Roads with cracks and bumps are often a result of unstable ground beneath the road surface. There are currently many ways of repairing such roads, all which are polluting. You can exchange all of the road, or mill up and reclaim parts of the road and bind it together with a substance with \u201cglue-like\u201d properties such as bitumen, or you could add new asphalt, concrete or gravel on top of the cracks and bumps, then you\u2019ll likely get the same cracks and bumps a year later, since this doesn\u2019t stabilize the soil beneath.
Our method is an enhanced, new way of full depth reclamation, with two main advantages: \n1) Our proprietary built Crusher can chew and crush pretty much everything including stone and mountain surfaces, meaning we do not have to extract, transport and add any new masses and can re-use all of the road, even in rugged terrain like mountainside Norway. \n2) Our binder. It\u2019s based on lignin, a waste product from the paper industry, constituting around 1/3 of the volumes from trees. The majority of lignin is burnt, we make use of it as a binder in our roads instead, binding the carbon absorbed by the trees from the air. Our binder has no negative impact on vegetation, animals, humans or equipment. It is actually so harmless that our test-pilot Hans Arne often takes a sip of it to prove it to our customers and competitors! But it does not taste very good..
Here you see a video of our Crusher crushing large rocks (thrown in by Hans Arne): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O1uWT5PARDWWHshac128hhv1tRk...
In combination, this results in approximately 20% lower cost compared to traditional methods, roads that on average last longer between each time they need repairs, and a reduction of Co2 equivalents from ~7-10kg positive to 5kg negative pr m2, or approximately 1 tonne net negative per 60 feet we refurbish, of a 2 lane road.
We are innovating to improve efficiency and the carbon effect of both the Crusher and the binder. For the Crusher we are working on making it smarter in addition to being powerful, with more and smarter sensor tech and from being dragged behind a tractor towards being autonomous, which could increase efficiency by 40-50%. For the binder we are experimenting with new combinations to store more CO2, adding to the lignin base we use now. We are looking at a range of new biological additions such as other types of refined lignin, other carbon negative materials and potentially programmable carbon negative molecules that can mimic the favorable binding properties, and we aim for a 5x increase in carbon capture efficiency within a few years.
We\u2019re three climate vikings from Norway with big hearts, bound together from earlier tech adventures. Kris dropped out of college at age 19 to found his first software company, and met his hardware match Hans on another project 10 years ago. Kris invested when Haakon co-founded Katapult and started scaling sustainability and tech companies 6 years ago, and early last year we all excitedly decided to join forces to build Carbon Crusher. The very first road though, refurbished with our method, was made 14 years back in Hans Arnes hometown, \u201cHeart Valley\u201d in Norway. Being able today to drive, touch it and see how good it still is, is a nice unique competitive edge for us and that our recent customers appreciate. Even if volumes have been limited so far it\u2019s good to also have actual recent happy customers (municipalities, cities, counties and a few industrial companies) as ambassadors, as the road business is very conservative; we have sometimes struggled with being nicknamed \u201cthe tree glue folks\u201d\u2026.
To scale our impact faster, we are working on changing from one off tender projects where we do the full refurbishment service for our customers, public or private road owners, towards a crushing as a service model with longer term contracts, licensing of tech to contractors and less people and hardware involved from our side.
On the product expansion side, we are currently most excited about developing software using satellite imagery that can monitor road health and identify repair needs for road owners effectively and give instant quotes and Co2 savings potential, we call it \u201cSkyRoads\u201d. Further, we are working on new complementary road tech that can enhance and add to the carbon potential from our solution. This includes sustainable top layers and capturing and dissemination of energy captured by the roads.
We want to re-invent the way we think about the 44 million miles of roads covering our planet, directly emitting over 400 million tonnes CO2 every year in building and maintenance, indirectly more through heat reflection. Our goal would be to 5x the carbon reduction potential of our current solution, using roads as a platform for a host of technologies on carbon reduction. On an annual basis, that could be 2 Gt each year. It\u2019s a very conservative industry with limited innovation, especially on the climate side, and we believe someone needs to make those stretched targets.
All this inspires us; to make our planet\u2019s roads, which is often overlooked in climate discussion, a part of the solution. It will require hardware, biotech and software innovation, and that excites us. If we succeed, our direct and indirect carbon impact will contribute in a meaningful way to our shared climate challenges.
We are super excited to launch this and be part of the YC community. Hopefully this post gave you some new interest in sustainable road tech. Please do reach out with any questions and we'll try our best to answer! You are also more than welcome to reach us also by email any time on contact@carboncrushing.com. Thanks!"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) \u2013 Carbon Negative Roads"}},"_tags":["story","author_haakonzen","story_30793076","launch_hn"],"author":"haakonzen","children":[30793214,30793327,30793570,30793600,30793630,30793768,30794002,30794317,30795003,30795034,30795285,30795602,30796264,30796324,30796825,30796943,30796957,30796964,30797238,30798244,30799704,30800459,30801221,30817699],"created_at":"2022-03-24T17:40:05Z","created_at_i":1648143605,"num_comments":93,"objectID":"30793076","points":187,"story_id":30793076,"story_text":"Hi HN community, we are Haakon, Hans Arne and Kris, co-founders of Carbon Crusher (https://www.carboncrusher.io). We are developing and scaling a technology and process that refurbishes roads in a carbon negative way.
Roads with cracks and bumps are often a result of unstable ground beneath the road surface. There are currently many ways of repairing such roads, all which are polluting. You can exchange all of the road, or mill up and reclaim parts of the road and bind it together with a substance with \u201cglue-like\u201d properties such as bitumen, or you could add new asphalt, concrete or gravel on top of the cracks and bumps, then you\u2019ll likely get the same cracks and bumps a year later, since this doesn\u2019t stabilize the soil beneath.
Our method is an enhanced, new way of full depth reclamation, with two main advantages: \n1) Our proprietary built Crusher can chew and crush pretty much everything including stone and mountain surfaces, meaning we do not have to extract, transport and add any new masses and can re-use all of the road, even in rugged terrain like mountainside Norway. \n2) Our binder. It\u2019s based on lignin, a waste product from the paper industry, constituting around 1/3 of the volumes from trees. The majority of lignin is burnt, we make use of it as a binder in our roads instead, binding the carbon absorbed by the trees from the air. Our binder has no negative impact on vegetation, animals, humans or equipment. It is actually so harmless that our test-pilot Hans Arne often takes a sip of it to prove it to our customers and competitors! But it does not taste very good..
Here you see a video of our Crusher crushing large rocks (thrown in by Hans Arne): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O1uWT5PARDWWHshac128hhv1tRk...
In combination, this results in approximately 20% lower cost compared to traditional methods, roads that on average last longer between each time they need repairs, and a reduction of Co2 equivalents from ~7-10kg positive to 5kg negative pr m2, or approximately 1 tonne net negative per 60 feet we refurbish, of a 2 lane road.
We are innovating to improve efficiency and the carbon effect of both the Crusher and the binder. For the Crusher we are working on making it smarter in addition to being powerful, with more and smarter sensor tech and from being dragged behind a tractor towards being autonomous, which could increase efficiency by 40-50%. For the binder we are experimenting with new combinations to store more CO2, adding to the lignin base we use now. We are looking at a range of new biological additions such as other types of refined lignin, other carbon negative materials and potentially programmable carbon negative molecules that can mimic the favorable binding properties, and we aim for a 5x increase in carbon capture efficiency within a few years.
We\u2019re three climate vikings from Norway with big hearts, bound together from earlier tech adventures. Kris dropped out of college at age 19 to found his first software company, and met his hardware match Hans on another project 10 years ago. Kris invested when Haakon co-founded Katapult and started scaling sustainability and tech companies 6 years ago, and early last year we all excitedly decided to join forces to build Carbon Crusher. The very first road though, refurbished with our method, was made 14 years back in Hans Arnes hometown, \u201cHeart Valley\u201d in Norway. Being able today to drive, touch it and see how good it still is, is a nice unique competitive edge for us and that our recent customers appreciate. Even if volumes have been limited so far it\u2019s good to also have actual recent happy customers (municipalities, cities, counties and a few industrial companies) as ambassadors, as the road business is very conservative; we have sometimes struggled with being nicknamed \u201cthe tree glue folks\u201d\u2026.
To scale our impact faster, we are working on changing from one off tender projects where we do the full refurbishment service for our customers, public or private road owners, towards a crushing as a service model with longer term contracts, licensing of tech to contractors and less people and hardware involved from our side.
On the product expansion side, we are currently most excited about developing software using satellite imagery that can monitor road health and identify repair needs for road owners effectively and give instant quotes and Co2 savings potential, we call it \u201cSkyRoads\u201d. Further, we are working on new complementary road tech that can enhance and add to the carbon potential from our solution. This includes sustainable top layers and capturing and dissemination of energy captured by the roads.
We want to re-invent the way we think about the 44 million miles of roads covering our planet, directly emitting over 400 million tonnes CO2 every year in building and maintenance, indirectly more through heat reflection. Our goal would be to 5x the carbon reduction potential of our current solution, using roads as a platform for a host of technologies on carbon reduction. On an annual basis, that could be 2 Gt each year. It\u2019s a very conservative industry with limited innovation, especially on the climate side, and we believe someone needs to make those stretched targets.
All this inspires us; to make our planet\u2019s roads, which is often overlooked in climate discussion, a part of the solution. It will require hardware, biotech and software innovation, and that excites us. If we succeed, our direct and indirect carbon impact will contribute in a meaningful way to our shared climate challenges.
We are super excited to launch this and be part of the YC community. Hopefully this post gave you some new interest in sustainable road tech. Please do reach out with any questions and we'll try our best to answer! You are also more than welcome to reach us also by email any time on contact@carboncrushing.com. Thanks!","title":"Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) \u2013 Carbon Negative Roads","updated_at":"2024-09-20T10:49:59Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"rooppal"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Hi HN! We're Roop and Puneet, the founders of Bild AI (https://www.bild.ai). Bild AI uses machine learning to read construction blueprints and extract detailed material quantity and cost estimates. Here's our demo: https://youtu.be/vBDl7Mh7iEc
The problem we're tackling is the sheer manual effort that goes into generating material quantities and cost estimates from blueprints today. Contractors and suppliers spend countless hours doing takeoffs by drawing on blueprints by hand - it's tedious, error-prone, and costs the global industry $30B a year. A single mistake can lead to thousands in losses on a project.
My co-founder Puneet experienced this firsthand as he was building hundreds of houses in Canada. Meanwhile, my background is in applied ML - I started at Google at 19, then Waymo where I built perception models for self-driving cars. Puneet and I met at Hack for Social Impact where we built our first _very_ narrow-scoped prototype.
Since then we\u2019ve expanded our scope slowly, with a laser-focus on accuracy. Our approach is to use a suite of specialized machine learning models for specific blueprint comprehension tasks, rather than a single end-to-end model. For example, we've developed computer vision models that are highly accurate at detecting and measuring floor areas, or identifying and counting framing elements like studs and doors. By composing these expert sub-models, we can achieve high accuracy on the overall takeoff.
This is somewhat analogous to the approach we took at Waymo for self-driving perception - having an array of dedicated models for tasks like lane detection, traffic light classification etc. It's a very different paradigm than the big-data end-to-end models like what Tesla uses - unfortunately we just don\u2019t have enough data yet.
We're working with some early customers like flooring suppliers to help automate their estimating workflows. But we see a huge opportunity to expand this "AI that understands blueprints" approach across all trades.
Would love to get the HN community's thoughts and feedback! Construction is an industry I think is really ripe for applying cutting-edge ML techniques. If you have experience in this domain as a builder, architect, estimator, supplier etc. I'd love to hear about your workflow and pain points.
Also if you're a researcher or engineer excited about applying state-of-the-art techniques to real-world problems in underserved industries, definitely reach out!
We\u2019re currently live with customers but are only able to serve a subset of trades accurately right now. Head to https://www.bild.ai/upload if you want to try uploading a blueprint and we can talk about your use-case. I truly believe we can solve blueprint understanding with AI, and there seem to be a huge number of applications. I'll be here all day to chat and answer questions!"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: Bild AI (YC W25) \u2013 Understand Construction Blueprints Using AI"}},"_tags":["story","author_rooppal","story_43196474","launch_hn"],"author":"rooppal","children":[43196607,43196645,43196649,43196656,43196775,43197792,43198121,43198247,43198280,43198644,43198656,43198940,43200117,43200340,43200737,43201605,43202007,43202620],"created_at":"2025-02-27T17:30:51Z","created_at_i":1740677451,"num_comments":39,"objectID":"43196474","points":98,"story_id":43196474,"story_text":"Hi HN! We're Roop and Puneet, the founders of Bild AI (https://www.bild.ai). Bild AI uses machine learning to read construction blueprints and extract detailed material quantity and cost estimates. Here's our demo: https://youtu.be/vBDl7Mh7iEc
The problem we're tackling is the sheer manual effort that goes into generating material quantities and cost estimates from blueprints today. Contractors and suppliers spend countless hours doing takeoffs by drawing on blueprints by hand - it's tedious, error-prone, and costs the global industry $30B a year. A single mistake can lead to thousands in losses on a project.
My co-founder Puneet experienced this firsthand as he was building hundreds of houses in Canada. Meanwhile, my background is in applied ML - I started at Google at 19, then Waymo where I built perception models for self-driving cars. Puneet and I met at Hack for Social Impact where we built our first _very_ narrow-scoped prototype.
Since then we\u2019ve expanded our scope slowly, with a laser-focus on accuracy. Our approach is to use a suite of specialized machine learning models for specific blueprint comprehension tasks, rather than a single end-to-end model. For example, we've developed computer vision models that are highly accurate at detecting and measuring floor areas, or identifying and counting framing elements like studs and doors. By composing these expert sub-models, we can achieve high accuracy on the overall takeoff.
This is somewhat analogous to the approach we took at Waymo for self-driving perception - having an array of dedicated models for tasks like lane detection, traffic light classification etc. It's a very different paradigm than the big-data end-to-end models like what Tesla uses - unfortunately we just don\u2019t have enough data yet.
We're working with some early customers like flooring suppliers to help automate their estimating workflows. But we see a huge opportunity to expand this "AI that understands blueprints" approach across all trades.
Would love to get the HN community's thoughts and feedback! Construction is an industry I think is really ripe for applying cutting-edge ML techniques. If you have experience in this domain as a builder, architect, estimator, supplier etc. I'd love to hear about your workflow and pain points.
Also if you're a researcher or engineer excited about applying state-of-the-art techniques to real-world problems in underserved industries, definitely reach out!
We\u2019re currently live with customers but are only able to serve a subset of trades accurately right now. Head to https://www.bild.ai/upload if you want to try uploading a blueprint and we can talk about your use-case. I truly believe we can solve blueprint understanding with AI, and there seem to be a huge number of applications. I'll be here all day to chat and answer questions!","title":"Launch HN: Bild AI (YC W25) \u2013 Understand Construction Blueprints Using AI","updated_at":"2026-07-26T21:02:00Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"joedoe"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Inspired by \"I'm burning out and I can't tell anyone\".\nMy story is about the same. I think I'm at the stage that comes after the burning out.
I'm a single, 30yo, systems architect at a quite known and popular Web company (top 30). I also have a strong open-source persona and pretty useful projects out there (overall around 2000 watchers, I guess). HN score of about 1400, all from feedback on projects I've released.
I'm the guy who always get a crazy eyebrow raised when people hear I don't have my own start up yet. I get tons of offers from CTOs, CEOs and founders to co-found/participate, and I usually think of the people offering them as misguided and naive.\nAnd if we're anonymous, let me throw in that I used to be a hacker, cracker, around 13 years ago, when I was in high school.
End background.
I find myself waking up at 8:30am, at work at 9:30am, finishing up at 19:30-20:00pm and at home by 21:30pm tops (I'm not living in the US). I still have most of my vacation quota unused.\nThis leaves me with about 3 hours of free time where I do my open source work. Of that I allocate 1 hour to my girlfriend daily. I tried managing my life the traditional ways, and non-traditional ways (kanban). I even tried putting home tasks on a kanban and trying to measure velocity. All to get more time out of a day, more efficiently.\nI'm constantly in burn-out mode, but I found that I can take it.\nI become depressed, agonized, my back is killing me (even though I am in top shape -- used to compete athletically) and I cry like a girl alone sometimes. But then I pick myself up and move on; pick a task and do it.
Hero? no.
I got back to my home town yesterday (writing this hung over). Met my old friends: married + kids, and the sorts. Simple jobs (bus driver, photographer), 0-stress.
Where am I? where is the _exquisite_ systems architect? yes, I solve crazy problems (over 100M users), scalability and performance is my motto, but still struggling with a couple hours of free time per day, making my employer's dream come true (On several occasions, I had direct first hand influence on company's success -- i.e. if no me, no success, or at least considerable fiasco).
I have no friends (its quite hard to keep in touch when you have a couple hours a day, which you already use up).\nI barely see my family.
I'm not half the man I used to be, before the University-startup-startup-startup-enterprise-startup jobs run.
Should I give up everything to be a bus driver, a photographer, and move to a quiet town, leave the city and all of my skills and knowledge?\nI don't know who I am anymore.\nThat's the question that bothers me.
Anyone recognizes this?"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"I don't know who I am anymore and I can't tell anyone"}},"_tags":["story","author_joedoe","story_3728942","ask_hn"],"author":"joedoe","children":[3728978,3729068,3729104,3729254,3729277,3729324,3729401,3729528,3729584,3729585,3729672,3729747,3729780,3729871,3730338,3730339,3730346,3730361,3730444,3730486,3730532,3730586,3730871,3730993,3731128,3731688,3733180,3734747,3734884,3734991,3738341,3743134,3749319,3759639,3768887],"created_at":"2012-03-20T12:51:08Z","created_at_i":1332247868,"num_comments":44,"objectID":"3728942","points":44,"story_id":3728942,"story_text":"Inspired by \"I'm burning out and I can't tell anyone\".\nMy story is about the same. I think I'm at the stage that comes after the burning out.
I'm a single, 30yo, systems architect at a quite known and popular Web company (top 30). I also have a strong open-source persona and pretty useful projects out there (overall around 2000 watchers, I guess). HN score of about 1400, all from feedback on projects I've released.
I'm the guy who always get a crazy eyebrow raised when people hear I don't have my own start up yet. I get tons of offers from CTOs, CEOs and founders to co-found/participate, and I usually think of the people offering them as misguided and naive.\nAnd if we're anonymous, let me throw in that I used to be a hacker, cracker, around 13 years ago, when I was in high school.
End background.
