How a $1.5B Pet Brand Wins at Ecommerce Marketing: Whisker’s CEO

Whisker 应用里有一万多个名字，我是在一年半前提取的这些数据。

There are over 10,000 names in the Whisker app, and this was about a year and a half ago when I pulled this data.

有上万个《星球大战》的梗，都是冲着 Letter Robot 的外形来给它取名 R2D2 的。

There's over 10,000 Star Wars references to the way that the Letter Robot looked to name their device r two d poo.

多得数不清。

Tons of them.

所以我们知道，第四代产品在视觉上更吸引人，还内置了称重功能，是第一个能实时追踪猫咪每次上厕所体重变化的产品。

And so we knew that the Gen four was just visually more appealing, and it had a a built in scale, which was the first product to really weigh your cat in real time every time they go to the bathroom.

我们还大幅提升了它的健康监测功能。

We added a much better health element to it.

2022 年，我们全身心投入在这上面。

And in 2022, we really focused on that.

那一年增长放缓，因为所有精力都用来把新产品推上市了。

Was a slower growth year because it just completely occupied us to get the new product to market.

到了 2023 年，我们迎来了有史以来最大的增长。

And then in '23, had our biggest growth year we've ever had following that.

我们还推出了一支很棒的广告，主角是《办公室》里的詹妮弗。早在2023年初，我们就已经把产能和供应链都准备好了，就等着应对需求上涨。

And we also launched an awesome ad with Jennifer from the office that right at the beginning of '23, we had built up demand or built up supply chain to be able to keep up with demand.

后来我们推出了詹娜·费舍尔的这则广告，2023年就成了我们有史以来绝对销售额最高的一年，虽然增长率不是最高的，但钱赚得最多。

And then we launched this Jenna Fischer ad and '23 ended up being our biggest growth year, not by percent, but by absolute dollars.

Lomi最初引起关注，是因为一位用户买了之后，在Instagram上发了一段视频，讲她曾经向粉丝们发誓再也不买任何从Instagram上看到的东西。

One of the things that kinda lit Lomi up initially was she bought one, and the but the video that she posted on her Instagram account was her talking about how she promised her followers that she would never buy anything off Instagram again.

结果她自己却说：好吧，我食言了，还是买了个Lomi。

And then she and she's like, but I caved and I bought a Lomi.

我们看到这个视频时，我团队的人都说：天啊，这不就是《办公室》里的帕姆吗？她居然发了这么一段，说自己本来不想买，结果还是买了。

And when we saw this video, my team was like, oh, Pam from the office just posted this thing on Instagram saying that she didn't wanna buy it, but she bought it.

这事儿特别有意思，因为我的一个好朋友，经常和她丈夫一起打曲棍球。

And it's funny, it's like one of my best friends plays hockey with her husband.

我就把视频发给他，说：哥们儿，这事儿是你干的吧？

And I'm like, I sent it to him, and I'm like, dude, did you do this?

他回我说：完全不是我，老兄。

He's like, not at all, man.

他说，这事儿是真的。

He's like, that's real.

她还说，我发誓我真不想买这玩意儿。

She was like, I swear I didn't wanna buy the damn thing.

我记得你跟我讲过，你们是最早进去的。

So I remember you telling me this story that that you guys got in there early.

我想好好问问你，因为我还没完全搞明白，你们大概多久推出一代新产品？

Dude, the the thing I wanna dig into this because I don't what I don't get quite yet is, like, the how often you release generations of the product.

对吧？

Right?

你知道吗，你加入的时候，公司都十五年了。

So, like, you know, you're fifteen years in when the company's fifteen years old when you join.

那时候是第三代机器人。

Little robot three.

那之后过了几年才出的第四代？

And then how many years later did it take to get to the four?

七年。

Seven.

花了我们不少时间。

It took us a while.

所以你现在是这家公司的首席执行官了。

So you're the CEO of this company now.

你是什么时候正式成为CEO的？

At what point did you did that become official?

听起来你是一路慢慢接手了各种职责。

Because it sounds like you just sort of collected responsibilities as you went went along.

什么时候开始变得正式一点了？

When did it become, like, more formal?

什么时候你意识到自己真的在管这家公司了？

Where you're like, Oh, I'm running this place?

2020年，也就是疫情期间，对我来说，那仍然是我职业生涯中最激动人心的时期。

2020 I mean, during COVID was like, I mean, for me, I still think it's the most exciting time of my career.

到目前为止，我觉得还没什么事能超过那段经历。

I don't think anything has topped that yet.

那会儿我完全是跟着公司一起翻倍增长，扩建了工厂，还摸索着怎么应对整个世界。

I've just like, 100% growth alongside scaling up manufacturing, opening up a new part of our plant, like figuring out the world.

我当时每周都会给团队发一封备忘录。

I was sending a weekly memo to our team.

这事儿没人教过你怎么做。

There's no training on that.

对我来说，那正是创始人正式任命我当总裁的时刻。

And for me, that was kind of the moment where the founder made me president.

所以2020年我成了总裁，到了2021年，又当上了首席执行官。

And so in 2020, I became president, and then 2021, became CEO.

不过在2020年，我已经在管所有日常事务了，而布拉德则深度参与我们的工程和财务工作。

And I would say but in 2020, I was running all the day to day, and Brad really had a deep hand in all of our engineering and finance.

从那时起，我就全面接手了公司的运营工作。

So I took on all of the operations for the company at that point.

他和我合作得特别默契，从来不会互相干扰。

And he and I have built such a good partnership that we really don't step on each other's toes.

直到今天，我依然很自豪能和这位公司创始人共事，他创业已经二十六年了，而我们合作也快十一年了。

And I'm still very proud to work with the founder of the company, you know, twenty six years into his journey, eleven years of us working together.

我们彼此都很尊重对方的工作方式。

We have a mutual respect for how each other work.

他其实很早就参与了我如何打造这一切的过程。

He really you know, we were in how I built this.

他说我是黏合剂，这事儿他从来不喜欢做——他不爱把大家聚在一起，也不爱让大家朝着同一个方向走。

I think what he said about me was I was the glue, which was something that he never really liked to do, which he didn't wanna bring everyone together and align everybody on where they were going.

而这些恰恰是我最喜欢做的事。

And that's what I love doing.

其实我都没意识到，自己一直在默默做这些。

And I don't think I even realized that I was just doing it.

作为创始人，他能有这种自知之明，知道自己哪些事不想做，这其实挺少见的。

Which him as a founder, that's also quite rare that to have that kind of self awareness to say, like, you know, I this these are the things I don't wanna do.

我有这么一个人，特别擅长这些事。

I've got this person who's, like, exceptionally great at these things.

我就直接说，嘿，雅各布，你来当CEO吧。

I'm willing to just like, okay, dude, Jacob, you're the CEO.

你来管。

You run it.

大多数创始人故事可都不是这样，没人会主动让出控制权。

That that is typically, like most founder stories do not go with, like, a a hand raise when them doing it.

大多数创始人故事都是：听着，兄弟。

Most founder stories are like, listen, bro.

你走吧。

You're out.

我刚才给你讲的是个简化版的 Instagram 动态。

I gave you the single Instagram photo version of it.

回到我们之前聊的那件事。

You know, going back to our conversation.

对吧？

Right?

这一路磕磕碰碰不少，但其实并没有正式地这么规划过。

There's a lot of bumps and bruises along the way where, you know, I think it wasn't formal that way.

