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I don’t see how they managed to mess this up. The entire world bought an Instant Pot a few years ago when they were all the rage on Reddit, etc. We bought my
by Mistletoe 3y ago
I don’t see how they managed to mess this up. The entire world bought an Instant Pot a few years ago when they were all the rage on Reddit, etc. We bought my brother one for a gift.
- awaythrow483 3y agoModern consumer brands have essentially nothing to do with selling consumer goods. They are financial vehicles for private equity to lever up on. In a decreasing liquidity environment many of these schemes will blow up. They could have sold 100x more insta pots and it wouldn't have mattered, it's pure financial gambling under the hood
- dr_monster 3y agoI’d like to read more about this, has it been documented or analyzed in any organized way via books/research, etc. that is available?
- bleepblop 3y agoThis is a good jumping off point. https://www.npr.org/2023/04/26/1172179099/how-private-equity-firms-widen-the-income-gap https://www.npr.org/2023/04/26/1172179099/how-private-equity... https://www.marketplace.org/2023/04/27/how-private-equity-creates-a-circle-of-pain-in-the-us-economy/amp/ https://www.marketplace.org/2023/04/27/how-private-equity-cr...
- awaythrow483 3y agoRoughly the things to look up are private equity and their "bust out" strategy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5PLEZiSZV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5PLEZiSZV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3_41Whvr1I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3_41Whvr1I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o10nh86q64Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o10nh86q64Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7VmIy0VXOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7VmIy0VXOY Buy a company with debt (leveraged buy out). Hand that cash back to the "private equity investors". Let the company go bankrupt and the debt magically dissapears. Basically legalized theft at enormous scale
- dismalpedigree 3y agoAgree. One of the most infuriating things we tolerate as a society. The number of good and solid companies adding value to society that have then been raided in order to line the pockets of a few is such a disgrace.
- yumraj 3y agoPerhaps everyone who wanted one already bought one, so the demand must have crashed. We have 2, but the 2nd one has never needed used.
- dataveg 3y agoThat’s part of the problem with durable or semi-durable businesses. You sell a ton - one to everyone- and then you only sell to people coming of age or to those who have failures. If you want to play with the math look up Bass models or diffusion models. Fascinating but quite sobering. Once a market is saturated it’s very hard to grow.
- starkparker 3y agoSo from a business sense the best feature of, say, a KitchenAid stand mixer is its accessory port.
- Krutonium 3y agoAs a home user, I agree, that's the best part of the Mixer. God I love it.
- IvyMike 3y agoInstant Pot was purchased in 2017 by Cornell Capital, a private equity company. I discovered this just now by when I thought "I bet some private equity company bought them and destroyed them in order to make short term profits" and then googled "instant pot private equity" to see if that was the case. It appears so. Gotta love those private equity companies. I'm no expert, but this article is a good overview of how they can be incentivized to kill good brands. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/1/6/21024740/private-equity-taylor-swift-toys-r-us-elizabeth-warren https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/1/6/21024740/private-equi...
- s1artibartfast 3y agoIf you look at Google trends, searches for instant pot peaked after the 2017 buyout. I think the examples of leveraged buyouts destroying brands is exaggerated. If it is a good brand, it will exist. It is just a chance of ownership from a capital firm to a lender.
- Mistletoe 3y agoThey made a lot of sales. Why does that have to be the death of the company? Just keep making good products. Everything doesn’t have to go up forever. I know this paints me as naive but growth above all else is eating us alive. How much growth is their bankruptcy?
- rhaway84773 3y agoBecause youre at the mercy of the distributors forcing you to lower prices, especially with the monopsony that exists in the US. Because you are at the mercy of your manufacturers increasing prices especially during a supply chain foul up during and after the pandemic which would affect you significantly more considering how big and heavy your product is. There’s a lot of reasons a company selling a lot of product can still go under in todays market.
- s1artibartfast 3y agoThings don't have to have continual growth. It actually is possible for a company to just sustain. However, if you see your rapid growth and then rapid decline, that is a dangerous transition for companies. It's easy to overspend and over commit yourself. Random websites on Google say instapot sales are down 65 percent in the last year. That is tough for any company to handle. WSJ says they had to cancel over 100M in contracts. That said, bankruptcy doesn't necessarily mean it is the end of the product line. More likely it means some investors will lose some money, which is OK because they are in the business of making bets, and some won't pan out
- vrosas 3y agoMine’s main purpose is dealing with dinner when I forgot to defrost something the night before. Besides that it collects dust. I know it can do more but I view it as a machine that does everything ok and nothing perfect.
- codersfocus 3y agoIt boils eggs perfectly (shells are always easy to pull off)
- tkanarsky 3y agoThat's not hard to do, you just have to immediately run the eggs under cold water after boiling.
- rhaway84773 3y agoIt’s an excellent pressure cooker. And if you know how to pressure cook then it easily becomes the #1 tool in your kitchen, which is what it’s become in ours.
- InitialLastName 3y agoMine makes perfect oatmeal for my family every morning, and makes stews/slow-cooks meat for a few dinners/week during the winter.