I find myself waking up at 8:30am, at work at 9:30am, finishing up at 19:30-20:00pm and at home by 21:30pm tops (I'm not living in the US). I still have most of my vacation quota unused.\nThis leaves me with about 3 hours of free time where I do my open source work. Of that I allocate 1 hour to my girlfriend daily. I tried managing my life the traditional ways, and non-traditional ways (kanban). I even tried putting home tasks on a kanban and trying to measure velocity. All to get more time out of a day, more efficiently.\nI'm constantly in burn-out mode, but I found that I can take it.\nI become depressed, agonized, my back is killing me (even though I am in top shape -- used to compete athletically) and I cry like a girl alone sometimes. But then I pick myself up and move on; pick a task and do it.
Hero? no.
I got back to my home town yesterday (writing this hung over). Met my old friends: married + kids, and the sorts. Simple jobs (bus driver, photographer), 0-stress.
Where am I? where is the _exquisite_ systems architect? yes, I solve crazy problems (over 100M users), scalability and performance is my motto, but still struggling with a couple hours of free time per day, making my employer's dream come true (On several occasions, I had direct first hand influence on company's success -- i.e. if no me, no success, or at least considerable fiasco).
I have no friends (its quite hard to keep in touch when you have a couple hours a day, which you already use up).\nI barely see my family.
I'm not half the man I used to be, before the University-startup-startup-startup-enterprise-startup jobs run.
Should I give up everything to be a bus driver, a photographer, and move to a quiet town, leave the city and all of my skills and knowledge?\nI don't know who I am anymore.\nThat's the question that bothers me.
Anyone recognizes this?","title":"I don't know who I am anymore and I can't tell anyone","updated_at":"2024-09-19T18:23:07Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"akimc"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Original article link : http://www.lesaffaires.com/blogues/julien-brault/ce-montrealais-de-21-ans-fait-12-000--par-jour-en-vendant-des-fusils-virtuels/579654?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=16-06-2015&utm_campaign=montrealais-12000-dollars-par-jour
The text is in french thoses are the highlights of it :
* Artur Minacov 21 co-founder from Montreal
* website : OPSkins
* 120 000$/day selling volume takes a 10% cut -> 12 000$ / day
* The website is selling Counter Strike GO skins which are only a design for a gun no added value
* 340 000 users plan to get all of the 6.5 millions users of CS:GO
* He will sponsor the next ESWC for a total of 100k$
* Dropout from Cegep (college) at 19 years old
* Failed a few startups (2) before OPSkins
* Refused VC funding (6% for 50k)
Sorry if there is mistake it is a bit late and not my native language."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"21 year old makes 12k/day selling CS:GO skins"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_akimc","story_9730210","ask_hn"],"author":"akimc","children":[9730429,9731672,9733326,9733562,9734367,9741283],"created_at":"2015-06-17T05:34:46Z","created_at_i":1434519286,"num_comments":11,"objectID":"9730210","points":27,"story_id":9730210,"story_text":"Original article link : http://www.lesaffaires.com/blogues/julien-brault/ce-montrealais-de-21-ans-fait-12-000--par-jour-en-vendant-des-fusils-virtuels/579654?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=16-06-2015&utm_campaign=montrealais-12000-dollars-par-jour
The text is in french thoses are the highlights of it :
* Artur Minacov 21 co-founder from Montreal
* website : OPSkins
* 120 000$/day selling volume takes a 10% cut -> 12 000$ / day
* The website is selling Counter Strike GO skins which are only a design for a gun no added value
* 340 000 users plan to get all of the 6.5 millions users of CS:GO
* He will sponsor the next ESWC for a total of 100k$
* Dropout from Cegep (college) at 19 years old
* Failed a few startups (2) before OPSkins
* Refused VC funding (6% for 50k)
Sorry if there is mistake it is a bit late and not my native language.","title":"21 year old makes 12k/day selling CS:GO skins","updated_at":"2023-09-07T02:59:29Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"opheliate"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Received at 19:20 UTC, approx 2 days after the breach was publicly known:
> At Epik, we take security and the privacy of your information very seriously. Therefore as a precautionary measure, I am writing to inform you of an alleged security incident involving Epik.
> Our internal team, working with external experts, have been working diligently to address the situation. We are taking proactive steps to resolve the issue. We will update you on our progress. In the meantime please let us know if you detect any unusual account activity. I am proud of our team\u2019s efforts as we do our part to empower a thriving internet for the benefit of our customers around the world.
> You are in our prayers today. We are grateful for your support and prayer. When situations arise where individuals might not have honorable intentions, I pray for them. I believe that what the enemy intends for evil, God invariably transforms into good.
> Blessings to you all.
> Regards,
> Rob Monster
> Founder and CEO
> Epik Holdings Inc"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Tell HN: Epik have finally informed customers of their data breach"}},"_tags":["story","author_opheliate","story_28543414","ask_hn"],"author":"opheliate","children":[28546237,28546882,28547174,28548579],"created_at":"2021-09-15T19:37:58Z","created_at_i":1631734678,"num_comments":7,"objectID":"28543414","points":11,"story_id":28543414,"story_text":"Received at 19:20 UTC, approx 2 days after the breach was publicly known:
> At Epik, we take security and the privacy of your information very seriously. Therefore as a precautionary measure, I am writing to inform you of an alleged security incident involving Epik.
> Our internal team, working with external experts, have been working diligently to address the situation. We are taking proactive steps to resolve the issue. We will update you on our progress. In the meantime please let us know if you detect any unusual account activity. I am proud of our team\u2019s efforts as we do our part to empower a thriving internet for the benefit of our customers around the world.
> You are in our prayers today. We are grateful for your support and prayer. When situations arise where individuals might not have honorable intentions, I pray for them. I believe that what the enemy intends for evil, God invariably transforms into good.
> Blessings to you all.
> Regards,
> Rob Monster
> Founder and CEO
> Epik Holdings Inc","title":"Tell HN: Epik have finally informed customers of their data breach","updated_at":"2024-09-20T09:26:17Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"mhrnik"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Around 2018\u201319, a founder from California reached out to me with just an idea.
No product. No traction. Just a vision.
I shared one of my past projects, which was enough to get the work started.
Soon after, I started working with him to bring that idea to life with my teammate/friend.
We built the app from scratch.\nThat MVP eventually scaled to process over $5M+ (something I\u2019m still proud of).
The company raised funding. On paper, my 1% stake started to mean something.\nThings felt like they were working.
Then things changed.
A new CTO came in, a great guy who taught me CLI & Linux (grateful for that).\nBut I moved from working directly with the founder to working under a new structure.
Less ownership.\nLess direct communication.\nMore layers.
At the same time, the company started missing its marketing targets.\nGrowth slowed. Burn continued.
In January 2026, I was asked to stop working. By March, even my teammate who was still supporting the mobile app with the CTO, was also asked to stop.
Eventually, the company ran out of money.
We\u2019re still helping a bit on the marketing side now as we want this to work.
That experience taught me a few things:
- Building is only half the game, distribution decides survival
- Proximity to decision-makers matters more than you think
Still grateful I went through it.
-----------\nMainly, I only post here about my product or ask something. This time I just share my x post here to share one of the learnings."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Built $5M. Got 1%. Got let go"}},"_tags":["story","author_mhrnik","story_47673386","ask_hn"],"author":"mhrnik","children":[47673458,47674178,47674511,47675605,47689808],"created_at":"2026-04-07T11:11:34Z","created_at_i":1775560294,"num_comments":13,"objectID":"47673386","points":5,"story_id":47673386,"story_text":"Around 2018\u201319, a founder from California reached out to me with just an idea.
No product. No traction. Just a vision.
I shared one of my past projects, which was enough to get the work started.
Soon after, I started working with him to bring that idea to life with my teammate/friend.
We built the app from scratch.\nThat MVP eventually scaled to process over $5M+ (something I\u2019m still proud of).
The company raised funding. On paper, my 1% stake started to mean something.\nThings felt like they were working.
Then things changed.
A new CTO came in, a great guy who taught me CLI & Linux (grateful for that).\nBut I moved from working directly with the founder to working under a new structure.
Less ownership.\nLess direct communication.\nMore layers.
At the same time, the company started missing its marketing targets.\nGrowth slowed. Burn continued.
In January 2026, I was asked to stop working. By March, even my teammate who was still supporting the mobile app with the CTO, was also asked to stop.
Eventually, the company ran out of money.
We\u2019re still helping a bit on the marketing side now as we want this to work.
That experience taught me a few things:
- Building is only half the game, distribution decides survival
- Proximity to decision-makers matters more than you think
Still grateful I went through it.
-----------\nMainly, I only post here about my product or ask something. This time I just share my x post here to share one of the learnings.","title":"Built $5M. Got 1%. Got let go","updated_at":"2026-04-13T19:44:19Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"throwwayaway42"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"I've always been into tech and computers and my first coding job was at 19. After college I did some IT & technical generalist work at NGOs because I was curious about mission-centric organizations before eventually transitioning to being a full time web dev. Because I got to code more and I was curious about developing my coding skills further and also seeking better pay. I've alternated between full time and freelance work over the last decade.
There are times when I still enjoy programming but I hate the stress of startups & small business (few people, crazy hours, the feeling of the founders personally trying to extract work from you and feeling like it's their money your salary is taking). My freelance heavy resume looks a bit weird for big companies. And to add to that during a stretch of remote work I moved to a market with fewer big companies.
At this point, I can sell my resume as someone who could be a lead or even CTO soon. But I really would just like a job where I can deliver code without a lot of politics or bullshit or external pressure. And I would like to do that while I give myself time to consider a career change. I never worked anywhere with truly big paychecks and had lots of college loans and lived in an expensive market until recently so I don't have huge savings to take time off.
My colleagues say good things about my work, I've contributed to open source, people tell me I'm easy to get along with. I know I can do it as a dev and I have, and I wouldn't mind taking less money for less pressure or working part time. I feel like my problem is almost, companies want me to be looking for upward career movement or some startup dream of theirs, and I would just like to keep coding to support myself & because I'm good at it while I think about other directions to eventually take my life in (I have non-coding side projects whose specifics are not worth getting into)."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: How do I work a stable sane job for a paycheck? Or even work part time?"}},"_tags":["story","author_throwwayaway42","story_23476931","ask_hn"],"author":"throwwayaway42","created_at":"2020-06-10T13:44:49Z","created_at_i":1591796689,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"23476931","points":2,"story_id":23476931,"story_text":"I've always been into tech and computers and my first coding job was at 19. After college I did some IT & technical generalist work at NGOs because I was curious about mission-centric organizations before eventually transitioning to being a full time web dev. Because I got to code more and I was curious about developing my coding skills further and also seeking better pay. I've alternated between full time and freelance work over the last decade.
There are times when I still enjoy programming but I hate the stress of startups & small business (few people, crazy hours, the feeling of the founders personally trying to extract work from you and feeling like it's their money your salary is taking). My freelance heavy resume looks a bit weird for big companies. And to add to that during a stretch of remote work I moved to a market with fewer big companies.
At this point, I can sell my resume as someone who could be a lead or even CTO soon. But I really would just like a job where I can deliver code without a lot of politics or bullshit or external pressure. And I would like to do that while I give myself time to consider a career change. I never worked anywhere with truly big paychecks and had lots of college loans and lived in an expensive market until recently so I don't have huge savings to take time off.
My colleagues say good things about my work, I've contributed to open source, people tell me I'm easy to get along with. I know I can do it as a dev and I have, and I wouldn't mind taking less money for less pressure or working part time. I feel like my problem is almost, companies want me to be looking for upward career movement or some startup dream of theirs, and I would just like to keep coding to support myself & because I'm good at it while I think about other directions to eventually take my life in (I have non-coding side projects whose specifics are not worth getting into).","title":"Ask HN: How do I work a stable sane job for a paycheck? Or even work part time?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T06:26:11Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"alain94040"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["founder"],"value":"Last Night's Founder Institute: Advice from Mike Arrington on PR and More"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2009/08/19/mike-arrington-at-the-founder-institute-a-tc50-application-story-and-more/"}},"_tags":["story","author_alain94040","story_773224"],"author":"alain94040","created_at":"2009-08-19T17:41:20Z","created_at_i":1250703680,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"773224","points":8,"story_id":773224,"story_text":"","title":"Last Night's Founder Institute: Advice from Mike Arrington on PR and More","updated_at":"2024-09-19T16:43:06Z","url":"http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2009/08/19/mike-arrington-at-the-founder-institute-a-tc50-application-story-and-more/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"dragostudor"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Looking for a technical co-founder who can join me in creating a platform for industrial Large Language Models (LLMs). I'm looking for a world-class individual with a strong technical background, someone who embodies integrity and high energy, is results-driven, able to prioritise the business, and has an unstoppable drive and sense of urgency. Previous startup experience, communication skills, and emotional intelligence are a big +
My background is rooted in a family of manufacturers. I used to work at P&G in marketing, at a London-based hedge fund (quant + NLP) and in a cybersecurity startup (NLP research / engineering), and with over 20 clients (Including BCG and other large companies) through my data science consultancy, $50m+ value created. Over the previous 3 years, I\u2019ve developed and led 15 AI products for speeding up the production of the covid 19 vaccine at a global Pharma company, some of which got deployed at 10+ of their factories.
I\u2019ve had in-depth conversations with over 200 experts in manufacturing, maintenance, and reliability. Currently, there are about 25 major companies lined up, with some already sharing data and others in the process of doing so. I'm in talks with a global chemical enterprise where just one site could save up to $20m per year. Moreover, the potential for downtime-related savings is substantial, ranging from $20k to $30k per hour. A key focus for manufacturers is optimizing asset uptime and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
The goal is to build a platform for highly specialized industrial LLMs, fine-tuned to customers\u2019 proprietary data, ideally on their own VMs to ensure data security. Over the next 3-5 years, the vision is to create a multi-modal representation of a factory and its processes and assets. By merging data from both human and machine sources, we can provide actionable, context-aware recommendations to support workers and decision-makers in carrying out efficient repairs and preventing failures. Tasks as mundane as locating a procedure in a user manual, which once took up to several hours, will be reducible to mere seconds. Learning from historical patterns across various locations and languages, we can 10x the efficiency of engineers and technicians on the factory floor.
Moving forward, my plan is to apply to Y Combinator (YC) and raise capital to accelerate our progress. I've already assembled a team of potential early employees, experts in their fields, but I'm seeking a visionary co-founder who is ready to join me in transforming this ambitious dream into reality. Given the rapid advancements in both private and public LLMs, including evolving distribution channels and partnerships, time is of the essence.
If you fit the description and are eager for the adventure of a lifetime, feel free to drop me a message"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["founder"],"value":"Seeking Co-Founder for YC \u2013 Industrial LLMs"}},"_tags":["story","author_dragostudor","story_38214399","ask_hn"],"author":"dragostudor","children":[38214407],"created_at":"2023-11-10T02:34:04Z","created_at_i":1699583644,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"38214399","points":3,"story_id":38214399,"story_text":"Looking for a technical co-founder who can join me in creating a platform for industrial Large Language Models (LLMs). I'm looking for a world-class individual with a strong technical background, someone who embodies integrity and high energy, is results-driven, able to prioritise the business, and has an unstoppable drive and sense of urgency. Previous startup experience, communication skills, and emotional intelligence are a big +
My background is rooted in a family of manufacturers. I used to work at P&G in marketing, at a London-based hedge fund (quant + NLP) and in a cybersecurity startup (NLP research / engineering), and with over 20 clients (Including BCG and other large companies) through my data science consultancy, $50m+ value created. Over the previous 3 years, I\u2019ve developed and led 15 AI products for speeding up the production of the covid 19 vaccine at a global Pharma company, some of which got deployed at 10+ of their factories.
I\u2019ve had in-depth conversations with over 200 experts in manufacturing, maintenance, and reliability. Currently, there are about 25 major companies lined up, with some already sharing data and others in the process of doing so. I'm in talks with a global chemical enterprise where just one site could save up to $20m per year. Moreover, the potential for downtime-related savings is substantial, ranging from $20k to $30k per hour. A key focus for manufacturers is optimizing asset uptime and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
The goal is to build a platform for highly specialized industrial LLMs, fine-tuned to customers\u2019 proprietary data, ideally on their own VMs to ensure data security. Over the next 3-5 years, the vision is to create a multi-modal representation of a factory and its processes and assets. By merging data from both human and machine sources, we can provide actionable, context-aware recommendations to support workers and decision-makers in carrying out efficient repairs and preventing failures. Tasks as mundane as locating a procedure in a user manual, which once took up to several hours, will be reducible to mere seconds. Learning from historical patterns across various locations and languages, we can 10x the efficiency of engineers and technicians on the factory floor.
Moving forward, my plan is to apply to Y Combinator (YC) and raise capital to accelerate our progress. I've already assembled a team of potential early employees, experts in their fields, but I'm seeking a visionary co-founder who is ready to join me in transforming this ambitious dream into reality. Given the rapid advancements in both private and public LLMs, including evolving distribution channels and partnerships, time is of the essence.
If you fit the description and are eager for the adventure of a lifetime, feel free to drop me a message","title":"Seeking Co-Founder for YC \u2013 Industrial LLMs","updated_at":"2024-09-20T15:34:04Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"neilfrndes"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Last year in May, YC sent an email[0] to its startups asking them to "plan for the worst" and try to be 'default alive' for 24 months. We took that advice seriously and drastically reduced our spend, which extended our runway at the expense of growth. I was wondering if other founders are still running their companies in 'economic uncertainty' mode, or things are relatively back to normal?
Anecdotally, from talking to other founders in the Bay Area, it seems like early stage fundraising hasn't reduced as drastically as predicted, albeit at lower valuations.
[0] https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/19/yc-advises-founders-to-plan-for-the-worst/"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Are startups still operating in 'default alive' mode?"}},"_tags":["story","author_neilfrndes","story_37697868","ask_hn"],"author":"neilfrndes","children":[37699783,37700298,37701593,37704919,37721255],"created_at":"2023-09-29T00:35:48Z","created_at_i":1695947748,"num_comments":6,"objectID":"37697868","points":46,"story_id":37697868,"story_text":"Last year in May, YC sent an email[0] to its startups asking them to "plan for the worst" and try to be 'default alive' for 24 months. We took that advice seriously and drastically reduced our spend, which extended our runway at the expense of growth. I was wondering if other founders are still running their companies in 'economic uncertainty' mode, or things are relatively back to normal?
Anecdotally, from talking to other founders in the Bay Area, it seems like early stage fundraising hasn't reduced as drastically as predicted, albeit at lower valuations.