我们从来没真正吵过一架。

Like, we never we have had one real argument.

我们平时拌嘴很多，但十一年来就真吵过一次，而且跟工作一点关系都没有。

We argue a lot, but we've had one real argument in eleven years, and it didn't have to do with work.

所以你看，我们一直都能把事情谈开，虽然经常互相较劲、互相挑刺，比如我会跟他说：咱们得出个广告了。

And so right, like, we have always been able to work through things, our bickering and our pushing of one another and me challenging him saying, hey, we're gonna come out with an ad.

这是它的思路。

Here's what it's gonna do.

开头就直接说：你家里到处都是猫屎。

It's gonna open with this thing that says there's cat shit all over your house.

他那时候还是挺传统的广告思维，但几年后我又说：好了，来个新的。

And he is very like traditional line of thinking for advertising or a couple years later, I was like, Alright, here's a new one.

我打算让同一个女演员基齐来演，就是之前拍那个广告的那位。这次让她蹲在客厅正中央一个成人大小的猫砂盆里，好像刚上完厕所一样，然后说‘哦’——开头就这么来。他当时那个不自在啊，简直到了极点。但我觉得我们一直的做法就是互相碰撞，我会观察他是觉得别扭还是不确定，然后我们一起慢慢调整，最终找到那个感觉。

I'm gonna have that same actress Kizzy, who we had do that ad I'm gonna have her squatting in a human sized litter box in the middle of a living room as if she just finished her business saying oh and starting the commercials that you know and he I mean just his uncomfort level was through the roof and so I think what we've always done is we can bounce things off each other and I gauge his level of either uncomfort or uncertainty and then we're evolving together to get to something.

他就是我最信赖的人，遇到难搞的点子，我第一个就想找他，因为他从不跟我客气，直来直去。

And he's like my go to person that I want to bring something tough to, because he'll give it to me real.

我觉得，这正是我们走到今天的关键之一。

And I think that that has been part of how we got to this point.

当然，这一路肯定不容易，但我特别享受这个过程。

But along the way, it's for sure been a journey, but I love it.

说到底，这本来就是我们走到今天的方式。

I mean, it's it's a part of how we got here.

你的理念是更偏向大胆创新、猛打创意和产品上的大仗，还是更倾向于一步一个脚印、反复测试、慢慢推进？

Is your philosophy more to the I wanna take big swings on creative, on product?

你是偏向哪一边？在这条光谱上，你站在哪儿？

Or are you more incremental brick by brick, lots of testing?

你更倾向于哪种方式？

Like, where do you land on that spectrum?

因为你本质上是个以营销为导向的CEO。

Because you're, like, very much a marketing first CEO.

这太明显了。

Like, that's so obvious.

两者都有。

Both.

我们的品牌创意，就玩大的。

So for our brand creative, big swings.

我们的用户生成内容，就慢慢迭代。

For our UGC, iterative.

对吧？

Right?

我们广告投得太多了，必须两种方式结合着来。

It's we gotta we're running so many we're running so much advertising that we need a combination of both.

我觉得我们马上就要玩一票大的了。

I think we're about to take a big swing.

我对此特别期待。

I'm really excited about it.

等这个广告上线时，听众们正好能在市场上看到。我们这次要大干一票，主打‘猫比狗强’，我觉得这一定能掀起热议。

It's and by the time this errors, so anybody listening will see it out in the market at that time, but we're taking a really big swing on cats are better than dogs and that's gonna be our new campaign and I think it's going to stir the pot.

我觉得它能让人产生强烈的情绪反应。我很兴奋，因为我的设想是，一个养狗的人看了之后会说：‘这也太敢说了吧？’

I think it's going to make people feel something And I'm excited about that because my hope a dog person looks at it and says how dare you?

而养猫的人看了会说：‘对，太棒了！’

A cat person looks at it and says, man, they're awesome.

我感觉这个品牌让我更有归属感了。

And I feel more empowered by this brand.

那些家里既有猫又有狗的人会说：‘哎，这说的就是我啊。’

And the mixed households that have a cat and a dog are like, oh, they got me.

这效果真不错。

That's pretty good.

而在这两者之间的所有人，也会有所触动。

And somewhere in between all of that.

但我希望人们能有反应。

But I want people to have reaction.

我希望人们能感受到些什么，不然就太平淡了。

I want people to feel something because otherwise, you're vanilla.

我觉得在用户生成内容这块，是个不断迭代的过程。

And I think that on the UGC front, it's very iterative.

对吧？

Right?

第一帧该放只猫吗？

Should we have a cat in the first frame?

第一帧该放个人吗？

Should we have a person in the first frame?

我们现在正准备推一个关于弓形虫的内容。

You know, right now we're about to run something with toxoplasmosis.

你知道的，孕妇不能清理猫砂盆。

You know, women can't scoop the litter box when they're pregnant.

所以我们最近拍了一组孕妇的片子，她们都用了Litter Robot，分享了这个设备如何帮她们在不能铲屎的时候自动清理，我老婆就是其中一个。

And so we just did a shoot with a bunch of pregnant women that have a Litter Robot that they're able to tell their story about how Litter Robot helps to automate the chore while they can't scoop, my wife being one of them.

我觉得吧，我们其实是两种方式结合，但在品牌和创意上，我们更愿意下大注。

And I think that, you know, we we do a combination of both, but we take our big swings on the brand and creative.

迈克，我知道我们在节目里聊过很多次这个话题，但说到这些大手笔的投入，你们是怎么权衡风险和回报的？

Mike, I know we've talked about this in the show a whole bunch, but, like, when it comes to these larger swings, how are you underwriting these from a, like, risk reward?

换句话说，你们有没有试过各种不同的方式？

Like, have you taken some let me ask this every way.

你们有没有做过一些真正大胆的尝试，结果却没成功？

Have you, like, taken some some, like, real swings and they just not worked?

有啊。

Yeah.

我们拍过一个叫‘Never Scoop Again’的广告，挺搞笑的，但根本没掀起什么水花。

We we did never scoop again, which is it's a really funny spot, but it didn't move the needle.

说白了，就是那种……我也不好意思说它完全失败。

Like, just was kind of a I'm not gonna say it was a dud.

我觉得我们确实用了。

I think we use it.

我们在媒体上花了好几百万。

We spent, I don't know, few million bucks on media.

效果是有，但跟我们那些爆款广告比起来差远了。

It worked, but it it was nowhere near the success of some of our winning spots.

我们还拍了另一个大手笔的，主角是孩子。

We did another one which was another big swing we had kids.

我们找了一群小孩，用他们自己的话讲那个小机器人怎么把便便吃掉，特别搞笑。

We shot a commercial with a bunch of kids talking about the little robot in kind of kid language about how the poop gets eaten by this robot and it was really funny.

这个广告本身挺棒的。

It's a great spot.

但真正爆火的，其实是拍摄时删掉的一段花絮。

But what came out of it was one of the outtakes is actually the one that ended up crushing for us.

火的不是正片本身。

It wasn't the spot itself.

那个广告本身还行。

The spot was fine.

跟其他几个比起来算中规中矩，但最后我们用了一个，我记不清那人名字了，就是广告里那个叔叔。

It was kind of neutral relative to other things, but we ended up with one spot of I forget the guy's name, but it was the uncle in the spot.

他聊到自己现在想养只猫，好配上那个小机器人。

And like he's talking about how now he wants to get a cat so he can get a little robot.

