
YC Backs Portable Coffee Stand Called Wheelys (YC S15) to Take on Starbucks - kevin
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/23/wheelys/
======
fahim305
While it is sexy to brand this (especially for media) as a 'threat' or 'will
take on' Starbucks, that should not be the focus and it should instead be
about delivering maximum value to its customers, which are likely going to be
different customers than Starbucks customers. Starbucks customers go there for
the customer experience, not for the coffee - there is better and cheaper
coffee elsewhere, even McDonalds (literally).

I hope they are laser focused on their demographic and who their customer is
rather than try to be the universal solution to coffee. A challenge will be
how do you deliver the same exciting experience on a coffee stand without
having the focus becoming operations and churning out coffee as quickly as
possible. Most people can probably grab coffee at work for free if they wanted
to but they choose to go to coffee shops for the "cool factor", and to feel
like they are taking a break from their normal routine. If the person(s)
running the stand need to be super friendly, engaging, fun, etc. if this is
going to really take off, and experience shows us that is no leap of faith as
you operationalize and expand locations so quickly.

~~~
tomasmazetti
Rent and costs has spiralled in the big cities, meaning that a customer that
sits half a day with a laptop costs Starbucks money. Starbucks profit is in
Take Away. Every customer at Wheelys is a take away customer.

~~~
ww520
The customer who sits half a day in a Starbucks is doing free advertising for
Starbucks. A filled and busy shop attracts much more business than an empty
one.

~~~
mandeepj
Wow! that is a great thought. I would have never thought that.

On the other side, starbucks don't need that type of advertising now and a
small\upcoming shop can't afford that kind of advertising.

This idea is also business specific. Can restaurants afford whole day sitting
customers? No, I think

~~~
Axsuul
Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, has openly admitted to wanting customers
who stay and work in the store cause of this.

"You walk into a retail store, whatever it is, and if there's a sense of
entertainment and excitement and electricity, you wanna be there."

“We’re not in the coffee business — we’re in the experience business”

~~~
tonyarkles
I've had chats with the manager of one of my favourite locations. It gets
pretty slow mid-afternoon, and she made it really clear that she's super happy
having some people sitting in there working, even if they're sipping the dregs
from a 2-hour-old free-refill coffee. The regulars usually have chatted at
least a little bit (maybe that's a Canadian thing), and having conversations
or work going on improves the atmosphere.

------
tomasmazetti
Hi, my name is Tomas Mazetti. I'm one of the founders of Wheelys. I also like
the outdoors, though not unreasonable so. I am from Sweden, home of the
swedes.

~~~
MariaDeLaCroix
And my name is Maria De La Croix, the other founder of Wheelys. As seen in the
video..

~~~
bbcbasic
I'll assume this is an AMA then :-)

So how easy is it to ride one of those bikes? Do you have to be particularly
strong, and what if you have say 50km to ride in a day to visit all the
consuming destinations?

I think this could be popular in Australia. We hate Starbucks - it flopped in
Australia and there are only a handful of them open in tourist hotspots.
Aussies tend to be snobby about coffee and know the name and children's names
of their barista. You may do well in AU if the coffee is top-notch. Although
the market size is quite small here compared to the US of course.

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
It would be very dependent on location in Australia. I live in Sydney and I am
spoiled for choice. There is literally no road from my place without at least
1 good coffee place. There are 3 roasters within a 1000m radius to me. I can
get a great coffee just about everywhere.

We can certainly support more coffee businesses, but you're not going to
become huge doing it.

~~~
bbcbasic
As a British expat, the whole coffee scene is quite an amazing thing about
Sydney. I can get a reasonably good barista coffee almost anywhere - the
hardware store, the swimming pool, the furniture shop, most pubs, at childrens
activities etc.

There are 1 or 2 coffee shops on every street near where I work in an
otherwise very industrial area. They put a fair amount of effort into making
themselves unique in style and differentiating themselves.

------
zxcvvcxz
> Then, he met his co-founder Maria De La Croix, through a feminist
> organization. As part of that movement, they protested the average pay gap
> between women and men by burning the extra wages he hypothetically earned
> because he was a man.