[0] https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/19/yc-advises-founders-to-plan-for-the-worst/","title":"Ask HN: Are startups still operating in 'default alive' mode?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T15:18:24Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"meir-avimelec"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"ok so weird backstory - ive been building products for startups for like 8 years now and i got obsessed with this question: why do products that KILL IT on product hunt just... die?
like were talking #1 product of the day, 1000+ upvotes, features in newsletters, the whole thing. and then 6 months later? dead or making $300/month
so i went full detective mode. pulled 34 products that hit #1 between 2022-2024, tracked them down, interviewed 19 of the founders, and dug into what actually happened
the pattern is actually disturbing:\nlaunch day: 2,500 signups, 847 upvotes, #1 product of the day, founders cant sleep from excitement\nweek 2: 180 active users (7% of signups), 12 paying customers\nmonth 3: 45 active users, 3 paying customers (9 cancelled)\nmonth 6: founder working on "next idea", product basically abandoned
what i found in those 34 products:
88% built the product IN SECRET for 4-9 months before launch. no customer conversations, no validation, just "build it and they will come"
79% had ZERO idea who their customer actually was. i asked one founder "whos this for" and he said "anyone who needs productivity" like bro thats 8 billion people
71% changed their product AFTER launch based on PH comments instead of actual customer research
94% spent more time on their launch strategy than their distribution strategy. like they knew every PH hack but had no clue how to get customers on day 8
82% never talked to a single paying customer. not one interview, no user testing, nothing
the math on this is brutal:
avg time building before launch: 6 months avg cost (if you value time at $50/hr): $52,000 avg revenue after 6 months: $430
the part that killed me:
i asked every founder "did you talk to potential customers before building" and 31 out of 34 said some version of "i AM the customer so i know what they need"
bro. YOU are not a market. youre one person with specific weird preferences
one founder spent $83,000 building a tool for designers and never once asked a designer if they wanted it. NOT ONCE.
launch day he got 200 designer signups. i asked "did you follow up" and he said "no i figured if they wanted it theyd come back"
12 of them would have paid. he never asked.
what actually works:
the 3 products that made it past $10k MRR did this:
\u2022 talked to 20-50 potential customers BEFORE writing code\n \u2022 built an MVP in 2-4 weeks not 6 months\n \u2022 sold it to 5 people before product hunt\n \u2022 used PH as FUEL not validation\n \u2022 knew EXACTLY who it was for (not "productivity users" but "fintech compliance officers at series B startups")\none founder told me "PH gave me 900 signups but the 3 customers i cold emailed before launch gave me my business model"
why im posting this:
because i watch founders do this on repeat. build for 9 months, launch, get dopamine hit from upvotes, then wonder why nobody pays
product hunt is amazing for DISTRIBUTION. its terrible for VALIDATION.
if youre building something right now:
\u2022 have you talked to 10+ potential customers?\n \u2022 can you describe your customer in one sentence?\n \u2022 have you tried to sell it before its "perfect"?
if you said no to any of these youre not building a product youre building a hope
happy to answer questions about validation or early customer research
Meir Avimelec Davidov (you can search me over Linkedin)\nFounder & CEO of gliltech software"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"I analyzed why 34 products that hit #1 on PH never made $1k MRR"}},"_tags":["story","author_meir-avimelec","story_45632846","ask_hn"],"author":"meir-avimelec","created_at":"2025-10-19T08:45:14Z","created_at_i":1760863514,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"45632846","points":6,"story_id":45632846,"story_text":"ok so weird backstory - ive been building products for startups for like 8 years now and i got obsessed with this question: why do products that KILL IT on product hunt just... die?
like were talking #1 product of the day, 1000+ upvotes, features in newsletters, the whole thing. and then 6 months later? dead or making $300/month
so i went full detective mode. pulled 34 products that hit #1 between 2022-2024, tracked them down, interviewed 19 of the founders, and dug into what actually happened
the pattern is actually disturbing:\nlaunch day: 2,500 signups, 847 upvotes, #1 product of the day, founders cant sleep from excitement\nweek 2: 180 active users (7% of signups), 12 paying customers\nmonth 3: 45 active users, 3 paying customers (9 cancelled)\nmonth 6: founder working on "next idea", product basically abandoned
what i found in those 34 products:
88% built the product IN SECRET for 4-9 months before launch. no customer conversations, no validation, just "build it and they will come"
79% had ZERO idea who their customer actually was. i asked one founder "whos this for" and he said "anyone who needs productivity" like bro thats 8 billion people
71% changed their product AFTER launch based on PH comments instead of actual customer research
94% spent more time on their launch strategy than their distribution strategy. like they knew every PH hack but had no clue how to get customers on day 8
82% never talked to a single paying customer. not one interview, no user testing, nothing
the math on this is brutal:
avg time building before launch: 6 months avg cost (if you value time at $50/hr): $52,000 avg revenue after 6 months: $430
the part that killed me:
i asked every founder "did you talk to potential customers before building" and 31 out of 34 said some version of "i AM the customer so i know what they need"
bro. YOU are not a market. youre one person with specific weird preferences
one founder spent $83,000 building a tool for designers and never once asked a designer if they wanted it. NOT ONCE.
launch day he got 200 designer signups. i asked "did you follow up" and he said "no i figured if they wanted it theyd come back"
12 of them would have paid. he never asked.
what actually works:
the 3 products that made it past $10k MRR did this:
\u2022 talked to 20-50 potential customers BEFORE writing code\n \u2022 built an MVP in 2-4 weeks not 6 months\n \u2022 sold it to 5 people before product hunt\n \u2022 used PH as FUEL not validation\n \u2022 knew EXACTLY who it was for (not "productivity users" but "fintech compliance officers at series B startups")\none founder told me "PH gave me 900 signups but the 3 customers i cold emailed before launch gave me my business model"
why im posting this:
because i watch founders do this on repeat. build for 9 months, launch, get dopamine hit from upvotes, then wonder why nobody pays
product hunt is amazing for DISTRIBUTION. its terrible for VALIDATION.
if youre building something right now:
\u2022 have you talked to 10+ potential customers?\n \u2022 can you describe your customer in one sentence?\n \u2022 have you tried to sell it before its "perfect"?
if you said no to any of these youre not building a product youre building a hope
happy to answer questions about validation or early customer research
Meir Avimelec Davidov (you can search me over Linkedin)\nFounder & CEO of gliltech software","title":"I analyzed why 34 products that hit #1 on PH never made $1k MRR","updated_at":"2026-03-05T22:50:18Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"vnchr"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"We'll will be bumming around the Bay Area all of next week. We're from St. Louis and looking to co-locate in San Francisco.
The CEO Andrew has an interesting story as a 19 year old founder and hardware inventor. Network World did a nice write-up on his back-story though the FB rumor was false and we've since dispelled it:\nhttp://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/110612-evtron-263983.html
Anyone with interest in high-capacity, high-efficiency data storage at a lower cost, feel free to email me at ivicars [at] evtron.com. I'd love to take you out for coffee or drinks so we can talk shop. Otherwise, we'll be taking in the sites or working our butts off at Startup Embassy.
Thank you to everyone in this community. As a non-Valley startup-type, I still feel connected to the Bay Area because of HN."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Midwest hardware startup (data storage) visiting SF. Meet for coffee?"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_vnchr","story_4823634","ask_hn"],"author":"vnchr","children":[4840035],"created_at":"2012-11-23T20:52:15Z","created_at_i":1353703935,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"4823634","points":4,"story_id":4823634,"story_text":"We'll will be bumming around the Bay Area all of next week. We're from St. Louis and looking to co-locate in San Francisco.
The CEO Andrew has an interesting story as a 19 year old founder and hardware inventor. Network World did a nice write-up on his back-story though the FB rumor was false and we've since dispelled it:\nhttp://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/110612-evtron-263983.html
Anyone with interest in high-capacity, high-efficiency data storage at a lower cost, feel free to email me at ivicars [at] evtron.com. I'd love to take you out for coffee or drinks so we can talk shop. Otherwise, we'll be taking in the sites or working our butts off at Startup Embassy.
Thank you to everyone in this community. As a non-Valley startup-type, I still feel connected to the Bay Area because of HN.","title":"Ask HN: Midwest hardware startup (data storage) visiting SF. Meet for coffee?","updated_at":"2024-09-19T19:04:07Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"tonyww"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Hi HN, I\u2019m the solo founder behind SentienceAPI. I\u2019ve spent the last December building a browser automation runtime designed specifically for LLM agents.
The Problem: Building reliable web agents is painful. You essentially have two bad choices:
Raw DOM: Dumping document.body.innerHTML is cheap/fast but overwhelms the context window (100k+ tokens) and lacks spatial context (agents try to click hidden or off-screen elements).
Vision Models (GPT-4o): Sending screenshots is robust but slow (3-10s latency) and expensive (~$0.01/step). Worse, they often hallucinate coordinates, missing buttons by 10 pixels.\nThe Solution: Semantic Geometry Sentience is a "Visual Cortex" for agents. It sits between the browser and your LLM, turning noisy websites into clean, ranked, coordinate-aware JSON.
How it works (The Stack):
Client (WASM): A Chrome Extension injects a Rust/WASM module that prunes 95% of the DOM (scripts, tracking pixels, invisible wrappers) directly in the browser process. It handles Shadow DOM, nested iframes ("Frame Stitching"), and computed styles (visibility/z-index) in <50ms.
Gateway (Rust/Axum): The pruned tree is sent to a Rust gateway that applies heuristic importance scoring with simple visual cues (e.g. is_primary)
Brain (ONNX): A server-side ML layer (running ms-marco-MiniLM via ort) semantically re-ranks the elements based on the user\u2019s goal (e.g., "Search for shoes").
Result: Your agent gets a list of the Top 50 most relevant interactable elements with exact (x,y) coordinates with importance value and visual cues, helping LLM agent make decision.
Performance:
Cost: ~$0.001 per step (vs. $0.01+ for Vision)
Latency: ~400ms (vs. 5s+ for Vision)
Payload: ~1400 tokens (vs. 100k for Raw HTML)
Developer Experience (The "Cool" Stuff): I hated debugging text logs, so I built Sentience Studio, a "Time-Travel \nDebugger." It records every step (DOM snapshot + Screenshot) into a .jsonl trace. You can scrub through the timeline like a video editor to see exactly what the agent saw vs. what it hallucinated.
Links:
Docs & SDK: https://www.sentienceapi.com/docs
GitHub (SDK):\nSDK Python: https://github.com/SentienceAPI/sentience-python
SDK TypeScript: https://github.com/SentienceAPI/sentience-ts
Studio Demo: https://www.sentienceapi.com/docs/studio
Build Web Agent: https://www.sentienceapi.com/docs/sdk/agent-quick-start
Screenshots with importance labels (gold stars):\nhttps://sentience-screenshots.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.co... 2026-01-06 at 7.19.41 AM.png
https://sentience-screenshots.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.co... 2026-01-06 at 7.19.41 AM.png
I\u2019m handling the backend in Rust and the SDKs in Python/TypeScript. The project is now in beta launch, I would love feedbacks on the architecture or the ranking logic!"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: Sentience \u2013 Semantic Visual Grounding for AI Agents (WASM and ONNX)"}},"_tags":["story","author_tonyww","story_46513952","show_hn"],"author":"tonyww","children":[46515202],"created_at":"2026-01-06T15:57:43Z","created_at_i":1767715063,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"46513952","points":2,"story_id":46513952,"story_text":"Hi HN, I\u2019m the solo founder behind SentienceAPI. I\u2019ve spent the last December building a browser automation runtime designed specifically for LLM agents.
The Problem: Building reliable web agents is painful. You essentially have two bad choices:
Raw DOM: Dumping document.body.innerHTML is cheap/fast but overwhelms the context window (100k+ tokens) and lacks spatial context (agents try to click hidden or off-screen elements).
Vision Models (GPT-4o): Sending screenshots is robust but slow (3-10s latency) and expensive (~$0.01/step). Worse, they often hallucinate coordinates, missing buttons by 10 pixels.\nThe Solution: Semantic Geometry Sentience is a "Visual Cortex" for agents. It sits between the browser and your LLM, turning noisy websites into clean, ranked, coordinate-aware JSON.
How it works (The Stack):
Client (WASM): A Chrome Extension injects a Rust/WASM module that prunes 95% of the DOM (scripts, tracking pixels, invisible wrappers) directly in the browser process. It handles Shadow DOM, nested iframes ("Frame Stitching"), and computed styles (visibility/z-index) in <50ms.
Gateway (Rust/Axum): The pruned tree is sent to a Rust gateway that applies heuristic importance scoring with simple visual cues (e.g. is_primary)
Brain (ONNX): A server-side ML layer (running ms-marco-MiniLM via ort) semantically re-ranks the elements based on the user\u2019s goal (e.g., "Search for shoes").
Result: Your agent gets a list of the Top 50 most relevant interactable elements with exact (x,y) coordinates with importance value and visual cues, helping LLM agent make decision.
Performance:
Cost: ~$0.001 per step (vs. $0.01+ for Vision)
Latency: ~400ms (vs. 5s+ for Vision)
Payload: ~1400 tokens (vs. 100k for Raw HTML)
Developer Experience (The "Cool" Stuff): I hated debugging text logs, so I built Sentience Studio, a "Time-Travel \nDebugger." It records every step (DOM snapshot + Screenshot) into a .jsonl trace. You can scrub through the timeline like a video editor to see exactly what the agent saw vs. what it hallucinated.
Links:
Docs & SDK: https://www.sentienceapi.com/docs
GitHub (SDK):\nSDK Python: https://github.com/SentienceAPI/sentience-python
SDK TypeScript: https://github.com/SentienceAPI/sentience-ts
Studio Demo: https://www.sentienceapi.com/docs/studio
Build Web Agent: https://www.sentienceapi.com/docs/sdk/agent-quick-start
Screenshots with importance labels (gold stars):\nhttps://sentience-screenshots.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.co... 2026-01-06 at 7.19.41 AM.png
https://sentience-screenshots.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.co... 2026-01-06 at 7.19.41 AM.png
I\u2019m handling the backend in Rust and the SDKs in Python/TypeScript. The project is now in beta launch, I would love feedbacks on the architecture or the ranking logic!","title":"Show HN: Sentience \u2013 Semantic Visual Grounding for AI Agents (WASM and ONNX)","updated_at":"2026-03-05T23:17:21Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"saigal"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Hi HN!
Anuj here. My co-founder Amir (Aazo11) and I are building HiGeorge (https://hi-george.com/). We make localized drag-and-drop data visualizations so that all publishers, even the small ones, can better leverage data in their storytelling. Think Tableau with all the necessary data attached.
At the onset of the pandemic Amir and I were looking for local data on the spread of the virus. We visited the sites of large national newsrooms like the NYTimes and were impressed by the quality of data visualizations and maps, but they lacked the geographic granularity for our own neighborhood.
We then turned to our local newsrooms but found they presented data in tables and lists that made it difficult to comprehend the virus\u2019 spread and trends. We wondered why. After talking to local journalists and publishers, we found that newsrooms simply do not have the resources to make sense of large datasets.
Public datasets are hard to clean, poorly structured, and constantly updated. One publisher explained to us that she would refresh her state health department\u2019s website 5 times a day waiting for updated COVID data, then manually download a CSV and clean it in Excel. This process could take hours, and it needed to happen every day.
This is where HiGeorge comes in. We clean and aggregate public datasets and turn them into auto-updating data visualizations that anyone can instantly use with a simple copy/paste. Our data visualizations can be drag-and-dropped into articles, allowing news publishers to offer compelling data content to their communities.
Check out a few versions of what we\u2019re doing with customers -- COVID-19 data reporting at North Carolina Health News [1], COVID-19 vaccine site mapping at SFGATE [2], real-time crime reporting in Dallas, TX [3], and police use of force at Mission Local [4].
Today, HiGeorge works with dozens of newsrooms across the country. Our visualizations have driven a 2x increase in pageviews and a 75% increase in session duration for our partner publishers. We charge a monthly subscription for access to our data visualization library \u2013 a fraction of the cost of an in-house data engineer. In the long run, we are building HiGeorge so that it becomes the single place to collaborate on and publish data content.
We\u2019d love to hear from the HN community and we\u2019ll be hanging out in the comments if you have any questions or feedback.
[1]https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2021/02/09/coronavir... \n[2] https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/vaccine-sites-San-Fra... \n[3] https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.com/2021/02/data-crime-tre... \n[4] https://missionlocal.org/crime-data/"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: HiGeorge (YC W21) \u2013 Real-time data visualizations for public datasets"}},"_tags":["story","author_saigal","story_26194440","launch_hn"],"author":"saigal","children":[26194664,26194998,26195058,26195084,26195092,26195190,26196214,26196677,26197047,26197262,26197417,26198787,26198919,26199381,26200855,26204590],"created_at":"2021-02-19T15:57:06Z","created_at_i":1613750226,"num_comments":44,"objectID":"26194440","points":89,"story_id":26194440,"story_text":"Hi HN!
Anuj here. My co-founder Amir (Aazo11) and I are building HiGeorge (https://hi-george.com/). We make localized drag-and-drop data visualizations so that all publishers, even the small ones, can better leverage data in their storytelling. Think Tableau with all the necessary data attached.
At the onset of the pandemic Amir and I were looking for local data on the spread of the virus. We visited the sites of large national newsrooms like the NYTimes and were impressed by the quality of data visualizations and maps, but they lacked the geographic granularity for our own neighborhood.
We then turned to our local newsrooms but found they presented data in tables and lists that made it difficult to comprehend the virus\u2019 spread and trends. We wondered why. After talking to local journalists and publishers, we found that newsrooms simply do not have the resources to make sense of large datasets.
Public datasets are hard to clean, poorly structured, and constantly updated. One publisher explained to us that she would refresh her state health department\u2019s website 5 times a day waiting for updated COVID data, then manually download a CSV and clean it in Excel. This process could take hours, and it needed to happen every day.
This is where HiGeorge comes in. We clean and aggregate public datasets and turn them into auto-updating data visualizations that anyone can instantly use with a simple copy/paste. Our data visualizations can be drag-and-dropped into articles, allowing news publishers to offer compelling data content to their communities.
Check out a few versions of what we\u2019re doing with customers -- COVID-19 data reporting at North Carolina Health News [1], COVID-19 vaccine site mapping at SFGATE [2], real-time crime reporting in Dallas, TX [3], and police use of force at Mission Local [4].
Today, HiGeorge works with dozens of newsrooms across the country. Our visualizations have driven a 2x increase in pageviews and a 75% increase in session duration for our partner publishers. We charge a monthly subscription for access to our data visualization library \u2013 a fraction of the cost of an in-house data engineer. In the long run, we are building HiGeorge so that it becomes the single place to collaborate on and publish data content.
We\u2019d love to hear from the HN community and we\u2019ll be hanging out in the comments if you have any questions or feedback.
