an amount of money that's worth it to you, it's not you who valued their time less then your own, it's they who did it. Why do law firms have janitors? Because lawyers' time is economically, if not morally, more expensive than janitors' time. It's not a cultural failure to hire someone to do something…
I urge you to think deeper about this. You are saying these people chose to list their time, but why do they consider it in the first place and why don't you? Alternatively, think about the array of choices they have to make money and yours. I'm not saying its an immoral service. I'm implying that "distributed labor" startups are problematic for me to participate in as a customer because I find the notion of spinning…
Whoah, hold on a minute. There are millions of people doing things for you less expensively. Just because you have a direct connection to an Instacarter (or whoever) doesn't really change much.