Company:Juicero

From HandWiki
Short description: Defunct juice and tech company
Juicero
TypePrivate
FateClosed
Founded2013; 11 years ago (2013)
FounderDoug Evans
DefunctDecember 1, 2017; 6 years ago (2017-12-01)
HeadquartersSan Francisco , California
Area served
United States
Key people
Jeff Dunn, CEO 2016–2017
ProductsJuicer, juice packs
Number of employees
232 (June 2017)
Websitejuicero.com (archived, August 24, 2017)

Juicero was an American company that designed, manufactured and sold the Juicero Press, a fruit and vegetable juice pouring device. The Juicero Press featured Wi-Fi connectivity and used proprietary, single-serving packets of pre-chopped fruits and vegetables that were sold exclusively by the company by subscription. From 2014 to 2017, the San Francisco -based firm received $120 million in startup venture capital from investors.[1]

The company attracted significant negative media attention when consumers and journalists discovered that its juice packets could be squeezed just as easily by hand as by the company's expensive juicer. In 2017, following slow sales, the company ceased operations and announced it was seeking a buyer for the company and its intellectual property.[2][3]

History

Juicero was founded in 2013 by Doug Evans, who served as CEO until October 2016, when former president of Coca-Cola North America Jeff Dunn took over the position.[4] The company's juicing press was originally priced at $699 when launched in March 2016,[5] but was reduced to $399 in January 2017, 12 to 18 months ahead of schedule, in response to slow sales of the device.[6]

Juicero filed a complaint in federal court in April 2017 against a competing cold-press juicing device, the Froothie Juisir, for allegedly infringing its patent and copying Juicero's trade dress.[7]

Produce packs for the press, containing blends of pulped fruits and vegetables,[8] cost between $5 and $7[6] and had a limited lifespan of about eight days.[9] Each pack had a QR code which was scanned and verified by the Internet-connected machine before it could be used.[5] CEO Jeff Dunn claimed this was a safety feature to prevent packs from being used past their expiration date, and to facilitate food safety recalls, though critics felt that the feature was a form of digital rights management as it would prevent operation of the press with any produce pack not made by the company.[10] Industrial design for the press was completed by Yves Behar's studio Fuseproject, based in San Francisco.[11]

On September 1, 2017, the company announced that it was suspending sales of the juicer and the packets, repurchasing the juicer from its customers and searching for a buyer for the company and its intellectual property.[2][3] After its collapse, the company was described in the press as a symbol of a dysfunctional Silicon Valley culture. The Guardian wrote that Juicero was an example of "the absurd Silicon Valley startup industry that raises huge sums of money for solutions to non-problems."[12][13]

Criticism

A disassembled Juicero Press

In 2017, Juicero was the target of widespread criticism after Bloomberg News published a story showing that the company's produce packs could be squeezed by hand easily and effectively, and that hand-squeezing produced juice was nearly indistinguishable in quantity and quality from the output of the company's expensive Press device.[14] The company defended its product and its process, claiming that squeezing packs by hand created undue mess and promoted a poor user experience, and later offered full refunds to any customers dissatisfied with their Press device.[15][16]

After taking apart the device, venture capitalist Ben Einstein considered the press to be "an incredibly complicated piece of engineering", but that the complexity was unnecessary and likely arose from a lack of cost constraints during the design process. It was described as being built to the specifications of commercial foodservice equipment, meant for heavy daily use, rather than a consumer appliance. A simpler and cheaper implementation, suggested Einstein, would likely have produced much the same quality of juice at a price several hundred dollars cheaper.[8][17][18]

