Watch the Jupe + YC CEOs video on the site and tell me it’s not a parody. Dude dressed like a guru talking about a glamping tent like it’s as ground breaking as a Tesla and will solve world housing. Wild.
You took the words from my mouth :) Selling tents to clueless SV customers with disposable cash, with a not-so-veiled promise they can rent them out on Airbnb.
It's the lime scooters of "housing": no permits, no safety, lawless, convenient, short-sighted.
The guru guy, and his tasteless leveraging of someone's personal tragedy to his own grift is incredibly out of touch – provided even that is not made up.
Risking sounding like Mr. Wonderful: I can't tell if it's aspirational, pre-product marketing or a parody. If it wasn't a joke, then they've just reinvented the travel trailer without the convenience or the trailer. My conclusion then is that it's an elaborate trolling.
The number of times they referred to the “experience” as “crazy” or “insane”. The interviewer chucking in dundrearyisms (OK, maybe just situational code-switching) like “crib” and “right on, right on”, and “mama taught me right”.
Parody of summat, but I’m afeared of what. Something from an AI marketing department this way comes.
You can buy a 17 foot travel trailer for less than $15k and it includes a toilet, shower and cooking facilities. Harder to ship in bulk but I bet you can get it delivered anywhere in the continental USA for less than the $2.50/mile Jupe is charging.
A few years ago I considered putting together an 'off grid kit' for people looking to buy themselves some time in nature to get away from the grind. I thought through heating, cooling, water, food and toilet options, as well as help locating land to set up on. I considered a range of shelters, from a rugged tent to a larger, stronger structure. I also wanted to include a 1-year subscription to an emergency satellite beacon. I actually wanted the whole setup to be able to last someone a year, or longer after re-upping basic supplies.
The plan was to make it as affordable as possible.
The conclusion I eventually came to was that to get to a remotely reasonable price point (around $10k at the time), anyone motivated enough to pursue this would probably find better solutions on the market-- like your example of a travel trailer.
Whatever these guys are doing is nowhere near that and not what the headline made me think of. It's definitely not going to help anyone who doesn't already have tons of other options.
I think most people who want to spend a year off-grid are the sort who already have some expertise in this, and would prefer to do their own shopping & research, and would not trust a one-size-fits-all solution.
The exception is the people who want to do that, and don't know anything about it, and would pay $10k for such a thing, set it up in the woods, and get eaten by a bear, fall down a ravine, or eat some poisonous flora on their third night.
That's immediately what I thought. Plus, there is no absolutely no way this will withstand a 70 mph windstorm while you can fold a travel trailer down in a reasonable amount of time. It's not a secure, real, permanent shelter that conforms to building codes: it's an illusionary shortcut.
I don’t think this is for consumers, the “order quantity” input for something that costs more than a car is a give away.
I think this product is well suited for a eco-resort business. Build a conventional lodge structure to serve meals and host activities, add a few hubs with showers, washing machines, etc, and then plenty of Jupes around each hub. Connect with elevated wood pathways.
That's not a shelter, that's highest-end "glamping"! For a minute there I thought this might be an upgrade from a hexayurt, itself already a remarkably luxurious camping shelter - but no, this serves a completely different clientele.
This is quite literally one of the dumbest things I have ever seen. Can’t even claim “weather-proof”, which is the first step to making this worth anywhere near the $25k price tag.
Before I watched the video, I thought this was going to be a non-profit (or a b-corp) trying to make high quality/ low cost tents to house the many refugees around the word. I clicked on the link thinking - what a great cause.... I only made it about one minute into the video. When I skipped forward and saw all the electronics under the "doug fir" panel, I was super confused. Why do they need all that tech? Do random people really need lights/ solar in your perma-tent? The people I know who are interested in something like this just end up building a platform on their land and either setting up a canvas tent, or just hiking in with their own.
It's amazing how many things use lighting as a selling point. It's a cool effect if you're into Burning Man inspired aesthetics... But I'd rather just have an LED lantern and a headlight
How do these withstand strong winds? How are they secured to the ground? Where I live we've had 21 of the last 30 days with a gust over 50km/h, with one day gusting 113km/h.
Unless the structure is _very well_ secured to the ground, the fabric material looks like a rather inviting windsail, and the supporting structure doesn't seem to inspire confidence either. My immediate thought is that these very much look "designed for where it's 72°F and Sunny", and don't reflect real-world post-disaster conditions.
Readit News
It's the lime scooters of "housing": no permits, no safety, lawless, convenient, short-sighted.
The guru guy, and his tasteless leveraging of someone's personal tragedy to his own grift is incredibly out of touch – provided even that is not made up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexayurt
Parody of summat, but I’m afeared of what. Something from an AI marketing department this way comes.
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The plan was to make it as affordable as possible.
The conclusion I eventually came to was that to get to a remotely reasonable price point (around $10k at the time), anyone motivated enough to pursue this would probably find better solutions on the market-- like your example of a travel trailer.
Whatever these guys are doing is nowhere near that and not what the headline made me think of. It's definitely not going to help anyone who doesn't already have tons of other options.
The exception is the people who want to do that, and don't know anything about it, and would pay $10k for such a thing, set it up in the woods, and get eaten by a bear, fall down a ravine, or eat some poisonous flora on their third night.
I think this product is well suited for a eco-resort business. Build a conventional lodge structure to serve meals and host activities, add a few hubs with showers, washing machines, etc, and then plenty of Jupes around each hub. Connect with elevated wood pathways.
This is the sort of place I’m imagining: https://www.booking.com/hotel/cr/kintiri-glamping.html?aid=2...
Unless the structure is _very well_ secured to the ground, the fabric material looks like a rather inviting windsail, and the supporting structure doesn't seem to inspire confidence either. My immediate thought is that these very much look "designed for where it's 72°F and Sunny", and don't reflect real-world post-disaster conditions.