结果那个成了我们最火的广告。

And that ended up being the winning like spot.

其实那只是我们拍完正片后顺手拍的一个花絮。

And it was just an outtake we shot at the end of the production.

所以我们花了不少钱和时间，搞了这么一个特别棒的广告。

So yeah, we spent all this money and time on like this really cool spot.

成片效果特别漂亮。

It came out beautiful.

是个非常出色的品牌广告。

It was a great branded spot.

结果没达到我们预期的效果。

It did not hit the way we were hoping it would.

我想知道的是，你平时大部分时间都花在哪儿？

So, like, one of the things I wanna know is where you spend the majority of your time.

我们之前聊了很多关于营销和营销策略的事，我知道这又是大家常问、我们也常谈的一个话题。

We were talking a lot about, like, marketing and marketing swings, and and I know this is, like, another one of those things that we just we get asked a lot, and we talk about it a lot.

迈克身边有个超强的团队，每个人都很出色，简直像一个全才的副手。

And I Mike Mike has, like, an insane team around him where, like, everybody is like, he's got sort of, a general that is just, like, exceptional in every area.

但我还是想问问，雅各布，你一周里最常待在哪个地方？

But I still wanna know, Jacob, like, where do you spend most of your week?

如果看一个普通的星期，你是怎么分配时间的？

Like, if we just look like an average week, how are you dividing time up?

今年到目前为止，我大部分时间都花在产品上。

Right now, I'd say year to date, product is where I'm spending the majority of my time.

公司现在正在经历一次软件升级，我们正全力把应用打造成一款强大的产品。

We're going through a software evolution in the company right now, and we're really trying to get our app to just be a powerhouse product.

我们Whisker应用目前有七十几万的月活跃移动用户。

We have, you know, seven hundred seven hundred thousand something mobile app users of the Whisker app, monthly active users.

很多人依赖Whisker应用来获取机器人状态更新、猫咪动态，还有实时了解猫咪排泄习惯的趋势变化。

So there's a lot of people who rely on the Whisker app for updates on their robot, updates on their cat, and real time insights about how their cat's bathroom habits are trending.

对我来说，这已经成了产品的核心体现。

And so for me, that has become the face of the product.

这是我们未来真正的护城河——硬件很容易被模仿，但这个应用没人能轻易复制。

It's the thing that's truly a moat in our future state that we get copied on our hardware.

别人肯定会尝试解决同样的问题，走和我们一样的路。

People are gonna try and solve the problem the way that we have.

真正让人眼前一亮的，是用户如何使用我们的应用。

And what really is stand out is how people use our app.

所以今年这对我来说是重中之重。

So that's really a big focus for me this year.

另外，我们还有几条新的硬件产品线，我个人觉得，我们对它们的定位是重新定义品类的。

And then we also have several new hardware product lines that are I'm gonna call them category defining in my opinion on how we're approaching them.

这需要花很多时间。

It requires a lot of time.

很多产品都经历了反复的创新和调整，我们一度快做成了，但后来发现有更好的方式，能给用户带来更好的体验，就果断改了方向。

It's a lot of the invention process and reinvention process for some of them where we've got in one almost all the way there and then we pivoted because we realized there was a better way to do it that we thought would be better for the consumer.

所以我们就调整了，说实话，我对这个转变特别看好。

So we pivoted and, you know, I'm excited about it.

这确实是个正确的调整，但接下来要干的活儿更多了。

Like it's a good pivot, but it's a lot of now more work ahead.

产品、工程这块都还好，幸运的是，去年第四季度我请来了一位首席市场官，他接手的是一支非常棒的团队。

So products, engineering, and then fortunately, I hired a CMO in Q4 of last year and I had an awesome team in place that he got to come and lead.

这真的帮了大忙。

So that's been really helpful.

我还在全力打造一支能独立带领公司前进的管理团队，这样我就能腾出精力，专心思考公司未来的发展方向。

And then really developing our leadership team to be very capable of leading the company without my involvement so that I can focus on where we're going.

我以前从来没真正拥有过这样的位置。

I've never really had that spot.

我以前一直亲力亲为，虽然我不打算完全放手，但我得改变这种模式，让公司能在没有我日常或每周参与的情况下继续蓬勃发展。

I've been very hands on for a long time and while I don't wish to change that, I need to evolve that so the company can continue to thrive without my day to day, you know, or week to week involvement.

好的，我很想了解这背后的技术细节。就像你刚才说的，能让这么多用户用我们开发的App，这点确实很独特。

Okay, I'd love to know more about the technology piece of this, because I think like you said, it is very unique to have so many people using an app that you produce.

说实话，全球能做到这一点的公司真的不多。

Really, there's not that many companies in the world that that's true of.

所以，你是怎么利用这一点来增加用户粘性的呢？

And so how do you use that to create lock in?

你打算怎么利用这一点来建立竞争壁垒？

How do you use that to create moats?

这样做会带来哪些挑战？

What are the challenges that come with that?

我的意思是，这完全是另一套全新的局面和问题，我猜也是，但同时也伴随着新的优势和可能性。

I mean, that's a whole new kind of ball of wax and set of problems, would guess, but also some new advantages and possibilities as well.

我长期的目标是，让这款产品成为一种具有临床级效果、能让人养成习惯的产品。

My longer term goal would be that this is a clinical grade habit forming mode.

我希望有一款真正能读懂猫咪长期健康状况的产品。

I want something that truly understands the longitudinal health of your cat.

就像你衡量Oura戒指或WHOOP对人类的健康数据一样，我能感觉到自己早上醒来时的状态。

So if you look at how you would measure Oura Ring or WHOOP for humans, I know how I feel when I wake up.

我知道自己昨晚没睡好，或者不该那么晚健身，诸如此类的问题。

I know that I maybe didn't sleep well or I shouldn't have you know worked out so late or whatever it might have been.

但猫咪没法给我们同样的反馈，因为它们不舒服的时候总爱躲起来，或者尿路感染时频繁跑猫砂盆，这些迹象都很难察觉。

Can't get that same you know feedback from our cat because cats often hide when they don't feel well or when something's going wrong or they visit the litter box more frequently when they have a UTI or a problem.

毕竟猫又不会说话。

And they can't talk because they're a cat.

现在它们不会说话，是因为它们是猫。

And they can't talk yet because they're a cat.

我们希望为它们赋予这种表达能力。

And we hope to bring that voice to them.

这正是我们的目标。

That's really our goal.

所以这款应用能给你以前从未有过的洞察。

So the app is designed to give you the intelligence that you've never had before.

传统猫砂盆市面上真正好用的铲子其实很少。

With a traditional litter box, there are very few good scoopers in the world.

明白了。

Okay.

通常兽医建议每天铲两次屎，猫砂盆的数量要比猫多一个。

So you like the the general vet recommended rule would be scoop two times per day and have an n plus one litter boxes.

比如你有两只猫，那就得准备三个猫砂盆，确保它们随时都能用上干净的砂子。

Meaning if you have two cats you have three litter boxes so they always have a clean bed of litter.

而Litter Robot呢，每次猫咪上完厕所，三分钟、七分钟或者十五分钟后，砂子就自动更新成干净的了。

With the Litter Robot they have clean bed of litter every time three seven or fifteen minutes after they go to the bathroom.

