#moonpod

A Review of Moonpod – The New Age Beanbag Chair

Most people have a childhood memory of a beanbag, whether it was a go-to seat at home or a fought-over favourite at school. But what about as adults? Can we really see ourselves getting home from work and sinking into a beanbag, of all things? It turns out that yes, many people are, and it’s called the Moonpod.

Is this new-age, high-end beanbag chair for you? Keep reading for a thorough Moonpod…

This post is titled “John Fiorentino is a Scumbag Trying to Take Advantage of Mentally Ill People.”

You might remember the Gravity weighted blanket kickstarter that went viral last year. I watched as production and fulfillment turned into a nightmare and John and his customer service team ignored the many people who had problems. There are over 3,800 comments on that page and most are from unhappy backers.

But John decided everything was sunshine and butterflies, ignoring anyone that said otherwise, and recently launched a campaign for the Moon Pod. The Moon Pod is basically a slightly different version of a Yogibo, a microbead beanbag chair. He claims that this beanbag chair helps with anxiety and depression. It is a selling point for him. He backs it up with the flimsy claim that it reminds him of floatation therapy, aka where you float in a saltwater tank set to body temp in the dark as sensory deprivation. He uses the science and studies behind floatation therapy to say his magic beanbag will cure your depression. And also that naps are good for you, so his beanbag is good for you, so give him hundreds of dollars even though he has used this tactic before and left many people unhappy.

Then there is his instagram. There’s a photo linked from his instagram account @johnhuntfio in the Moon Pod campaign. Actually, the whole link text is    My whole life I’ve been an entrepreneur. I’m obsessed with building products, improving customer experiences and making the people in my life smile.  

So I clicked on it and found some pretty fucked up things. Most pictures of what look like homeless people that John decided to post to his instagram for whatever reason. Personally it seems like he thought his hashtags were clever at the expense of his subjects. There was also a photo of Marilyn Monroe on a screen with only the caption “Deserve”, which he also liked to use as a caption for vehicles. 

This was not a secret personal account. It is public and he linked to it in his kickstarter campaign. Within 20 minutes of mentioning it he deleted many of the posts. Then kickstarter deleted my comments, so I’m making this post. All of this would still be on his public account if I hadn’t said anything.