Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Jellyfish Entrepreneur

blog.priceonomics.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 42 posts

Re: The Jellyfish Entrepreneur

#21

Post by lubujackson »

Congrats to this business for forging ahead with someone no one else was daring to do. But I do have a bit of an ethical dilemma with the lean startup concept of setting up AdWords to sell something that doesn't yet exist. Especially something like a $25k installation in a restaurant that seems to have turned into a total trainwreck (spilled tank, "other minor problems," then ultimately abandoning jellyfish altogether).

I don't know what the solution should be. Is it on the restaurant to do their own due diligence here? Or should he be (and maybe he was!) upfront about the lack of expertise and do the initial install for minimal profit?

Re: The Jellyfish Entrepreneur

#22

Post by MatthewB »

Congrats to Jellyfish Art. I saw one sitting in my neighbor's window about a year and a half ago and was immediately in awe.

On a separate note, I'm always excited when I see a new blog post from priceonomics. They always choose super interesting topics, do a ton of research, and express the info in a succinct way. Good stuff.

Re: The Jellyfish Entrepreneur

#23

Post by lightup88 »

lubujackson wrote: post #21

Congrats to this business for forging ahead with someone no one else was daring to do. But I do have a bit of an ethical dilemma with the lean startup concept of setting up AdWords to sell something that doesn't yet exist. Especially something like a $25k installation in a restaurant that seems to have turned into a total trainwreck (spilled tank, "other minor problems," then ultimately abandoning jellyfish altogethe…

I agree that actually taking the contract is problematic, but I love the idea of using AdWords as market research and validation. Maybe not revolutionary, but I've never seen such a cool example (a market that essentially didn't exist).

Re: The Jellyfish Entrepreneur

#25

Post by yoster »

Great article! I have been a small entrepreneur myself from time to time. I am currently working on something in the tiny scale, and would like to one day do the same thing on that type of scale.

Re: The Jellyfish Entrepreneur

#26

Post by yosho »

I have the Jellyfish tank and it's pretty cool, however, all the Jellyfish died after about a month. They were too hard to find, get caught up in the rocks a lot, and feeding was a pain. However, we still have the tank and use it to hold tropical fish now.

I would suggest that they go into the tank business and focus on unique designs, that's a scalable business with a big market. I wouldn't buy the Jellyfish again, but if they had another interesting tank, I would get that.

Re: The Jellyfish Entrepreneur

#27

Post by biot »

lightup88 wrote: post #23
lubujackson wrote: post #21

Congrats to this business for forging ahead with someone no one else was daring to do. But I do have a bit of an ethical dilemma with the lean startup concept of setting up AdWords to sell something that doesn't yet exist. Especially something like a $25k installation in a restaurant that seems to have turned into a total trainwreck (spilled tank, "other minor problems," then ultimately abandoning jellyfish altogethe…

I agree that actually taking the contract is problematic, but I love the idea of using AdWords as market research and validation. Maybe not revolutionary, but I've never seen such a cool example (a market that essentially didn't exist).

This is a technique that goes back decades. Put an ad in the classifieds section of newspapers advertising a product for $X plus $Y shipping and handling. Send a check to P.O. Box 12345, New York, NY and wait 6 - 8 weeks for delivery. If the number of orders weren't sufficient, return all the checks saying "Sorry, we sold out." If there are sufficient orders, the 6 - 8 weeks gives you enough lead time to procure the product from suppliers and fulfill the orders.

Re: The Jellyfish Entrepreneur

#30

Post by agent462 »

I'm a long time reef keeper so I instantly jumped on this with the kickstarter campaign. Like many that bought this tank they were littered with issues and flaws in the design that sent the jellyfish to their death.

I consider my reefing keeping ability as advanced with a 220 gallon main display. This tank was also advertised for beginners. As someone who understands the ecosystem, how to mix the salt/water and test for common parameters I would highly discourage this tank and jellies to beginners.

This tank had too many issues.

There are competitors: http://www.moonjellyfish.com/products/eon-jellyfish-system http://www.cubicaquarium.com/product-jellyfish-aquarium.php http://sunsetmarinelabs.com/

They may cost more but the reviews are much better.

Post reply on HN