It's a nice story, but "Do you think we should make a smoothie company?" seems like the wrong question to ask and one that's likely to get a self affirming response. So more likely the benefit was psychological for the founders to justify to themselves that they should take the risk of starting up.<p>I mean, I'm sure I could make smoothies or bake cookies that people would think were awesome. Just use good ingredients and follow the recipe , that part isn't hard. OTOH knowing whether there is an oversupply of smoothies in the market already and knowing how to sell them in large enough quantities, manage production etc is another question entirely.