Wait what? Hasn't this common misconception been debunked, or at least to be
shown to be very insignificant when controlling for obvious variables?

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-
checker/wp/2014/01/...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-
checker/wp/2014/01/28/fact-checking-the-2014-state-of-the-union-address/)

[http://www.consad.com/content/reports/Gender%20Wage%20Gap%20...](http://www.consad.com/content/reports/Gender%20Wage%20Gap%20Final%20Report.pdf)

[http://www.aauw.org/files/2013/02/graduating-to-a-pay-gap-
th...](http://www.aauw.org/files/2013/02/graduating-to-a-pay-gap-the-earnings-
of-women-and-men-one-year-after-college-graduation.pdf)

[http://www.ne.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.99257.1346412310!/menu/sta...](http://www.ne.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.99257.1346412310!/menu/standard/file/anna_sandberg.pdf)

[https://www.med.upenn.edu/gastro/documents/Whogoestothebarga...](https://www.med.upenn.edu/gastro/documents/WhogoestothebargainingtableTheinfluenceofgenderandframingontheinitiationofnegotiation..pdf)

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/02/24/childless-
wo...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/02/24/childless-women-in-
their-twenties-out-earn-men-so/)

~~~
PIC
Based on this piece of information alone, I am going to predict that the
founders will fail.

~~~
chaostheory
I disagree. The founders seem insane. imo it's a trait that tends to do well
with the chaos and adversity of startups. It's not for normal people (at least
in the beginning)

------
idlewords
"The Wheelys 1.0 is 100% powered by the sun, natural butane gas and your own
body- making it's not only CO2 neutral, but carbon footprint negative"

What's the source of the butane? I can't seem to find more info on their site.

~~~
Plough_Jogger
The sun, albeit indirectly.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
By that logic a Hummer is carbon neutral.

~~~
pd1
Then anything that doesn't use fusion/fission to make carbon is carbon
neutral.

------
dsuth
This appears to be offering a fundamentally different experience from
Starbucks, whose business model, as I understand it, is to offer a bunch of
weird, vaguely coffee-related drinks, but more importantly, _space to sit down
and drink them_. With Wifi.

There are several variations of these running around Australian cities,
however they still don't compete directly with cafes, as they provide a
different service.

~~~
vinceguidry
> _space to sit down and drink them._

Nope, pretty sure it's coffee.

I spend a lot of time at my local coffee shop. Been going there ten years now,
know the owners pretty well. I see way, way more people come in, get their
coffee, and leave, then I ever see sitting down with their drinks to enjoy the
ambiance.

Having a bunch of regulars does add character to the place, but the volume of
business they do directly likely doesn't even make a dent on the top line. On
the other hand, I've seen plenty of intown coffee shops with maybe three
tables do brisk business.

The real problem with the business model is, unless you can figure out how to
give each of these stands a big enough parking lot where you can serve an area
larger than your customers can walk to, you're stuck in downtown. Office parks
big enough to have their own cafe generally already do, they're unlikely to
take you rolling in to compete with them lightly. It's a niche market, which
is probably why nobody's tried a franchise model already.

~~~
dingaling
> Nope, pretty sure it's coffee.

The stated goal of Starbucks is to provide the 'third space':

 _He had a vision to bring the Italian coffeehouse tradition back to the
United States. A place for conversation and a sense of community. A third
place between work and home._

The coffee is a mechanism for achieving that ( by making money ).

I don't use Starbucks because I don't like their coffee, but I understand what
they're doing.

------
triangleman
Is anyone else here immediately turned off the moment a company mentions
"carbon neutral"? I'm willing to look past it as a standard marketing slogan,
like "natural", "fair trade", etc., but it stands out as a particularly
unfortunate bit of language in almost all cases.

~~~
anigbrowl
Not me. I see it as a plus, not so much on saving the planet as a positive for
the balance sheet. Carbon* is an externality, I would prefer to deal
with/invest in a business that accounts for externalities instead of just
producing them and hoping to evade the bill.

