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The hype is palpable: As tech experts from near and far gather at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco — one of the only places where Waymo is available to the public — there’s a lot of talk about a self-driving vehicle service.
“If you think about the AI hype and everything, everyone is excited about what it will look like in 10 years, when you look at self-driving cars,” Pegah Ebrahimi, co-founder and managing partner of FPV Ventures, said on stage at TechCrunch. Disrupting 2024. “You can’t be perfect for a while, but people are so excited, and they live in a world of optimism about what can be, and they kind of want everything to happen now.”
The excitement surrounding Waymo among attendees outside of San Francisco is a clear example of how the hype works: We’re more invested in what might happen, as opposed to what’s actually happening now, which is that Waymo is slower (and sometimes more expensive). From Uber. But it’s fun and irresistible to share a video of a self-driving car on social media.
For Natalie Sportelli, director of Bullish, social media is a key part of how hype works.
“I think the excitement online and the media is creating a lot of hype for consumer (products),” Sportelli said on stage. But social media isn’t just for futuristic experiments like Waymo. Even Mel, whose founder Harry Tannenbaum described it as “a raccoon’s worst nightmare,” has managed to harness more than 80,000 followers On Instagram because of high-tech trash.
“We’re asking people to come with us and dumpster dive,” Tannenbaum said. “I think anytime you can ask people to help amplify your message and create content that’s really exciting and interesting in its own right, that’s much better than pay-per-click.”
Mill’s Mill bins dry compostable materials and break them down into soil that can be used in gardening or as chicken feed. The trash can technology may not be particularly glamorous, but its business could easily be recast as a valuable green technology that has the potential to reduce food waste (once Mel can get to a price point that’s accessible to the average consumer — right now, the device costs $360 annually).
On the consumer side, Sportelli says the best way to capitalize on the hype is to build lasting relationships with customers.
“One thing I’ve definitely learned through all my different careers is that people will like you and continue to buy from you if they really like the experience of the product and like how they feel,” she said. This remains true whether it’s a trendy product like Glossier’s face wash, or a trash can. “This also applies to B2B SaaS, like, I love Guideline, my 401(K) provider, and this software, and I think the experience is amazing.”
Given the current hype cycle around AI, some companies are eager to tell investors that they are powered by AI, while others are less overt. What you may not discover from the Mill product at first glance is that it uses artificial intelligence to know when there is enough food in the bin to start drying it.
As an investor, Ebrahimi is more interested in the company’s overall potential than in its relationship to the media hype.
“If you’re actually solving a problem, don’t talk about any of the propaganda stuff — you’ll say, ‘This is the problem I’m solving,’” she said. “You don’t want to hear about the hype. …You just want to know, what are you solving and can you solve it for me efficiently?”
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