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$400 VC-Backed Juice Machine Is Completely Unnecessary

daringfireball.net

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Re: $400 VC-Backed Juice Machine Is Completely Unnecessary

#5

Post by contingencies »

Exactly what range of processing is done to the fruits and vegetables before packaging? How effectively washed are they given what we now know about pesticides and cognitive development? How environmentally destructive is individual shipment of the packages? How disposal-friendly are the packages? Are fruits and vegetables sourced in season, locally or organically?

I think we can guess what the probable answers are.

Process...

Step 1: Pick a natural, functional, thing like a fruit.

Step 2: Hype the crap out of it (or wait until someone else does).

Step 3: Re-invent some part of it (eg. fruit skin) as an artificial product (eg. QR-coded spacepack) so that you can charge money for it, even though this is both unethical and wasteful, and actually less functional in many ways (eg. hard expiry, juice only output, damage less apparent, etc.) than the original.

Step 4: Sell a subscription.

Step 5: Obtain some kind of industrial protection racket through regulatory means, by claiming the natural alternative is unsanitary, of dubious or dangerously uncontrolled quality.

This is basically how a lot of the pharmaceutical industry works (with a few extra steps like co-opting/corrupting established points of community trust, integrating an insurance protection racket, etc.), as well as diet pills, cuisine fads, juice industry, etc.

Was this really the top US hardware startup last year?

Re: $400 VC-Backed Juice Machine Is Completely Unnecessary

#6

Post by ng12 »

_rpd wrote: post #4
the_cat_kittles wrote: post #3

this has to be a money laundering scam, right?

They are just trying to copy the coffee pod people. It could still become a thing.

But the Keurig is turning a small amount of raw material (coffee grounds) into lots of coffee. I don't understand how the Juicero is different than bottled juice.

Re: $400 VC-Backed Juice Machine Is Completely Unnecessary

#8

Post by _rpd »

ng12 wrote: post #6
_rpd wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are just trying to copy the coffee pod people. It could still become a thing.

But the Keurig is turning a small amount of raw material (coffee grounds) into lots of coffee. I don't understand how the Juicero is different than bottled juice.

Lots of people buy expensive juicers with the idea that they will drink more delicious healthy fresh juice. But then they never use them because it is a hassle. This way they can pretend that they are getting fresh juicer-style juice.

> different than bottled juice

Maybe no different than Suja or something like that. But they charge $8/bottle - so maybe Juicero is cheaper in the long run, even with the wildly overpriced dispenser.

Re: $400 VC-Backed Juice Machine Is Completely Unnecessary

#9

Post by acchow »

contingencies wrote: post #5

Exactly what range of processing is done to the fruits and vegetables before packaging? How effectively washed are they given what we now know about pesticides and cognitive development? How environmentally destructive is individual shipment of the packages? How disposal-friendly are the packages? Are fruits and vegetables sourced in season, locally or organically? I think we can guess what the probable answers are.…

  Was this really the top US hardware startup last year?
Maybe. Magic Leap raised $800 million in Feb 2016, but hasn't launched yet.

Carbon raised $80 million in Sept.

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