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Dead Startup Toys

deadstartuptoys.com

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Re: Dead Startup Toys

#131

Post by steve_adams_86 »

duxup wrote: post #57

>coolestcooler The hyper expensive cooler segment of society is one I never would have predicted / don't understand.

I thought so too, but after months of occasional research I ended up buying (what I consider) an absurdly expensive pelican cooler.

I looked at it based on some main criteria, like:

1. Is it durable

2. How long will it keep stuff cold?

3. What’s the warranty like?

The pelican was 2-3x the cost of alternatives (but the same as a few competitors like Yeti), but ultimately scored best on each. Based on the material it’s made from and the experience I have with their other products (particularly cases, which the cooler essentially is) I felt confident the cooler would be effectively bomb proof and last ages in harsh conditions. It has a lifetime warranty, but I don’t want to have to use those. I want something to really last.

After a few years it still looks brand new and still keeps ice a ridiculously long time.

It’s kind of funny - I put fish in it when spear fishing remotely, which seems ridiculous because I’m putting gnarly stuff in a really nice cooler. Somehow though the plastic doesn’t retain the smell, and it’s still perfectly usable for regular camping trips. Having insurance that fish I catch will stay fresh is incredible though. If I stay somewhere three nights and get my limit each day, I can bring fish/crab/etc home.

Combined with our rooftop tent it means we can camp really comfortably for a long time. It was well worth the cost so far.

Edit: I should add that I don’t work for pelican or anything, I just like my cooler and have become conditioned to justify why I bought it, haha. So many people give me shit for it, it’s programmed in now. I swear it’s worth it - if you’ll actually use it. Something 1/3 the price is fine for plenty of people’s needs too.

Re: Dead Startup Toys

#133

Post by spookthesunset »

kmeisthax wrote: post #42
axiosgunnar wrote: post #2

Is „one laptop per child“ really as bad as the other vaporware/fraudware in the list?

Not necessarily. The list is actually two different categories mixed together: 1. Products which failed because they were targeting their niche poorly (e.g. Juicero, OLPC) 2. Products which failed because they were outright scams (e.g. Theranos, Coolest) However, I do think the failure of OLPC is still interesting enough to deserve a mention on this list. With OLPC in particular they were trying to be like three diff…

That was always my take on OLPC. They tried to do way to much and kept expanding scope.

If they just focused on one slice of the pie, they might have been able to pull it off. For example, build an inexpensive laptop that could be shipped en masse to their target audience.

Re: Dead Startup Toys

#134

Post by legohead »

whymauri wrote: post #63
dotBen wrote: post #56

Seems prudent to point out this isn't the product of a disgruntled's weekend project with fancy webdesign. This is a product from MSCHF which is a $100M+ startup [1] (feels like they're getting a bit of an astroturfed free ride of prime PR on HN because folks may not realize who is behind this) [1] https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/279769-42

Is it astroturf, though? I think this is genuinely hilarious. Elizabeth Holmes as the patron saint of the website is the cherry on top.

I'd say so as they just picked the most well known gadgets.

So they basically put minimal effort into research and surrounded it by a pretty site.

Re: Dead Startup Toys

#135

Post by er4hn »

justin wrote: post #68

I made a video of these toys, which were hilarious to play with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhJye7Xfmys

Thanks for posting this! I wanted to get a feel for the size and movability of the toys. They look pretty fun :)

Re: Dead Startup Toys

#136

Post by BigGreenTurtle »

ceautery wrote: post #85
andyjohnson0 wrote: post #49

They could add the CueCat to their list. I seem to remember that Wired got all excited about it at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

Is this the one by the Cyber Ninjas guy?

He's not the cyber ninjas guy, but he is involved in the big lie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Hutton_Pulitzer#Election_aud...

Re: Dead Startup Toys

#137

Post by agloeregrets »

mushufasa wrote: post #38

Did One Laptop per Child truly fail as a startup? It was always a nonprofit, so of course it didn't make money. While the technology was lacking in many respects, it did serve a lot of children at the time, and proved the market that Chromebooks came to later dominate with a similar approach (linux-based OS with minimal resources at $100-300 price point).

Might I add...don't buy this. Why? Because you can literally buy an ACTUAL OLPC for $20 more.

Re: Dead Startup Toys

#138

Post by Pxtl »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #72

I was expecting a well-researched collection, instead there are a whopping six items. This website is like a startup: promises something exciting, delivers a dud. Feels more like a grudge page. Also, a friend of mine was lucky enough to get a Coolest cooler. It's actually well made and still works. EDIT: I'm a dingdong: this site is actually selling scale-model replicas. Duh.

Yeah, the Coolest Cooler seems like a great product if you're into making blender cocktails at parties. A single unified battery for a Peltier and speaker and blender seems like a sensible idea, although it doesn't add that much value over a separate battery-powered blender, Peltier cooler, and speaker. But realistically every place you're going to want a battery-powered blender you're also going to want a good cooler, so that kind of makes sense, and you can get a pretty good bluetooth speaker from a cereal box-top these days so that's a cheap bolt-on to make this the all-singing all-dancing party machine.

edit: Googling, I can't seem to find out - does it actually provide electric cooling? Or is it just a big high-quality insulated cooler with some electronic doodads attached?

Re: Dead Startup Toys

#140

Post by potatolicious »

mushufasa wrote: post #38

Did One Laptop per Child truly fail as a startup? It was always a nonprofit, so of course it didn't make money. While the technology was lacking in many respects, it did serve a lot of children at the time, and proved the market that Chromebooks came to later dominate with a similar approach (linux-based OS with minimal resources at $100-300 price point).

Arguably OLPC's approach has - in hindsight - been discredited, but yeah, it seems overly cruel to lump it in with Juicero or Theranos.

We do have impossibly cheap computers now that are far more accessible, that do nearly all the things normally expected of computers, and with widely available resources for programming on them - RPi, Chromebooks, etc.

The success of those devices relative to OLPC (with of course, the benefit of hindsight) seems to come down to a few major differences in the approach:

- insistence on highly-custom everything, rather than exploiting as much as possible off-the-shelf to keep costs down.

- insistence on targeting the absolute lowest-cost end of the market initially rather than starting at a higher price point and using that as a starting point for iterative cost-reduction.

The latter pitfall one still sees various hardware startups fall into with some regularity. Universal accessibility is a fantastic goal, but often the easiest way to do it is to sell something considerably more expensive first.

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