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Why we’re closing Walnut

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Re: Why we’re closing Walnut

#61

Post by nihonde »

ggg9990 wrote: post #42
nihonde wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved several times in Japan. Extreme care was taken in each case to correctly estimate the work, itemize the inventory and note existing damage, to secure the home, elevator, and common areas against new damage, and to obtain necessary approvals from building and local officials. The price was quite low — about USD$1,500 to move a four bedroom household to a two bedroom penthouse condo in a city three hours’ drive…

Japan is such an outlier in so many things, especially things involving care and precision, that I don't think it's reasonable to assume that things elsewhere can be similar. 6-year-olds take the subway alone in Japan, and it would be great if we could do that in the US, but most places, we can't.

A lot of that difference is attributable to setting high standards and holding yourself accountable to them.

Re: Why we’re closing Walnut

#62

Post by Double_a_92 »

yeukhon wrote: post #7

I am a Chinese so my family usually have some Chinese contractor do the moving. A couple years ago my family and I bought a home (finally!) and we hired a contractor to come in, after my family and I had packed up everything (since my dad is a jack-of-all-trade kind of a smart man). The contractor paid two Hispanic workers to do most of the heavy-lifting work, but we also helped anyway so we get the move done ASAP. T…

So black labor and exploitation? ._.

Re: Why we’re closing Walnut

#63

Post by TillE »

ggg9990 wrote: post #42
nihonde wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved several times in Japan. Extreme care was taken in each case to correctly estimate the work, itemize the inventory and note existing damage, to secure the home, elevator, and common areas against new damage, and to obtain necessary approvals from building and local officials. The price was quite low — about USD$1,500 to move a four bedroom household to a two bedroom penthouse condo in a city three hours’ drive…

Japan is such an outlier in so many things, especially things involving care and precision, that I don't think it's reasonable to assume that things elsewhere can be similar. 6-year-olds take the subway alone in Japan, and it would be great if we could do that in the US, but most places, we can't.

It's fairly common to see small children out on their own in German cities too. I'd suggest that the US is frequently the outlier in many things, and of course it's easy to see them as normal if you've only ever lived there.

Re: Why we’re closing Walnut

#64

Post by Larrikin »

ggg9990 wrote: post #42
nihonde wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved several times in Japan. Extreme care was taken in each case to correctly estimate the work, itemize the inventory and note existing damage, to secure the home, elevator, and common areas against new damage, and to obtain necessary approvals from building and local officials. The price was quite low — about USD$1,500 to move a four bedroom household to a two bedroom penthouse condo in a city three hours’ drive…

Japan is such an outlier in so many things, especially things involving care and precision, that I don't think it's reasonable to assume that things elsewhere can be similar. 6-year-olds take the subway alone in Japan, and it would be great if we could do that in the US, but most places, we can't.

Elementary kids travel in packs, often without adults, but almost never alone. A large reason this isn't allowed in the US is because of helicopter parents who insist it's impossible to teach this skill to children and report parents who try to give teach their kids independence.

Re: Why we’re closing Walnut

#65

Post by speedplane »

ineedasername wrote: post #35

This was an interesting postmortem, but nearly the first thought that struck me as it proceeded into the closure reasons was that many of the factors (to be fair, not all) seem to be industry knowledge easily gained through the market research about the industry. This gives the appearance that Walnut founders either didn't perform this research (seems unlikely given the research-heavy approach they displayed) or had…

I don't really believe this postmortem. Moving does suck, it's difficult to know who to trust, and there is no modern trusted brand in the space. There is a need for a product like this.

Case study is Casper, which is not much else other than a beautifully branded old school product. There is definitely potential for a company in this space. But like most companies based largely on branding, they would need to drop a good chunk of change on advertising to get a running start, may be difficult to convince a VC to invest in that.

There is definitely a potential a company in this space, we'll wait for the next one.

Re: Why we’re closing Walnut

#66

Post by stevekemp »

TillE wrote: post #63
ggg9990 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan is such an outlier in so many things, especially things involving care and precision, that I don't think it's reasonable to assume that things elsewhere can be similar. 6-year-olds take the subway alone in Japan, and it would be great if we could do that in the US, but most places, we can't.

It's fairly common to see small children out on their own in German cities too. I'd suggest that the US is frequently the outlier in many things, and of course it's easy to see them as normal if you've only ever lived there.

In Finland it's extremely common for 5 year olds to walking and cycling (on the pavements) to school, and back.

(Both those things occur even in winter, where the temperatures might reach -25 degrees for a couple of weeks of the year.)

Re: Why we’re closing Walnut

#67

Post by speedplane »

pvaldes wrote: post #56

What means 'walnut' in this context? One of the problems IMHO is that everybody wants a cool and short name like 'apple', without noticing that apple has passed long away the state in what people would identify their trademark name with a grocery. "Fruit means computer" is not something that happens in a day in the mind of customers. Why to choose a name that does not add clues about what the company is doing (and ex…

I disagree, and further, I think it's dismissive to think the naming was done by a bunch of programmers.

It's not an easy decision to choose a more obvious descriptive name, rather than a less obvious mysterious one. Clearly, if it's descriptive, people know what you do, but on the downside it weakens the brand.

A company like this is taking an old-school service, and wrapping it beautiful branding and a more hassle free sign-up service. The actual product they deliver (moving services) is almost secondary to this.

So the entire company's competitive advantage is based on their brand and reputation... that's okay, many companies do this. For a company where branding is not the only competitive advantage, it's not a bad idea to be a bit more descriptive (e.g., General Motors, Showtime). But for companies where branding is their entire company, it does make sense to be a bit less descriptive and focus on building a strong brand identity.

Re: Why we’re closing Walnut

#68

Post by speedplane »

goatherders wrote: post #43
mathattack wrote: post #14

It seems like they're also hurt by moving not being a repeat business. You have to rewin your entire book of business every year.

Agree and huge point to make. Having to constantly acquire new customers instead of being able to grow existing Customers is very difficult.

That's a challenge but they could have made it work. Casper is making it work (I think). They could have also tied it to storage service and found their recurring revenue.

Re: Why we’re closing Walnut

#69

Post by Mtinie »

underwoodley wrote: post #54
thisisit wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might sound cynical but given the way the conclusion has been phrased, it is most likely they were on path to "autonomous robots" but no VC was interested in their unit economics. Sure, there are companies with astronomical valuations with unsustainable business, but for whatever it is worth they seem to be good at marketing/presenting to VCs too.

Moving awkwardly shaped pieces of furniture up and down stairs without damaging them or the building is one of the jobs that is not likely to be performed by robots for a long time to come. It is very difficult to automate, and very easy for humans to do.

> It is very difficult to automate, and very easy for humans to do.

Easier, but if you’ve spent time attempting to do it, you’ll agree it is not a trivial type of task by any means.

Judging the center of balance for awkwardly shaped furniture, while safely navigating the interior of a multi-level residence is not on my short list of “easy” tasks I’d sign up for on a regular basis.

In many ways, it’s a task that should benefit from automation in the future. Endurance, strength, precision, and the ability to precalculate the best available three-dimensional routes required to move a piece of furniture are all, individually, solved problems. Bringing them together with a form factor that can adapt to different environments — flooring material, stairs, etc. — and at a price point that encourages use is the challenge.

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