5 ms·

Doesn't one of the SV rich kids want to make the world a better place by building non-crappy printers? The only innovation would be to forbid anyone with a MBA

Doesn't one of the SV rich kids want to make the world a better place by building non-crappy printers? The only innovation would be to forbid anyone with a MBA from making any decision or suggestion at any level of the company. Normal basic printers, the tech is here, we want not even faster horses, thanks (actually that might be the impetus for someone to define what a faster horse would be).

sixstringtheory 3y ago
What will happen is some startup will take VC funds to build the Juicero of printers, all the legacy competition will get squeezed out, and then printer cartridges for the sole remaining new entrant will skyrocket.
- ronsor 3y ago
  Juicero completely bombed. I don't see how the competition will be squeezed out by anything like it.
  - verall 3y ago
    I think its just a pun
Waterluvian 3y ago
I’ve always wondered this. How is there not even one single billionaire who wants to just stick it to an entire industry?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- yieldcrv 3y ago
  Probably because many wealthy people pride themselves in not printing anything themselves, so the problem stops being noticed
- jrockway 3y ago
  It's patents, right? Anyone can build a working printer in their house. Selling it for money is a whole other set of problems.
  - 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
    There were solidly working printer designs 20 years ago.
- mynameisash 3y ago
  Supposedly Mark Cuban is doing this with "Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company". Whether that's what's actually happening, I don't know.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    It just looks like another middleman. Bringing new manufacturing capacity online or R&D for new medicine that is sold at a low price is the only thing that would help.
    - gottorf 3y ago
      Not every retailer that sits between the manufacturer and the consumer is a middleman. That is, it is literally a middleman, but not in the sense that it necessarily has to take on a rent-seeking, economically harmful role. Most manufacturers don't have the expertise in dealing with retail and don't care to build it up. They stick to what they're good at, which is manufacturing, and let the retailer stick to what they're good at, which is dealing with the whole host of other issues that arise in retail commerce. In a related current development, traditional automakers like Ford are angling to sell directly to the consumer, like Tesla does. People are generally on board with this because dealership experiences do suck often. But once dealers are all driven out of business, it's a good bet that the automaker will benefit from that surplus, not the consumer. It'll be interesting to see.
m463 3y ago
It is hard to find people fixing race-to-the-bottom markets. I do like craigslist.org
tenebrisalietum 3y ago
SV rich kids would rather cloud-enable everything to the point printers are obsolete, because: - Margins for selling collected consumer data may be higher than than margins for ink. Ink has materials, production, and inventory cost that data storage does not, though this assumes cloud storage remains cheap. - Renting storage space for consumer documents is recurring revenue versus the non-recurring revenue of selling ink (HP is trying to get people on ink subscription plans, maybe it'll work). - Unique value-adds: E.g. Get people to store their personal documents online and they'll be sticky recurring revenue, because moving them is hard. Extra revenue opportunities by offering integration with other services for extra $$$. E.g. store your personal documents and use our integrated DocuSign like service. - Abolish paper to save the forests. Printed matter soon becomes a hipster fad, then disappears. Though you do have to keep some around for faxes, which are never going away.
tlhunter 3y ago
I think the problem is that as soon as such a company accepts VC money they take a sort of poison pill. After that they are contractually obligated to wring out every dime from customers. Hardware startups often require a lot of starting capitol.
gottorf 3y ago
Consumers by and large won't consume such a product. There is a vanishingly small market for a $600 printer that doesn't suck, does its job, and respects your rights as a consumer and doesn't pull bullshit like all the other printers do, except that every other printer costs $150 for the same feature-set. Of course, I don't know for a fact that someone can't make a living making boutique printers like this. But I don't know that there would be an adequate return on the capital required for such an enterprise.

sixstringtheory 3y ago

What will happen is some startup will take VC funds to build the Juicero of printers, all the legacy competition will get squeezed out, and then printer cartridges for the sole remaining new entrant will skyrocket.

ronsor 3y ago
Juicero completely bombed. I don't see how the competition will be squeezed out by anything like it.
- verall 3y ago
  I think its just a pun

Waterluvian 3y ago

I’ve always wondered this. How is there not even one single billionaire who wants to just stick it to an entire industry?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
yieldcrv 3y ago
Probably because many wealthy people pride themselves in not printing anything themselves, so the problem stops being noticed
jrockway 3y ago
It's patents, right? Anyone can build a working printer in their house. Selling it for money is a whole other set of problems.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  There were solidly working printer designs 20 years ago.
mynameisash 3y ago
Supposedly Mark Cuban is doing this with "Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company". Whether that's what's actually happening, I don't know.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  It just looks like another middleman. Bringing new manufacturing capacity online or R&D for new medicine that is sold at a low price is the only thing that would help.
  - gottorf 3y ago
    Not every retailer that sits between the manufacturer and the consumer is a middleman. That is, it is literally a middleman, but not in the sense that it necessarily has to take on a rent-seeking, economically harmful role. Most manufacturers don't have the expertise in dealing with retail and don't care to build it up. They stick to what they're good at, which is manufacturing, and let the retailer stick to what they're good at, which is dealing with the whole host of other issues that arise in retail commerce. In a related current development, traditional automakers like Ford are angling to sell directly to the consumer, like Tesla does. People are generally on board with this because dealership experiences do suck often. But once dealers are all driven out of business, it's a good bet that the automaker will benefit from that surplus, not the consumer. It'll be interesting to see.

m463 3y ago

It is hard to find people fixing race-to-the-bottom markets. I do like craigslist.org

tenebrisalietum 3y ago

SV rich kids would rather cloud-enable everything to the point printers are obsolete, because: - Margins for selling collected consumer data may be higher than than margins for ink. Ink has materials, production, and inventory cost that data storage does not, though this assumes cloud storage remains cheap. - Renting storage space for consumer documents is recurring revenue versus the non-recurring revenue of selling ink (HP is trying to get people on ink subscription plans, maybe it'll work). - Unique value-adds: E.g. Get people to store their personal documents online and they'll be sticky recurring revenue, because moving them is hard. Extra revenue opportunities by offering integration with other services for extra $$$. E.g. store your personal documents and use our integrated DocuSign like service. - Abolish paper to save the forests. Printed matter soon becomes a hipster fad, then disappears. Though you do have to keep some around for faxes, which are never going away.

tlhunter 3y ago

I think the problem is that as soon as such a company accepts VC money they take a sort of poison pill. After that they are contractually obligated to wring out every dime from customers. Hardware startups often require a lot of starting capitol.

gottorf 3y ago

Consumers by and large won't consume such a product. There is a vanishingly small market for a $600 printer that doesn't suck, does its job, and respects your rights as a consumer and doesn't pull bullshit like all the other printers do, except that every other printer costs $150 for the same feature-set. Of course, I don't know for a fact that someone can't make a living making boutique printers like this. But I don't know that there would be an adequate return on the capital required for such an enterprise.