Matic Robot co-founder @mehul on why Roomba was priced at $199: it's the price where you don't need to ask your partner for permission "The first robot vacuum ever built wasn't Roomba. It was Electrolux Trilobite. It had LIDAR in it. It was $1,500 and failed. Then Roomba came out priced at $199." "We asked the iRobot founders, why did they price it at $199? It's the price at which you don't have to ask permission of your partner to make a purchase. Below $200. It's a gadget-friendly price point." "We extrapolated. Is there a ubiquitous consumer electronics device priced higher than $2,000? Not really. Beyond that, we spend money on cars, or things that are prosumer for our work. Cars, after 100 years of utility, still remain a considered purchase." "If you're building something costing $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, what's the kind of trust we have to build? What infrastructure do we need? Cars have amazing financial infrastructure to enable these purchases. So if you're going to have humanoids costing that much, we will need the same thing." @maticrobots

My @maticrobots robot vacuum and my @ImpulseLabs stove are by far the best home appliances I own. Prediction: startups are absolutely going to mog the incumbent in home appliances. Clothes washers are ripe for disruption.