[1]https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2021/02/09/coronavir... \n[2] https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/vaccine-sites-San-Fra... \n[3] https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.com/2021/02/data-crime-tre... \n[4] https://missionlocal.org/crime-data/","title":"Launch HN: HiGeorge (YC W21) \u2013 Real-time data visualizations for public datasets","updated_at":"2024-09-20T08:03:29Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"samrohn"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["at","founder"],"value":"Oyo valued at $10B after founder purchases $2B in shares"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/19/indias-oyo-valued-at-10b-after-founder-purchases-2b-in-shares/"}},"_tags":["story","author_samrohn","story_20484217"],"author":"samrohn","children":[20484239],"created_at":"2019-07-20T04:45:59Z","created_at_i":1563597959,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"20484217","points":2,"story_id":20484217,"title":"Oyo valued at $10B after founder purchases $2B in shares","updated_at":"2024-09-20T04:40:09Z","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/19/indias-oyo-valued-at-10b-after-founder-purchases-2b-in-shares/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"ehsang"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["at","founder"],"value":"From doctor to tech founder at a $10M Sequoia-funded startup"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"http://pandodaily.com/2013/08/19/from-doctor-to-tech-founder-at-a-10m-sequoia-funded-startup/"}},"_tags":["story","author_ehsang","story_6240535"],"author":"ehsang","created_at":"2013-08-19T23:13:26Z","created_at_i":1376954006,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"6240535","points":1,"story_id":6240535,"story_text":"","title":"From doctor to tech founder at a $10M Sequoia-funded startup","updated_at":"2024-09-19T19:51:25Z","url":"http://pandodaily.com/2013/08/19/from-doctor-to-tech-founder-at-a-10m-sequoia-funded-startup/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jsanroman"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"A recent post by HBR addressed the biased towards young founders in the SV but according to their "quick and dirty" research: \n22% of billion USD SV founders were 20-24 at age of founding. \n19% 25-29; \n22% 30-34, \n35% older than 35\n2% younger than 20"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["founder"],"value":"Is Y Combinator biased towards young founders?"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_jsanroman","story_7527428","ask_hn"],"author":"jsanroman","children":[7530494],"created_at":"2014-04-03T22:25:20Z","created_at_i":1396563920,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"7527428","points":7,"story_id":7527428,"story_text":"A recent post by HBR addressed the biased towards young founders in the SV but according to their "quick and dirty" research: \n22% of billion USD SV founders were 20-24 at age of founding. \n19% 25-29; \n22% 30-34, \n35% older than 35\n2% younger than 20","title":"Is Y Combinator biased towards young founders?","updated_at":"2023-09-06T22:35:46Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"vitalipom"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Thank you HN and particularly YCombinator, admins and its founders. I found YCombinator at the age of 18-19 when I was going through my own way, I started my Bachelors university studies 4 years before I graduated from school, Computer Science has been my curiosity field ever since and YCombinator has had always fresh news, interesting content and startups (I found about it at the time through Daniel Gross who's at my age). I gave up on people on other forums such SOF, FB, LinkedIn and reddit, I've come across your forums for the first time just now and they are such sane, it's so pleasant to read your content. I'd not known about any place to be able to talk to any place with other people like me besides traveling to US to YCombinator startup combinator, and I like my job and now when I found this forum it feel such a warm place (I found it while looking for information about dbus) and it feels like I finally can talk to people who are just like me and write posts and post comments like THIS without being threatened. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! Mr. Graham, founders, admins you rock!!!! <3 ^_^ :)"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Thank You HN"}},"_tags":["story","author_vitalipom","story_30776808","ask_hn"],"author":"vitalipom","children":[30777018,30777356,30777385,30777425,30777444,30777588,30777716,30777972,30778017,30778110,30778259,30778334,30778402,30778432,30778505,30778548,30778655,30778871,30779069,30779194,30779205,30781248,30782717,30795364],"created_at":"2022-03-23T09:59:43Z","created_at_i":1648029583,"num_comments":101,"objectID":"30776808","points":377,"story_id":30776808,"story_text":"Thank you HN and particularly YCombinator, admins and its founders. I found YCombinator at the age of 18-19 when I was going through my own way, I started my Bachelors university studies 4 years before I graduated from school, Computer Science has been my curiosity field ever since and YCombinator has had always fresh news, interesting content and startups (I found about it at the time through Daniel Gross who's at my age). I gave up on people on other forums such SOF, FB, LinkedIn and reddit, I've come across your forums for the first time just now and they are such sane, it's so pleasant to read your content. I'd not known about any place to be able to talk to any place with other people like me besides traveling to US to YCombinator startup combinator, and I like my job and now when I found this forum it feel such a warm place (I found it while looking for information about dbus) and it feels like I finally can talk to people who are just like me and write posts and post comments like THIS without being threatened. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! Mr. Graham, founders, admins you rock!!!! <3 ^_^ :)","title":"Thank You HN","updated_at":"2024-10-18T18:11:45Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"NilsVollmer"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Hi HN, we are Nils, Isabel, and Chris - the founders of Alpas (https://alpas.ai/). We make it fast and easy for medium to large size manufacturers to find suppliers for industrial parts.
Why does this matter? Buyers at manufacturing companies face high pressure to cut costs. Supplier sourcing is still very manual and takes up to 45% of a buyer's time. Due to the lack of research time, buyers rarely close deals at optimal conditions. Recently, Covid-19 and material shortages have further accelerated the need for more transparent supply chains.
Isabel came across this problem during her work as an investment analyst. She realized that optimizing procurement \u2013 the buying of goods and services \u2013 is one of the most important ways for industrial firms to save costs: more than 50% of revenue is spent on COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) [1] and sourcing is reported to be the biggest value-driver in procurement [2]. As an investment analyst she was used to a much higher level of data transparency that is available from tools such as Bloomberg or CapitalIQ. Inspired by this, we set out to build a similar experience for buyers at manufacturers.
After talking to lots of buyers, we found out just how manual current sourcing processes still are: managing existing suppliers in spreadsheets, web research to find new suppliers, calling and visiting suppliers on the ground. Most buyers simply don\u2019t have the time to do a thorough supplier discovery, let alone gather all key information about them to make informed decisions.
Solving this problem requires gathering and analyzing supplier and supply chain data from many sources. Building such a tool represents a massive data challenge: gathering, structuring, and indexing 10B+ parameters of 10M+ suppliers worldwide from 500+ data sources. Our two biggest technical challenges are a) providing a standardized mapping of the supplier\u2019s product portfolios and b) continuously tapping into new data sources which need to be incorporated into our existing pipelines. We use NLP models to extract specific keywords in order to create a list of potential supplier candidates. We match the suppliers to various sources using NER, which allows us to filter down candidates based on specific parameters. The result is a final supplier list with detailed information on company facts, products, financials, and much more.
Based on this data, we run sourcing projects with our customers, which means finding suppliers for a specific product and region. Since our launch in January, we have been able to win several Fortune 500 companies, including BASF and ABB, as customers. Using our software, our customers have been able to reduce time and procurement spend significantly. On a recent sourcing project, we helped ABB find new suppliers for a custom lens made out of a special material and even suggested additional suppliers for a different material with similar properties. For this project, we saved ABB 40% in procurement spend and 3 weeks of manual work.
Our sales process begins with a demo exploring our tool with a subset of the customer's existing suppliers. Customers usually continue with a paid pilot - one sourcing project in a certain region. In order to access their data going forward and book more sourcing projects, customers enter into a yearly SaaS contract. Based on our current pricing, we estimate our addressable market to be at $15.8 B.
You can visit our HN-trial signup page (https://alpas.ai/hn-trial-signup) to create a 48-hours trial account for our software with a demo sourcing project. Please note that we usually do a guided onboarding process with our customers and thus have not optimized our software to be self-serve.
We will gladly answer your questions and are excited to hear your thoughts, ideas, and feedback!
[1] http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/... and https://www.readyratios.com/sec/ratio/gross-margin/
[2] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/..."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: Alpas (YC W21) \u2013 Software to find suppliers for industrial parts"}},"_tags":["story","author_NilsVollmer","story_27606860","launch_hn"],"author":"NilsVollmer","children":[27607348,27607441,27608005,27608323,27608783,27609368,27610632,27613514,27615809,27625899,27651822],"created_at":"2021-06-23T17:02:35Z","created_at_i":1624467755,"num_comments":21,"objectID":"27606860","points":52,"story_id":27606860,"story_text":"Hi HN, we are Nils, Isabel, and Chris - the founders of Alpas (https://alpas.ai/). We make it fast and easy for medium to large size manufacturers to find suppliers for industrial parts.
Why does this matter? Buyers at manufacturing companies face high pressure to cut costs. Supplier sourcing is still very manual and takes up to 45% of a buyer's time. Due to the lack of research time, buyers rarely close deals at optimal conditions. Recently, Covid-19 and material shortages have further accelerated the need for more transparent supply chains.
Isabel came across this problem during her work as an investment analyst. She realized that optimizing procurement \u2013 the buying of goods and services \u2013 is one of the most important ways for industrial firms to save costs: more than 50% of revenue is spent on COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) [1] and sourcing is reported to be the biggest value-driver in procurement [2]. As an investment analyst she was used to a much higher level of data transparency that is available from tools such as Bloomberg or CapitalIQ. Inspired by this, we set out to build a similar experience for buyers at manufacturers.
After talking to lots of buyers, we found out just how manual current sourcing processes still are: managing existing suppliers in spreadsheets, web research to find new suppliers, calling and visiting suppliers on the ground. Most buyers simply don\u2019t have the time to do a thorough supplier discovery, let alone gather all key information about them to make informed decisions.
Solving this problem requires gathering and analyzing supplier and supply chain data from many sources. Building such a tool represents a massive data challenge: gathering, structuring, and indexing 10B+ parameters of 10M+ suppliers worldwide from 500+ data sources. Our two biggest technical challenges are a) providing a standardized mapping of the supplier\u2019s product portfolios and b) continuously tapping into new data sources which need to be incorporated into our existing pipelines. We use NLP models to extract specific keywords in order to create a list of potential supplier candidates. We match the suppliers to various sources using NER, which allows us to filter down candidates based on specific parameters. The result is a final supplier list with detailed information on company facts, products, financials, and much more.
Based on this data, we run sourcing projects with our customers, which means finding suppliers for a specific product and region. Since our launch in January, we have been able to win several Fortune 500 companies, including BASF and ABB, as customers. Using our software, our customers have been able to reduce time and procurement spend significantly. On a recent sourcing project, we helped ABB find new suppliers for a custom lens made out of a special material and even suggested additional suppliers for a different material with similar properties. For this project, we saved ABB 40% in procurement spend and 3 weeks of manual work.
Our sales process begins with a demo exploring our tool with a subset of the customer's existing suppliers. Customers usually continue with a paid pilot - one sourcing project in a certain region. In order to access their data going forward and book more sourcing projects, customers enter into a yearly SaaS contract. Based on our current pricing, we estimate our addressable market to be at $15.8 B.
You can visit our HN-trial signup page (https://alpas.ai/hn-trial-signup) to create a 48-hours trial account for our software with a demo sourcing project. Please note that we usually do a guided onboarding process with our customers and thus have not optimized our software to be self-serve.
We will gladly answer your questions and are excited to hear your thoughts, ideas, and feedback!
[1] http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/... and https://www.readyratios.com/sec/ratio/gross-margin/
[2] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/...","title":"Launch HN: Alpas (YC W21) \u2013 Software to find suppliers for industrial parts","updated_at":"2024-09-20T08:49:47Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"nubela"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Hello,
I hope I am not violating any rules posting this. But I chose HN because I think I would find great startups that I would love to work with.
A little about meI am a founder of a tech startup (ctrleff.com), a year 4 computer science student in the National University of Singapore, and most importantly a passionate programmer. And I am seeking (freelance/consulting) development projects so I could continue bootstrapping my startup while having some simple food on the table.
But it is best to talk a bit about my experiences. I have been programming for at least a decade, and doing freelance work since 17 (I am 24 now). In my belt, I have a repertoir of experience in various programming languages such as C, C#, Java, Javascript, Python, Scheme (Lisp), Prolog, PHP. Lets not forget basic SQL (for database queries), bash scripting, html, css, etc. I am especially well experienced with web development (Django, Flask), and just gave a talk on the \"Rapid web development the right way\" of which you can view my slides at speakerdeck.com/u/nubela/p/rapid-web-development-the-right-way . I spent a year at internship at Videoplaza (Swedish tech startup for video advertising) in Stockholm, I have consulted with OCBC (local bank) and TheUpperStorey (marketing firm) on the OCBC Cycling marathon of which I helped with my experience in Django development. I am currently working on a startup on which the primary mode of development is on mobile clients (ctrleff.com).\nYou can perform some code review at github.com/nubela , you can also read about my recent solo attempt at http://e27.sg/2011/09/19/i-survived-...o-code-a-thon/ .
I'm running really low in cash now, and if theres any startups/companies out there that needs a developer who seeks pleasure in getting his job done, and am extremely passionate about technology (linux advocate, pythonista, git-meiser) please do email me at nubela@ctrleff.com , thanks!"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["founder"],"value":"Bootstrapping startup (tech) founder needs a consulting job for food."},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_nubela","story_3179364","ask_hn"],"author":"nubela","created_at":"2011-10-31T22:12:03Z","created_at_i":1320099123,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"3179364","points":1,"story_id":3179364,"story_text":"Hello,
I hope I am not violating any rules posting this. But I chose HN because I think I would find great startups that I would love to work with.
A little about meI am a founder of a tech startup (ctrleff.com), a year 4 computer science student in the National University of Singapore, and most importantly a passionate programmer. And I am seeking (freelance/consulting) development projects so I could continue bootstrapping my startup while having some simple food on the table.
But it is best to talk a bit about my experiences. I have been programming for at least a decade, and doing freelance work since 17 (I am 24 now). In my belt, I have a repertoir of experience in various programming languages such as C, C#, Java, Javascript, Python, Scheme (Lisp), Prolog, PHP. Lets not forget basic SQL (for database queries), bash scripting, html, css, etc. I am especially well experienced with web development (Django, Flask), and just gave a talk on the \"Rapid web development the right way\" of which you can view my slides at speakerdeck.com/u/nubela/p/rapid-web-development-the-right-way . I spent a year at internship at Videoplaza (Swedish tech startup for video advertising) in Stockholm, I have consulted with OCBC (local bank) and TheUpperStorey (marketing firm) on the OCBC Cycling marathon of which I helped with my experience in Django development. I am currently working on a startup on which the primary mode of development is on mobile clients (ctrleff.com).\nYou can perform some code review at github.com/nubela , you can also read about my recent solo attempt at http://e27.sg/2011/09/19/i-survived-...o-code-a-thon/ .
I'm running really low in cash now, and if theres any startups/companies out there that needs a developer who seeks pleasure in getting his job done, and am extremely passionate about technology (linux advocate, pythonista, git-meiser) please do email me at nubela@ctrleff.com , thanks!","title":"Bootstrapping startup (tech) founder needs a consulting job for food.","updated_at":"2023-09-06T20:34:48Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Darmani"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Hi HN! We\u2019re Jimmy and Ray. Jimmy is a Thiel Fellow with a Ph. D. from MIT who has worked on programming tools for 15 years; Ray became VP of Sales at a $2B company when he was 19 and has built side-businesses vibe-coding.
Last year, we set to answer the question \u201cIf AI can write code 100x faster, then why aren\u2019t you shipping 100x faster?\u201d What we learned shocked us \u2014 even fairly nontechnical people and solo founders told us they were spending more than half of their development time reading the AI-written code. And much of the rest of the time was spent either de-slop-ping it, or wishing they had done so.
As luck turns out, our last two products were a tool that quickly onboards people to large codebases ( https://x.com/0xjimmyk/status/1873357324229984677 ) and trainings that taught deep concepts of code quality to CEOs, YC founders, and engineers at top companies ( mirdin.com ), so we were extremely well-positioned to solve these problems.
Command Center is an agentic coding environment focused on quality. With a few keypresses, you can start building 3 features at once and soon have 3 diffs ready, each consisting of 2000 changed lines across 50 files\u2026.
This is normally the point where you think \u201cCrap, what now?\u201d
With Command Center, at this point you simply click \u201cRefactor,\u201d and watch the vibed slop turn into readable robustness. Then you click \u201cGenerate Walkthrough,\u201d and then suddenly, to read a 2000 line diff, instead of scrolling up and down trying to make sense of it, you just press the right arrow key 200 times. See something you don\u2019t like? Click on line 37, type \u201cDo this and all other network fetches in the background Cmd+Enter,\u201d and you have a few more agents getting your code into final shape. Click or type \u201cCommit,\u201d \u201cPush,\u201d \u201cCreate PR\u201d \u2014 you just shipped a high quality, non-slop feature
We\u2019re striving to be the best at every step of the pipeline, but can just try Command Center in pieces wherever you feel your current workflow is weakest. We have users who do all their coding in Zed or the Codex app, and then jump over to Command Center for a walkthrough when it finishes running. There\u2019s even a skill that will pop open a Command Center walkthrough from the environment of your choice. Or you can just keep Command Center running while you do your work elsewhere, and if your AI deletes anything, you have Command Center\u2019s snapshots to the rescue.
We launched quietly last year and have been refining since. The quality and usability have kept going up, and Command Center is now ready for a lot more attention.
Since our quiet launch, we\u2019ve seen at least a dozen other agentic coding environments appear\u2026.approximately all of which have the same feature set focused on the part which is already easy (generating the first version of the code) and with at best a shoddy answer to the hard part (everything that comes after). Command Center\u2019s focus is making the hard parts easy.
Here\u2019s what our users have to say:
\u201c[The refactorings] give your LLM taste. I\u2019ve never seen an LLM write code this good before.\u201d \u2014 Doug Slater, Staff Engineer, Climavision
\u201cWith Command Center walkthroughs, I can get through a 400-line diff in less than half the time.\u201d \u2014 Prateek Kumar, Platfor Engineer, Sumo Logic
This product is not for everyone. If you\u2019re someone who preaches \u201cthe prompt is the source, the code is the compiler output,\u201d then you probably won\u2019t enjoy Command Center.
But if you want to uphold traditional engineering discipline while also shipping 20 PRs a day, then this is the environment for you."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: Command Center, the AI coding env for people who care about quality"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.cc.dev/"}},"_tags":["story","author_Darmani","story_48453002","show_hn"],"author":"Darmani","children":[48453545,48454200,48454317,48454758,48455047,48455445,48455547,48457135,48457269,48457445,48457478,48457587,48457622,48458575,48459467,48459633,48461641,48462318,48464057,48470428,48485180],"created_at":"2026-06-08T22:10:18Z","created_at_i":1780956618,"num_comments":32,"objectID":"48453002","points":69,"story_id":48453002,"story_text":"Hi HN! We\u2019re Jimmy and Ray. Jimmy is a Thiel Fellow with a Ph. D. from MIT who has worked on programming tools for 15 years; Ray became VP of Sales at a $2B company when he was 19 and has built side-businesses vibe-coding.
