I think calling Juicero a shitty idea is too strong. It didn't end up working, and probably it was knowable in advance that it wouldn't, but the difference between early-stage Juicero and early-stage Keurig is smaller than most people gave it credit for. There's a strong and robust market (at least in the SF Bay Area) for weird expensive juices.
I agree, fresh juice on demand is a good idea (besides the fact that the amount of sugar is usually terrible for you).
But they had to have found out very early on with Juicero that squeezing the packets by hand basically produced as much juice as their expensive machine.
They did. As the Bloomberg article mentioned^, Juicero plus at least some of their investors knew, and multiple investors felt that the product Juicero delivered didn't live up to what they were pitched. (Note that Juicero didn't get any new funding between their initial launch and going out of business.)
Well, even if you can do something by hand, there's a market for a gadget that will do it more conveniently. There is a market for food processors and rice cookers. I don't think Juicero is a good example of "stupid money" craze. Theranos is.
