No venture-backed consumer hardware startup has survived standalone in a decade
Ben Gilbert · Peloton - the entire history and strategy behind America's trendiest workout · Acquired · Feb 10, 2022 · at 1:53:48
Ben Gilbert analyzes why consumer hardware companies struggle to build long-term defensibility against commoditized copycats.
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“In the last 10 plus years, there has not been a breakout consumer hardware piece of technology that is, that survives as a standalone company, and you look back at Fitbit and GoPro and Jambox. I even wanna call out, this one's gonna be a serious callback, but Flip Video. Some of these companies that kind of invented a new category and they built, you know, real, they imbued it with meaning and they pioneered it on, you know, technology that was hardware that was just now available. But that investment doesn't pay itself back. Lots of cheap facsimiles come in, and they can't defend the castle.”
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