~~~
hueving
But in this case, like many others, they are just lying by excluding the
carbon from the manufacturing of all of their equipment, their heating source,
the transportation of their ingredients, etc.

------
erikpukinskis
Any time someone says something has zero carbon footprint I know instantly
they're full of it. No carbon was burnt in the fabrication of your brand new
aluminum coffee cart? Ok.

~~~
rpedroso
Carbon neutrality does not mean that atmospheric CO2 is not released at any
point, but rather, that any release of carbon is offset in some way. Offsets
might include planting trees, purchasing carbon credits, etc.

------
defen
I don't understand how a pour-over coffee cart is going to scale (scale in the
sense of one cart serving many customers quickly). It takes 2.5 - 4 minutes to
make a pour over coffee, assuming the water is already boiled and the coffee
is ground; and there is a limit, just based on physical space, to how many you
can have going simultaneously in one cart, right?

The Philz truck in San Francisco seems to handle this alright, but they have 3
people making the coffee and 1 person taking payments, and they're charging 4+
dollars per cup for a known/cult brand.

~~~
morsch
Just make a bigger batch of pourover when there's a line? If anything it
should be faster than the typical espresso style that requires a fixed minimum
of 60s of attention per cup.

------
farnsworth
Cool, it's not just a portable coffee stand, it's a company that sells cheap
portable coffee stand franchises and (appears to) make franchising really easy
- [http://www.wheelyscafe.com](http://www.wheelyscafe.com)

I want to know whether there are any in Seattle. It would be nice if there was
a map of active Wheelys on their website.

~~~
kenrikm
My question is this, once someone buys the franchise what prevents them from
just using their own cheaper coffee? If they have not figured that part out
then they will need to soon.

~~~
hkmurakami
From article:

 _> If buyers operate under the Wheelys brand, they need to ascribe to the
product line, which is all fair-trade and organic._

This is a typical franchisee arrangement to ensure quality uniformity across
the franchise [1]. Not following this would be a breach of contract with
potentially grave consequences.

[1] This can seriously hamper a franchisee's ability to make profit / be
creative, as is the case for Family Mart convenience store franchisees in
Japan.

~~~
kenrikm
While that sounds very good on paper, in reality it's going to be an issue
unless they have a good way of keeping track of the sales of the franchises.
If you buy into McDonalds you have Millions of dollars on the line and
performance metrics to keep up with and thus it's easier for the parent
company to keep you in line. If you're only investing $3000, it's easy enough
to just mix in 50% beans from other/cheaper sources and claim your selling 50%
less then you are. This is a solvable problem but to think the agreement they
sign will be enough is naive.

~~~
DrScump
McDonald's was way ahead of everybody in this element of franchising strategy.
Almost everything is McDonald's branded and must be purchased from Martin-
Brower, their wholly owned distribution arm. (This is back in 1980, but back
then the only food elements not McD-branded were the mustard, produce, eggs,
and milk... and even those items had to be purchased from and delivered by
Martin-Brower).

------
7Figures2Commas
In the United States, franchising is regulated by the FTC and state agencies.
Wheelys makes multiple references to "franchise fees" on its Indiegogo page
but I did a search in California, which requires registration, and could not
find any franchise disclosure document associated with this company.

------
callmeed
I really like this and I'm interested in buying one and having someone run it
here in my area.

What I'm not clear on are the coffee/food costs and margins. The FAQ says you
can make $250-600/day. I assume that's gross. It doesn't say what it costs to
order the beans, etc. Hopefully the costs are exploitative.

Does anyone know what standard margins for coffee/casual food is?

~~~
tomasmazetti
Even if you serve the most fair trade ultra organic coffee there is, it
doesn't cost you more than 30 cent per cup (Most cafés spend 10 cents. You
sell that cup for $ 2, or more, since this is 2015 in San Francisco, and the
world is mad.

