It’s relatively easy for a customer to try a RaaS offering because they don’t need to commit to significant capital expenditures. They treat the robots as an operating expense.

Hypothetically (and notwithstanding hardware switching costs), let’s say John Deere’s business model relied less on upfront revenue from the sale of a tractor and more on how many acres their equipment covered. Their authorized service and dealer model — not to mention their product design — would look substantially different.

Companies with poor unit economics found themselves propelled by aggressive venture dollars (which themselves were propelled by a low-interest-rate environment). Those companies then turned those dollars into aggressive customer acquisition. Until recently, the market rewarded growth at all costs.