我们能做到每次都能提供干净的猫砂，还能提供普通猫砂盆永远给不了的数据——比如你隔一天、两天甚至好几天才清理，根本不知道是哪只猫拉了血，是便秘了没拉出来，还是那天跑了十五次厕所，而平时它一天就四次。

In our case we're able to deliver that clean metal litter every time we're able to deliver the intelligence that you would never get from a regular litter box because you're leaving it for a day two days multiple days where ultimately, you don't know which cat had the, you know, the blood and it's either feces or they weren't able to go and they were constipated or they went into the litter box 15 times that day, which is different than their standard four times.

就跟人一样，对吧？

Just like humans, right?

它们会形成规律。

They build patterns.

对吧？

Right?

猫通常会在早上七点、十二点、五点，可能还有半夜上厕所。

A cat's gonna go to the bathroom at 7AM, twelve, five, and and maybe midnight.

如果这个规律变了，可能就说明有问题。

If that changes, that can be indicative of a problem.

对我们来说，就是要把这些有用的信息带给宠物主人，这正是我们的核心目标。

For us, we wanna bring that intelligence, that actionable intelligence to the pet parent, and that's really what we're focused on.

现在我每天要处理四百多万次猫咪的排泄数据。

So, you know, I'm weighing now four point something million cat weights per day.

所以我能掌握每次如厕的时长、猫咪的体重、体重变化趋势（上升、下降或稳定）、时长变化趋势，以及每天不同时间段的使用规律。

That means I know the duration of every visit, the weight of the cat, the trending weight of the cat up, down, or neutral, the duration trends, the time of day trend.

猫砂盆能提供大量健康信息，往往也是最早发现猫咪身体变化的窗口。

There's a lot of insight from the litter box and the litter box is often the first line of understanding of a change in your cat's health.

所以我们有一个独特的机会，能基于数百万其他宠物主人的猫咪数据，进一步深化对这一问题的理解。

So we have a very unique opportunity to bring like a depth of understanding to that also based on millions of other pet parents that we're learning from their cats as well.

如果你养的是一只七岁的西伯利亚猫，那我们数据库里还有三千多只同样七岁的西伯利亚猫。

So if you have a seven year old Siberian cat, there's 3,000 other seven year old Siberian cats.

我们还有五岁和九岁的西伯利亚猫的数据。

Then I have five year old Siberian cats and nine year old Siberian cats.

这样我们就能观察出这些趋势。

So I can look at that trend.

所有这些，都是我们软件专注的核心。

All of that's what we're focused on with our software.

我们最近刚推出了体重监测功能。

We also just launched weight.

我们开发了一套基于体重的识别算法。

We have a weight based ID algorithm.

据我所知，我们在新一代LR5平台上拥有目前最精准的猫咪面部识别技术。

We have, I think, as far as I'm aware, the best facial identification for cats on the new LR five platform.

我们有一个排泄物识别平台。

We have a waste ID platform.

所以我们可以区分你家猫的一便和二便。

So we're telling you number one versus number two.

就像人类父母会记录宝宝每天上厕所的次数一样，我们现在也能为你的猫做同样的事。

So just like tracking your baby's output in a human, know, parents will often track how many times a day they, you know, they went to the bathroom.

不仅能记录排泄情况，还能准确判断是哪只猫排的。

We can now do that for your cat and then identify which one it was as well.

这就是我们正在构建的这一层功能。

So that's the layer we're trying to build.

我们认为，这才是真正为用户创造价值的地方。

That's how we believe it will create value for the consumer.

我们相信，这种智能功能会形成一种难以替代的优势，用户根本离不开它。

And we believe that that has a moat or an intelligence layer that the consumer won't be able to live without.

所以这就像是一个锁定效应。

So it's like a lock in.

本质上，这个护城河的理论是，体验变得太好、对宠物太有用了，所以用户根本离不开。

Basically, like the the theory on the moat is like the the experience gets so good, and it's so valuable for the pet that the theory is that it locks it.

就是完全被锁定在平台上了。

Like, it just locks them into the platform.

对吧？

Right?

比如他们从机器人四代升级到五代，还是会继续用这个品牌和产品，因为所有的历史数据都在这儿呢。

So, like, if they go from a little robot four to a liberal little robot five, like, they're gonna stick with the brand and the product because all of this history is there.

我其实挺喜欢这一点的，因为猫的寿命很长。

I actually like it because cats live a long time.

比起大多数宠物来说，它们活得久多了。

Like, know, compared to most pets.

我那只猫活了整整二十一年，真的。

Like, my cat lived, like, twenty one years, dude.

而且有人提到，现在有一种新药，可能让猫多活十年，他们之前讨论过这个。

And they're saying that there's a new drug that could make them live ten years longer that they were talking about.

这简直太疯狂了。

I mean, it's crazy.

等等，你们是按月付费吗，雅各布？

Wait, so do you, do they pay for the monthly access, Jacob?

我们有免费版和高级版。

So we have a freemium and a premium version.

由于现在每个家庭产生的数据量太大，我们刚推出了高级版。

The premium just launched in light of the amount of data that we're processing now with respect to each household.

人脸识别可不是便宜的玩意儿。

So facial identification is not, you know, cheap.

视频流传输也不便宜。

Streaming video is not cheap.

我这台设备上已经测试了一些新功能，比如全新的全景摄像头，还有其他即将上线的产品。

On my unit right now, I've got some of our new beta features that are coming out with some of the exciting, like, globe camera feature and other products that will be released soon.

这些都属于 Whisker Plus 的体验，因为它们都需要强大的计算支持。

Those are all part of the Whisker plus experience because they all have a compute to them.

我们还想保留一个免费版本，主要提供设备洞察功能。

And then we wanna remain having a free version really with device insights.

我们把为你的猫提供智能分析的功能放在付费套餐里，但设备洞察这种基础功能我们认为应该留在免费版里，因为这本质上就是产品的核心。

So, know, where we're bringing intelligence for your cat, we believe that should be part of the paid platform Or we're giving you device insights, we believe that should be part of the freemium platform because we just believe that's kinda core to what the product is.

我们必须先让产品体验足够好，用户才会愿意为更多功能买单。

And we have to deliver on the product experience before we can get you to wanna buy into more.

我是唯一一个在想，为什么我家马桶不在我上厕所的时候称体重吗？为什么它不记录我每次去卫生间的数据？

Am I the only one sitting here thinking, like, why don't my why does not why doesn't my toilet weigh me every time I go to like, why why is my toilet not tracking me every time I go to the bathroom?

是不是因为我根本不想被拍到照片？

Like, is the problem that I just don't want my picture taken?

有人已经在研究这类东西了。

There's people there's people working on stuff like that.

我的意思是，我觉得……

I mean, I think

肯定会有这样的产品吧？

There has to be, right?

是的，我觉得整体上，社会正朝着减少隐私、增加信息透明的方向发展，而且这种趋势似乎在市场上占了上风。

Yeah, and I think that there's just a trend in general towards less privacy and more knowledge that seems to be winning in the market.

这真是

It's a

一个隐私越来越少的奇怪时代。

weird place for less privacy.

对啊，这可以说是最极端的例子了，对吧？

Yeah, I mean, that's the ultimate, right?

但说实话，现在我们把体检报告上传给AI模型，问它‘你觉得我的化验结果怎么样？’，这种事已经再正常不过了。

But like, I do think in general, like, I mean, think about how normative it is now for us to upload our medical data to these models, you know, and say, hey, what do you think about blood work?

你觉得呢？

What do you think?

