This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh, hey friends, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. It's Chris Guillebeau, your host, and I've got the first Failure Friday story of July. This is gonna be episode 2,379. Here we are in the middle of summer, Northern Hemisphere summer at least.
I know we got folks out there in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, elsewhere. But in my part of the world, it is getting warm. And I usually try to take a short little nap almost every day, every afternoon for about 15 minutes, 15, 20 minutes. But I notice in the summer, I always wanna sleep a little bit more. And sleeping is what we're gonna talk about today.
If you ever get tired in the office and you wanna take a little nap, well, maybe you need a snooze cube. I know that's starting to sound like an ad, but it's not. It is in fact a failed startup story, a failure from the founder of this product, Snooze Cubes, sleeping pods for offices. And if you've never heard of this business, it's because it never got up to Super Bowl ad level. In fact, the business did not go so well.
So Failure Friday is all about stories of things that don't go well. Disasters, mistakes, missteps, and of course, failure. What happened? What did the person learn? How can we be inspired, not just from all the big successes, but also from the attempts that, well, kind of go in a different direction.
So I'm gonna hand it over to Jake, the founder of Snooze Cubes. Let's hear the story from him. [Music]
I'm Jake, a former tech worker turned aspiring entrepreneur from Boston. After several years in the corporate world, I noticed the pattern, colleagues sneaking in naps in their cars or even under their desks. We had recreation rooms, game rooms, but no space to catch a quick nap.
Thus the idea for Snooze Cubes office sleep pods was born. The concept was simple. I wanted to sell small personal sleeping pods to companies, providing their employees a space to catch some shut eye during those extra long work hours. I envisioned a sleek, futuristic looking capsule complete with mood lighting and soundproofing. I thought if companies could afford to have game rooms and coffee bars, why not nap pods?
The business model was straightforward. I intended to sell these pods directly to businesses at $5,000 per unit, thinking that the cost would eventually pay for itself through increased productivity. I was also planning to offer annual maintenance for an additional fee. Armed with a business plan, I worked with a freelance engineer and designer to prototype my dream pod. In my mind, I was going to revolutionize office culture.
After several months of hard work, we had our first prototype ready. Marketing was the next step. I built a model showcasing our product and used LinkedIn extensively to reach out to decision makers and companies. I attended two trade shows, gave presentations, and even offered free trials to several Boston tech companies. But the response was lackluster, to say the least.
As it turns out, what I saw as a boon, businesses saw as a liability. Many expressed concerns about the practicality of the pods. How much space would they take up? How would they ensure cleanliness? And so on.
It became apparent that my vision of sleepy employees, blissfully recharging and snooze cubes, was not aligned with the corporate world's vision. Then came the unforeseen issue of permits and legalities. Several cities had strict regulations around providing sleeping accommodations at workplaces. Of course, I wasn't trying to get people to stay overnight, but the rules around exceptions were confusing. I quickly found myself tangled in a web of legal issues I had never even considered.
After about a year of relentlessly pushing snooze cubes with only a handful of sales, I had to confront reality. My idea had failed. It was a tough pill to swallow. The lessons I learned from this venture were many. I realized the importance of in-depth market research and understanding the target audience.
I had created a product that I thought was useful without understanding the complex needs of my customers. Secondly, I understood that not every problem needs a business solution. While sleeping at work was common in my circle, it wasn't a problem that needed a $5,000 solution. Lastly, I learned the value of legal and regulatory research. If I dug a little deeper into the legal implications of my idea, I might have avoided a lot of headaches.
Although the snooze cubes venture was unsuccessful, the experience was invaluable. It was a foray into the world of advanced hustling that taught me more than any success ever could. Or at least that's what I tell myself now. [Music]
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. That is the theme of failure Friday for two years and counting now.
We've been presenting these stories, as I said, as a bit of inspiration, not just for all the big successes, but to know that oftentimes you have an idea that doesn't work out. And the whole question is, what do you do next? Like, how do you learn from it? So, no doubt Jake has learned from this experience. Jake, thanks so much for your candor and for sharing the story.
Listeners, if you have a question or an update for us about your hustle, something that's on your mind, www.sidehustleschool.com/questions. This has been episode 2,379. So you can just go to www.sidehustleschool.com/2379 for today's notes. We got notes for every single episode. We got a new episode coming out tomorrow.
We have a new one every single day. In fact, you can always subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. But that's all for now. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
