Hi HN!<p>I'm Dhaivat and I've been working on JetLenses in the present YC batch. We offer the lowest prices on contact lenses online. On average, each of our customer saves $70 on each order in comparison to buying their contacts from a large online retailer.<p>It turns out that most of the cost of contacts is just advertising cost and fulfillment overhead.
We've built automation software for the fulfillment and prescription verification processes allowing us to cut overhead. We also use statistical models for ad optimization which allow us to cut our customer acquisition costs dramatically and deliver savings to our customers.<p>I have a technical background (I studied computer science and statistics, interned at Meteor (YC S11) and a quant hedge fund) and my Dad trained as an ophthalmologist. This was the perfect circumstance to realize that this is a large, fairly overlooked space within ecommerce where improved operations through software/data science can have a strong impact.<p>We're starting with contact lenses and we'll eventually apply our core tech to other prescription medical products with very similar cost structures. At the end of the day, we'd like to make these products cheaper and more easily accessible. Help us out by buying contacts from us or telling your contact-wearing friends about us!<p>If you wear contacts: We sell the same contacts as your doctor or other retailers, just for a lot less money. Check out our website at beta.jetlenses.com - order from us and save some dough while supporting our run-up to demo day! You can also check out our price comparison tool at <a href="https://beta.jetlenses.com/compare_prices" rel="nofollow">https://beta.jetlenses.com/compare_prices</a> - we're the cheapest
for most lenses but not all (yet!).<p>I would love to hear HN's thoughts about this! I'm particularly keen to learn about your experiences buying contact lenses (or even other medical products) and if what we're doing sounds exciting. You can also reach me at dhaivat AT jetlenses.com<p>Thanks!<p>Dhaivat<p>P.S. We currently only ship to addresses in the United States.
ContactLensKing.com is substantially cheaper than JetLenses for the contacts I wear, the Bausch & Lomb Ultras. $43 for a 6 pack on JetLenses, $30 on ContactLensKing:<p><a href="https://www.jetlenses.com/Ultra-6PK_p_76.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.jetlenses.com/Ultra-6PK_p_76.html</a><p><a href="https://www.contactlensking.com/prodDetail.aspx?ItemGroupCode=ULTRA" rel="nofollow">https://www.contactlensking.com/prodDetail.aspx?ItemGroupCod...</a><p>Why is there such a discrepancy in the pricing on these?
I'm in Ukraine now and it seems that I can buy most of the lenses for a fraction of US price. Here's one of the online shops I used last time: <a href="https://linza.com.ua/" rel="nofollow">https://linza.com.ua/</a> to convert UAH to USD you can divide by 25 (actually 27, but 25 gives good enough approximation and is easier to divide by). The same lenses I bought with VSP in the US for >= $150 cost here $14/month. And the most expensive monthly supply of daily lenses here costs $38.<p>Heck. Here's a vending machine in a random gas station in Moscow selling them contact lenses: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/mCf9XfB" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/mCf9XfB</a><p>Going to an eye doctor to check your eyesight can be done in pretty much any contact lens/glasses store on a walk-in basis. Last time my eye exam was free because I happened to buy a pack of lenses (I overpaid for the lenses, though).<p>The US seriously needs to figure out why the heck are you paying so damn much before you guys consider universal healthcare.
What kind of competitive advantage do you have compared to other similar companies (e.g. Hubble [1])? Is contact lenses just a race to the bottom in terms of pricing? Other than cost, are there any other elements that differentiate you?<p>[1] <a href="https://www.hubblecontacts.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.hubblecontacts.com/</a>
I don't think your claim is true. You are not the lowest price.<p>I just purchased Biotrue ONEday 90 pack today from EZContacts today.<p>You say the price is <a href="https://imgur.com/a/66wFxvS" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/66wFxvS</a> $69.99 cheapest plan (option 2)<p>But just today I purchased it from EZContacts for $30.79<p><a href="https://imgur.com/a/3x4ZzTD" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/3x4ZzTD</a><p>So you'd be best served to Google for the contact lens of your choice and pay for whats the cheapest.<p>Note: When I tried to re-order from EZContacts, they were charging close to $50. So always start a new search when you are trying to order Contacts online!
Same price as Costco ($50) for 12pk Acuvue Oasys - thats great. If it went lower I'd switch.<p>By the way most of your images especially on the homepage seem to be scaled up past their native resolution which makes the site look really fuzzy. Your logo for example is 30px but scaled to 50px. An easy win on landing page design would just be to re-export those images at the right resolution.
As YC company, I would prefer if you could offer me to improve my vision. I have presbyopia which is normal after certain age. Innovate and offer me something better. I don't need another dollar shave club. At least this is how it looks to me. :)
I'd like to have metadata about the materials used in the lenses, specifically info about wetting agents. My go-to lens is Acuvue Moist, which has the "Lacreon" wetting agent, aka polyvinylpyrrolidone. When my lens store stopped carrying Moist, I had a hard time figuring out which other brand would have an equivalent gradual moisture release effect, given the jungle of proprietary material names. I'm not saying I'd like to see the chemical formula for each lens (although that would be nice too), but some physical parameters beyond brand name and type of lens would be useful.
FWIW, the biggest pain is the prescription.<p>My doctor only does 1 year prescriptions, my prescription hasn't changed for 15 years. It's important to get your eyes checked, but every year is a bit nuts. I guess we have some federal organization to thank for that.<p>I'd love to see you guys figure that problem out. Maybe you could figure out how to ship from out of the US or something. Hell, I'd pay more if I didn't have to go to the doctor every year.
Can you elaborate a little bit more on this, what do you optimize, what statistics do you use, etc
> We also use statistical models for ad optimization<p>Thanks!
I have an eye condition that requires me to wear scleral lenses to see normally. They bill insurance over $2200 per pair of lenses. If that price can be brought down, that would be a big deal for me. Is this sort of lens a target for you?
Weird to see that they're not at all cost competitive with most retailers online other than 1800 which is very expensive.<p>Feels like YC is losing its edge?