以前泄露别人医疗记录可是要坐牢的，可现在我们却心甘情愿地把这类信息到处分享——至少我是这样。

And, you know, you think about HIPAA and how it's like, basically you get, you know, like, thrown in jail forever if you were to release somebody else's medical records, but we kind of like willingly like, you know, are pretty liberal with them, is at least my experience.

所以我觉得，这可能跟代际有关，我们这代人对隐私的看法，跟科技深度融入生活的现实是分不开的。

So, think there's probably something generationally, we just think about privacy differently with the amount of technology that's infused in our lives.

是的。

Yeah.

我的意思是，厕所里确实已经有不少科技产品了。

Mean, there's definitely like tech in toilets for sure.

比如日本那些智能马桶盖之类的。

Like just like all those Japanese There

现在有两家公司在做这方面的设备。

are two companies working on that.

说到你第二个观点，我其实会想：我真的希望我的卫生间里有这些东西吗？

I think to your second point there was like, do I really want that in the my human bathroom?

我觉得人们愿意在猫砂盆里用这类技术，原因就在这里。

I think part of why I think people want it in their litter box is this.

以前很多养宠物的人会说，一旦把清理猫砂自动化了，我怎么知道猫咪的排泄情况呢？

When you automated the chore, one of the things I used to hear from a lot of pet parents or cat parents was, well, how am I gonna be able to track my cat's output then?

对吧？

Right?

如果我们把这件事自动化了，那就为你省了不少事。

If we automate the chore, now we're making it easy for you.

你想想，人上厕所的时候要是不舒服，你不一定知道原因，但至少能感觉到不对劲。

You know when you're struggling to go to the bathroom as a human, you and I'm not saying you know why, but like you know what's happening.

我觉得很多人喜欢Whisker这个App，正是因为以前手动清理时，他们能从中获得这些信息——有没有血？

And I think that's a big reason why people like the Whisker app is that the chore that they used to have to deal with gave them insights, which was is there blood?

猫咪是不是不拉屎了？

Is there are they not going?

是不是上厕所太频繁了？

Are they going too frequent?

或者便便团变大了，说明它尿得比平时多。

Or their clumps a lot larger, which means they're, you know, urinating more.

现在通过Whisker App，我们能把这些信息都清晰地呈现给你。

We're now able to bring a lot of that visibility to them through the Whisker app.

以前看不见的，现在再也瞒不住了。

And so what was out of sight is no longer out of mind.

所以，是因为这些原因吗，雅各布？

Is it because of all this then, Jacob?

你们就是靠这个拿到HSA支出批准的？

Is this how you guys got the HSA spending approval?

说实话，我看到这个的时候还挺惊讶的。

Like, I I don't I that was actually kinda shocking to me when I read that.

我当时就想，这到底是怎么做到的？

I'm like, how the hell does this work?

能给我们讲讲背后的故事吗？

So give us a little bit of the story there.

我开始注意到，HSA和FSA的标识越来越多地出现在各种产品上，从床垫扩展到可穿戴设备，还有那种冲击波按摩仪之类的。

I started to see the HSA and FSA banners popping up on a lot of different products and expanding from a mattress to wearables to, you know, a percussion massage machines.

我知道这些产品都是针对人的。

And I know those were all for humans.

它们都属于人类健康领域。

They're a part of human health.

但我们经常听到，Litter Robot 让残障人士也能养猫并照顾好自己的猫。

But one of the things that we often heard is that Litter Robot makes it able for somebody with a disability to get a cat and care for their cat.

来自不同背景、患有各种类型残疾的人纷纷分享，说 Litter Robot 让他们过上了以前不敢想的、和猫咪相伴的生活。

And so we had people of, you know, all different backgrounds with different types of disabilities that have shared and raved about how the Litter Robot has enabled them to live a life with their cat that they didn't think they could live before.

所以我们意识到，这个群体特别需要像 HSA/FSA 这样的资金支持，他们更愿意把钱花在 Litter Robot 这样的大件物品上，从而实现一个一直梦想的愿望——无论是养一只陪伴动物，还是因为背痛、肢体缺失等原因，无法弯腰清理猫砂，现在都能轻松解决。

And so we we realized that that was a an audience that needed a solution like the HSA FSA funding, and that they would rather use it for a bigger purchase like the little robot and unlock a purchase that they've been maybe dreaming of whether it be a companion animal or you know if I if I have a disability where I can't bend down a back problem or you know missing limbs or whatever it is that makes it so that I can't take care of my cat.

那一刻我们才恍然大悟。

That was really kind of the, oh, wait.

我们其实一直在服务这个群体。

We're already serving this audience.

他们喜欢我们的品牌，因为我们解决了他们家里一个关键的问题。

They love our brand because we solve a key problem in their home.

我想这也是为什么申请能通过，因为我们真正为他们和宠物的生活带来了改变。

And so I think that's why it was able to get approved is that we're truly unlocking something that changes their life with their pet.

在宠物领域做这种事其实挺难的，因为你得明白，宠物是不会说话的。

This kind of work is difficult in pet because you're and I'm I mean, I'm asking the question because, like, a pet does not talk to you.

对吧？

Right?

你是在为用户设计体验，你们想着宠物主人，但我觉得，宠物行业的品类创新特别难，因为你根本得不到用户的直接反馈。

Like, it's you're designing the experience, like, for you guys, like, you're thinking about the owner of the pet, but that to me that strikes me that, like, category creation and innovation in pet feels hard because you've got no feedback from the user.

不是的。

No.

我们常说，我们有两个客户。

The we talk about how we have two customers.

一个是猫，一个是猫主人，因为说实话，我想买一个看起来很酷的猫砂盆。

We have the cat and the cat parent because, right, I wanna buy a sexy litter box.

对吧？

Right?

我们会关注一些很棒的颜色和表面处理，让产品看起来像高端家电，能融入家居环境。

We're looking at some awesome colors, and we're looking at finishes that feel appliance grade that match the home.

我们决定升级到ABS塑料。

We we chose to upgrade to ABS plastics.

猫根本不在乎你用的是ABS塑料还是聚丙烯，这点我敢肯定。

The cat does not care if we use ABS or polypropylene, and I can tell you that for sure.

但关键是，它看起来更时髦。

But, you know, it looks sexier.

它看起来就像一件家电。

It looks like an appliance.

当你住在小公寓里，没多少地方能放它的时候，你要么希望它能融入环境，要么就想让它成为空间的亮点。

And when you're putting this in a studio apartment and you don't have many choices on where to put it, you either wanted to blend in or be a fashion statement.

我这儿就有一个挺漂亮的戴森风扇。

I've got, you know, a nice Dyson fan here.

我家到处都是各种家电，我都乐意把它们摆出来，比如扫地机器人，还有其他一些产品——我特别自豪能把它们放在客厅里，因为它们真的很好看。

I've got, you know, various appliances around my home that I'm proud to put out, you know, out in the open, a robot vacuum and other products that like, I'm very proud to have in my living room because they're beautiful appliances.

我们就是从主人的角度来考虑这个问题的。

And that's the way that we're looking at the cat parent.

至于猫的反应，你养过猫就知道，最不想做的就是给它添新噪音。

And then for the cat noise, I mean, you know, you've had a cat, the last thing you wanna do is introduce new noises to them.

我们产品的开放性是非常关键的一点。

The openness of our product is is really a key element.

我们设计如何让猫进入设备，以及如何帮助猫主人训练猫咪使用它，这些都很重要。

The design of of how we get the cat into the device, how we help cat parents, teach her cat to use it.