~~~
technotony
You might want to edit this comment, not good for a CEO to essentially say his
customers are mad to pay what they do for his product. Bring's to mind this
guy who destroyed a much larger business with a similar comment:
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573380/Doing-a-
Ratne...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573380/Doing-a-Ratner-and-
other-famous-gaffes.html)

~~~
eru
That's not the same. Everyone knows that coffee beans are cheap. It's the
labour (and rent) that gets you. (And the milk.)

------
pyrocat
So... it's a coffee cart? Everything old is new again. edit: bonus video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c59xce_nW5w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c59xce_nW5w)

------
shoo
As someone fortunate enough to be living in a major Australian city, I am
perplexed by Starbucks [1]. It didn't catch on here as we already had
something better.

One of my favourite cafes is run out of a re-purposed electrical closet in the
CBD, with a few nearby tables. They have good coffee. You don't need much
space.

Wheelys seems like a pretty reasonable idea. Good stuff!

[1] [http://munchies.vice.com/articles/this-is-why-australians-
ha...](http://munchies.vice.com/articles/this-is-why-australians-hate-
starbucks)

------
kylnew
Given some of the pessimism in comments about this idea, a certain XKCD comes
to mind - [https://xkcd.com/1497/](https://xkcd.com/1497/)

I'd be really interested to see one of these in Toronto

------
oliv__
This is great but are you allowed to just set up shop anywhere you want in a
city like that?

~~~
aturek
My wife ran a food cart for ~18 months in Seattle. There are a lot of
regulations around where you can set up food carts/trucks; most people end up
renting spots (for ~$100/day near Amazon) or buying a license for a specific
street spot from the city for ~$1100/year.

~~~
devbug
Can you sublet?

~~~
MariaDeLaCroix
yes

------
DrScump
"Most cities in the world allow for non-stationary selling. That means as long
as you keep moving you won't be needing a permit."

Hardly. Many cities (essentially every city in the Bay Area, for example)
either outright ban peddling on public property or thoroughfares or requires a
license for it.

~~~
runamok
Yeah. This gentleman ([http://zoomcaffe.com/](http://zoomcaffe.com/)) lasted
at the Mountain View Caltrain station for a few weeks before he got kicked out
(so I heard). It was very welcome.

I actually found a reddit thread about it:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/1wcg6f/caltrain_tr...](https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/1wcg6f/caltrain_trying_to_shut_down_coffee_truck_business/)
.

~~~
bmir-alum-007
I worked at Stanford in the dept which supported housing and dining.
Concessions agreements and relationships have to be engaged and signed
_before_ setting up shop in an area, regardless of whether someone believes it
to be "public." In this instance, it would have meant engaging smctd. [0] It
seems like they don't have any sort of formal concessions process or outreach,
which is business-unfriendly (uphill battle). Otherwise, the relationship will
be adversarial / nonexistent and the business will be finished unless it can
legally skirt on a technicality (by moving just far enough out of the muni
authority's jurisdiction). There are certain municipalities / area which need
certain types of permission... CalTrain land is not technically under the
local city's jurisdiction... They like other U.S. transportation authorities
have their own police and own rules, like Stanford (ZIP code 94305) and some
other universities too.

0\. [http://www.smctd.com/](http://www.smctd.com/)

------
Keverw
Watched the video... Why do they have a guy screaming in the middle of the
video. So annoying and unprofessional, and I'm listening with headphones.

But anyways, seems like an interesting idea and concept. But looks like no
free Wi-Fi or a place to sit, which I know some people love that about
Starbucks.

------
jcr
kevin, as YC design guru, do you think a large sign on the top would be wise?

I was thinking of something like a two sided /\ sign on top would increase the
amount of signage, and increase the height of the signage. A large sign on top
that reads "COFFEE" or similar and can be read from a block away might be
advantageous. And if need be, it could fold __ flat when not in use (or when
local signage laws prohibit it).

------
prawn
Could easily rebrand and repurpose this at times to work at events or serve a
different product category - popcorn for outdoor cinemas, alcohol for private
functions like weddings, cordials/lemonades, corn on the cob, etc. Use
magnetic or stick-on signage when required. Have portable seating to lay out
nearby.

Friend of mine bought an old caravan for under $1k and was selling homemade
lemonade at street events for a while. Was making hundreds each night, then
renting the caravan out for private functions on weekends.

