Don't worry, everybody. Juicero, the company behind a wi-fi-enabled juicer that can only make juice from the company's own subscription-delivered packages of fruits and vegetables, is doing very well, selling great, and is in fact so successful that it's cutting its laughable $700 price tag to just $400. On its blog, Juicero writes that it's "excited to make Juicero more accessible than ever," a true achievement.
Juicero launched last year and considers itself a "platform," part hardware, part meal delivery service, and part Silicon Valley magical thinking. “It’s the most complicated business that I’ve ever funded,” said David Krane, a partner at Google Ventures, who along with Sand Hill Road VC geniuses like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers had pumped $120 million into the startup, “It’s software. It’s consumer electronics. It’s produce and packaging.”
I know, how could this needlessly difficult, comically expensive product not succeed? According to the Business Times, Juicero has actually been so successful that it needed a new CEO last fall, too! To quote them presumably quoting from a press release, "This growth also prompted founder and former CEO Doug Evans to step down in October 2016, handing the reins of the company over to [Jeff] Dunn, a former Coca-Cola executive." Evans, a raw vegan evangelist who called Juicero "like drinking the nectar of the earth," was clearly a victim of his own success.
In a statement, Dunn now says that "We’ve confirmed that the Juicero system is tremendously sticky once consumers get on the platform, so it turned out to be an easy decision to lower the cost of entry now... Once they’re on board, users want to press more juice per week than even our most favorable estimates." Each single serving pouch, by the way is about $7, so don't expect any kind of savings in the long run on your big Juicero purchase.
The Verge recalls of the CEO switch that Dunn had vowed to get Juicero juicers into grocery stores, hotels, offices, and more places where consumers wouldn't have to necessarily buy it to taste that "nectar of the earth" or whatever. Also, they add that the price-slashing move arrives after a Black Friday sale in which Juicero first dropped its price: At $350 for just a few days, the company said its user base doubled. Hold your applause: The Verge suggests that's because its base was so low to begin with.
Previously: Google Ventures, Other VC Firms Invest $120 Million In $700 Wi-Fi Enabled Juice Machine