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Half-Baked Product

weli.dev

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Re: Half-Baked Product

#201

Post by afandian »

broken-kebab wrote: post #113
afandian wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The innovation here is clearly edible soap. And the 'less water' claim is technically correct, but it doesn't mention the decamethylcyclopentasiloxane. Just because it's complicated to spell, you understand.

>edible soap Sodium bicarbonate residue won't kill our customers, so consider it technically edible. The issue of taste and efficiency will be approached after MVP

Luckily our investors helped us out with the regulatory capture, so we don’t need to worry about the safety, just the palatability.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#202

Post by teiferer »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #191
red_admiral wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, the fundamental problem is what Paul Graham pointed out here: https://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html "The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It's to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself. Why do so many founders build things no one wants? Because they begin by trying to think of startup ideas. That m.o. is doubly dangerous: it doesn't merely yield few goo…

> Finding a problem _you have yourself_ also increases the chance that you understand the problem space. If most founders are wealthy, or even reasonably comfortable, it's possible they're too out of touch to identify a problem shared by enough people.

Depends what kind of market you are going after. Mass market for end users, sure, your argument applies. But there are lots of other types too.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#203

Post by clan »

weitendorf wrote: post #175
clan wrote: post #10

This was such a funny and refreshing read. Especially to find on this VC fuelled forum. There was so much truth in this on a Dilbertesque level. If you can learn from this you are winning. I am not saying "VC bad". I am saying it is a sharp-edged tool which you need to wield with great care. This humorous piece really points out the pitfalls. Worth the read - do not just lurk here in the comment section (as I usually…

I had the opposite reaction, this felt like a story that was literally purpose-built for pandering the hn audience without saying anything interesting. Good fiction teaches you something you hadn't seen before, or challenges your perspective, or articulates a point of view or personality that you had never before considered. If it's just "some guy went to work and it sucked and he was right and everyone else was wron…

I grant you that it might pander to a certain audience.

You are 100% correct on good fiction.

I have the feeling that you will not like Franz Kafka.

Without elevating this piece to that level I think we can still agree to disagree on what good fiction is.

Or maybe your humor is better aligned with the socially-contingent reality of Franz.

But your perspective is valued. I need to shake of my bias and remember that there are no easy wins. For each point there is a counter. And I find it hard to argue against yours as my bias makes your stance feel very dismissive. Everything then turns into wedge issues.

I would have preferred an argument based on why the piece was flawed not how. Then I could counter with my experience and we could have had a conversation.

Enough Internet for me today! ;-)

Re: Half-Baked Product

#204

Post by sarchertech »

singpolyma3 wrote: post #179
ranyume wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your solution is to fire CEOs, shareholders and only make employee-owned businesses? I mean I'm on board.

CEOs are employees...

Except that they usually sit on the board and frequently chair the board.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#205

Post by __alexs »

brap wrote: post #159

We keep seeing this. If you had to point out the fundamental problem, what would it be? I think it’s the disconnect. Each persona is an expert in their own field but is completely oblivious to other critical areas. The founder knows how to raise money but doesn’t really understand the customers. The engineer knows the tech but doesn’t really understand what it takes to keep the business afloat. The salesperson knows…

The problem is that people are not listening to each other. Part of this is just working together is hard, but a bigger part is that there is status associated with being "in charge" of things as founder. The desire to feel like you are controlling the outcome and people need to take instruction and direction from you rather than working together to find a path through the forest.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#206

Post by teiferer »

TrackerFF wrote: post #138

One important part of the story is in the very beginning: The founder’s motivation. To become wealthy. You see this in the startup world a lot. Founders with 5+ failed startups in different sectors, because said founder picked the fields mainly by doing some market analysis. Not domain expertise. There’s then a big mismatch between what the founder thinks is possible, and what the domain expert thinks is possible. Th…

> The defense is of course that some people can do that - Musk did it, so why not?

If you think that Musk did his endeavors in order to become rich, you are likely mistaken.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#207

Post by ValentineC »

chasd00 wrote: post #98
flowerbreeze wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you're joking, but I've long dreamed of a different type of dishwasher. One that washes instantly. I don't need it to fit more than a single plate at one time. Just put something in from one end, and out comes clean and dry plate on the other end. Like a car wash. I am quite certain these exist already large kitchens and I seem to remember one from a school diner from maybe 35 years ago, but I've alway…

The answer is obviously paper plates and plastic silverware /s

[dead]

Re: Half-Baked Product

#208

Post by teiferer »

sixtram wrote: post #23

Oh, I'm glad I don't work in the oven business. We're just starting a stealth startup that's revolutionizing dishwashers, and the prototypes are amazing. They use less water, less detergent, and this weekend we're hoping to solve the last remaining issue: occasionally, they break glasses.

I hope you are planning for a rotating base as a core feature.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#209

Post by hwh »

ogoffart wrote: post #55

Similar story here. Even though our ovens actually work fine, the problem is a new competitor: OpenOven. Their oven is completely free, and on the Italian forum everyone talks about them. It has even way more buttons than ours (most don't work very well, but the community loves it). We almost sold to MrBaguette, one of the biggest bakery chains in the world, as they wanted new oven supplier for their next generation…

I started OpenOven in my free time of which I had a lot when I was still studying law. Ovens were always something I was interested in and I created FunkyPizzaHeater, as it was named when I started it, only to play around with the tech. I published it on the Italian Oven forums and it really hit a nerve, there were immediately 2 people who took the design a bit further. People tried building them and posted photos, there was a lot of discussion and eventually we agreed on a new name and moved the OpenOven project to github. It was still a project for oven enthusiasts who liked lots of buttons, until it was miraculously featured by a slightly weird but lovable YouTuber with 2 million subscribers who suggested OpenOven to anyone to finally get rid of corporate big oven.

Re: Half-Baked Product

#210

Post by clan »

alias_neo wrote: post #42
clan wrote: post #10

This was such a funny and refreshing read. Especially to find on this VC fuelled forum. There was so much truth in this on a Dilbertesque level. If you can learn from this you are winning. I am not saying "VC bad". I am saying it is a sharp-edged tool which you need to wield with great care. This humorous piece really points out the pitfalls. Worth the read - do not just lurk here in the comment section (as I usually…

Interesting you found this funny. I didn't find it funny at all, my response at the end was somewhere between a sigh and a gasp. - Mario

Yeah. I find it important to laugh at the absurdities of life. I found this to be a home-run (albeit light-weight).

It really surprised me how it seems to have polarized people. I never seem to learn.

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