Someone entrepreneurial could buy a few of these and set some keen uni kids to
work running them for profit share.

------
adamio
How many Starbucks customers buy just coffee?

This is shown to be a hit in European cities, where just based on a guess
espresso and coffee is more popular. The majority of Starbucks customers are
probably buying mixed specialty drinks.

Watching a Sbux barista make just a few drink, they probably go through a
gallon jug of milk in minutes at peak times. How much fresh chilled milk can
this cart hold? Not saying there's no market, but taking on Sbux seems a bit
mis-targeted.

~~~
volaski
Something similar to what you say now was said by people when Starbucks was
just beginning. "The majority of Americans just drink Folgers and don't care
about arabica coffee"

~~~
adamio
I guess I'm wondering what this offers Starbucks customers that Starbucks does
not or cannot, which will steal marketshare? The advantage to a franchisee is
obvious, but not so much for Starbucks customers

~~~
hyperbovine
Coffee that tastes good. Starbucks coffee is just horrendous. I assume they
are so successful because they mostly sell glorified milkshakes these dayd. If
you don't believe me type "third wave coffee" into yelp and go do a flavor
comparison.

~~~
volaski
I actually think Starbucks Americano is one of the best Americanos I've ever
tried, and I've tried all kinds. I've lived in both SF and NY and been to many
"famous" coffee shops like blue bottle, philz, etc. (in my book philz is
better than starbucks but blue bottle is not so much) but haven't had many
Americanos that top Starbucks. Plus they are the only ones with really large
size (venti). I don't drink their regular coffee so I can't really say much
about them but have you tried Starbucks americano?

------
scottm30
Typo on the front page... "Order the new Wheelys 3. Before it's to late".

~~~
glibgil
The campaign page is full of typos. Just read it in an ambiguous European
accent and it will all make sense.

~~~
tomasmazetti
Swedish people are not famous for spelling (or for anything else).

~~~
foobarian
I played with a lot of Swedes on a MUD, and of all the content creators they
were the only ones able to spell correctly.

~~~
DrScump
His point may have been that there are some really obvious, ugly typos,
especially in the BIG RED BANNER segments (which can only be fixed by redoing
the imaged).

------
netcan
_Mazetti has a background in quirky projects. He and his team once illegally
flew into Belarussian airspace and dropped several hundred teddybears carrying
pro-democracy messages out of a plane_

Woah! This is a pretty hardcore version of #4 here:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html)

------
hyperpallium
Most YC startups do something new, enabled by new technology - typically the
internet.

Does this startup rely on some technological development that meant it wasn't
posible before? eg in making the whole thing small enough; "pour over" coffee
(whatever that is); eff/cheapness of solar panels etc?

NB not necessarily a selling point itself, but something that enables one.

------
bootload
_" More importantly, Wheelys is about pour-over coffee rather than the
Italian-styled coffee drinks like lattes and cappuccinos that many popular
U.S. chains now use. “If you like the taste of coffee beans, pour over tastes
way better,”"_

Lots of effort in _sales_ but what about the end product, coffee? In my home
town, Melbourne, where the locals are raised on expresso, Starbucks was run
out of town. [0]

Wheely appears to be a trojan _brand_ for expanding other products as well as
coffee at the expense of existing franchises in fixed locations. An Uber for
fast food products.

[0]
[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-08-07/32188](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-08-07/32188),
[http://munchies.vice.com/articles/this-is-why-australians-
ha...](http://munchies.vice.com/articles/this-is-why-australians-hate-
starbucks)

~~~
fphhotchips
As a Melbournian, you should know better than to call Espresso "expresso".

Also, and unfortunately in my opinion, Starbucks survives in Melbourne. I
think it lives because it stays open longer than most places, giving those who
enjoy a late night coffee somewhere to go.

~~~
bootload
_" expresso"_ yeah good point, I'm thinking Espresso but somehow that black
granular in a tin comes out. Do you really think _" Starbucks"_ is making a go
of it in Melb? There are a lot of places open late in the city. When in SEA I
do pop into Starbucks because they have a place I can sit while I cool down.
Maybe you are onto something.

