Diapers are hardly a unique concept, either, but the guy who is starting Jet.com previously sold his online diaper service to Amazon for a half-billion dollars. There are good reasons investors have already ponied up a quarter billion to be in on this - the founders track record.
I'm sure Martin took that into consideration before he risked his $18k and all that work. Everything is a gamble, but people who win are generally those who can perceive genuine opportunity from fluff. I just think a lot more professionalism went on here than people are giving Martin credit for - it wasn't a lottery.
No it wasn’t a lottery at all.
It was a winner take all competition.
He won. Good for him.
And a great idea by the company to get a huge amount of their initial advertising and canvassing paid for by others.
It’s still kind of a free country, nobody forced those “others” to do it, so a great idea.