Last year, we set to answer the question \u201cIf AI can write code 100x faster, then why aren\u2019t you shipping 100x faster?\u201d What we learned shocked us \u2014 even fairly nontechnical people and solo founders told us they were spending more than half of their development time reading the AI-written code. And much of the rest of the time was spent either de-slop-ping it, or wishing they had done so.
As luck turns out, our last two products were a tool that quickly onboards people to large codebases ( https://x.com/0xjimmyk/status/1873357324229984677 ) and trainings that taught deep concepts of code quality to CEOs, YC founders, and engineers at top companies ( mirdin.com ), so we were extremely well-positioned to solve these problems.
Command Center is an agentic coding environment focused on quality. With a few keypresses, you can start building 3 features at once and soon have 3 diffs ready, each consisting of 2000 changed lines across 50 files\u2026.
This is normally the point where you think \u201cCrap, what now?\u201d
With Command Center, at this point you simply click \u201cRefactor,\u201d and watch the vibed slop turn into readable robustness. Then you click \u201cGenerate Walkthrough,\u201d and then suddenly, to read a 2000 line diff, instead of scrolling up and down trying to make sense of it, you just press the right arrow key 200 times. See something you don\u2019t like? Click on line 37, type \u201cDo this and all other network fetches in the background Cmd+Enter,\u201d and you have a few more agents getting your code into final shape. Click or type \u201cCommit,\u201d \u201cPush,\u201d \u201cCreate PR\u201d \u2014 you just shipped a high quality, non-slop feature
We\u2019re striving to be the best at every step of the pipeline, but can just try Command Center in pieces wherever you feel your current workflow is weakest. We have users who do all their coding in Zed or the Codex app, and then jump over to Command Center for a walkthrough when it finishes running. There\u2019s even a skill that will pop open a Command Center walkthrough from the environment of your choice. Or you can just keep Command Center running while you do your work elsewhere, and if your AI deletes anything, you have Command Center\u2019s snapshots to the rescue.
We launched quietly last year and have been refining since. The quality and usability have kept going up, and Command Center is now ready for a lot more attention.
Since our quiet launch, we\u2019ve seen at least a dozen other agentic coding environments appear\u2026.approximately all of which have the same feature set focused on the part which is already easy (generating the first version of the code) and with at best a shoddy answer to the hard part (everything that comes after). Command Center\u2019s focus is making the hard parts easy.
Here\u2019s what our users have to say:
\u201c[The refactorings] give your LLM taste. I\u2019ve never seen an LLM write code this good before.\u201d \u2014 Doug Slater, Staff Engineer, Climavision
\u201cWith Command Center walkthroughs, I can get through a 400-line diff in less than half the time.\u201d \u2014 Prateek Kumar, Platfor Engineer, Sumo Logic
This product is not for everyone. If you\u2019re someone who preaches \u201cthe prompt is the source, the code is the compiler output,\u201d then you probably won\u2019t enjoy Command Center.
But if you want to uphold traditional engineering discipline while also shipping 20 PRs a day, then this is the environment for you.","title":"Show HN: Command Center, the AI coding env for people who care about quality","updated_at":"2026-07-07T00:59:35Z","url":"https://www.cc.dev/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Bhagaban"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"I\u2019ve been building something a bit unusual.
I\u2019ve always liked the idea of talking to strangers in places like caf\u00e9s, bars, airports - just to hear their stories. But in reality, people are busy, guarded, or just not in the mood.
So I started wondering:\nwhat if you could walk into a place and talk to an AI character instead?
I built a map-based experience where you can open a city, step into real caf\u00e9s and bars, and meet AI characters there to talk to. It\u2019s somewhere between Foursquare and Character AI.
Some example characters
- A staff engineer rewriting the same system for the third time,\nlate-night caf\u00e9 in San Francisco
- A founder who just shut down their startup after 4 years,\nalone at a bar in New York
- A 19-year-old open-source dev,\ncoding in a dim caf\u00e9 in Berlin
- A crypto trader who made and lost a fortune twice,\nat a bar in Dubai
- A strip club dancer saving up to leave,\nbetween shifts in Las Vegas
Some of the conversations are surprisingly engaging.
Current state: 5 cities, 100+ characters
I\u2019m mainly testing:
does this feel interesting enough to explore?
Would love to know what you felt when you tried it."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: I made a map where you can meet AI characters in caf\u00e9s and bars"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://hushmap.xyz"}},"_tags":["story","author_Bhagaban","story_47503236","show_hn"],"author":"Bhagaban","children":[47504088],"created_at":"2026-03-24T14:35:01Z","created_at_i":1774362901,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"47503236","points":2,"story_id":47503236,"story_text":"I\u2019ve been building something a bit unusual.
I\u2019ve always liked the idea of talking to strangers in places like caf\u00e9s, bars, airports - just to hear their stories. But in reality, people are busy, guarded, or just not in the mood.
So I started wondering:\nwhat if you could walk into a place and talk to an AI character instead?
I built a map-based experience where you can open a city, step into real caf\u00e9s and bars, and meet AI characters there to talk to. It\u2019s somewhere between Foursquare and Character AI.
Some example characters
- A staff engineer rewriting the same system for the third time,\nlate-night caf\u00e9 in San Francisco
- A founder who just shut down their startup after 4 years,\nalone at a bar in New York
- A 19-year-old open-source dev,\ncoding in a dim caf\u00e9 in Berlin
- A crypto trader who made and lost a fortune twice,\nat a bar in Dubai
- A strip club dancer saving up to leave,\nbetween shifts in Las Vegas
Some of the conversations are surprisingly engaging.
Current state: 5 cities, 100+ characters
I\u2019m mainly testing:
does this feel interesting enough to explore?
Would love to know what you felt when you tried it.","title":"Show HN: I made a map where you can meet AI characters in caf\u00e9s and bars","updated_at":"2026-03-24T15:28:41Z","url":"https://hushmap.xyz"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Yzupnick"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["at","founder"],"value":"Hi,I'm a nineteen year old student who lives in NY and about six months ago my parents, who own an eye care practice, needed a program to help analyze the efficiency of their employees and the different Nursing Homes that they visit. I've never done any programming before and so armed with Google I tackled the program. I ended up with an Access Database written in VBA, that barely functioned, and how I could not have completely said.
I loved the process. The problem solving, the designing of the interface, the whole thing was just extremely fun. After that I started learning vb.net and rewrote the whole program. It still needs a lot of work and I am now learning c# and planning on rewriting it again. This whole thing has inspired me to become a developer. Technology and business was something I always enjoyed, I've been reading Gizmodo and TechCrunch for a while now, but now I see the creative process and analytical skills that software developers use, and I really want to do this as a career.
I have been reading Hacker News and talking to people who work in the field as to what it is that I should be doing now, and the general consensus is to just go out and do something. While this is something I would love to do, (I have a ton of ideas I would like to work on) and on some level I feel like I need to do it, (i need to make some money, nothing major more like 1000 a month, and I want to keep motivated to keep learning) I run into two main problems:
1) I do not have knowledge required to execute my ideas. \nI have been programming for only about 6 months, (at most, depending on what you consider programming.), and the languages that I know are limited to vb.net and c#. These are not exactly high level languages themselves, and my knowledge of them is mediocre at best. I don't have the knowledge to execute any of the ideas I have.
2) I do not have any friends who share this particular interest. I don't know any code gurus or anyone I can rely on for advice or as a co founder, and I have no way of meeting anyone who would fit into that category. And if I did meet someone, I don't know enough to be able to tell if they where actually good or just better than me.
I have the opportunity to switch to Columbia University's engineering program on a 3 - 2 program with my college. Which means I do 3 years at my college, and will major in math and get a degree in mathematics, and then do two years in Columbia and get a CS degree from there. I feel like this would solve both my problems, but it will take 4 more years of school, and I will have to pay Columbia tuition.
I really want to start something but I feel like I can't. I've seen other people ask this before on Hacker news and most of the responses are \"Just do it anyways.\" but that is really not helpfu in any way.
I was wondering if you can please give me advice on what to do. \nThank you very much"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["19"],"value":"I'm 19 and I need advice"}},"_tags":["story","author_Yzupnick","story_1434509","ask_hn"],"author":"Yzupnick","children":[1434555,1434558,1434582,1434603,1434610,1434611,1434638,1434653,1434729,1434733,1434767,1434793,1434797,1434820,1434834,1434841,1434858,1434875,1434911,1434940,1435119,1435855,1454352],"created_at":"2010-06-16T02:35:26Z","created_at_i":1276655726,"num_comments":28,"objectID":"1434509","points":52,"story_id":1434509,"story_text":"Hi,I'm a nineteen year old student who lives in NY and about six months ago my parents, who own an eye care practice, needed a program to help analyze the efficiency of their employees and the different Nursing Homes that they visit. I've never done any programming before and so armed with Google I tackled the program. I ended up with an Access Database written in VBA, that barely functioned, and how I could not have completely said.
I loved the process. The problem solving, the designing of the interface, the whole thing was just extremely fun. After that I started learning vb.net and rewrote the whole program. It still needs a lot of work and I am now learning c# and planning on rewriting it again. This whole thing has inspired me to become a developer. Technology and business was something I always enjoyed, I've been reading Gizmodo and TechCrunch for a while now, but now I see the creative process and analytical skills that software developers use, and I really want to do this as a career.
I have been reading Hacker News and talking to people who work in the field as to what it is that I should be doing now, and the general consensus is to just go out and do something. While this is something I would love to do, (I have a ton of ideas I would like to work on) and on some level I feel like I need to do it, (i need to make some money, nothing major more like 1000 a month, and I want to keep motivated to keep learning) I run into two main problems:
1) I do not have knowledge required to execute my ideas. \nI have been programming for only about 6 months, (at most, depending on what you consider programming.), and the languages that I know are limited to vb.net and c#. These are not exactly high level languages themselves, and my knowledge of them is mediocre at best. I don't have the knowledge to execute any of the ideas I have.
2) I do not have any friends who share this particular interest. I don't know any code gurus or anyone I can rely on for advice or as a co founder, and I have no way of meeting anyone who would fit into that category. And if I did meet someone, I don't know enough to be able to tell if they where actually good or just better than me.
I have the opportunity to switch to Columbia University's engineering program on a 3 - 2 program with my college. Which means I do 3 years at my college, and will major in math and get a degree in mathematics, and then do two years in Columbia and get a CS degree from there. I feel like this would solve both my problems, but it will take 4 more years of school, and I will have to pay Columbia tuition.
I really want to start something but I feel like I can't. I've seen other people ask this before on Hacker news and most of the responses are \"Just do it anyways.\" but that is really not helpfu in any way.
I was wondering if you can please give me advice on what to do. \nThank you very much","title":"I'm 19 and I need advice","updated_at":"2023-09-06T19:36:59Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"loondri"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"Inspired by PG\u2019s tweet about a chain of 4 YC startups where the founder worked at a YC startup, I vibe coded and generated these genealogy chains for all ~6k YC startups. And to make these trees easily accessible I packaged them into a hosted webapp.
Few noteworthy YC startups which have had huge impact in YC ecosystem
Airbnb - 83 YC startups spawned
Stripe - 67 YC startups spawned
Dropbox - 50 YC startups spawned
Justin.tv/Twitch - 47 YC startups spawned
More recently founded YC startups which have spawned a lot more YC startups
Rappi - 21 YC startups spawned
Brex - 20 YC startups spawned
Scale AI - 19 YC startups spawned"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["founder"],"value":"Show HN: Foundertrace \u2013 chain of YC startups founded by its employees"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["founder"],"value":"https://foundertrace.com/"}},"_tags":["story","author_loondri","story_46482685","show_hn"],"author":"loondri","children":[46482708,46482875,46520131,46520350,46520383,46520422,46529151],"created_at":"2026-01-03T23:06:55Z","created_at_i":1767481615,"num_comments":14,"objectID":"46482685","points":39,"story_id":46482685,"story_text":"Inspired by PG\u2019s tweet about a chain of 4 YC startups where the founder worked at a YC startup, I vibe coded and generated these genealogy chains for all ~6k YC startups. And to make these trees easily accessible I packaged them into a hosted webapp.
Few noteworthy YC startups which have had huge impact in YC ecosystem
Airbnb - 83 YC startups spawned
Stripe - 67 YC startups spawned
Dropbox - 50 YC startups spawned
Justin.tv/Twitch - 47 YC startups spawned
More recently founded YC startups which have spawned a lot more YC startups
Rappi - 21 YC startups spawned
Brex - 20 YC startups spawned
Scale AI - 19 YC startups spawned","title":"Show HN: Foundertrace \u2013 chain of YC startups founded by its employees","updated_at":"2026-03-05T23:18:57Z","url":"https://foundertrace.com/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"dmitri1981"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["at","19","founder"],"value":"At tomorrow's London Hacker News meetup we are doing a Q&A session with several YC founders from 07, 09 and 11 sessions. We have received many great questions already, but have room for some more. Is there anything you would love to find out about the YC experience, fund raising or building a successful startup? Please submit your questions and we'll do our best to get them all answered by our panel.
We will be recording the session and you will all get the opportunity to see it in its full glory.
Our panel will consist of:
Pete Smith founded Songkick in 2007 and as COO has scaled Songkick's operations -- premises, finance, legal, visas, HR, hiring, revenue -- from three friends with their own laptops to a team of 25 based in Hoxton and Palo Alto.
Phil Cowans was employee number 2 at Songkick and the company's original CTO, having joined in 2007 and spent some time in Boston during the Y Combinator summer programme. Now in the role of Chief Architect, he's been closely involved in with all aspects of the engineering process since then, from building the original prototypes to scaling the site and hiring and managing a large development team.
Josh Buckley is a 19 year old entrepreneur from Kent, in England. After selling his first company at age 15, he started angel investing. In January 2011, aged 18 he founded the youngest ever Ycombinator funded company, MinoMonsters. He has since raised a seed round from the most prestigious Silicon Valley investors.
Colin Beattie who founded Tuxebo at the end of 2009. As CEO Colin undertakes a 'jack-of-all' role leading product research, design and development, SEM, strategy, financing, HR and strategic partnerships. Tuxebo is a marketplace, comparison site and booking agent for renting things; essentially a cross between ebay and Kayak for renting stuff. It currently focuses on the construction segment of this enormous market but aims to be a single access and invoicing point for all your rental needs regardless of where you need to rent, what you need to rent and from whoever you want to rent it."},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["founder"],"value":"Ask HN: What would you ask YC founders?"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_dmitri1981","story_2535813","ask_hn"],"author":"dmitri1981","children":[2536222,2537680],"created_at":"2011-05-11T10:00:20Z","created_at_i":1305108020,"num_comments":3,"objectID":"2535813","points":17,"story_id":2535813,"story_text":"At tomorrow's London Hacker News meetup we are doing a Q&A session with several YC founders from 07, 09 and 11 sessions. We have received many great questions already, but have room for some more. Is there anything you would love to find out about the YC experience, fund raising or building a successful startup? Please submit your questions and we'll do our best to get them all answered by our panel.
We will be recording the session and you will all get the opportunity to see it in its full glory.
Our panel will consist of:
Pete Smith founded Songkick in 2007 and as COO has scaled Songkick's operations -- premises, finance, legal, visas, HR, hiring, revenue -- from three friends with their own laptops to a team of 25 based in Hoxton and Palo Alto.
Phil Cowans was employee number 2 at Songkick and the company's original CTO, having joined in 2007 and spent some time in Boston during the Y Combinator summer programme. Now in the role of Chief Architect, he's been closely involved in with all aspects of the engineering process since then, from building the original prototypes to scaling the site and hiring and managing a large development team.
Josh Buckley is a 19 year old entrepreneur from Kent, in England. After selling his first company at age 15, he started angel investing. In January 2011, aged 18 he founded the youngest ever Ycombinator funded company, MinoMonsters. He has since raised a seed round from the most prestigious Silicon Valley investors.
Colin Beattie who founded Tuxebo at the end of 2009. As CEO Colin undertakes a 'jack-of-all' role leading product research, design and development, SEM, strategy, financing, HR and strategic partnerships. Tuxebo is a marketplace, comparison site and booking agent for renting things; essentially a cross between ebay and Kayak for renting stuff. It currently focuses on the construction segment of this enormous market but aims to be a single access and invoicing point for all your rental needs regardless of where you need to rent, what you need to rent and from whoever you want to rent it.","title":"Ask HN: What would you ask YC founders?","updated_at":"2023-09-06T19:48:04Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jenny_"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"I have 2 more years left before I graduate with a Bachelor's degree in computer science. I started helping a start up for quite a while and now we got our first seed round. I can take a maximum of a year leave from university to work on the start up full time. But I have to come back to my university after that or the university will kick me out.
The founders want me to join as a founder as well with stakes. But on the condition that I leave my education after a year if the company is successful by then. Otherwise, I can join as an employee for as long as I want.
I'm not 100% sure if I want to leave my education. But I want to be a founder at the same time and I think that this startup has a lot of potential. What should I do?"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["19"],"value":"Ask HN: I'm 19. Should I leave my education for my startup?"}},"_tags":["story","author_jenny_","story_9754305","ask_hn"],"author":"jenny_","children":[9754329,9754363,9754382,9754442,9754530,9754532,9754542,9754543,9754546,9754554,9754559,9754564,9754572,9754578,9754583,9754596,9754598,9754600,9754627,9754630,9754631,9754636,9754638,9754643,9754646,9754648,9754679,9754682,9754683,9754684,9754692,9754694,9754734,9754753,9754782,9754799,9754800,9754857,9754965,9755083,9755179,9758974],"created_at":"2015-06-21T17:58:44Z","created_at_i":1434909524,"num_comments":60,"objectID":"9754305","points":14,"story_id":9754305,"story_text":"I have 2 more years left before I graduate with a Bachelor's degree in computer science. I started helping a start up for quite a while and now we got our first seed round. I can take a maximum of a year leave from university to work on the start up full time. But I have to come back to my university after that or the university will kick me out.
The founders want me to join as a founder as well with stakes. But on the condition that I leave my education after a year if the company is successful by then. Otherwise, I can join as an employee for as long as I want.
I'm not 100% sure if I want to leave my education. But I want to be a founder at the same time and I think that this startup has a lot of potential. What should I do?","title":"Ask HN: I'm 19. Should I leave my education for my startup?","updated_at":"2023-09-07T03:01:34Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"serverdude"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hi HNer's,\nI started working on an idea a bit late (and part time) and am debating whether I should apply to YC or not in this round (I actually filled the form partially but have not submitted it yet:)). I would probably get to a prototype level stage (which should be ok based on a question I asked earlier). But most importantly, it looks like I may not get a co founder - mainly due to lack of time (deadline is oct 19). I am a bit reluctant to find a co founder online. I would rather connect with someone already in my network (though I almost ended up typing an email to a fellow HNer who I dont know before backing out).
