> Frankly, I'm kinda surprised if an obvious optimization like that isn't already in place - let those who care about the shape pay more for the pretty ones, and let those who don't save by buying the rest.
Oh but that's exactly how it already works in existing supply chains: "imperfect" produce gets allocated quite well with food manufacturers, restaurants and food halls, or gets donated to foster homes, hospitals, etc. And many supermarkets do in fact stock up with "imperfect" produce.
"Reducing food waste" makes for good marketing. Except it's not that true.
> not much of the strategy content applies to hardware companies
While it's probably a good idea to not blindly follow every single piece of advice (by YC or anyone), saying that not much of the content applies is probably a bit of a stretch. Considering how many successful companies YC has funded in the hard-tech space, I'd be receptive to at least some of their advice / insights.
You also mention:
> you have this de-facto "ship and iterate" model from the SaaS world which just doesn't apply to nontrivial hardware projects.
Again, it may be a good idea to question the advice of "ship and iterate", but saying _it just doesn't apply to nontrivial hardware project_ is again a bit of a stretch. As the above commenter mentions, the success of Cruise is a good counterexample.
While Airbnb is clearly going through a rough patch right now, there is a clear bull-case argument for why Airbnb will emerge stronger than it's ever been after this:
- Airbnb has sufficient cash in the bank to survive the crisis.
- A significant % of hotels and budget chains will not survive the crisis --> decreased competitor supply
- People will be looking for budget options when traveling --> increased demand for Airbnb
- People will seek to make extra income to make ends meet --> increased supply for Airbnb
> I wrote this yesterday as an example for my kids.
> A lot of people learned how to make web pages using view->source. Replit is view->source for code, plus a server you can run a copy on. A generation of kids will learn to program from it.
Oh but that's exactly how it already works in existing supply chains: "imperfect" produce gets allocated quite well with food manufacturers, restaurants and food halls, or gets donated to foster homes, hospitals, etc. And many supermarkets do in fact stock up with "imperfect" produce.
"Reducing food waste" makes for good marketing. Except it's not that true.