I am not that excited by Manpacks, and I hate shopping. It's the typical web startup. Web 2.0 design. A few famous brands. Lots of logos from "traditional media".
Then you look at the product and it's nearly twice as expensive as Amazon, if you are willing to get 6 pairs of underwear at once. So who does this target? People who are too poor to afford 12 socks at once? Not compelling. Amazon is trusted and less expensive. Where is the value add?
Not having to think about it, click any buttons, do anything, remember anything, etc. Buying socks and underwear is one of those tasks that's very, very easy to perpetually put off until tomorrow.
HN and Reddit have always been very helpful in pointing out Manpacks' price competitiveness with Amazon. :)
To put it into perspective, using Hanes crew necks (that seem to be a baseline for comparison) you're paying a "discounted" $12.99 for a 3-pack on Amazon. Not including shipping -- or what you pre-pay using Prime -- that's $4.33 a shirt. Manpacks lists them at $5, with free shipping on orders above $30.
If you just don't see the value in not having to think about or shop for the basics, then that 67¢ savings will be the deciding factor.
Anyway, I think a subscription requires more thinking than a one-time purchase. You have to guess the failure rate, and then time replacements to arrive sometime shortly before your existing clothes fail. You have to receive an email and respond to it before your replacement ships, then you have to remember to collect the package.
Compare this to Amazon where you order two years worth of clothing at once, pay $20 to have it shipped overnight, and forget about clothes until they seem to be wearing out.
thats fair. i see the exact same 3-pack at around $9.
regardless, though, you're right, its about convenience and margins. i've not done the legwork, so i don't know what the margins look like on something like this.
I'd like to see something like manpacks, but with food (not pizza-style junkfood crap, but something good and healthy like you would cook at home if you were inclined to cook).
I want to see someone start a fruit delivery service to offices. You'd sign up for a weekly delivery and pick the pricepoint that matched your needs - maybe you have 4-5 people, or maybe 20 or many more. Perhaps you just want some basics (bananas, apples, etc) or maybe you want to spring for mangos.
The delivery guys would dress in gorilla outfits and drive yellow cars. They'd cruise into the office, high-five the receptionist. Someone would yell out, "It's the gorilllllla!" Maybe they'd do a brief dance after putting down the box/basket - something new each time and fruit-themed (picking apples, peeling a banana, etc) and then they'd leave. Out of work acting types and arts students could handle the deliveries.
This is called meal prep. There are companies like Dream Dinners and Super Suppers that do this. Usually you go and prepare the meals yourself (pick what you want and how many servings from their menu) in a few hours (to make a months worth of meals). Most places will prepare it for you too if you'd like - then you just pick it up. The meals themselves are usually ready to eat in 15-20 minutes. You usually put it in the oven or cook it on the stove top. I've done Dream Dinners before - it was OK, but the portions were a bit small for me and ultimately with my wife staying home it was easier and cheaper for her to just make meals herself.
This exists, but is a local thing. I subscribe to Organic Life in Chicago. 3 medium-calorie organic meals a day, delivered 3 times a week. Other cities have services like this too, you just have to Google it.
For dry goods / energy drinks / etc., there is Amazon Subscribe & Save. I rarely need to go to the store with this and Amazon Prime. It's great to have 6 months of laundry detergent on hand :)
http://ypchef.com is another one. We built the site for them. The owners are good people, but I haven't tried the food (they don't deliver to my area).
wow. i'm not sure about the financial potential, but i like that idea a lot... pick a dish, how many people you want to cook for and when you want it delivered... or the weekly featured dish in a subscription.
Interesting that HN now has enough reach that mainstream media mine it for new stories. From the transcript --
Andrew: How about that “Inc.” article? There was an article in “Inc.” which announced Manpacks, and then it asked other entrepreneurs to give feedback and suggestions for Manpacks. How did you guys get that article written about you?
Ken: The editor reached out to us in March. He said they would be interested in doing an article on Manpacks. Would you be interested in an interview? I said, of course.
Andrew: Okay. Was this after the Hacker News hit?
Ken: Yes. It was maybe a week and a half after.
Andrew: That’s so interesting. By the way, I found that other reporters will look at Hacker News and come up with stories. And then those stories end up just kind of growing and growing and feeding on each other.
1. manpacks guys make the product.
2. post facebook ad
3. my brother see fb ad(nice targeting?)
4. bro shares link with me on gtalk
5. i post on HN
6. <lots more coverage?>
7. profit???
The real thanks should goto my brother Shadab!
Here's our original chat between me and my bro from March 8(he works in advertising so I thought he was doing a campaign for them):
12:46 AM Shadab: http://manpacks.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&...
LOL
12:47 AM me: LOL!
doing campaign for tht?
Shadab: clicked on FB ad
hahahahahaha
What I'd like to know from them is what other marketing ideas they tried?
How much did they spend on FB?
How did they go about targeting?
How are they scaling sales now(all WOM)?
I'm yet to watch the interview so I'm sure they've answered some of that there!