themselves consuming more than they expected or want. Matthew Pedecine, 27,
is one of the plaintiffs in a class action complaint fled against the company in
August alleging that it misled users about the addictiveness of its products. Two
years ago, Pedecine says, he was smoking approximately four or fve cigarettes
a day. He saw someone using Juul at a deep house concert in New York, and
gave it a try. “Even though I did manage to use it to quit smoking cigarettes,
my daily nicotine consumption has nearly quadrupled,” he says. “I knew [Juul]
had nicotine, but I didn’t realize the level of nicotine it was going to have.”
This is a problem that Juul can innovate its way out of, the cofounders say.
“[Juul] is a smart product that has a microprocessor in it, frmware, sensors,
and all this advanced technology,” says Bowen. Why not take advantage of
those features and give users greater control? Monsees envisions a device
that allows people to visualize and track their usage, and adjust it down or
up as they wish. Next year, the company plans to launch a Bluetooth-enabled
version of Juul that will connect to a Juul app, laying the foundation for such
capabilities. It will also include an optional youth-prevention feature, which
will pair an adult user’s smartphone with his or her device, effectively locking
it. (Until the FDA lifts its ban on new e-cigarette models, the Bluetooth version
will only be available outside the U.S.)
“As we build in more of these technologies, what we see is a potential place
where all underage consumption can be eliminated at a product level,” Monsees
says. In other words, Juul has technology know-how and a game plan—just give
the company the time to see it through. “Not only do we have good intentions,
we have incentive alignment. These are issues we want to end.”
Yet the fact remains: Juul is making money from getting teens hooked on
nicotine and turning combustible-cigarette smokers into pod addicts. “They’re
profting from it fabulously. To say, ‘We didn’t mean it,’ and then still cash the
checks, in this environment doesn’t work,” says Barie Carmichael, coauthor of
Reset: Business and Society in the New Social Landscape. “Here you have a company
that has this noble purpose to wean adults from smoking. But in their business
model, they have elements that can lead to
unintended consequences.”
I pose this conundrum to Bowen and
Monsees’s thesis adviser, Michael Barry. Is
there a way to better predict what innova-
tion might unleash? Or do we simply have
to learn to deal with innovation’s negative
side effects, when they arise?
“You’re asking the $64,000 question for the
future of the Valley,” he says. “We have got-
ten amazingly good at satisfying needs and
scaling. We are really good. And I think we’re
beginning to see that this absolute focus on
scale at all costs can be really problematic.”
Recently, the product design program that
Bowen and Monsees attended celebrated its
50th anniversary. Founding faculty member
Bob McKim was there, and he had a question
for Barry: Do you teach the students what
needs not to satisfy? “My answer was ‘no,’ ”
Barry recalls. “He said, ‘Well maybe you
should think about that.’ And he was abso-
lutely right. Before, if I created a product that
affected 100,000 people, I thought I was king
of the world. Now students do that on a Kick-
starter in a week. They’re affecting millions of
people at a push of the button.”
Or in the case of Juul, at the frst deep
inhale.
AHARRIS@FASTCOMPANY.COM
SMOKE SIGNALS
Cigarettes are a publiC health nightmare. e-Cigarettes are an imperfeCt solution.
131
Market cap of
Philip Morris
International
5. 4 TRILLION
Cigaretes sold worldwide in 2017
480,000
Number of U.S. deaths caused by
smoking each year
Cost of direct
medical care for
adults suffering
from smoking-related
illness in the U.S.
6. 6 MILLION
Estimated reduction
in premature
deaths if 10% of U.S.
smokers switched to
e-cigaretes over a
10-year period
7, 70 0
Number
of unique favors of
e-cigaretes on the
market
1,156 Number of warning leters the FDA has ent to retailers regarding illegal sale of e-cigaretes to minors
Juul’s gross margins
size of the
global
e-cigarete
market by 2023
BILLION
3. 8 MILLION
Number of Instagram posts taged #Vape Tricks
sources, clock wise from top left: the campaign for tobacco-free kids; cdc; research and markets; fda;
