OFF-TOPIC Textbook example of lack of market validation, from 1996

[Eskil]

Lol... my son showed me this the other day. We often talk about market validation on this forum, and here is a great example of why you should do just that.

This guy invented (and I use that term very loosely) an email "machine" back in the mid 90's that he thought was going to revolutionize the way people used emails and messaging.... lol.

Mind you - he tried to launch this idea AFTER email was already commonplace! The guy does have plenty of entrepreneurial drive and passion, gotta give him that. But boy did he spend waaaay too much time and money on something which - to everyone else was just a terrible, terrible idea. Oh and, could he have picked a worse name for the thing?

Be prepared to facepalm..

 

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[Milkanic]

Ha, how the world has changed. In every color too.

I looked him up and he is the guy behind the Whac-A-Mole game and Chuck E. Cheese animatronics. Figured he had a few other inventions but what a crazy mix.

Homepage | Creative Engineering, Inc.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Very cool to see that he just swung and missed. He kept swinging and is probably doing well. Happy to see it.

 

[biophase]

I think his main problem was that he thought that email was hard because of typing in the email address.

 

[TonyStark]

I think his main problem was that he thought that email was hard because of typing in the email address.

This machine seems way more difficult.

 

[DustinH]

Just what we all need. Buy a whole new computer just to send your email.

Just watched some other videos on his YT channel. Strange channel but I guess he manufactures those animatronic animals? The comments look strange too. They look fake to me. If their not fake then there is weird people out there who have an animatronic passion? Weird stuff.

 

[B. Cole]

Well crap - now I gotta change the name of this product I’m working on.

 

[Rabby]

This guy is really entertaining.

Some people walk on the bank of chaos, and that's Ok with me. He keeps one toe in the river, and lets the creative energy go almost unfiltered. He's done his part for projects that worked too.

A guy like this would be well served by friends who can nudge him in practical directions. But maybe that's not so easy. Oh well. We can settle for an endless stream of novel inventions with randomly generated utility value, right?

I like this quote:

I put a lot of money in inventions that didn’t pan out. I don’t say I ‘wasted’ it. That’s like saying you wasted money going fishing. I ‘spent’ it.
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Aaron does what Aaron wants to do. LOL.