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Comment by anonu | Hacker News Reader

It's a cool concept but it needs to scale to be sustainable. Their website says it takes 7 to 9 years on a pre order... How does that work in an age with Prime delivery?

They need an MBA to go in there and shake things up. (Go ahead downvote me). Figure out new materials that grow faster (like bamboo). Forget the grafting bit because that probably takes too much time. And make sure there's a inventory of things people can buy now on their website. People will pay for immediacy.

On another hand I was expecting not to be able to find them on the web, but they're still alive. So kudos to them

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Ah a growth hacker! You go do it. Out-compete them with bamboo!

I'm not talking about growth. I'm talking about building a sustainable business around a cool idea that outlives it's founders...

I'm putting their business in context against the luxury retail backdrop that isn't looking too good these days

> I'm not talking about growth.

Then explain the meaning of these statements:

> it needs to scale to be sustainable

Growth.

> Their website says it takes 7 to 9 years on a pre order

Looks like they have more orders on the book than they are currently growing. They could grow!

> They need an MBA to go in there and shake things up.

They can only afford an MBA if they grow.

> And make sure there's a inventory of things people can buy now on their website.

Grow an inventory?

Bamboo doesn't really grow in a way to do this unless you tried training the shoot to follow a path as it extended that loops around. A bamboo shoot has a telescopic appearance (I have Bambusa Lako) in that it extends and then thickens each segment as it grows. While it grows quickly in height, you still need a few years for it to harden.

According to Apple’s show Home, they grew a massive house out of bamboo in 5 years.

https://www.archdaily.com/937954/new-documentary-series-expl...

I'm no expert, but I feel like there is nothing efficient about this process and the end product will not be as durable as something that can be constructed. So sure, this is fun and whimsical but I don't see any reason to scale it.

Are screws no longer considered sustainable? Not sure what problem this is solving other than -- hey, cool chairs!

It's a hand-made design object sold for a high price. That's a luxury good. They don't need to scale. The limited availability is part of what they sell.

It's a niche market. Sure, it won't make you a billionaire as is but you definitely can make a very decent living this way.

Considering they've spent years on this I'd be pretty surprised if they'd get any value out of giving an MBA a bucket of cash to tell them that bamboo exists

It's a great example of the efficient tree arbitration hypothesis (ETAH).

Maybe the MBA can make the trees grow faster.

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