I am working on an idea related to financial modeling if you care.
I looked at the thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1192158 and looks like chances of getting selected even past the first stage are dramatically reduced if you are a single founder (they state as much in their FAQ). For those who were in the same boat and applied, was it worth it? Anyone else who has any perspective on it, please chime in.
Thanx!"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Should I apply to YC as a single founder?"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_serverdude","story_1762420","ask_hn"],"author":"serverdude","children":[1762530,1762907,1763438,1766586,1767328],"created_at":"2010-10-06T02:03:32Z","created_at_i":1286330612,"num_comments":15,"objectID":"1762420","points":7,"story_id":1762420,"story_text":"Hi HNer's,\nI started working on an idea a bit late (and part time) and am debating whether I should apply to YC or not in this round (I actually filled the form partially but have not submitted it yet:)). I would probably get to a prototype level stage (which should be ok based on a question I asked earlier). But most importantly, it looks like I may not get a co founder - mainly due to lack of time (deadline is oct 19). I am a bit reluctant to find a co founder online. I would rather connect with someone already in my network (though I almost ended up typing an email to a fellow HNer who I dont know before backing out).
I am working on an idea related to financial modeling if you care.
I looked at the thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1192158 and looks like chances of getting selected even past the first stage are dramatically reduced if you are a single founder (they state as much in their FAQ). For those who were in the same boat and applied, was it worth it? Anyone else who has any perspective on it, please chime in.
Thanx!","title":"Ask HN: Should I apply to YC as a single founder?","updated_at":"2024-09-19T17:15:14Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"frank_grimes_sr"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"The Loom acquisition for $975M today got me thinking... how much of that do the founders see upon exit?
Here's my guess, but would love to see what people think:
- Seed Round - Y Combinator (Mar 22, 2012).\n- Seed Round (Oct 7, 2016): Raised $600K. \n- Seed Round (May 22, 2017): Raised $3.2M.\n- Series A (Feb 19, 2019): Raised $11M.\n- Series B (Nov 26, 2019): Raised $30M.\n- Series B (May 28, 2020): Raised $28.8M at a pre-money valuation of $321.3M.\n- Series C (May 20, 2021): Raised $130M at a pre-money valuation of $1.4B.
My rough guess of the dilution is 93% -> 78% -> 66% -> 53% -> 42% -> 39% -> 35%. I tried taking into account option pools and standard dilution.
Assuming all investors had 1X liquidation rights participating, then they get the $203.6M invested back, and the founders split the 35% of the $771M which comes out to about $90M per founder (3 co-founders). After CA tax (assuming 48.5% take-home) that's ~$44M.
I found this nice blog explaining founder dilution: https://dri.es/founder-dilution#4
LMK where I went wrong in my calculation."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"How much do startup founders make in a $1B acquisition?"}},"_tags":["story","author_frank_grimes_sr","story_37864295","ask_hn"],"author":"frank_grimes_sr","children":[37865089],"created_at":"2023-10-12T23:02:18Z","created_at_i":1697151738,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"37864295","points":5,"story_id":37864295,"story_text":"The Loom acquisition for $975M today got me thinking... how much of that do the founders see upon exit?
Here's my guess, but would love to see what people think:
- Seed Round - Y Combinator (Mar 22, 2012).\n- Seed Round (Oct 7, 2016): Raised $600K. \n- Seed Round (May 22, 2017): Raised $3.2M.\n- Series A (Feb 19, 2019): Raised $11M.\n- Series B (Nov 26, 2019): Raised $30M.\n- Series B (May 28, 2020): Raised $28.8M at a pre-money valuation of $321.3M.\n- Series C (May 20, 2021): Raised $130M at a pre-money valuation of $1.4B.
My rough guess of the dilution is 93% -> 78% -> 66% -> 53% -> 42% -> 39% -> 35%. I tried taking into account option pools and standard dilution.
Assuming all investors had 1X liquidation rights participating, then they get the $203.6M invested back, and the founders split the 35% of the $771M which comes out to about $90M per founder (3 co-founders). After CA tax (assuming 48.5% take-home) that's ~$44M.
I found this nice blog explaining founder dilution: https://dri.es/founder-dilution#4
LMK where I went wrong in my calculation.","title":"How much do startup founders make in a $1B acquisition?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T15:26:25Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"hbcondo714"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Cryptocurrencies \u2018could drop to near-zero at any time,\u2019 Ethereum founder warns"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/19/ethereum-creator-vitalik-buterin-warns-about-cryptocurrency-investment.html"}},"_tags":["story","author_hbcondo714","story_16423689"],"author":"hbcondo714","created_at":"2018-02-20T20:07:19Z","created_at_i":1519157239,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"16423689","points":4,"story_id":16423689,"title":"Cryptocurrencies \u2018could drop to near-zero at any time,\u2019 Ethereum founder warns","updated_at":"2024-09-20T02:01:50Z","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/19/ethereum-creator-vitalik-buterin-warns-about-cryptocurrency-investment.html"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"bookofjoe"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Jeffrey Klein, a founder and top editor of Mother Jones, dies at 77"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2025/03/19/jeffrey-klein-dead-mother-jones/"}},"_tags":["story","author_bookofjoe","story_43450022"],"author":"bookofjoe","children":[43450027,43450092,43450125],"created_at":"2025-03-23T00:56:14Z","created_at_i":1742691374,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"43450022","points":3,"story_id":43450022,"title":"Jeffrey Klein, a founder and top editor of Mother Jones, dies at 77","updated_at":"2025-03-23T07:22:21Z","url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2025/03/19/jeffrey-klein-dead-mother-jones/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"ultra_em"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hi, I've got an office in DUMBO, NYC we're clearing out by end of next week 6/19/26.
We have 19 hardly used MacBook Monitors, BenQ MA270U 27"; will sell them for 250 each. They come with all the cables needed to run them (power and USB-c cable).
We also have 4 fully working, pristine condition, setups for Google Meet; for medium sized rooms. Including all cables, speaker dot, large sound bar, small table side monitor, and computer system bar, going for 500 each. These are typically over 2000 USD and harder to get through Google these days.
Please contact me via email @ emily [at] alanmeds [dot] com"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"NYC Founders Looking for Startup Office Hardware"}},"_tags":["story","author_ultra_em","story_48466614","ask_hn"],"author":"ultra_em","children":[48467336],"created_at":"2026-06-09T19:44:37Z","created_at_i":1781034277,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"48466614","points":3,"story_id":48466614,"story_text":"Hi, I've got an office in DUMBO, NYC we're clearing out by end of next week 6/19/26.
We have 19 hardly used MacBook Monitors, BenQ MA270U 27"; will sell them for 250 each. They come with all the cables needed to run them (power and USB-c cable).
We also have 4 fully working, pristine condition, setups for Google Meet; for medium sized rooms. Including all cables, speaker dot, large sound bar, small table side monitor, and computer system bar, going for 500 each. These are typically over 2000 USD and harder to get through Google these days.
Please contact me via email @ emily [at] alanmeds [dot] com","title":"NYC Founders Looking for Startup Office Hardware","updated_at":"2026-06-09T20:41:38Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"AiNETFactory"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Deepak Jain, Founder of AiNET Factory and a developer of large-scale AI infrastructure platforms, to Host Two Sessions at NVIDIA GTC 2026. The sessions focus on the economics and deployments of large-scale AI Factories.\nSan Jose, CA \u2014 March 12, 2026 \u2014 Deepak Jain, founder of AiNET Factory, will host two sessions at NVIDIA GTC 2026, the global AI conference organized by NVIDIA.\nAt GTC 2026, Jain will lead conversations focused on one of the most pressing challenges facing artificial intelligence today: the infrastructure required to power the next generation of AI systems and AI factories.\nGlobal demand for AI infrastructure and GPU capacity has accelerated dramatically as enterprises deploy increasingly large AI models and AI-native applications.\nAccording to NVIDIA, GTC is \u201cthe premier global AI conference, where developers, researchers, and business leaders come together to explore the next wave of AI innovation.\u201d The conference takes place March 16\u201319, 2026 in San Jose, California and will feature more than 1,000 sessions exploring accelerated computing, AI factories, models, infrastructure, and applications. \nJain\u2019s sessions will examine how capital, energy, GPU infrastructure, and long-term demand are shaping the emerging AI infrastructure ecosystem. \n\u201cThe AI Factory is quickly becoming the physical infrastructure behind the AI economy,\u201d said Deepak Jain, founder of AiNET Factory. \u201cThe next wave of AI innovation will depend not just on better models, but on the AI compute infrastructure \u2014 power, GPUs, and platforms \u2014 required to run them at scale.\u201d
AI factories combine data center infrastructure, energy systems, GPU clusters, and AI software platforms to power the rapidly expanding global AI economy.
Session 1\nAI Capacity Crisis: Why GPUs Are Waiting for Infrastructure\n Tuesday, March 17, 2026\n 1:00 PM PT\nThis session explores a growing paradox in the AI industry: while demand for GPUs continues to surge globally, AI-ready infrastructure is becoming the limiting factor for scaling AI systems.\nTopics discussed will include:\n\u2022 Power constraints in major AI markets\n\u2022 Time-to-power vs. time-to-GPU deployment timelines\n\u2022 Retrofitting existing data centers for AI workloads\n\u2022 Where the next wave of AI compute capacity will originate\nThe session is designed for:\n\u2022 AI founders\n\u2022 Infrastructure investors\n\u2022 GPU cloud companies\n\u2022 Enterprises building AI platforms
Session 2\nBuilding an AI Factory: Let\u2019s Talk Capital, Power, GPUs & Returns\n Tuesday, March 17, 2026\n 2:00 PM PT\nAI factories combine elements of data centers, energy infrastructure, and technology platforms. In this session, Jain will lead a discussion on the economics of large-scale AI infrastructure projects and how investors and partners can participate in the next generation of AI capacity.\nDiscussion topics include:\n\u2022 AI compute as infrastructure\n\u2022 Long-term demand for GPU capacity\n\u2022 Financing models for large GPU clusters\n\u2022 Comparisons between AI factories, data centers, and energy projects\nThis discussion is particularly relevant for:\n\u2022 Private equity firms\n\u2022 Venture capital investors\n\u2022 Infrastructure funds\n\u2022 AI platform companies\n\u2022 Strategic corporate investors
About AiNET Factory\nAiNET Factory focuses on developing AI infrastructure designed to support the next generation of GPU-powered AI platforms and AI-native applications. These facilities form the backbone of global AI compute infrastructure, enabling organizations to train and deploy large-scale AI models. \nDeepak Jain is the founder of AiNET Factory, a company focused on developing large-scale AI infrastructure and AI factory platforms.\nAiNET Factory develops AI factories designed to deliver power, cooling, and GPU infrastructure for large-scale AI platforms.\nwww.ainetfactory.com"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Deepak Jain to Host Two Sessions at Nvidia GTC 2026"}},"_tags":["story","author_AiNETFactory","story_47356240","ask_hn"],"author":"AiNETFactory","created_at":"2026-03-12T19:59:24Z","created_at_i":1773345564,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"47356240","points":3,"story_id":47356240,"story_text":"Deepak Jain, Founder of AiNET Factory and a developer of large-scale AI infrastructure platforms, to Host Two Sessions at NVIDIA GTC 2026. The sessions focus on the economics and deployments of large-scale AI Factories.\nSan Jose, CA \u2014 March 12, 2026 \u2014 Deepak Jain, founder of AiNET Factory, will host two sessions at NVIDIA GTC 2026, the global AI conference organized by NVIDIA.\nAt GTC 2026, Jain will lead conversations focused on one of the most pressing challenges facing artificial intelligence today: the infrastructure required to power the next generation of AI systems and AI factories.\nGlobal demand for AI infrastructure and GPU capacity has accelerated dramatically as enterprises deploy increasingly large AI models and AI-native applications.\nAccording to NVIDIA, GTC is \u201cthe premier global AI conference, where developers, researchers, and business leaders come together to explore the next wave of AI innovation.\u201d The conference takes place March 16\u201319, 2026 in San Jose, California and will feature more than 1,000 sessions exploring accelerated computing, AI factories, models, infrastructure, and applications. \nJain\u2019s sessions will examine how capital, energy, GPU infrastructure, and long-term demand are shaping the emerging AI infrastructure ecosystem. \n\u201cThe AI Factory is quickly becoming the physical infrastructure behind the AI economy,\u201d said Deepak Jain, founder of AiNET Factory. \u201cThe next wave of AI innovation will depend not just on better models, but on the AI compute infrastructure \u2014 power, GPUs, and platforms \u2014 required to run them at scale.\u201d
AI factories combine data center infrastructure, energy systems, GPU clusters, and AI software platforms to power the rapidly expanding global AI economy.
Session 1\nAI Capacity Crisis: Why GPUs Are Waiting for Infrastructure\n Tuesday, March 17, 2026\n 1:00 PM PT\nThis session explores a growing paradox in the AI industry: while demand for GPUs continues to surge globally, AI-ready infrastructure is becoming the limiting factor for scaling AI systems.\nTopics discussed will include:\n\u2022 Power constraints in major AI markets\n\u2022 Time-to-power vs. time-to-GPU deployment timelines\n\u2022 Retrofitting existing data centers for AI workloads\n\u2022 Where the next wave of AI compute capacity will originate\nThe session is designed for:\n\u2022 AI founders\n\u2022 Infrastructure investors\n\u2022 GPU cloud companies\n\u2022 Enterprises building AI platforms
Session 2\nBuilding an AI Factory: Let\u2019s Talk Capital, Power, GPUs & Returns\n Tuesday, March 17, 2026\n 2:00 PM PT\nAI factories combine elements of data centers, energy infrastructure, and technology platforms. In this session, Jain will lead a discussion on the economics of large-scale AI infrastructure projects and how investors and partners can participate in the next generation of AI capacity.\nDiscussion topics include:\n\u2022 AI compute as infrastructure\n\u2022 Long-term demand for GPU capacity\n\u2022 Financing models for large GPU clusters\n\u2022 Comparisons between AI factories, data centers, and energy projects\nThis discussion is particularly relevant for:\n\u2022 Private equity firms\n\u2022 Venture capital investors\n\u2022 Infrastructure funds\n\u2022 AI platform companies\n\u2022 Strategic corporate investors
About AiNET Factory\nAiNET Factory focuses on developing AI infrastructure designed to support the next generation of GPU-powered AI platforms and AI-native applications. These facilities form the backbone of global AI compute infrastructure, enabling organizations to train and deploy large-scale AI models. \nDeepak Jain is the founder of AiNET Factory, a company focused on developing large-scale AI infrastructure and AI factory platforms.\nAiNET Factory develops AI factories designed to deliver power, cooling, and GPU infrastructure for large-scale AI platforms.\nwww.ainetfactory.com","title":"Deepak Jain to Host Two Sessions at Nvidia GTC 2026","updated_at":"2026-03-19T06:40:33Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"ScriptWriter"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"the tech industry has experienced a significant influx of capital and growth following the COVID-19 pandemic, but this has also led to an increase in incompetence within the sector. This can be understood from a few different angles:
Digital acceleration: The COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses and individuals to adapt to remote work and digital services. This accelerated the need for digital solutions, pushing the tech industry to new heights as companies sought to meet these demands. As a result, there has been a surge in investment in the tech sector, leading to the perception of "easy money."
Low interest rates and government stimulus: Governments around the world responded to the pandemic by injecting vast amounts of stimulus into the economy and maintaining low interest rates to encourage investment. This has led to an abundance of capital flowing into the tech sector, causing valuations to soar and some investors to fear a potential bubble.
Rise of incompetence: With the rapid influx of capital and the demand for new tech solutions, there has been a surge in the number of tech startups and companies entering the market. This rapid growth has led to a perceived rise in incompetence, as inexperienced founders and teams may be entering the market without the necessary skills or knowledge to develop truly effective solutions. This can also be exacerbated by a lack of due diligence by investors who are eager to invest in the growing tech sector.
Skills gap and talent shortage: As the tech sector expands, there is a growing demand for skilled professionals. However, the rapid pace of technological change and the increased competition for top talent has created a skills gap, making it difficult for companies to find and retain qualified employees. This can contribute to the rise of incompetence within the industry, as companies struggle to maintain a high level of expertise.
Market saturation and competition: With the surge of new companies entering the tech sector, competition has become more intense. This can lead to a focus on short-term gains and a race to market, sometimes at the expense of product quality or innovation. This may also contribute to the perception of incompetence within the industry, as companies may not have the time or resources to fully develop their products or services.
In conclusion, the post-COVID tech boom has led to significant growth and investment in the sector. However, this rapid growth has also been accompanied by concerns of incompetence and a potential lack of sustainable innovation, driven by factors such as the digital acceleration, an influx of capital, talent shortages, and increased competition."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Tech industry is at peak of easy money and rise of incompetence"}},"_tags":["story","author_ScriptWriter","story_35272508","ask_hn"],"author":"ScriptWriter","children":[35272963],"created_at":"2023-03-23T10:23:07Z","created_at_i":1679566987,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"35272508","points":2,"story_id":35272508,"story_text":"the tech industry has experienced a significant influx of capital and growth following the COVID-19 pandemic, but this has also led to an increase in incompetence within the sector. This can be understood from a few different angles:
Digital acceleration: The COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses and individuals to adapt to remote work and digital services. This accelerated the need for digital solutions, pushing the tech industry to new heights as companies sought to meet these demands. As a result, there has been a surge in investment in the tech sector, leading to the perception of "easy money."
Low interest rates and government stimulus: Governments around the world responded to the pandemic by injecting vast amounts of stimulus into the economy and maintaining low interest rates to encourage investment. This has led to an abundance of capital flowing into the tech sector, causing valuations to soar and some investors to fear a potential bubble.
Rise of incompetence: With the rapid influx of capital and the demand for new tech solutions, there has been a surge in the number of tech startups and companies entering the market. This rapid growth has led to a perceived rise in incompetence, as inexperienced founders and teams may be entering the market without the necessary skills or knowledge to develop truly effective solutions. This can also be exacerbated by a lack of due diligence by investors who are eager to invest in the growing tech sector.
Skills gap and talent shortage: As the tech sector expands, there is a growing demand for skilled professionals. However, the rapid pace of technological change and the increased competition for top talent has created a skills gap, making it difficult for companies to find and retain qualified employees. This can contribute to the rise of incompetence within the industry, as companies struggle to maintain a high level of expertise.
Market saturation and competition: With the surge of new companies entering the tech sector, competition has become more intense. This can lead to a focus on short-term gains and a race to market, sometimes at the expense of product quality or innovation. This may also contribute to the perception of incompetence within the industry, as companies may not have the time or resources to fully develop their products or services.
