alt Hacker NewsI'm a big fan of his channel, but when I saw the price tag, it got me thinking for a moment. Wheelchairs are a great example of why niche products are expensive.
I think you're spot on with certifications.
I was stupid a few times and needed orthopedic equipment. Each time, the price flabbergasted me. But it didn't matter since the health insurance fully refunded it.
In a regulated market, if you can influence the cap, the item will cost exactly that, no less. And if the market is small enough to not allow any disruption, then it will stay that way forever.
I need to talk to my girlfriend who's a physiotherapist about it. But for now I'm hoping his YouTube fame would start a snowball effect.
Thinking he could do with the wheelchairs what Elon is pretending to do with EVs is truly exciting.
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I think it works in this case because Zack has a high profile YouTube channel and a high degree of trust in his workmanship from that. As they say, regulations are written in blood, and I would trust an approved device over a chair from some no name company somewhere because I have more faith that it won’t break on me while I’m out and about. Zack is obviously an exception to that because of his reputation which I think will help him be successful in this endeavor.
It’s not that small of a market if you consider how many wheelchairs the European public sector buys. Take your average Danish hospital and they’ll have at least 10 wheelchairs placed at every major entrance. They’re basically like shopping carts in a lot of public healthcare places. These are semi-regularity replaced because of wear and tear. If you could supply them with a cheap, solid be easily repairable version you could disrupt that market.
Of course you’re not going to have a very easy time entering the market. But even though they buy these things on regulated supply deals, they’re not cheap. If you could get a certified electric one on top of a (I’m not sure if it’s called regular), then you would be posed for disrupting the market.