所有这些设计都是为了猫着想。

These are all for the cat.

过去二十六年里，我们服务了数百万只猫，积累了大量经验，知道哪些该做，哪些该避免。

And we've learned quite a bit over twenty six years and millions of cats on what to do and what to avoid in the future.

所以我觉得每一代产品都在不断改进。

So I think each version continues to get better.

每推出一代，用户的接受度都在提高。

Our adoption rate goes up with each version.

我相信这直接得益于倾听用户反馈，同时也靠我们良好的……

And I believe that is the direct result of listening to consumer feedback, but also having good.

我称之为专有的直觉。

I'll call it proprietary intuition.

做了二十六年这行，总能学到不少东西，我们真的把这些都记在心里。

Twenty six years of doing something, you learn a few things, and I think that we really take that to heart.

而且我们直接面向消费者，能立刻收到反馈。

And being direct to consumer, we get that immediate feedback.

我不知道有没有跟你说过，雅各布，我们当初在大力推广Lomi的时候，有一部分网友对我们的意见特别大，完全出乎意料。

I don't know if I told you this, Jacob, when we spoke, but, like, one of the things that I that came out of left field when it came to customer feedback when we like, when we were really scaling Lomi up was there was a portion of the Internet that really did not like us.

我本来以为反对声会来自两个方面。

And I expected it to come from well, we got, like, there was two portions.

一个是环保人士，他们觉得，别插电了，耗电。

Like, one was the climate people who were like, you know, don't plug anything in.

它会消耗电力。

It uses energy.

这个我能理解。

Okay.

我早料到会有人这么说。

I expected that.

那些特别讨厌我们的，主要是养鸡的人。

The the cohort of people that I got that really hated us were people with chickens.

在他们看来，既然养鸡就能解决，干嘛还要买这个Lomi设备呢？

And in their mind, they're like, why would you buy this Lomi device when you could just have chickens?

鸡什么都能吃。

Chickens eat everything.

我们当时就在想这个问题。

And then we were looking at that.

你们有没有意识到，不是每个人都能养鸡的？

We're like, you realize that not everybody can have chickens.

对吧？

Right?

对我来说，这明明是很合理的。

Like, to me, that was, like, the rational thing.

一想到你们的产品，我立马就想问一句，天呐。

I think of your product, and I immediately have to ask, man.

有没有人特别反感智能机器人啊？

Are there people out there who are, like, anti liter robot?

有没有一小部分人，比如在Reddit上，专门喜欢挑别人的毛病？

Like, is there is there some subsect of, like is there a Reddit, like, a subreddit of, like, I love to scoop people?

这个问题我喜欢。

I love that question.

我们有一个特别热情的Reddit社区，用户都超爱他们的Lunar机器人。

We have a very, very passionate subreddit of people that love their Lunar Robot.

现在我们社区里有五万到六万人，活跃度非常高。

There's 50 to 60,000 people in our subreddit now that are super active.

真的是特别特别活跃。

I mean, really, really, really active.

我在Reddit上有个昵称叫‘猫屎先生’，我挺自豪的。

And I am very proudly cat poop man on Reddit.

我也经常在上面活跃。

And I am also very active.

我已经加入Reddit社区差不多四年了。

And I've been part of the Reddit community for about four years.

我们的LR4发射遇到一些问题，我就立刻深入参与了处理。

We had some challenges with our LR four launch, and I got right into the thick of that.

我站在最前面，直接承担责任。

And I was out front and center, and I owned it.

我给客户们写了一封道歉信。

I wrote an apology to our customers.

虽然只是少数客户，但我还是把责任扛了下来。

And it was a small subset of our customers, but I owned it.

Reddit社区里很多人说：哇，你当着大家的面敢认错，还这么积极回应。

And I got so much love from the Reddit community of like, wow, you just owned it in front of all of us, and then you're super engaged.

我确实一直这样做的。

And I and I really do.

我很珍惜这个社区。

I appreciate the community.

他们给我的反馈特别直接，一点不拐弯抹角。

They give me very direct feedback and unfiltered feedback.

这就是大家对我们品牌的热爱，发自内心的热爱。

So that's the love for our brand, passionate love for our brand.

至于对我们的批评，你记得那个节目《我家猫儿有毛病》吗？杰克逊·银河主持的，好像在动物星球频道播过，大概有

On the hate for our brand, Jackson Galaxy, if you remember the show, My Cat From Hell, it was on Animal Planet, I believe, for, like,

十个月。

ten months.

就是那个节目。

That one.

你真得补一补，迈克。

Oh, you gotta catch up on it, Mike.

杰克逊·银河是那个节目的公众代言人。

Jackson Galaxy was a public spokesperson.

他在各平台都有数百万粉丝。

He's got millions of followers everywhere.

他以前总说，如果你连猫砂盆都懒得清理，不如养条金鱼。

And he used to say, if you can't scoop the litter litter box, get a goldfish.

他整整十年都讨厌这个猫砂机器人。

He hated the Litter Robot for ten years.

我记得刚加入公司时，特别想不通：为什么有人会对这个产品这么反感？

And I remember joining the company and just thinking, why does someone have so much hate for this product?

多年以后，到了2025年，Jackson Galaxy 开始用起了这个小机器人。

Years and years later, Jackson Galaxy in 2025 started to use a little robot.

他的一个朋友告诉他，你得换个角度看看，这人也是我的朋友——我和Jackson从来没见过面。

A friend of his said you gotta look at it with fresh eyes who's also a friend of mine Jackson and I had never met.

她跟他说，你得去跟雅各布聊聊，就是他们公司的CEO。

And she's like, you gotta talk to Jacob, their CEO.

你就去跟他聊聊。

Just talk to him.

放开心态，别先入为主。

Just be open minded.

他现在在YouTube上发了个特别有趣的视频，讲了自己是怎么转变想法的。

And he's got a really funny video on YouTube kind of telling the story now of how he flipped.

他转变之后才开始用这个产品，我们才跟他合作拍广告，但整个内容都是围绕他过去十年的那些言论——比如‘千万别买这种小机器人’。

And it wasn't until after he flipped and started to use it that we partnered with him and did an ad together but it was all about the fact that for ten years and he pulled out all the clips of him saying like you know, don't get a little robot.

还有那些他说过的搞笑话，比如‘懒得铲屎就养条金鱼’，各种调侃用自动猫砂盆的人。

And if you can't scoop get a goldfish and you're lazy and all these different kinds of fun things that he poked fun at people who got automatic litter boxes.

结果他自己也买了一个。

And then he got one.

他说，现在能追踪猫咪的排泄行为，我才觉得自己真像个称职的猫主人。

And he was like, okay, with the insights that I can track my cats waste behaviors, I feel like I'm doing the right cat parent thing now.

我觉得这正好体现了我们跟所有网红、创作者或明星合作的方式。

And I would say this is also representative of how we partner with any influencers, creators or celebrities.

我们只跟真正使用过我们产品的人合作。

We only work with people that actually use our product as well.

因为我觉得，真实性太重要了。

Because I think it's it's gotta have that authenticity.

我不希望去影响那些根本不想被影响的人。

And I don't want to I don't want to flip somebody who doesn't want to be flipped.

我太喜欢这些了。

I love all of this.

这简直像让我窥见了猫咪的世界一样。

This is like, I feel like I'm getting a window into like the world of cats.

面对那样的群体，也总有办法反其道而行之。

There's always room for counter positioning against that crowd also.

