Juice
“Dying is easy. Living is a pain in the butt. It's like an athletic event. You've got to train for it. You've got to eat right. You've got to exercise. Your health account, your bank account, they're the same thing. The more you put in, the more you can take out. Exercise is king and nutrition is queen: together, you have a kingdom.”
Jack Lalane was an absolute powerhouse of a man. He was working out before it was cool. In fact, he is largely responsible for making it cool. His first health club, opened in 1936 in Oakland specialized in exercise training and nutritional advice. So new and radical was the idea of training your body, that doctors advised their patients to stay away from the club. They warned that Lalane was an “exercise nut” whose programs would make them muscle bound and unfit.
Lalane designed the first pulley activated weight machines that are now ubiquitous with gyms. He eventually licensed all of his health clubs to the Bally company, who dominated the fitness industry in the 70’s and 80’s.
The Jack Lalane show, still hold the record for the longest running television exercise show, airing for 34 years. He published books, and videos, appeared in movies, recorded a song and had a stint as a professional wrestler. But perhaps above all else, Jack Lalane became a household name thanks to daytime television in the 1990’s. His name can be grouped with Ron Popeil, Billy Mays and Tony Little. Jack Lalane and his power juicer.
Jack had long been an advocate for better nutrition. His diet consisted of two meals per day. He lived most of his life as a pescatarian, eating mostly raw foods with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables. He blamed many common ailments and health problems on additives and preservatives found in food, claiming that they were responsible for making people both mentally and physically ill.
It would take time, but science would ultimately prove Jack correct. While it would take decades for his methods and beliefs to catch on, by the mid 2000’s brands were ditching preservatives and trying their best to create more natural products that customers wanted.
While consumers were finally ready to embrace Jacks philosophy, they were not quick to embrace his product. The power juicer was constantly nagged for being difficult to use, messy to operate, and require an enormous amount of produce to produce a glass of juice.
Doug Evans wanted to solve that problem. He, like Jack believed strongly that processed preserved foods were the cause of ill health. He had lost both of his parents early and partially blamed their loss on the poor diet they sustained.
Evans himself had a juicer that he used often. He too found it difficult to use, messy, and expensive. But Evans, unlike the millions before him who had simply left their juicers forgotten in a cupboard, decided to do something about it. He set out to revolutionize the juicer. Combining ease of use, affordability, and tech into a beautiful appliance customers would be proud to display. He set out to create what he self-titled, a “stealth mode juicer”.
It took him 1200 days, and 12 different prototypes to complete a product he was proud of. The Juicero was beautiful. A countertop appliance that looked like the latest Macintosh computer. All an owner needed to do was insert a pouch of pre-pulped fruits and veggies, and green, orange, purple, and red juices would spring forth. No mess. No chopping. No grocery store involved.
Silicon Valley loved it. Investors threw money at the company that sold expensive juicers and an ad infinitum $7 cost per juice. Investors looked at the Juicero the same way they looked at Nespresso, or k cups. Venture capitalists spoke of the device and how it would revolutionize the way people consumed fresh produce. Only it never did.
A Nespresso machine is a complex device. It vaporizes water into hot steam. Pushes precisely the right amount through a pod of premeasures coffee grounds, catches the steam, condenses it down, and then dispenses it into your waiting cup. Even if you knew how to accomplish those steps, the equipment required to do so would run many more hundreds of dollars’ worth more than the Nespresso machine. Nespresso’s sell because they offer convenience and value.
Juiceros sold for the same reason. Until people started opening them up. It would turn out, the inner workings of a Juicero are a little….simpler. It squeezes the juice out of the packet. That’s it. Really. The machine that sold for $699 did nothing that your hands can’t do.
Overnight Juicero went from the darling of Silicon Valley to a complete laughingstock. They attempted to justify their product by claiming it was able to get out more of the juice. Youtubers quickly proved that claim false. Juicero would never recover. And they quickly came to a fiery end.
Juicero failed because they offered little to no value. Once the fancy machine was opened, it was nothing more than an over engineered rolling pin.
A good realtor, accountant, financial advisor, gardener, mechanic, or consultant can be worth every penny you pay them and more. But service industries like this are also littered with Juiceros. People purporting to be trusted advisors but offering little to no value over what you can do for yourself. The only way to know, is to dig deeper and find out. Whenever you are looking to hire a professional to help you with something, do yourself a favor and make sure you are getting what you pay for.