
Making and Selling a Stair-Climbing Dolly - patwalls
https://starterstory.com/stories/how-two-unlikely-partners-invented-the-upcart-and-went-viral-on-qvc
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funkaster
> Many people write/advise that you must be “All-In” to make a business
> successful… that’s easy to say if you don’t have a wife, two kids, car
> payments and a mortgage. I wasn’t in a position to just quit my day job and
> commit 100% to the business, and I wouldn’t be until December 2016 (3.5
> years later).

This is just refreshing to read. I don't like the product, but this was a good
read and detailed explanation of the issues/problems you can find of making a
physical product startup. I also enjoyed the honesty and down to earth writing
of the author.

~~~
jjeaff
Agreed. And the fact is, most successful founders have families and mortgages.
It's just that for some reason, we only like to talk about the 20 something
founders that are sleeping at the office because they are so dedicated and
they aren't even taking a salary because they believe in their product so much
(and because mommy and daddy keep supporting them).

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lexicality
I'm confused as to what he invented. Here's an advert from a year before he
even formed the company advertising the exact same product:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PpNLD3TrdE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PpNLD3TrdE)

~~~
RyanOD
A more appropriate title might be, "Selling a Stair Climbing Dolly..." as this
is mostly a story about understanding how to get in front of your target
audience and sell through the right channels (Facebook, Costco, Bed Bath &
Beyond, Home Depot, Lowe's, and QVC).

~~~
rasz
It seems one of the ways to sell is to claim the invention, just like Apple
[https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/con-jobs-5-things-apple-
didnt-...](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/con-jobs-5-things-apple-didnt-invent-
internet-wont-shut/)

~~~
malshe
This article is irrelevant because none of the claims there is made by Apple.
It's what people believe. The closest claim is that Apple invented USB-C but
again there is no official claim and all you have is John Gruber saying that
he was told about it by someone who he won't name. In contrast, this product
is literally what the manufacturer is claiming to have invented.

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voxadam
Am I the only one reminded of the "Landmaster"?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmaster)

~~~
alexpotato
Interesting that they tried to use commercially available truck parts wherever
possible. Good example of "good coders write code, great coders re-use code".

IIRC, the F-117 stealth fighter was built in a similar way. Many of the parts
were from other existing planes e.g. the avionics were from a F-16. This mean
that the stealth components were cutting edge whereas almost everything else
was battle tested and well understood.

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sonnyblarney
"We are dedicated to revolutionizing mobility with innovative products that
give people the freedom to do what they love by enhancing their mobility. "

It's one thing when founders claim to be revolutionizing this or that when in
fact some major changes are afoot. For example, Zuck can make some lofty
claims in terms of 'connecting people'.

But when people make some random thing that's been around for a while, in some
niche category and then hustle us with this 'revolutionizing mobility' rubbish
... it instantly hurts credibility so much I wonder why it is that it even
works, how are most people not turned off by this kind of stuff immediately?

From that sentence forward, I assume this is about the credibility of a Ronco
late-night infomercial something or other.

Edit: I should note the rest of the article seems highly authentic. Maybe
dropping the 'we're changing the world' narrative would tighten up the
messaging, that said, maybe that kind of stuff works on regular folks.

~~~
jjeaff
I don't think it is people being disingenuous as much as just saying what they
think they are supposed to say.

It's been drilled in to people that unless you are changing the world with
your business, it's not worth doing.

I think something like, "Discovering innovative products to make difficult
tasks easier." is an honorable and worthwhile pursuit as a business. But
everyone wants to be the next gates or jobs.

~~~
NeedMoreTea
So to summarise, people think they are supposed to tell bare faced lies?

Making difficult tasks easier is a much more laudable goal than
revolutionising everything. Many things don't need overthrowing and replacing
with a different regime. Wording intentional. :)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Much advertising is lies, I think people do believe they won't attract as much
attention unless they too lie.

~~~
NeedMoreTea
Not in Europe.

Thankfully we have Advertising Standards that require all ads to be "Legal,
Decent, Honest and Truthful" or the ads can be banned. All sanctions are
published and often end up reported in the news. More serious breaches can be
referred up the chain for fines.

Surprisingly this is industry self regulation, at least in the UK, that mostly
works OK. It applies to internet claims, ads and websites too.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_Standards_Authorit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_Standards_Authority_\(United_Kingdom\))

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Actually, I'm in UK, I can't recall exactly what but the other day I read
advertising copy and thought "the ASA have completely given up then". They're
pretty toothless it seems. Other places definitely have it worse.

