4 ms·

Why does startup after startup think they can make delivery a viable business? The numbers never work out.

pcurve 10y ago
I hear you. My favorite delivery + service start up is this. https://www.enjoy.com/ https://www.enjoy.com/ You should see which VC are backing this ridiculous idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson_(businessman)#Enjoy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson_(businessman)#Enjo... I have no idea how they would every make any money. With every order, they bleed cash.
- purple-again 10y ago
  Hmmm...I'm confused. This is from their "How It Works" section on their website: "Yup, that’s right. The only thing you pay for is your new device. How is it possible? Well, we spend our money on training awesome Experts instead of on building stores. So, you get an amazing experience instead of just a device." That doesn't explain how it works at all. I'm guessing they have partnerships with the supplier so the customer pays the same price as retail and Enjoy gets a piece of the revenue. My understanding though is that these new hardware items usually have very thin margins. I would love to hear how they actually make money.
  - mattm 10y ago
    AFAICT, you buy from their site so they are probably getting some kind of commission. But they only have 20 products in total that you can buy from their site. Plus they have someone spend up to an hour training you on the product. Their Experts page says all of them are full-time and not contractors and it looks like they have about 50 people listed there - https://www.enjoy.com/pages/meet-the-experts https://www.enjoy.com/pages/meet-the-experts I went through the first part of their checkout process and they suggest accessories to purchase with the item so maybe it's an upsell thing? Maybe the in-person "expert" is really just an incentivized sales person that you've invited into your home that will try to push other accessories that you "need" for the product you've purchased. I imagine the kind of people that would need this service would be people that are not technically adept and could probably be easily manipulated into purchasing things that they don't really need.
marcosdumay 10y ago
Somebody should be able to. It's very likely a task for a big company, but it ought to be a problem that has a solution, as a lot of companies do "solve" it in an ad-hock fashion that seems to cost much more than it should.

I hear you. My favorite delivery + service start up is this. https://www.enjoy.com/ https://www.enjoy.com/ You should see which VC are backing this ridiculous idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson_(businessman)#Enjoy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson_(businessman)#Enjo... I have no idea how they would every make any money. With every order, they bleed cash.

purple-again 10y ago
Hmmm...I'm confused. This is from their "How It Works" section on their website: "Yup, that’s right. The only thing you pay for is your new device. How is it possible? Well, we spend our money on training awesome Experts instead of on building stores. So, you get an amazing experience instead of just a device." That doesn't explain how it works at all. I'm guessing they have partnerships with the supplier so the customer pays the same price as retail and Enjoy gets a piece of the revenue. My understanding though is that these new hardware items usually have very thin margins. I would love to hear how they actually make money.
- mattm 10y ago
  AFAICT, you buy from their site so they are probably getting some kind of commission. But they only have 20 products in total that you can buy from their site. Plus they have someone spend up to an hour training you on the product. Their Experts page says all of them are full-time and not contractors and it looks like they have about 50 people listed there - https://www.enjoy.com/pages/meet-the-experts https://www.enjoy.com/pages/meet-the-experts I went through the first part of their checkout process and they suggest accessories to purchase with the item so maybe it's an upsell thing? Maybe the in-person "expert" is really just an incentivized sales person that you've invited into your home that will try to push other accessories that you "need" for the product you've purchased. I imagine the kind of people that would need this service would be people that are not technically adept and could probably be easily manipulated into purchasing things that they don't really need.

marcosdumay 10y ago

Somebody should be able to. It's very likely a task for a big company, but it ought to be a problem that has a solution, as a lot of companies do "solve" it in an ad-hock fashion that seems to cost much more than it should.