The Juicero was also criticized for requiring a Wi-Fi connection to function.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Juicero: Juicing boss defends $400 machine" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2017-04-21. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-39664483. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Roof, Katie (September 1, 2017). "RIP Juicero, the $400 venture-backed juice machine". https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/01/rip-juicero-the-400-venture-backed-juice-machine/. Retrieved September 1, 2017. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Zaleski, Olivia; Huet, Ellen; Stone, Brad (7 September 2017). "Inside Juicero's Demise, From Prized Startup to Fire Sale" (in English). Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-09-08/inside-juicero-s-demise-from-prized-startup-to-fire-sale. Retrieved 27 March 2019. 
  4. ↑ Heater, Brian (2017-01-24). "Juicero loses another member of its founding team". https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/24/juicero-2/. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Shontell, Alyson; Carson, Biz (2017-04-20). "What it's like to use the $400 juicer that people are freaking out about" (in en). Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/juicer-juicer-product-review-2017-4/#each-bag-has-a-breathing-hole-to-help-the-ingredients-stay-fresh-in-your-fridge-they-also-have-a-qr-code-which-is-necessary-for-the-juicero-juicer-to-work-juicero-wanted-to-learn-from-mistakes-keurig-has-made-and-one-problem-keurig-has-said-that-other-companies-are-making-pods-for-its-coffee-maker-and-stealing-profits-juiceros-qr-codes-prevent-any-other-companies-from-making-juicero-like-juice-bags-for-its-machine-the-machine-wont-work-if-it-doesnt-recognize-the-product-it-scans-11. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kowitt, Beth (2017-01-17). "Juicero Slashes Connected Juicer Price from $699 to $399". http://fortune.com/2017/01/17/juicero-juicer-price-cut/. 
  7. ↑ Geuss, Megan (21 April 2017). "Juice wars: Juicero has sued another juicer maker for patent infringement" (in en-us). Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/juice-wars-juicero-has-sued-another-juicer-maker-for-patent-infringement/. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Geuss, Megan (26 April 2017). "Juicero teardown hints at a very expensively built product". https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/juicero-teardown-hints-at-a-very-expensively-built-product/. 
  9. ↑ "A Note from Juicero's New CEO". 2017-04-20. https://medium.com/@Juicero/a-note-from-juiceros-new-ceo-cb23a1462b03. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lee, Timothy B. (2017-04-21). "Juicero, the $399 internet-connected juicer, explained". Vox. https://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/4/21/15376038/juicero-explained. 
  11. ↑ Tucker, Emma (2016-06-01). "Yves Behar designs Nespresso-style countertop juicer" (in en-US). Dezeen. https://www.dezeen.com/2016/06/01/juicero-machine-yves-behar-nespresso-style-countertop-cold-press-juicer/. 
  12. ↑ Levin, Sam (2017-09-01). "Squeezed out: widely mocked startup Juicero is shutting down" (in en). http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/01/juicero-silicon-valley-shutting-down. 
  13. ↑ Reilly, Claire. "Juicero is still the greatest example of Silicon Valley stupidity" (in en). https://www.cnet.com/news/juicero-is-still-the-greatest-example-of-silicon-valley-stupidity/. 
  14. ↑ "Silicon Valley's $400 Juicer May Be Feeling the Squeeze". Bloomberg.com. 2017-04-19. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-19/silicon-valley-s-400-juicer-may-be-feeling-the-squeeze. 
  15. ↑ Kastrenakes, Jacob (20 April 2017). "Juicero offering refunds to all customers after people realize $400 juicer is totally unnecessary". https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/20/15375940/juicero-full-refund-customers-ceo-jeff-dunn. 
  16. ↑ Huet, Ellen (2017-04-20). "Juicero Offers All Customers a Refund". Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-20/juicero-offers-all-customers-a-refund-amid-critical-coverage. 
  17. ↑ "Here's Why Juicero's Press is So Expensive – Bolt Blog". 24 April 2017. https://blog.bolt.io/heres-why-juicero-s-press-is-so-expensive-6add74594e50. 
  18. ↑ Kastrenakes, Jacob (25 April 2017). "Juicero teardown reveals the secrets of a wildly overengineered juicer". https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15419124/juicero-teardown-reveals-surprisingly-complicated-juicer. 

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