你知道吗，不管你的反对者是谁，你真的想跟那些怪人一样吗？

Know, whoever your detractors are, it's like, do wanna be like those crazy folks over there?

就是那些养鸡的人，你知道的。

The the chicken people, you know?

不管怎么说，我觉得真正厉害的营销者，其实你，雅各布，就是故意选了一些能激发强烈情绪的角度。

Like, anyway, it they're I think that, like, great marketers I mean, it seems like that's actually one of the things you've done, Jacob, is, like, you intentionally are picking angles that are that will be, like, kind of illicit emotion.

这看起来确实是你的一大策略，非常合理。

It seems like that's been one of the strategies, which makes a lot of sense.

这能让你的产品脱颖而出。

I mean, it just makes your products stand out.

你们知道Instagram上那种常见的广告套路吗？就是那种‘别买某某，如果你……’

You guys know how on on Instagram, there's, a common ad format, which is, like, don't buy a blah if you whatever.

对吧？

Right?

Jacob，你知道我说的是哪种。

Like, Jacob, you know what I'm talking about.

Mike，我不确定你平时刷Instagram刷得多不多。

Mike, I don't know how much time you spent on Instagram.

如果你爱闻猫屎的味道，还想着把手伸进猫砂里，那就别买那个小机器人。

Don't buy a little robot if you love the smell of cat poop, wanna be elbow deep in cat dude.

没错。

Yeah.

你也不想从猫身上染上什么传染病吧。

Want to want to catch any communicable diseases from your cat.

你知道吧，这类产品你根本就不该买。

You know, like, these are you you should not buy this product.

于是我灵机一动，后来我们拍的那支爆款视频，是看到Reddit和YouTube上一堆人吐槽我们，那时候我就拍了支视频，叫《别买Lomi》。

So I took I my genius idea and the way that we followed up that hero video was when I saw the chicken people on, like, Reddit and whatever and, like, YouTube just torching us, We made a video at the time, this is years ago, called Don't Buy a Lomi.

我当时写了这个脚本。

And it was like, I wrote this script.

我说，你真别买Lomi。

I'm like, you don't buy a Lomi.

你还不如养几只鸡。

You should get chickens instead.

整个视频就我一个人，背景是纯白的。

And it was like just me in a white background.

剪辑简直绝了。

We had, like the editing was brilliant.

视频里全是鸡，结果火得一塌糊涂。

We had, like, a bunch of chickens, and it freaking ripped, man.

人们都说：太喜欢这个了。

Like, people were like, I love this.

这简直太棒了。

This is great.

因为最后我们说：好吧。

Like because at the end of it, we're like, okay.

如果你养不了鸡，那就买一个Lomi吧。

If you can't have chickens, you should buy a Lomi.

这其实就是我们的主打宣传。

Like, that was basically our pitch.

Yeti也是这么做的。

Yeti Yeti did the same thing.

就是这样。

Like that.

这是什么，迈克？

What's that, Mike?

Yeti也是这么做的。

Yeti did the same thing.

别给他买Yeti。

Don't don't get him a Yeti.

这简直是他们主打的品牌宣传。

It was like their their big brand campaign.

他们直接碾过去了。

They ran over it.

没错，就是这样。

They did.

行了。

Alright.

那个广告实在太棒了。

That was such a great spot.

我记得特别清楚。

And I remember that, like, vividly well.

反向定位特别有效。

Counter counter positioning is great.

是的。

Yeah.

对。

Yeah.

确实管用。

It works.

我觉得这里面能学到的东西太多了。

I just think there's so many lessons in it.

比如我遇到过一些创业者，跟他们聊过之后发现，他们根本不愿意看负面评价，也不愿意听反馈。

Like, people I find that, like, there's founders where I've met and I've talked to where, like, they just don't like reading the negative stuff, like, the feedback.

首先，你能从中学到关于产品的很多东西。

I'm like, number one, you learn about your product.

这很好。

That's great.

谈谈你的经验吧。

You about your experience.

这很好。

That's great.

第二点是，你可以针对这么多问题做出反向定位。

Number two, like, you can counter position against so much of this.

雅各布，我特别欣赏你这些年对这个品牌的做法，你用了各种各样的幽默方式。

And, Jacob, like, what I love one of the things I love about what you've done with this brand is, like, you've used humor in so many different ways over so many years.

你们做得很开心。

Like, you guys have fun with it.

这可不是什么正经事儿，简直就是个猫砂盆。

It's not like, you're taking a it's like, it's a freaking litter box.

你懂的。

You know?

我还没跟你说过吧，但每当我听到有人说‘不是每个领域都能创新’，我都会拿你们公司当例子。

And I I don't know if I've ever told you this, dude, but, like, what you're one of the companies I reference when people tell me that, like, not every category can have innovation in it.

我就说，好吧。

And I'm like, okay.

听我说，孩子。

Listen, kid.

让我跟你讲讲我那个做猫砂盆的朋友。

Let me tell you about the my friend who makes a litter box.

这种事情，完全做得到。

Like, it's all possible.

我2015年加入公司的时候，有几个朋友。

When I joined the company in 2015, I had a couple buddies.

我圈子里有些人一听说就问：你们在搞什么？

There's people in my, like, network, like, you're doing what?

然后我。

And I

我记得快推出第四代产品的时候，有几个朋友问我：你们为了把这产品推上市，到底花了多少钱？

just I remember when we were getting ready to launch the gen four, I I had a couple buddies, like, you guys are spending how much to get this product to market?

到了第五代，我们用上了高端的设备，做出的表面处理简直太漂亮了。

And then on our gen five, we went to some really nice class a tools to get, like, just incredible finishes.

天啊，你这简直像在搞汽车制造啊。

Gee, like, you're like an automobile manufacturer, man.

这话什么意思？

What does that mean?

这1400吨的压机到底是什么意思，雅各布？

What does that 1,400 press mean, Jacob?

这机器有多强？

How strong is that?

我们的一台压机旁边，有一台正在生产三轮车车身的设备。

In one of our presses, one of the bodies for, a three wheel car comes off right next to ours.

是啊，那些压机确实很大。

It's, yeah, I mean, they're they're big presses.

它们都是

They're they're

巨大的机器。

big machines.

太疯狂了。

That's crazy.

制造业最有趣的地方之一就是，当我们刚开始搭建生产线时，你会意识到，你每天接触到的每一样东西，背后都是某个人倾注热情的成果。看看人类几个世纪以来发明和制造的这些设备，真的让人惊叹，居然有人能想到这样的点子。

That's one of the fun things about manufacturing is just like when we built out a lot of our manufacturing, you just I love the quote that everything you interact with throughout your day was someone else's passion project, but you see some of the machinery that humans have been able to invent and build over the centuries, And it really is just mind blowing that somebody came up with this idea.

而且这肯定不是一个人的功劳。

And it probably wasn't one person.

是一层又一层的积累，像搭积木一样，然后你再看看我们现在用的工具。

It's like building blocks upon building blocks upon building blocks, and then you see some of the tools that we have today.

我觉得这可能就是技术最难的地方。

And I think this is probably the hard part with technology.

比如数字技术，你很难直观地看到那些背后的工作。

You know, like digital technology is that it's harder to see that, right?

看不到那些付出的努力。

To see all of the work.

你能看到那层神奇，却看不到背后付出的无数努力。

You see the magic, but you don't see all the work that went into it.

