Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze • Hacker News Board

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#31

Post by distances » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:00 PM UTC

TillE wrote: post #3

So what's actually inside the packs, very fine bits of wet plant matter? Is there any real benefit of this over just selling bottles of fancy juice?

The same thing I was left wondering. What's the point here with $400 machine and juices 5-8 dollars per serving? I'm sure they could get some thousands of users, but how on earth could this be worth such a large investment?

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#32

Post by 6stringmerc » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:00 PM UTC

Anybody else get flashbacks to the Tom Hanks movie Big where using the mentality of a kid renders all the focus group and marketing analytic charts, well, kind of irrelevant. "Who wants to play with a building?" correlates to "Why don't I just squeeze this weird Capri-Sun pack thingy into the cup?" pretty nicely to me. Neat to see this, kind of humorous in a non-catastrophic way. It's not like the machine catches fire or explodes. This is...just life.

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#33

Post by gambiting » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:00 PM UTC

TillE wrote: post #3

So what's actually inside the packs, very fine bits of wet plant matter? Is there any real benefit of this over just selling bottles of fancy juice?

Literally just the juice, the device doesn't even add water or anything. It's a $400 bag squeezer.

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#34

Post by tdeck » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:01 PM UTC

I don't understand this product at all. If you're willing to buy a pack of prepared juice, why not just buy a bottle of juice instead?

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#35

Post by pablobaz » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:01 PM UTC

Surely what they need is some way it can be consumed straight from the pack?

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#36

Post by film42 » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:02 PM UTC

I bet you could also use a straw and drink it right out of the pouch!

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#37

Post by omginternets » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:02 PM UTC

grabcocque wrote: post #6

$120m from investors none of whom were aware you don't need a $400 machine to squeeze the juice from fruit? How do people with so little sense get so much money?

Because they sell to people with more money than sense.

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#38

Post by pdog » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:03 PM UTC

What do the contents of a juice pack look like prior to juicing? As far as I know, it's not possible to manually extract meaningful amounts of juice from leafy greens or root vegetables (e.g., spinach, romaine, kale, beets, ginger) so the ingredients must be processed before going into the packs.

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#39

Post by baron816 » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:03 PM UTC

personjerry wrote: post #12

dpflan wrote: post #5

"Two investors in Juicero were surprised to learn the startup’s juice packs could be squeezed by hand without using its high-tech machine." This sounds almost comical...

I really hope a reference to that makes it to season 4 of HBO's Silicon Valley

It's probably too late. I'm sure they've filmed the whole thing already.

Re: Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

#40

Post by shimon » Wed, Apr 19, 2017, 4:04 PM UTC

wyldfire wrote: post #10

> Juicero declined to comment. A person close to the company said Juicero is aware the packs can be squeezed by hand but that most people would prefer to use the machine because the process is more consistent and less messy. "We kinda didn't think about this much because the real money is in the packets anyways. This stuff is way better than ink cartridges."

True, but the proprietary tech in the machine was supposed to be a form of defensible advantage for this business. If the product value comes entirely from chopping and delivering vegetables in a bag, it wouldn't be hard for others to replicate.