When practised one does get to spot the key phrasing used to "lie within the
regulations", the doublespeak like how people _felt_ this or that our
something _appeared_ to be better or more lustrous when [paid] users were
asked.

~~~
DanBC
ASA regulate content after it's appeared based on complaints people make. Did
you complain to ASA?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I have in the past, the response was (paraphrasing) "the company pinky promise
not to do it again so we're not going to do anything else".

One time was a "travel to X for only £Y" and when I checked the actually cost
was at least double the advertised price, there was no such ticket available.
Not even under limited availability.

I've seen the same thing since, but not checked if it was the same (train)
company.

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wazoox
Old ladies had similar contraptions to go to the market more than 30 years
ago. Did I miss something?

[http://www.golf-charade.fr/wp-
content/uploads/2017/05/caddie...](http://www.golf-charade.fr/wp-
content/uploads/2017/05/caddie-trio-6-roues-herdegen.png)

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raywu
The Amazon cautionary tale is insightful. It's the second I read/heard working
with Vendor Central is terrible.

~~~
mdorazio
It's a double-edged sword. My own experience has been that your sales volume
will absolutely increase because customers love seeing Prime shipping and
"sold by Amazon" on products, but once you add in all the handling, storage,
processing, etc. fees and also factor in that you are completely at Amazon's
mercy, it's often not worth it unless you're just an FBA reseller pumping
through generic stuff from China.

As an example, I shipped 50 units of product to Amazon and got it to their
fulfillment center on 12/5\. Their published deadline to get things to a
fulfillment center in time for Christmas shipping is 12/9\. As of today,
exactly 0 of those units have been processed and made available for sale, thus
completely missing the holiday shopping season and leaving me with a long-term
storage bill since it will now take 2-3 months to sell through them. Good luck
getting any help with something like that. On the flip side, I did an A/B test
last year vs. this year using vendor central vs seller central for a different
product and saw about 2x sales volume for the former. So it's really something
you just need to test and make a decision on yourself.

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rajacombinator
This is really a failure story that got lucky. They spent 2+ years and who
knows how much $ before validating demand!

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anilakar
Surely this cannot be a new thing. I've been using six-wheel cam carts a
decade ago. Did you put it in the Blockchain? Does it leak your personal
information to foreign companies and three-letter agencies? What's the novelty
here?

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leojg
Sorry, what's the revolutionizing about this? Not do disappoint you but my
mother already has a cart with those 3 tiny wheels and she uses it to buy
groceries every day. In fact she bought it at least 3 years ago.

~~~
analog31
Harpists have used carts with the same kinds of wheels for a long time.

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i_am_nomad
Interesting that he cited Peter Thiel as an influence, specifically citing
Thiel’s advice that “competition is a looser [sic], monopolies are the path to
success.”

First of all, his business was never going to be a monopoly, patents or no.
More importantly, I’d feel very uneasy owning a monopolistic business,
considering how much I hate monopolies. But maybe that’s why I’m not rich and
other people are.

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Aardwolf
"We are dedicated to revolutionizing mobility with innovative products that
give people the freedom to do what they love by enhancing their mobility"

Who exactly gets convinced by such fluffy wording?

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dominotw
> If your product is listed anywhere on the internet for less, their automated
> bots will find it and automatically lower the price on Amazon.

Anyone know if there is a sas website that offers this.

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amelius
What makes this better than just a larger wheel in the right position?

~~~
cydonian_monk
The multiple smaller wheels give an extra leverage point, whereas a single,
larger wheel can require quite a bit of force. If climbing multiple stairs
that can wear both you and the dolly out.

I'm not sure I would have preferred this back when I was still moving
furniture for a living, as a furniture dolly with belts along the back/spine
will slide up a flight of stairs without much trouble.

~~~
DBYCZ
I used to move furniture and I much preferred the type of straps that would
wrap around your wrists, under the appliance, to the other lifter's wrists
over the furniture dollies.

~~~
cydonian_monk
We tended to always be labor-short for deliveries, so if we could send a job
out with one person we would. A single person can safely deliver most
household appliances with just a furniture dolly (up to a side-by-side fridge,
which almost always needed two people due to its mass and a set of tools to
remove the doors).

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SQL2219
You guys taking notes? There is no software in this thing!

~~~
exabrial
I dunno, I think it needs a touchscreen and bluetooth sync with an electron
app.

~~~
hmate9
The cart should be talking to my fridge so my fridge knows what’s in the cart
so it can automate update my shopping list.