In conclusion, the post-COVID tech boom has led to significant growth and investment in the sector. However, this rapid growth has also been accompanied by concerns of incompetence and a potential lack of sustainable innovation, driven by factors such as the digital acceleration, an influx of capital, talent shortages, and increased competition.","title":"Tech industry is at peak of easy money and rise of incompetence","updated_at":"2024-09-20T13:41:00Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"mwesigwaenock"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"A doctor has performed ultrasound scans of his lungs as his coronavirus progresses during isolation at his home in Madrid. As a self-styled \u2018ultrasound addict,\u2019 Dr. YALE Tung Chen, a father-of-two, has been tweeting (@yaletung) daily ultrasounds on the state of his lungs, checking for signs of pneumonia, which is the most threatening aspect of the disease. Mild signs have appeared but he says he is feeling better.
Imagine if everyone in the world had access to an affordable handheld ultrasonic device to see within their own bodies, in this case, their lungs, and get a preliminary diagnosis of COVID-19 shareable with doctors around the world. This could help fast track the development of a COVID-19 vaccine and raise quicker awareness about the true nature of the virus.
Sonomera (@sonomera), a BioTech startup, is developing an affordable pocket-sized ultrasonic device for sight within the body just as the camera has been for the outside world. This device coupled with our artificial intelligence algorithm can give you a health status update shareable with your family doctor. If we could see inside our own bodies and get a health status update, we could be able to catch the early stages of such pandemics even before their symptoms show.
It is for these reasons and so many more that we want to bring this device into as many hands as possible. With the Sonomera, kids/students worldwide could be better educated about internal body organs by seeing their own and verifying how healthy they are. Pregnant mothers and family members could watch their unborn(s) grow while tracking their health and later show kids clips of them and their personalities while they were still in the womb. Vet doctors could easily diagnose pet/animal diseases in homes or fields.
Together, we can help bring this device into all hands! Thank you all!
Enock, Co-founder, Sonomera"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Sonomera could help diagnose future Pandemics quicker, starting with COVID-19"}},"_tags":["story","author_mwesigwaenock","story_22602708","ask_hn"],"author":"mwesigwaenock","children":[22603575],"created_at":"2020-03-17T07:55:31Z","created_at_i":1584431731,"num_comments":1,"objectID":"22602708","points":2,"story_id":22602708,"story_text":"A doctor has performed ultrasound scans of his lungs as his coronavirus progresses during isolation at his home in Madrid. As a self-styled \u2018ultrasound addict,\u2019 Dr. YALE Tung Chen, a father-of-two, has been tweeting (@yaletung) daily ultrasounds on the state of his lungs, checking for signs of pneumonia, which is the most threatening aspect of the disease. Mild signs have appeared but he says he is feeling better.
Imagine if everyone in the world had access to an affordable handheld ultrasonic device to see within their own bodies, in this case, their lungs, and get a preliminary diagnosis of COVID-19 shareable with doctors around the world. This could help fast track the development of a COVID-19 vaccine and raise quicker awareness about the true nature of the virus.
Sonomera (@sonomera), a BioTech startup, is developing an affordable pocket-sized ultrasonic device for sight within the body just as the camera has been for the outside world. This device coupled with our artificial intelligence algorithm can give you a health status update shareable with your family doctor. If we could see inside our own bodies and get a health status update, we could be able to catch the early stages of such pandemics even before their symptoms show.
It is for these reasons and so many more that we want to bring this device into as many hands as possible. With the Sonomera, kids/students worldwide could be better educated about internal body organs by seeing their own and verifying how healthy they are. Pregnant mothers and family members could watch their unborn(s) grow while tracking their health and later show kids clips of them and their personalities while they were still in the womb. Vet doctors could easily diagnose pet/animal diseases in homes or fields.
Together, we can help bring this device into all hands! Thank you all!
Enock, Co-founder, Sonomera","title":"Sonomera could help diagnose future Pandemics quicker, starting with COVID-19","updated_at":"2024-09-20T05:47:23Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jettfu"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hi HN \u2014 I'm Jett, a solo founder operating across US/China/global markets.
I built Global Solo because I kept running into the same problem: as a solo founder with income from multiple countries, an LLC in one jurisdiction, and time spent in another \u2014 I had no idea what my actual structural risk looked like. My CPA handled US filing, but nobody was mapping the full picture across entity structure, tax residency, banking, and documentation.
So I built a diagnostic tool that does exactly that.
*What it is:*\n A structured risk assessment across 4 dimensions \u2014 Money, Entity, Tax, and\n Accountability (the META framework). You answer questions about your setup,\n and it maps where your structural exposure actually sits. Not advice, not\n recommendations \u2014 just visibility into what exists.
*What's free:*\n - 35+ guides on cross-border structure, tax residency, entity formation,\n banking, and compliance\n - A 7-question risk screening tool (instant results, no signup):\n globalsolo.global/tools/risk-check\n - Sample report so you can see what the output looks like:\n globalsolo.global/sample-report
*What's paid:*\n - Full L1 diagnostic report: $29 (vs. $1,200+ for a CPA to do the same\n mapping)\n - Deeper tiers at $149 and $349 for structural analysis and judgment layers
*Tech:*\n Next.js 16, React 19, Supabase, Stripe. The scoring is deterministic \u2014 same\n input always produces same output. LLM (Claude/GPT) is used only for\n narrative generation in the paid reports, not for risk assessment logic.
I'd love feedback on:\n 1. Does the free risk check feel useful?\n 2. Is the sample report convincing enough to pay $29?\n 3. Any cross-border founders here \u2014 does the META framework cover your blind\n spots?
Thanks for looking."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: Global Solo \u2013 Structural risk diagnostic for cross-border solo founders"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.globalsolo.global"}},"_tags":["story","author_jettfu","story_46985620","show_hn"],"author":"jettfu","created_at":"2026-02-12T06:55:50Z","created_at_i":1770879350,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"46985620","points":2,"story_id":46985620,"story_text":"Hi HN \u2014 I'm Jett, a solo founder operating across US/China/global markets.
I built Global Solo because I kept running into the same problem: as a solo founder with income from multiple countries, an LLC in one jurisdiction, and time spent in another \u2014 I had no idea what my actual structural risk looked like. My CPA handled US filing, but nobody was mapping the full picture across entity structure, tax residency, banking, and documentation.
So I built a diagnostic tool that does exactly that.
*What it is:*\n A structured risk assessment across 4 dimensions \u2014 Money, Entity, Tax, and\n Accountability (the META framework). You answer questions about your setup,\n and it maps where your structural exposure actually sits. Not advice, not\n recommendations \u2014 just visibility into what exists.
*What's free:*\n - 35+ guides on cross-border structure, tax residency, entity formation,\n banking, and compliance\n - A 7-question risk screening tool (instant results, no signup):\n globalsolo.global/tools/risk-check\n - Sample report so you can see what the output looks like:\n globalsolo.global/sample-report
*What's paid:*\n - Full L1 diagnostic report: $29 (vs. $1,200+ for a CPA to do the same\n mapping)\n - Deeper tiers at $149 and $349 for structural analysis and judgment layers
*Tech:*\n Next.js 16, React 19, Supabase, Stripe. The scoring is deterministic \u2014 same\n input always produces same output. LLM (Claude/GPT) is used only for\n narrative generation in the paid reports, not for risk assessment logic.
I'd love feedback on:\n 1. Does the free risk check feel useful?\n 2. Is the sample report convincing enough to pay $29?\n 3. Any cross-border founders here \u2014 does the META framework cover your blind\n spots?
Thanks for looking.","title":"Show HN: Global Solo \u2013 Structural risk diagnostic for cross-border solo founders","updated_at":"2026-03-05T23:35:15Z","url":"https://www.globalsolo.global"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"bblumenfeld10"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"I'm looking for a technical counterpart to support the next wave of digital health technologies attempting to reach the market.
Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) is a rapidly growing space (85.41% CAGR) with an $86 billion TAM by 2027. Hardware devices are being replaced with digital and software devices (think wearables, mental health apps, diagnostic platforms to detect diseases, etc.). Unlike hardware, software devices experience constant updates and releases, making adherence to regulations really difficult. Yet engineers are expected to code the product AND figure out how to properly document the product\u2019s design and development to meet regulations. This crushes med-tech startups, whose innovation is slowed down by regulations they are ill-equipped to address in order to prove their products are safe.
I'm going to change that by developing an Application Lifecycle Management platform (ALM: https://www.figma.com/proto/xoXGZhiU0nDLI2isBUncgj/Figma-Wireframe-Kit-Free-Community?node-id=1392%3A237&scaling=scale-down) built for SaMDs so developers can deploy regulated products faster without being quality experts. I have 7 years in the B2B startup space and was the first sales hire (Director) at two early stage startups (under 10 employees) and built a revenue engine that got both companies to $10M in ARR and $50M+ in venture funding. I know how to get a company off the ground and successfully create a repeatable revenue model.
Maybe you are interested in medical technology. Maybe you saw how COVID-19 transformed the world and forced software into the healthcare space to support patients remotely. Maybe you want to change the world and work on something that has a positive impact. This is a real opportunity to do something meaningful.
If interested please send an email to bblumenfeld24@gmail.com and include (1) something you've built that you're proud of (2) a phone number I can reach you at."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Technical co-founder needed for a med-tech platform"}},"_tags":["story","author_bblumenfeld10","story_27251827","ask_hn"],"author":"bblumenfeld10","created_at":"2021-05-23T01:55:19Z","created_at_i":1621734919,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"27251827","points":2,"story_id":27251827,"story_text":"I'm looking for a technical counterpart to support the next wave of digital health technologies attempting to reach the market.
Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) is a rapidly growing space (85.41% CAGR) with an $86 billion TAM by 2027. Hardware devices are being replaced with digital and software devices (think wearables, mental health apps, diagnostic platforms to detect diseases, etc.). Unlike hardware, software devices experience constant updates and releases, making adherence to regulations really difficult. Yet engineers are expected to code the product AND figure out how to properly document the product\u2019s design and development to meet regulations. This crushes med-tech startups, whose innovation is slowed down by regulations they are ill-equipped to address in order to prove their products are safe.
I'm going to change that by developing an Application Lifecycle Management platform (ALM: https://www.figma.com/proto/xoXGZhiU0nDLI2isBUncgj/Figma-Wireframe-Kit-Free-Community?node-id=1392%3A237&scaling=scale-down) built for SaMDs so developers can deploy regulated products faster without being quality experts. I have 7 years in the B2B startup space and was the first sales hire (Director) at two early stage startups (under 10 employees) and built a revenue engine that got both companies to $10M in ARR and $50M+ in venture funding. I know how to get a company off the ground and successfully create a repeatable revenue model.
Maybe you are interested in medical technology. Maybe you saw how COVID-19 transformed the world and forced software into the healthcare space to support patients remotely. Maybe you want to change the world and work on something that has a positive impact. This is a real opportunity to do something meaningful.
If interested please send an email to bblumenfeld24@gmail.com and include (1) something you've built that you're proud of (2) a phone number I can reach you at.","title":"Technical co-founder needed for a med-tech platform","updated_at":"2024-09-20T08:37:41Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Nraphael"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Everyday I wake up scroll Twitter and read TechCrunch seeing all these people talk about their funding, building their ideas and getting them accepted by the world. I want to be like them but every idea I\u2019ve had hasn\u2019t taken off or I\u2019m afraid is in a industry that is too hard requires too much funding. At 26 I feel like if it was gonna happen I would at least have something by now having dreamt of this since I was like 19 but nothing. Idk I just feel like these thoughts are consuming me and I need to let go of this dream for a bit. How can I do this? Any advice?"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: How do I give up on wanting to be a founder"}},"_tags":["story","author_Nraphael","story_27760816","ask_hn"],"author":"Nraphael","children":[27760871,27761159],"created_at":"2021-07-07T13:22:36Z","created_at_i":1625664156,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"27760816","points":1,"story_id":27760816,"story_text":"Everyday I wake up scroll Twitter and read TechCrunch seeing all these people talk about their funding, building their ideas and getting them accepted by the world. I want to be like them but every idea I\u2019ve had hasn\u2019t taken off or I\u2019m afraid is in a industry that is too hard requires too much funding. At 26 I feel like if it was gonna happen I would at least have something by now having dreamt of this since I was like 19 but nothing. Idk I just feel like these thoughts are consuming me and I need to let go of this dream for a bit. How can I do this? Any advice?","title":"Ask HN: How do I give up on wanting to be a founder","updated_at":"2024-09-20T08:55:53Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"mediagearbox"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"7 startups step out of \u2018entrepreneur clubhouse\u2019 at Founders Den"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/19/7-startups-step-out-of-entrepreneur-clubhouse-at-founders-den-demo-night/"}},"_tags":["story","author_mediagearbox","story_5406449"],"author":"mediagearbox","created_at":"2013-03-20T10:40:05Z","created_at_i":1363776005,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"5406449","points":1,"story_id":5406449,"title":"7 startups step out of \u2018entrepreneur clubhouse\u2019 at Founders Den","updated_at":"2024-09-19T19:23:34Z","url":"http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/19/7-startups-step-out-of-entrepreneur-clubhouse-at-founders-den-demo-night/"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"teleforce"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Alibaba founder Jack Ma gives first class as visiting professor at Tokyo Uni"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/19/tech/jack-ma-teaching-japan-university-of-tokyo-intl-hnk/index.html"}},"_tags":["story","author_teleforce","story_36400241"],"author":"teleforce","created_at":"2023-06-20T05:53:55Z","created_at_i":1687240435,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"36400241","points":1,"story_id":36400241,"title":"Alibaba founder Jack Ma gives first class as visiting professor at Tokyo Uni","updated_at":"2024-09-20T14:20:51Z","url":"https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/19/tech/jack-ma-teaching-japan-university-of-tokyo-intl-hnk/index.html"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"michaelcao"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"I am Michael Cao. I am from Viet Nam. I suffered the polio disease and became disabled when i was one year old.
When covid 19 pandemic hit the world. All people has suffered a lot. I and my friend, Canadian guy, decided to cofound 2HAC Studio because we thought that we need to do something to help people.
We don't want to hire any employees to keep the cost at minimum (only spend 9.99$ per year for domain). I keep my job at American company in Viet Nam and my cofounder also still worked at a Bank of Canada. We spent our free time to implement and marketing our products
We have been developing the Google workspace addons. Out technology stack are App Script, VueJS for addons. Hugo for our website. We hosted our website in Google Cloud. Paypal is our payment system. Tawk for customer support. \nAll of them are free.
At 2020, we had a pain point in Viet Nam because health official requires to do contact tracing when people went to events, churches, schools so we scratched our own itches and developed QR Code Attendance addon https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/qr_code_attenda... . After that, we provide our addon in G Suite marketplace and a lot of customers used our addon for contact tracing, for example take temperature, name, health status of attendees and give data to health official.
Currently, we continue working on QR Code and barcode solutions. Our startup has survived and thrived during Covid-19 while a lot of startups have failed miserable. Our business model are both subscription and lifetime pricing. We have more than 5 million users for all our Google workspace addons.
We make a decent living but we don\u2019t want to risk to give up the main job. Financial recession is coming and a lot of pain is ahead. We highly recommend that most founders should keep the job and reduce spending as much as possible for a while during early stage of their startup. Also, I would like to encourage disabled people, older people to escape your comfort zone and make changes in the world. All of us could develop outstanding products with open source or very cheap tools.
If you have any questions and feedback, please fell free to contact me and send me an email. Have a great day, everyone."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Tell HN: A disabled 40-year-old person founded a startup and makes a living"}},"_tags":["story","author_michaelcao","story_33062606","ask_hn"],"author":"michaelcao","children":[33062750,33062896,33063483,33063501,33063539,33063562,33063578,33063599,33063611,33063652,33063676,33063682,33063690,33063694,33063744,33063778,33063783,33063813,33063922,33064002,33064094,33064179,33064185,33064262,33064459,33064471,33064482,33064491,33064649,33064650,33064656,33064662,33064842,33065135,33065774,33066203,33066284,33066682,33067387,33067493,33068139,33068542,33069399,33069450,33069638,33076207,33114420],"created_at":"2022-10-03T01:57:08Z","created_at_i":1664762228,"num_comments":151,"objectID":"33062606","points":775,"story_id":33062606,"story_text":"I am Michael Cao. I am from Viet Nam. I suffered the polio disease and became disabled when i was one year old.
When covid 19 pandemic hit the world. All people has suffered a lot. I and my friend, Canadian guy, decided to cofound 2HAC Studio because we thought that we need to do something to help people.
We don't want to hire any employees to keep the cost at minimum (only spend 9.99$ per year for domain). I keep my job at American company in Viet Nam and my cofounder also still worked at a Bank of Canada. We spent our free time to implement and marketing our products
We have been developing the Google workspace addons. Out technology stack are App Script, VueJS for addons. Hugo for our website. We hosted our website in Google Cloud. Paypal is our payment system. Tawk for customer support. \nAll of them are free.
At 2020, we had a pain point in Viet Nam because health official requires to do contact tracing when people went to events, churches, schools so we scratched our own itches and developed QR Code Attendance addon https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/qr_code_attenda... . After that, we provide our addon in G Suite marketplace and a lot of customers used our addon for contact tracing, for example take temperature, name, health status of attendees and give data to health official.
Currently, we continue working on QR Code and barcode solutions. Our startup has survived and thrived during Covid-19 while a lot of startups have failed miserable. Our business model are both subscription and lifetime pricing. We have more than 5 million users for all our Google workspace addons.
We make a decent living but we don\u2019t want to risk to give up the main job. Financial recession is coming and a lot of pain is ahead. We highly recommend that most founders should keep the job and reduce spending as much as possible for a while during early stage of their startup. Also, I would like to encourage disabled people, older people to escape your comfort zone and make changes in the world. All of us could develop outstanding products with open source or very cheap tools.
If you have any questions and feedback, please fell free to contact me and send me an email. Have a great day, everyone.","title":"Tell HN: A disabled 40-year-old person founded a startup and makes a living","updated_at":"2024-09-20T12:14:26Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"n_ermosh"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hey Hacker News! I\u2019m Nikita, founder of Airhart Aeronautics (https://www.airhartaero.com/). We are building an airplane for people who don\u2019t fly airplanes. The goal is to make flying as easy as driving a car\u2014while maintaining a high bar for safety. Here\u2019s a video that shows a bit of our hardware and quite a bit of our software: https://youtu.be/PGJUGUceu8A
In the US, trips that are 50-300 miles are almost all done by car because that distance is too short for commercial airlines and too far for public transportation. Thanks to the Wright Brothers we've had aerial transport for over 100 years. The US has over 19,000 airports, and large commercial airplane technology has developed to the point that the planes practically fly themselves. If we already have the infrastructure and the technology, why isn't everyone flying planes?
