Mu Hack 1 Hit Kill GlitchBodega Represents Whats Wrong With Tech Funding, but It Wont Kill Your Actual Bodega. The founders of Bodega, the new vending machine startup that wants to replace convenience stores, probably didnt expect the internet to immediately and vociferously hate them. But they should have. The headline of their launch day article in Fast CompanyTwo Ex Googlers Want To Make Bodegas And Mom And Pop Corner Stores Obsoleteisnt unfair. FC quotes co founder Paul Mc. Donald directly Eventually, centralized shopping locations wont be necessary, because there will be 1. Bodegas spread out, with one always 1. Bodega is a chain of internet enabled vending machines located in gyms, dorms, and apartment buildings. Each five foot pantry box, unlockable with a mobile app, contains non perishable items that you purchase simply by grabbing. The startup probably doesnt have a chance, in part because most startups dont have a chance. But who knows No one knows anything. Still, whether or not they succeed, they will temporarily be in charge of a lot of money, as a reward for presenting a certain vision to a certain set of people. And to most onlookers, Bodegas vision seems distasteful its one where we leave our house less, where our day includes one less human interaction. And unlike other disruptive technologies, the only seeming innovation here is fewer trips to the corner store. Thats the sum total of the new value Bodega brings to the world. Bodega also promises customized items that vary from location to locationthis is what bodegas already do. Its not nothingBut what does it ask in return For Bodega to succeed, to make the kind of money Silicon Valley investors demand, it would need to take money away from the stores that currently sell these items. In this weeks Funbag, reader Benjamin asked this excellent question. Mashable is a global, multiplatform media and entertainment company. This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. Please help by spinning off or relocating any relevant. The founders of Bodega, the new vending machine startup that wants to replace convenience stores, probably didnt expect the internet to immediately and. The new Acura NSX is a hybrid, turbo, midengine, allwheel drive, 191mph jet without wings, with 573 horsepower and on this particular car at least a 204,600. Mu Hack 1 Hit Kill HitLike you, I love a good bargain. If I can get something for less at at least the same or slightly worse quality, I will generally go for the cheaper option. Haircuts. Mostly thats grocery stores and CVS. In certain major cities, its the real bodegas that Bodega named itself after, seemingly an attempt to co opt the positive and authentic associations we make with the friendly corner bodega in service of corporate profit. Besides being in shockingly poor taste and attempting to re route your cash from a local, likely immigrant owned business and back to Silicon Valley, this is also a questionable at best business plan. As all of Twitter pointed out, besides keep your money local, real bodegas are much more than giant vending machines they might sell you a loose cigarette, a dirt cheap coffee, or a fresh egg sandwich. Spintires 2015 there. They might hold your spare key or remember your usual order or say the first hello you hear that day. They might chase away the man trying to follow you home. And even as vending machines, theyre much better at storing your favorite brand of toothbrush, or 1. Cottonelle, or fresh produce. All these advantages mean that bodegas probably cant be beat this easily. The swift backlash is probably overstating the threat. But its not overstating what Bodega, its founders, and its investors wish would happen, or the troubling fact that over and over again, Silicon Valley investors pour money into companies like Bodega, which dont create value but merely shuffle it around. Among the recent crop of unicorns, even those that provide new value to the customer are destroying major value elsewhere. Uber isnt just a better way to handle taxi rides, its also a monopoly that will eventually dump its workforce in favor of self driving cars. Airbnb isnt just helping people make an extra buck or find a place to stay its also pushing up rents and eroding the tax base. This isnt shocking. About ten years ago we all started getting mobile internet, a technological innovation so massive that Silicon Valley is still finding all the economic implications. But by doing so, theyre de prioritizing the next technological innovation. Theyre behaving like hedge funds, extracting and redistributing value by reworking existing industries, while demanding to be seen as genius philanthropists fighting to make the world a better place. See also Lyft essentially re inventing. But, as Buzz. Feeds Ben Smith recently wrote, were all starting to see through that The tech industry has also benefited for years from its enemies, who it castoften accuratelyas Luddites who genuinely didnt understand the series of tubes they were ranting about, or protectionist industries that didnt want the best for consumers. That, too, is over. Now political figures on the left and right see these companies, and their investors, for what they are just another round of Gilded Age robber barons riding high on the once utopian promise of their main innovation, now squeezing the last breath out of the rest of the economy. With their fatuous appropriative marketing and their explicit threat to the business owners they want to mimic, the founders of Bodega walked right into this characterization. Bodega wants to kill your bodega, and they will almost definitely fail dont worry about that. But do worry about why they didnt even think you would be mad, and who gave them all that money in the first place.