------
dubcanada
I keep looking at it debating all the issues I see with this product. But then
I keep wanting to buy one...

Hrmmmmmmmmmm

------
rajeemcariazo
I think this will not make a big impact in developing countries like ours
because carts are common.

------
vonklaus
Man, part of me thinks this is a terrible idea for a host of reasons but the
founders seem really brand-centric and financially savvy. I wish them the best
of luck, it is clear success is possible, maybe even likely, but the magnitude
is an open question.

~~~
michaelpinto
I'll go a step further: This smells like a bubble!

If you're in a dense urban center like NYC there are already countless coffee
stands that already do this (most have doughnuts and a wide range of
pastries). But it's a really hard business to be parked in the street.

Also that sort of business can't really work in suburbia unless you use the
ice cream truck model, which is also very tough. And unlike a food truck you
won't do well in bad weather (do you want to drive on of these in the winter
in Maine or the summer in Texas?).

The idea that this competes with Starbucks also misses the point that people
go to Starbucks for a seat and to recharge their phone more maybe even more so
than the coffee.

Of course this can be a successful business, but you're dead on about
magnitude.

~~~
darkstar999
What do you mean by "bubble" in this context?

~~~
michaelpinto
The funding of junk. It's not the same as the dot.com era in that era was so
much about public companies. But maybe it's more of an angel investment
bubble? There just seems to be a great deal of money being pumped into low
quality.

But you tell me: Do you see this company as game changer that can scale to be
something more?

------
skatenerd
I think it's funny that there are portable coffee stands all over parts of
Southeast Asia.

I wonder if most people realize that the "innovation" involved has to do with
franchising and finances, rather than the fact that it's a cart that sells
coffee.

------
hukep
It is a great idea for the take away customers. I'd love to see if the society
and market will accept this system. The world changes everyday. Don't worry to
create something new.

------
Shivetya
Two hundred a day for a well traffic area does not look like much profit, let
alone that appears to be before taxes, fees, and other such expenses. This is
for a business that would be very dependent of location but also weather.

Have these been used inside of enclosed shopping centers/malls? Is the kiosk
size cost many of those charge worthwhile to a business such as this? How
about at airports? How are small setups like this treated by cities with
regards how some do not seem to care for food trucks?

------
raverbashing
Starbucks is not popular because of the coffee

Starbucks is popular because of other factors. For example, not shooshing
students that go there to use their wifi (which is usually good)

Maybe the corporate aspect of it even improves this aspect. Nobody will give a
f if I'm there (as opposed to a mom and pop shop)

Also the "you know what to expect" factor of chain places also plays a huge
part. And as McD is probably beginning to notice, if I go there a couple of
times and I have a bad experience, I'm not ever coming back.

------
erikb
Taking on Starbucks would mean having nice seats and free wifi. Starbucks is
not a coffee company. Coffee is just how they get you inside and start
spending money. Or maybe that's different in LA. In Germany there are many
shops where you can take a coffee to go with about the same quality as
Starbucks but 20-40% cheaper. People only buy Starbucks if they plan to sit in
a Starbucks.

Never the less, I think Wheelys can take on Coffee2Go companies without
problems.

------
dpflan
There is a distinct disadvantage for not being able to function during almost
all seasons and weather conditions.

YC also backs the bike startups ViaCycle and Vanhawks, and Wheelys represents
the use of bicycles in business. In a future with safe autonomous cars, does
that make it safer for a bike culture to really take off? And YC can be at the
center of a drastic shift to the next evolutional step of the bicycle.

------
hibala
It's really so nice to see this kind of business. Kudos to the whole team. I
personally feel that you can't take on starbucks, as starbucks is not juz
about coffee, but also an place to sit, meet with people along with coffee. So
wheelys got to do something about that, at least couple of seat for customers
to sit down and have a sip.

------
mywacaday
Reminds me of this guy who calls to my office building every day. The van does
a few locations each day, [http://mrcotton.com/](http://mrcotton.com/). He has
a few vans on the road, allowed him to pack in his banking job.

------
aet
28 seconds to start a Wheelys? It takes longer than that to make a pour over
coffee...

------
thenomad
"a mobile greenhouse where you can grow your own coffee beans"

I'd be _fascinated_ to learn more about the tech behind this. Last time I
looked into growing your own coffee, the summary was "don't".

