The quick take:
- Why it matters now: TechCrunch just started a running list of failed AI startups, led by Humane, which raised $230 million for an AI gadget before HP bought most of its assets for $116 million. Expensive hardware nobody needs is having a moment again.
- The mistake behind Juicero: it built a $400 machine to squeeze juice packs that customers could squeeze by hand. Nobody proved the machine was necessary until a Bloomberg reporter did it on camera.
- The lesson: find the most expensive part of what you sell and ask whether customers actually need it. If you don’t test that, a customer, a competitor or a reporter eventually will.
In April 2017, two Bloomberg reporters sat down with a $400 Wi-Fi juicer and a bag of chopped fruit. They skipped the machine and squeezed the bag with their hands. They got 7.5 ounces of juice in about 90 seconds. The machine got 8 ounces in about two minutes, Bloomberg reported.
That machine had raised about $120 million from investors including Google’s venture arm. Five months later, the company was gone.
Why should you care if you’ve never sold a juicer? Because almost every business has an expensive part: a premium tier, custom packaging, proprietary software, a high-touch service. Juicero is what happens when nobody checks whether customers need it.
The Mistake Was Made Before the First Machine Shipped
Founder Doug Evans got early funding in 2014 by showing investors 3D-printed renderings, without a working prototype, according to two investors who spoke to Bloomberg. The pitch was a sleek press that Evans said used four tons of force, “enough to lift two Teslas,” to turn packs of chopped produce into fresh juice.
Look at how the product was built. The machine read a QR code on every pack and checked it against an online database to confirm it hadn’t expired or been recalled. The machine cost about $700 at launch, later $400. The packs ran $5 to $8 each, and only Juicero owners could buy them.
So the real business was the packs. The $400 machine was the gatekeeper. And nobody had answered the obvious question: what if people didn’t need the gate?
Bloomberg Ran the Test Juicero Never Did
The hand-squeeze result went everywhere. Even an investor admitted the obvious. “There is no doubt the packs can be squeezed without the machine,” Doug Chertok of Vast Ventures told Bloomberg. Then he added, “I’m still a huge fan.”
Juicero’s defense made it worse. CEO Jeff Dunn said “the value of Juicero is more than a glass of cold-pressed juice” and called hand-squeezing “a mediocre (and maybe very messy) experience,” CBS MoneyWatch reported. Customers heard: you paid $400 to avoid a little mess.
Juicero offered refunds, cut 25% of its staff and moved Evans out of day-to-day operations, BevNET reported.
Five Months Later, It Was Over
On Sept. 1, 2017, Juicero announced it was “suspending the sale of the Juicero Press and Produce Packs immediately” and offered refunds on the press for 90 days, TechCrunch reported.
A product can be well made and still unnecessary. Humane learned a version of that lesson too: it raised $230 million for its AI Pin, shut the business down in February 2025, and sold most of its assets to HP for $116 million, according to TechCrunch.
Before Your Next Meeting
Here’s what this means for your business:
- What’s the most expensive part of what you sell, and could customers skip it? Juicero’s $400 machine did slightly better than a pair of hands. If a customer cut out your priciest piece, how close could they get on their own?
- Did you test the need before you built the thing? Juicero raised early money on renderings, not a working product. What part of your offer have you never actually seen a customer struggle without?
- When someone pokes a hole in your product, what will you say? Juicero’s CEO answered the hand-squeeze test by calling it messy. If a customer posted a cheaper workaround tomorrow, would your answer sound like a reason to buy or an excuse?
