You could pay $400 for this Wi-Fi connected juicer. Or you could just use your hands.

Silicon Valley investors loved the idea: a Keurig for juices. Bags of juice that would be cold-pressed by a high-tech juicer that can connect to the internet, because every household appliance needs to connect to the internet nowadays.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, Campbell Soup and Bryant Stibel, the venture capital fund cofounded by NBA star Kobe Bryant, combined with 20 other investors to pour more than $120 million into the company behind the idea: Juicero.

The only problem is, the $7 juice pouches that are supposed to be pressed by the $399 machine Juicero is selling can also be quickly and easily squeezed by hand. A pair of Bloomberg reporters discovered this and demonstrated that in two minutes, regular old hand power produced just as much juice as the machine, which supposedly exerts 8,000 pounds of force, Juicero’s website boasts.

Juicero has received plenty of press coverage in the past, earning endorsements from daytime television personality Dr. Oz and actress Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as profiles and reviews from the New York Times and Business Insider.

But apparently none of the people investing in the device thought to test whether the juice packs, which apparently contain chunks of fresh fruits and vegetables, really needed a $400 machine to be squeezed properly. According to Bloomberg, Juicero knew that the bags could be hand squeezed but didn’t tell investors.

Instead, the company and its investors think people would prefer the consistency and and mess-free qualities of its device, they told Bloomberg. And as the Huffington Post notes, the machine is slightly more efficient in retaining the nutrients of the fruits and vegetables as it presses them.

Still, social media users roundly mocked the start-up.

This story was originally published April 19, 2017 at 2:01 PM with the headline "You could pay $400 for this Wi-Fi connected juicer. Or you could just use your hands.."