Why Did Segway Fail?
'Bigger Than the Internet' — Sold 30k Units in 6 Years
📜 What Happened
Pre-launch, Segway ('Project Ginger') was hyped by Steve Jobs ('as big as the PC') and Jeff Bezos; inventor Dean Kamen predicted 10,000 units a WEEK and said cities would be redesigned around it. The reveal: a $5,000 scooter you couldn't ride on sidewalks (banned in many cities), roads (too slow), or anywhere dignity mattered. It sold ~30,000 units in six years — 1% of projections — becoming shorthand for hype-vs-reality. Mall cops and tour groups kept it on life support.
☠️ The Fatal Mistake
Brilliant engineering aimed at a problem ('walking') that nobody experienced as a problem — plus total blindness to price, regulation, and the dork factor.
🧠 The Lesson (Free for You)
Technology impressiveness ≠ customer desire. The question is never 'is it amazing?' but 'what painful thing does it replace, at what price, looking how?'
📕 The Antidote Book
Customer conversations are the cheapest startup insurance — and almost everyone does them wrong, collecting compliments ('sounds great, I'd buy it!') that evaporate at the checkout. Fitzpatrick's rules, named for the…
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