[HN Gopher] Robot Pizza Startup Shuts Down After Cheese Kept Sli...
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       Robot Pizza Startup Shuts Down After Cheese Kept Sliding Off
        
       Author : shallowbay
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2023-06-05 17:36 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (futurism.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (futurism.com)
        
       | JoeAltmaier wrote:
       | I'm surprised. We have had stabilizing technology for decades -
       | ships at sea, camera lenses, microscopes, CNC mills and on and
       | on. How can it be hard to stabilize an oven in a car?
       | 
       | Even if there is some mechanical issue, why not bake the pizza on
       | a 'bed of nails' so the cheese says put?
       | 
       | It seems like there must be a dozen solutions available. Was cost
       | prohibitive?
        
         | SQueeeeeL wrote:
         | "A robot pizza delivery startup that raised almost half a
         | billion dollars has shut down after a series of technological
         | setbacks, according to The Information."
         | 
         | The answer feels pretty obvious. This whole thing was a
         | vaporware pump and dump scheme to rip off investors. No one
         | needs 500 million dollars and 7 years to build a pizza robot;
         | but that's a lot of years of salary and making PowerPoints.
         | Legitimate productive cost effective engineering strategies for
         | their core product probably left the discussion space after
         | they raised their first million dollars of funding, and all the
         | people actually capable of solving tasks left soon after the
         | company was taken over by bozos
        
       | teachrdan wrote:
       | As an engineer in the bay area, I got a bunch of recruiter emails
       | from these guys over the years. So did a few other folks in my
       | position. Anyone else?
        
       | pvaldes wrote:
       | Just cover the pizza with a second mass layer sealing the cheese
       | in place
        
         | Kon-Peki wrote:
         | But then you have a calzone startup, which most definitely
         | isn't something SoftBank (or anyone who likes food) wants to
         | scale up.
        
           | pvaldes wrote:
           | The CalzoneYcombinator startup rule:
           | 
           | The time that your startup will last is inversely
           | proportional to the complexity of your first product.
           | 
           | Start with the minimum viable product that you can positively
           | build and sell, and gain complexity only in successive
           | iterations. It does not matter if your pizza can selfdrive
           | into your mouth. Your startup will be death for years at this
           | point.
        
       | pizzafeelsright wrote:
       | How exactly did someone, anyone, not build or pivot when that
       | much money was involved?
       | 
       | How did someone not ask or say the required sequence of words to
       | capitalize on the investment?
        
       | Canada wrote:
       | Aren't all the frozen pizzas in the supermarket made by machines
       | already?
        
         | hgsgm wrote:
         | Not by machines in driving trucks
        
           | kilohotel wrote:
           | except Zume didn't make pizza's in trucks - they just heated
           | them in trucks from a parbaked state, like digiorno
        
       | squarefoot wrote:
       | If your cheese sprays like liquid, then you're using the wrong
       | cheese, or probably something that shouldn't even qualify as
       | such.
        
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       (page generated 2023-06-05 23:05 UTC)