但当你亲手制造东西时，就更容易真切地感受到——想当年，人类还全都在种地，根本没什么这些东西。

But when you're physically making things, it's easier, I think, to just tangibly appreciate, man, like, at at one point, it was like everybody was just, like, farming, and there was none of this.

后来，我们整个人类慢慢摸索出了怎么造出这种能产生巨大压力的冲压机。

And then, like, we, as a species, have figured out how to make this press that can just, like, create immense pressure.

总之，这真的让我觉得太不可思议了。

Anyway, it's just amazing to me.

我打个比方啊，如果你从来没进过工厂，从来没亲手做过东西，整天只接触成品，那你就像开餐厅却从来没进过厨房。

I liken it, guys, to if you've never been in a factory, you've never made anything, and you're in consumer, you're effectively, like, running a restaurant without having having ever having stepped in the kitchen.

你根本不知道当厨师是什么感觉。

Like, you don't know what it's like to be the chef.

而我就特别喜欢这种感觉。

And I that's I love it.

我特别喜欢去这些工厂看看。

I love make like, these, like, factories.

我真想亲自去你的工厂转转，就想看看这些东西到底是怎么造出来的。

Like, I'd actually just come and tour your damn factory because I just wanna see how it's made.

我觉得特别酷，我们居然真能亲手造出这些东西。

I just think it's so freaking cool that, like, we make stuff.

而且你们还在北美做，这简直太厉害了。

You know, and you happen to do it in in North America, which is badass.

我们在威斯康星州有五台设备，用来应对我们的生产量。

We have five motors in Wisconsin that we use to to keep up with our our volume.

看着这些设备挺有意思的，虽然它们大体相似，但每个的流程、操作方式和工厂布局都不一样。

And it's cool watching how each of them mean, they're all similar, but yet they're also different in their process and how they do things and what their factory looks like.

这对我们来说特别有价值，因为能从这些合作伙伴身上学到很多做事的方法。

And it's cool because for us, we get to learn from all of these partners along the way and how we do things as well.

我们在内部引入了一些半自动化设备，也观察了我们的制造商和注塑厂——他们自动化程度很高，能自动把零件取下来，放到晾架上，再放进冷却模具里。

And some of the semi automation we put in place both internally and then watching our manufacturers and injection molding who have very automated facilities, pulling our parts off, placing them on a drying rack, putting them into a cooling fixture.

看到这些自动化流程如何运作，真的让人惊叹。

It's incredible to watch, like, the automation that goes into place.

我还记得第一次，其实是两件事。

And I remember the first time I well, two things.

2015年，大概是六月，我第一次走进我们的工厂，当时是和创始人一起去的，我记得那时候我们还在做批次生产。

The first time I set foot into our factory in 2015, I think it was in June, I went with the founder and I remember we were doing batch manufacturing.

一个人负责做下半部分，另一个人负责做上半部分。

So one person built the bottom half one person built the top.

我当时就跟布拉德说，在我们把生产线和整个流程标准化之前。

And I remember saying to Brad is before we ended the assembly line and a lot of our process in place.

我说，我以前从来没来过工厂。

I said, so I've never been in the factory before.

但我得问一句，学同一种零件的两种不同做法，这正常吗？

But I have to ask, is it normal to learn how to build the same part two different ways?

因为有两个不同的操作员，各自教了我一种方法。

Because I had two different operators tell me how to do it either way.

结果是一样的，但接线方式不一样。

And the outcome was the same, but the wiring was different.

那大概是2015年的事了。

And, and, you know, that's circa 2015.

我们现在对流程的管理严谨多了。

We're now much more regimented in how we

也许该说标准化了。

Standardized maybe is

还有就是规范性，没错。

And the rigor, yeah.

然后他笑起来了。

But and and he starts laughing.

他说，这个观察真到位。

He goes, that's a great observation.

答案是否定的。

The answer is no.

接着

And then

这根本不是传统制造，这是后现代制造。

this isn't this is a postmodern manufacturing.

怎么觉得顺手就怎么组装，全凭感觉。

It's just however you feel like it should come together is how it's built.

当产量比较低的时候，确实能灵活一点。

Well, when your volumes are lower, I guess you have a little more flexibility.

但后来那年，我去了一家注塑厂。

But and then in I went to an injection molar later that later that year.

从那以后，我再看到任何产品，都会忍不住想它是怎么做出来的。

And ever since that time, I can't look at any product anymore without thinking about how it's made.

那一刻，突然就豁然开朗了。

And it just it was one of those moments where it clicks.

我回想起小时候，特别喜欢看一个节目，叫什么来着？

And I think back to like just as a as a kid, I used to love the what was it?

就是那个讲糖果是怎么生产的节目。

What's called how it's made the the candy show.

我以前特别喜欢这些东西。

And I used to love that stuff.

我特别爱看那些节目，比如《造就美国的人》《制造美国的机器》《成就美国的食物》，看看各种东西是怎么一步步发展过来的。

Like I and then one of my favorite shows is you know, the the men who made America, the machines who made America, the food that made America, and like seeing how things have evolved over time.

这让我对这个世界、对物品的制造过程有了特别深的敬意。

It to me just gives you such a cool appreciation for how the world is made how things are made.

现在我看到任何东西，第一反应不是它有多好看，而是琢磨它是怎么生产出来的。

And now I look at anything and I'm just I'm thinking about the manufacturing of it before I even think about like how beautiful the product came to be.

还有另一方面，就是产品管理，很多年前我根本没意识到，一个产品是好是优秀还是让人惊喜，背后有那么多细微的决定——从包装，到开机的声音，到从盒子里拿出来时的手感，每一件小事都算数。

And then the other part of it too is the product management side which I didn't have an appreciation for many, many years ago of like, how many small decisions make a product good versus great versus just like, a delightful end to end experience and all the little things that go into it from the packaging, to what it sounds like when it turns on to what it feels like when you take it out of the box.

这种执着真是到了极致。

There's such an abs a level of obsession.

我最近最喜欢的一个词就是，当你看到某样东西做得特别出色，那通常是因为背后有某种核心的东西在支撑。

I I mean, which is this is, my favorite word these days is, like, when you you see things done with excellence, that's typically a core ingredient.

你们的产品显然特别复杂。

There there's and you are obviously like, you guys are a a complicated product.

有硬件。

There's hardware.

有固件。

There's firmware.

有软件。

There's software.

要让这个机器人真正运行起来，背后可不止一点功夫。

Like, there's a lot happening to make the literal robot work.

对吧？

Right?

所以，迭代和产品管理真的特别关键。

So, like, tons of iteration and product management is a real thing.

我猜有人在听的时候会觉得，哦，这话说得通，毕竟你做的是猫砂机器人。

And I think there's somebody listening to this thinking, like, that makes sense if you're making a Litter Robot.

但我得说，我大概一两年前发现了这个品牌。

But I wanna say, like, I discovered this brand, a year or two ago.

他们做自己的服装品牌。

They make their clothing brand.

就是一些基础款。

Like, they make basics.

我觉得他们是瑞典的。

They're I think they're out of Sweden.

品牌叫 Asket，A-S-K-E-T。

They're called Asket, a s k e t.

给这群人点个赞。

So shout out to those guys.

我最近看了个视频，他们其实产品线很精简。

I saw a video recently where, like, they don't make a lot of things.

每年他们都不会新增太多东西。

So they don't actually every year, they don't actually add more stuff.

只是不断优化现有的产品。

They just iterate on the things that they make.