Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by dot on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @05:21AM
(#2381955)
This is hilarious. I love pranks like this. If you feel particularly snide, dare to check out the comments on youtube from people that think this is real.
Main reason this is fake? Someone with lofty ideas about peace and love would have no interest in selling something that belongs to all of us children of mother earth. :)
Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by pge on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @08:20AM
(#2382300)
I'm reminded of the Ali G "Ice Cream Glove" routine, in which he markets an idea to a number of investors (including Donald Trump). It's a great parody of VC pitches, particularly the "market sizing" (I use that term loosely) - "I googled 'ice cream' and I googled 'gloves'..."
Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by notahacker on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @06:46AM
(#2382112)
Now if she'd focused on the location based app to tag where she'd breathed, and mentioned the selling of bottled air at the very end as an irrelevant little monetisation detail, she'd have got the investment.
"During its short run, the Pet Rock made Dahl a millionaire.[3] With the proceeds, he opened the ironically named "Carrie Nation's" bar in downtown Los Gatos, California."
Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by yannickmahe on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @05:18AM
(#2381953)
I know what you mean. I'm appalled at such an idea - but I can't dismiss it as having no market. And the last line of the article seems to indicate some people have the same opinion.
Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by bmnbug on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @06:14AM
(#2382058)
That said, I have to say I'm not convinced of the business model.
However, I think I am going to invest in this founder anyway. If we can connect her with a good technical cofounder I can see great things in the future.
As everyone says, invest in the team, not the idea.
Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by tgrass on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @11:39AM
(#2383022)
Considering ShareTheAir108.com was registered by a member of YC funded Messageparty (Jarod Reyes)...
AND Messageparty tweeted that their launch was imminent an hour after Jarod Reyes started pumping the Rachel Sequoia video on tumblr and twitter (without mentioning he was running the ShareTheAir site...)
I'm putting my money on this being a brooklyn.makery.org production.
Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by iloveyouocean on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @06:15AM
(#2382059)
I am certain that we are now witnessing the birth of Web 4.0. If there is a bubble, then I am sure 'Share the Air' has already captured it for sale.
Brilliant.
This is a lot like my idea to buy up meat from endangered animal species and keep it on ice until the species reach extinction. Can you imagine how much I will be able to charge for extinct animal meat?
Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by tomjen3 on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @06:25AM
(#2382077)
Thats actually pretty smart, since you will hasten their demise at the same time you increase your holdings and if cloning extinct animals is ever successful, you will own them all.
It is properly illegal, but these days what isn't?
Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by _exec on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @08:03AM
(#2382252)
"We would like to introduce you to our mascot -- Wendell, The Flying Air Quality Pig. Wendell will appear periodically on this website to help explain some things about air quality. We could have paid for a professional spokesman, but Wendell works pretty cheap, just a few bytes here and there."
Re:Is This The Greatest VC Pitch Prank Ever Pulled?
by bmnbug on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @06:10AM
(#2382049)
For all her posturing, does this founder not realize how horrible this will be for the environment?
Packaging air in glass jars takes up an enormous amount of space and weight for shipping them around the globe (she hasn't mention how wide the distribution model will be).
Though this air is being marketed as a substitute for travel and and opportunity for new sensory experience, I can envision a future where it becomes a commodity product, scaled up, its value cheapened, and sold as a staple rather than a luxury item.
The obvious parallel is bottled water—a ubiquitous commodity sold half way around the world—except this has absolutely no utilitarian value and is even more critical to life.
I can imagine, when this is a billion dollar business, huge freight ships loading shipping containers of air for the privileged who feel like the air they have polluted is below them; socioeconomic groups will be defined by the very air they breathe: the poor will choke on the smog filled haze, while the rich will breathe their bottled air from the few places where it is still clean.
Main reason this is fake? Someone with lofty ideas about peace and love would have no interest in selling something that belongs to all of us children of mother earth. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8-nnvtHvd0
"During its short run, the Pet Rock made Dahl a millionaire.[3] With the proceeds, he opened the ironically named "Carrie Nation's" bar in downtown Los Gatos, California."
AND Messageparty tweeted that their launch was imminent an hour after Jarod Reyes started pumping the Rachel Sequoia video on tumblr and twitter (without mentioning he was running the ShareTheAir site...)
I'm putting my money on this being a brooklyn.makery.org production.
Brilliant.
This is a lot like my idea to buy up meat from endangered animal species and keep it on ice until the species reach extinction. Can you imagine how much I will be able to charge for extinct animal meat?
It is properly illegal, but these days what isn't?
If she's not an actress and is in fact the mastermind, I apologise, kudos to her.
EDIT: Thinking about it, even if she is an actor, kudos to her regardless. I certainly couldn't keep a straight face doing that...
Packaging air in glass jars takes up an enormous amount of space and weight for shipping them around the globe (she hasn't mention how wide the distribution model will be).
Though this air is being marketed as a substitute for travel and and opportunity for new sensory experience, I can envision a future where it becomes a commodity product, scaled up, its value cheapened, and sold as a staple rather than a luxury item.
The obvious parallel is bottled water—a ubiquitous commodity sold half way around the world—except this has absolutely no utilitarian value and is even more critical to life.
I can imagine, when this is a billion dollar business, huge freight ships loading shipping containers of air for the privileged who feel like the air they have polluted is below them; socioeconomic groups will be defined by the very air they breathe: the poor will choke on the smog filled haze, while the rich will breathe their bottled air from the few places where it is still clean.