juicero already issuing refunds

That would have been my first second and third guesses.

when $$$ is no object… Here’s Why Juicero’s Press is So Expensive – The Bolt Blog

Can’t fault the product development teams at all for smelling a huge opportunity to design a bad-ass piece of hardware with costs irrelevant. Who doesn’t want to do this? All those well-finished, machined aluminum internals are like lab equipment. As the article says “hopelessly expensive to manufacture and assemble”… just a laughable concept, but if the backers had the dough, who wouldn’t take their money?

Really interesting teardown…and I suppose a valid point - if this product were launched at $99 or 149, would we have felt it to be as ridiculous? Probably not.

His points about things like the tiny radius details on the CNC parts seem like they hired an engineer from Apple who thought CNC time came at no expense, when in reality those parts probably could’ve been forged, cast, or formed for 1/10th the price.

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Keno = Design hero of the day.

Sounds like sound design. But business model?

Fuse Project: Didn’t Frog used to say they take projects that make them rich or make them famous? I think FP must have gotten some $$$ for their work. Bravo!

Moreover, I remember a story from my Uni days. One prof was hired by Cray Supercomputers to design a new box. His firm kept bringing up that it seemed like their was no future in supercomputers and they should do a Cray PC. The company went bankrupt before the new super computer box design was made.

As designers, we can try to make clients see that their business model doesn’t work, but at the end of the day it is their decision.

If your hired by a saddle company, don’t tell them you want to design a car.

It’s a fair point. As a product, obviously the juicer meets it’s functional requirements. I’m sure it could smash rocks if you tried.

What’s more amazing is how far up it’s own ass Silicon Valley is to pump 120M of capital into the idea. I can just picture a coffee shop parking lot full of Tesla’s and i8’s with guys talking about how amazing this product is going to be as they all break out their checkbooks.

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The guy seems to be a decent designer (based on the stuff he actually designed pre-FP hype), and hires other good designers. But he is very, very good with PR ‘spin’.

Interestingly, today’s BSNYC was ripping on Best Made again for selling over-priced, bedazzled axes.

But the spin you refer to is “there’s a sucker born every minute”. I find it sad when one of the “thought leaders” of design will do anything for a dollar. I have no problem with people making crap, i do have a problem when it is celebrated.

Not for a dollar, but funny-money bay area start-up VC dollars, which have an inflated rate of about 13:1. :unamused:

If FP really took two years on that project I would be surprised if the billables were less than 1.5 million (normal) dollars.

I don’t understand how they validated the market to justify the cost of the thing. How would they ever make that money back?

Well, a bag of juice is X dollars, and since the press machine is built to last 5000 years, obviously they would recoup their investment selling bags. :unamused:

The latest…

It only takes one flaw to do a lot of damage. It’s amazing that viral media can bring down a start-up company with $120m funding so quickly (even if they seem to have struggled with operations and distribution ).

The spam countermeasures.