| i don't have a dog in the fight, but I think the answer to this: "Are we trying to put corner stores out of business?" Was extremely unconvincing. The only thing I saw in your answer was that you're not competing head to head with bodegas (presumably due to the geographical location of your current machines). I am willing to bet that in your pitchdeck to investors, in your TAM section, that you listed the size of the "bodega" market -- the obvious implication being that that is your ultimate target market. In fact, I will donate $50 to a charity of your choosing, all you have to do is comment that I am wrong and I will take it at face value. However, even if I am wrong about the pitch deck assumption, the fact that you raised $2.5M, and will presumably raise more $ if you are successful, almost certainly dictates that you will eventually compete head to head with bodegas, and that if you are successful, you will put some of these people out of business (ie. not to state the obvious, but in order to generate a 10x return for your investors, you will have to expand and compete with the existing bodegas eventually). I'm not someone that thinks you can put your head in the sand and technological progress will stop, and everything will be utopia. But I also think it does a disservice when you pretend like technological progress won't have winners and losers -- in your case, if you win, someone else will lose. You saying your not competing with bodegas is like Airbnb saying it's not competing with hotels. Airbnb is obviously competing with hotels, the only difference is that its a lot more socially acceptable for them than for you, but it doesn't change the reality. |