~~~
benkuykendall
It doesn't seem at all practical.

Given a maximum yield of 30000 lbs/(acre*year) [1], and with an area of < 16
square feet, we get < 1 pound of coffee a year.

Maybe you could grow something else. Flowers, strawberries, herbs?

[1] [http://www.britannica.com/plant/coffee-plant-
genus](http://www.britannica.com/plant/coffee-plant-genus)

------
reilly3000
Portland will devour Wheelys.

------
a_lifters_life
I really like the concept actually. Its almost like what food trucks have done
to some brick/mortar companies. I dont think this will take on starbucks, but
appeal to a millenial userbase.

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ytdht
Next will be the Airbnb for coffees... and meals, perhaps.

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antonius
Besides their newly released app, what's proprietary about this business? What
would stop a big coffee company from replicating this at a cheaper cost?

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gargarplex
Big companies really can't innovate. Its just the law of nature, in order to
grow by 10%+ Y/Y they can't serve new markets (they just don't grow quickly
enough). So in exchange they buy the successful startups and pay a premium.

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kriro
That's way too broad a statement and I don't agree with using "innovate" to
mean "hockey stick".

While I generally agree that it's harder for big companies to innovate I think
the key is to segregate the company into smaller units (Gladwell's "magic
number 150"). There's plenty of innovation from huge companies that don't
depend on takeovers. Bell Labs is probably the most common example.

~~~
gargarplex
I will agree that innovate does not mean hockey stick, and I appreciate the
clarification; I meant to convey "disruptively innovate" and that happens
extremely rarely as a native occurrence in bigcos.

I also agree about the "segregate the company" idea; for example Amazon silos
its innovation units into separate companies with separate campuses to
compensate for the natural organizational dynamic.

But I do not know about the history of Bell Labs (except its prestigious
accomplishments) and what enabled it to be so effective. Perhaps there is a
telling history book?

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finkin1
Is there a map of that shows where all of the Wheelys are in real-time? I'd
love to see one in Boulder!

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MariaDeLaCroix
Coming soon!

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esaym
Man this is sweet, totally thought about buying one. I'd run my own roasted
coffee through it though.

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Vecrios
I love the idea. I see it become a huge success in highly populated cities
(e.g. New York).

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rorykoehler
The only reason I ever set foot in Starbucks is for wifi and a seat to work
from.

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prapam2
This seems like the Tea stalls in India but better designed.

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eonw
i hate to be a pessimist, but i really dont see this going far, for a plethora
of reasons... but for their sake, ill hope i am wrong.

grow your own coffee beans on the cart? yea right, that cart will grow enough
beans in a whole year to make a days worth of coffee, if you are lucky.

too many, new-agey buzz words for me in that article, along with a LOT of
misleading info... building out a small cafe doesnt even cost 100k, let alone
800. and starbucks doesnt pay minimum wage, they offer college assistance and
health care. so your own cart doesnt really compare straight across for an
hourly wage comparison to be fair.

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liquidise
The coffee plants are not a source of beans, but a source of customers. I
don't know about you, but that strikes me as one of the most intriguing
marketing plays I've seen surrounding coffee.

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eonw
i guess i fail to realize how a coffee plant on a cart will attract
customers... frankly, IMO, keeping a tropical plant alive in a glass box on a
cart will be a lot more work then worth. they take 3-5 years before producing
and grow to 6 feet in height or more.

but as i said in my original post, good luck to them.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
I wouldn't be surprised if there are dwarf species that aren't used
commercially. Or they could just use young plants and toss them out when they
get too big or sickly.

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ericfrederich
$30 Aeropress is all anyone should need

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eru
They are going to make pour over, not espresso style coffee.

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philliphaydon
The bit about Tomas Mazetti in this article... Paints this entire thing
negatively for me.