The problem is that small airplane technology hasn\u2019t innovated and is stuck in the past. Flying a small airplane is complicated, mentally taxing, and dangerous\u2014about 28x more dangerous than driving a car. Outdated airplanes, coupled with outdated flight controls, lead to regular accidents, often due to some form of loss of control. The planes are expensive and margins are small. There is no incentive to innovate within the current market, so we are looking at the new, untapped market of those who don\u2019t think about flying as an option today and making it an option.
I first came across this when I learned to fly in 2020. I was learning in a \u201cmodern\u201d GA airplane but was immediately struck by the fact that an airplane built in 2018 did not have an engine computer and there was a manual level to control the fuel/air mixture ratio. Starting it on a hot day was like starting a stubborn lawn mower. On top of that, my instructor was telling me all the various ways I could kill myself if I\u2019m not running at 100% concentration for hours on end. This just didn\u2019t sit right with me.
At the time I was working at SpaceX as an avionics engineer, leading the development of the avionics for the fairing recovery program. I also built autonomous aircraft when I was a student at Cornell, where I got a degree in electrical and computer engineering. It was clear to me that the core problem is that airplanes are too unsafe and too complicated to operate which is keeping too many people out of aviation. So, I decided to leave SpaceX and was joined by my long-time friend Brendan (he was a software engineer at Apple at the time; we built autonomous aircraft together at Cornell) to start Airhart to tackle this problem and make flying safer and more accessible.
We are developing a full hardware and software package to change how people fly airplanes. It\u2019s a fly-by-wire control system, meaning instead of mechanical linkages between the pilot\u2019s control stick and the control surfaces, it\u2019s a joystick that sends digital commands to a computer that then moves the control surfaces accordingly with servo actuators. We\u2019re developing all of the hardware ourselves: the computers, the sensors, the actuators\u2013and all of the software that actually does the control. But it\u2019s not just fly-by-wire. On top of it, we are implementing a simplified control scheme that reduces flying the airplane to just one action to perform one maneuver.
For readers who aren\u2019t pilots: all flying is basically coordinating the aircraft pitch, roll, yaw, and throttle to coordinate actions. Something as simple as a level turn to the right means you have to 1) roll the airplane, 2) use your feet on the rudder pedals to keep the turn coordinated, 3) pull back to increase your lift since you are now losing lift in a bank, 4) monitor your airspeed (especially if at slow speeds when coming in to land), 5) monitor your altitude as you\u2019re adjusting your lift in (3), 6) monitor your turn coordination as you adjust it in (2). You are now established in a turn. To return to flying straight and level do those in reverse. And while doing all this, you need to be navigating through complex airpaces and talking to air traffic control over 1940s radio technology. All this together makes it very hard to fly and very easy for a pilot (especially a new pilot) to lose control of the airplane, which is still the leading cause of fatalities in general aviation.
With Airhart Assist (that\u2019s what we call our system), you just push a control stick to the right and the flight computers do all those steps to put you into a coordinated level turn.
So, how does this actually work?
The force-feedback joystick in the plane sends its position to a flight controller (actually 3 that work in parallel for safety and redundancy, more on that later). The flight controller interprets the position as a turn rate or climb rate command (for left/right or forward/back). The flight controller also reads a bunch of sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, air pressure, GPS, etc) to develop an accurate estimate of the airplane\u2019s state: roll, pitch, yaw, velocity, position, etc. Using the current state from the sensor fusion algorithms and the desired state from the joystick, the controller does a bunch of aerodynamics and control theory math to compute the control surface position necessary to bring the aircraft to the desired state. Mixed into this is error checking, envelope protection, and other various safety measures to make sure the aircraft never enters an unsafe state.
Unlike a traditional airplane, it becomes impossible to command the airplane into a stall, a spin, unsafe attitudes, or other bad states. This is the key to the safety of the system: it prevents the common mistakes that pilots make that lead to disastrous consequences.
To make sure that this system is always functioning, everything is single-fault tolerant. That means that there are no single points of failure. Any fault that might occur\u2013a broken wire, a fried resistor, a bitflip in a processor, a random hang in a kernel\u2013does not affect the functionality of the system. This is achieved by having three flight controllers that take in information from two different sets of sensors (we call them \u201cstrings\u201d), independently compute the desired actions to take, and vote on what to do. Each string has its own power source, backup battery, networking hardware, and set of critical sensors.
The only real single point of failure is the engine. We only have one, though the engine itself has redundant ignition systems, fuel pumps, controllers, etc. If the engine were to die, the batteries would keep the system running for ~30 minutes, giving you time to make an emergency landing. If the pilot somehow becomes incapacitated, any passenger can initiate an autonomous emergency landing. And if many things go wrong and the system does fail, there\u2019s a full airframe parachute that can be activated to bring the airplane safely to the ground.
A lot of people will likely wonder: \u201cisn\u2019t removing stick and rudder skills going to make worse pilots\u201d? Short answer: no. The core of what makes a good pilot isn\u2019t stick and rudder skills; it\u2019s good decision making and risk management. For single pilots in GA, it\u2019s even more important. So we are building a system that will give our pilots the tools to focus entirely on decision making and risk management and remove the distraction of stick and rudder that creates so many problems today. We think stick and rudder skills are definitely a necessity for airline pilots flying hundreds of people on board for the extremely rare cases where emergencies do happen and many people's lives are at risk, but not for an average person flying a four seat airplane to go on a weekend trip to the mountains. Our system makes it impossible to lose control of the airplane, potentially solving 80% of today\u2019s fatal accidents in general aviation.
Fly-by-wire systems typically cost millions of dollars. We intend to build it for much less. How? By leveraging automotive grade components, clever sensor fusion math so that we can use MEMS gyroscopes that cost <$100 instead of laser-ring gyros that cost $1000 if not $10k, and by a first principles approach to the design of our system. This requires that we build a lot of our own hardware. We\u2019ve developed our own control surface actuators, our own display assemblies, we\u2019re developing our own radios and GPS hardware (an aviation grade GPS can cost upwards of $10k, but it\u2019s the same hardware as in a $20 consumer grade GPS).
To take advantage of this automotive style approach requires scale. Enter the final third of the problem: flying isn\u2019t sexy. Modern airplanes look like they are from the 90s. With our first airplane, the Airhart Sling, we are redesigning the entire UI/UX of the flight deck to make it as easy as possible to use, redesigning the cabin to feel much more like a luxury car than an airplane today, and integrating Airhart Assist to make flying much more accessible and much more inviting. You can see previews of the Airhart Sling on our website, https://www.airhartaero.com/. The sexiness of design is extremely important for the economies of scale of an automotive-style approach to work.
There\u2019s a plethora of other problems that make flying cumbersome: weight and balance worksheets, complicated route planning, talking to ATC, lengthy preflight checks, a fractured system of FBOs, difficult access to instruction, the list goes on. We are working on all of these too, but no amount of extra UI features can solve the fundamental problem that aviating itself is hard. So that\u2019s what we\u2019re solving first.
We want people who don\u2019t think about airplanes as a mode of transportation to start flying and are hoping that Airhart will pave the way. Whether you fly planes today or not, I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts. This is a very exciting topic with lots to discuss so I\u2019m very much looking forward to the conversation!"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) \u2013 A modern personal airplane"}},"_tags":["story","author_n_ermosh","story_41163382","launch_hn"],"author":"n_ermosh","children":[41163496,41163596,41163615,41163660,41163692,41163738,41163754,41163764,41163795,41163818,41163849,41163947,41163958,41163990,41164081,41164113,41164114,41164168,41164190,41164262,41164414,41164421,41164481,41164501,41164512,41164513,41164546,41164580,41164660,41164698,41164777,41164783,41164820,41164901,41164929,41165006,41165177,41165189,41165243,41165291,41165427,41165444,41165503,41165589,41165595,41165616,41165651,41165706,41165710,41165720,41165722,41165729,41165732,41165986,41166015,41166017,41166037,41166103,41166109,41166110,41166126,41166130,41166167,41166263,41166281,41166329,41166362,41166423,41166445,41166465,41166477,41166480,41166498,41166510,41166535,41166578,41166580,41166582,41166593,41166760,41166768,41166841,41166990,41167028,41167039,41167045,41167113,41167245,41167308,41167346,41167363,41167392,41167397,41167453,41167468,41167482,41167540,41167580,41167659,41167811,41167998,41168011,41168050,41168199,41168209,41168293,41168367,41168406,41168568,41168603,41168635,41168687,41168731,41168804,41168844,41168856,41169074,41169135,41169489,41169507,41169581,41169914,41169929,41169999,41170078,41170144,41170540,41170542,41170579,41170681,41170794,41170880,41172131,41176464,41178012,41178977,41178994,41236867],"created_at":"2024-08-05T17:26:43Z","created_at_i":1722878803,"num_comments":615,"objectID":"41163382","points":738,"story_id":41163382,"story_text":"Hey Hacker News! I\u2019m Nikita, founder of Airhart Aeronautics (https://www.airhartaero.com/). We are building an airplane for people who don\u2019t fly airplanes. The goal is to make flying as easy as driving a car\u2014while maintaining a high bar for safety. Here\u2019s a video that shows a bit of our hardware and quite a bit of our software: https://youtu.be/PGJUGUceu8A
In the US, trips that are 50-300 miles are almost all done by car because that distance is too short for commercial airlines and too far for public transportation. Thanks to the Wright Brothers we've had aerial transport for over 100 years. The US has over 19,000 airports, and large commercial airplane technology has developed to the point that the planes practically fly themselves. If we already have the infrastructure and the technology, why isn't everyone flying planes?
The problem is that small airplane technology hasn\u2019t innovated and is stuck in the past. Flying a small airplane is complicated, mentally taxing, and dangerous\u2014about 28x more dangerous than driving a car. Outdated airplanes, coupled with outdated flight controls, lead to regular accidents, often due to some form of loss of control. The planes are expensive and margins are small. There is no incentive to innovate within the current market, so we are looking at the new, untapped market of those who don\u2019t think about flying as an option today and making it an option.
I first came across this when I learned to fly in 2020. I was learning in a \u201cmodern\u201d GA airplane but was immediately struck by the fact that an airplane built in 2018 did not have an engine computer and there was a manual level to control the fuel/air mixture ratio. Starting it on a hot day was like starting a stubborn lawn mower. On top of that, my instructor was telling me all the various ways I could kill myself if I\u2019m not running at 100% concentration for hours on end. This just didn\u2019t sit right with me.
At the time I was working at SpaceX as an avionics engineer, leading the development of the avionics for the fairing recovery program. I also built autonomous aircraft when I was a student at Cornell, where I got a degree in electrical and computer engineering. It was clear to me that the core problem is that airplanes are too unsafe and too complicated to operate which is keeping too many people out of aviation. So, I decided to leave SpaceX and was joined by my long-time friend Brendan (he was a software engineer at Apple at the time; we built autonomous aircraft together at Cornell) to start Airhart to tackle this problem and make flying safer and more accessible.
We are developing a full hardware and software package to change how people fly airplanes. It\u2019s a fly-by-wire control system, meaning instead of mechanical linkages between the pilot\u2019s control stick and the control surfaces, it\u2019s a joystick that sends digital commands to a computer that then moves the control surfaces accordingly with servo actuators. We\u2019re developing all of the hardware ourselves: the computers, the sensors, the actuators\u2013and all of the software that actually does the control. But it\u2019s not just fly-by-wire. On top of it, we are implementing a simplified control scheme that reduces flying the airplane to just one action to perform one maneuver.
For readers who aren\u2019t pilots: all flying is basically coordinating the aircraft pitch, roll, yaw, and throttle to coordinate actions. Something as simple as a level turn to the right means you have to 1) roll the airplane, 2) use your feet on the rudder pedals to keep the turn coordinated, 3) pull back to increase your lift since you are now losing lift in a bank, 4) monitor your airspeed (especially if at slow speeds when coming in to land), 5) monitor your altitude as you\u2019re adjusting your lift in (3), 6) monitor your turn coordination as you adjust it in (2). You are now established in a turn. To return to flying straight and level do those in reverse. And while doing all this, you need to be navigating through complex airpaces and talking to air traffic control over 1940s radio technology. All this together makes it very hard to fly and very easy for a pilot (especially a new pilot) to lose control of the airplane, which is still the leading cause of fatalities in general aviation.
With Airhart Assist (that\u2019s what we call our system), you just push a control stick to the right and the flight computers do all those steps to put you into a coordinated level turn.
So, how does this actually work?
The force-feedback joystick in the plane sends its position to a flight controller (actually 3 that work in parallel for safety and redundancy, more on that later). The flight controller interprets the position as a turn rate or climb rate command (for left/right or forward/back). The flight controller also reads a bunch of sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, air pressure, GPS, etc) to develop an accurate estimate of the airplane\u2019s state: roll, pitch, yaw, velocity, position, etc. Using the current state from the sensor fusion algorithms and the desired state from the joystick, the controller does a bunch of aerodynamics and control theory math to compute the control surface position necessary to bring the aircraft to the desired state. Mixed into this is error checking, envelope protection, and other various safety measures to make sure the aircraft never enters an unsafe state.
Unlike a traditional airplane, it becomes impossible to command the airplane into a stall, a spin, unsafe attitudes, or other bad states. This is the key to the safety of the system: it prevents the common mistakes that pilots make that lead to disastrous consequences.
To make sure that this system is always functioning, everything is single-fault tolerant. That means that there are no single points of failure. Any fault that might occur\u2013a broken wire, a fried resistor, a bitflip in a processor, a random hang in a kernel\u2013does not affect the functionality of the system. This is achieved by having three flight controllers that take in information from two different sets of sensors (we call them \u201cstrings\u201d), independently compute the desired actions to take, and vote on what to do. Each string has its own power source, backup battery, networking hardware, and set of critical sensors.
The only real single point of failure is the engine. We only have one, though the engine itself has redundant ignition systems, fuel pumps, controllers, etc. If the engine were to die, the batteries would keep the system running for ~30 minutes, giving you time to make an emergency landing. If the pilot somehow becomes incapacitated, any passenger can initiate an autonomous emergency landing. And if many things go wrong and the system does fail, there\u2019s a full airframe parachute that can be activated to bring the airplane safely to the ground.
A lot of people will likely wonder: \u201cisn\u2019t removing stick and rudder skills going to make worse pilots\u201d? Short answer: no. The core of what makes a good pilot isn\u2019t stick and rudder skills; it\u2019s good decision making and risk management. For single pilots in GA, it\u2019s even more important. So we are building a system that will give our pilots the tools to focus entirely on decision making and risk management and remove the distraction of stick and rudder that creates so many problems today. We think stick and rudder skills are definitely a necessity for airline pilots flying hundreds of people on board for the extremely rare cases where emergencies do happen and many people's lives are at risk, but not for an average person flying a four seat airplane to go on a weekend trip to the mountains. Our system makes it impossible to lose control of the airplane, potentially solving 80% of today\u2019s fatal accidents in general aviation.
Fly-by-wire systems typically cost millions of dollars. We intend to build it for much less. How? By leveraging automotive grade components, clever sensor fusion math so that we can use MEMS gyroscopes that cost <$100 instead of laser-ring gyros that cost $1000 if not $10k, and by a first principles approach to the design of our system. This requires that we build a lot of our own hardware. We\u2019ve developed our own control surface actuators, our own display assemblies, we\u2019re developing our own radios and GPS hardware (an aviation grade GPS can cost upwards of $10k, but it\u2019s the same hardware as in a $20 consumer grade GPS).
To take advantage of this automotive style approach requires scale. Enter the final third of the problem: flying isn\u2019t sexy. Modern airplanes look like they are from the 90s. With our first airplane, the Airhart Sling, we are redesigning the entire UI/UX of the flight deck to make it as easy as possible to use, redesigning the cabin to feel much more like a luxury car than an airplane today, and integrating Airhart Assist to make flying much more accessible and much more inviting. You can see previews of the Airhart Sling on our website, https://www.airhartaero.com/. The sexiness of design is extremely important for the economies of scale of an automotive-style approach to work.
There\u2019s a plethora of other problems that make flying cumbersome: weight and balance worksheets, complicated route planning, talking to ATC, lengthy preflight checks, a fractured system of FBOs, difficult access to instruction, the list goes on. We are working on all of these too, but no amount of extra UI features can solve the fundamental problem that aviating itself is hard. So that\u2019s what we\u2019re solving first.
We want people who don\u2019t think about airplanes as a mode of transportation to start flying and are hoping that Airhart will pave the way. Whether you fly planes today or not, I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts. This is a very exciting topic with lots to discuss so I\u2019m very much looking forward to the conversation!","title":"Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) \u2013 A modern personal airplane","updated_at":"2026-09-29T21:24:09Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"lpage"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hi HN\u2014we're Kelly and Steve, co-founders of OneChronos (https://www.onechronos.com). OneChronos is a "Smart Market" for US equities\u2014meaning we match counterparties using mathematical optimization instead of classical human auctioneer mechanics [1]. Our flavor of Smart Market\u2014combinatorial auctions\u2014lets users enter orders spanning multiple securities and specify matching preferences way beyond just price and quantity.
We didn't invent Smart Markets or combinatorial auctions. Roughly $1T/year flows through them in industries ranging from display advertising to telecommunications. The underlying theory was the subject of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences [2]. We're bringing them to capital markets, and we have both the customers and the regulatory clearance to do so. Our initial user base contains the household names cumulatively responsible for \u224870% of US equities trading volume.
Today's market structure costs institutional investors at least a trillion dollars annually. We'll go into the details below, but the big thing to understand is that mutual/pension/sovereign funds, 401K plans, and ETF managers pay the price, and ultimately it gets passed on to households. Given diverse investment time horizons and risk preferences, capital markets are not a zero-sum game, but the existing market structure makes it one. Any form of market friction that prevents mutually beneficial trades from happening is an economic loss. Our goal is to make a lot more mutually beneficial trades happen.
We started working on OneChronos as experienced traders and auction theorists. Even so, getting here has taken five years of iterating with customers, tackling two deep tech problems, and working through an involved regulatory process. We'll describe what's causing existing market friction, the solution, and why that solution is a significant technical lift.
When people hear about market friction and hidden costs, they usually think about low latency technology, market data, exchange fees, and predatory HFT practices. Those are significant, and yet they are rounding errors compared to others. The principal sources of market friction that we're attacking are bidders' inability to express economic complements (things that are worth more together than separately), substitutes (things with diminishing marginal utility that are replacements for each other) and non-price factors, and game-theoretic incentives against bidding "truthfully"\u2014that is, against specifying how many units of a good you have and the highest price at which you'd buy or the lowest at which you'd sell them (your supply and demand curve). The most commonly proposed market structure "fixes," like single good periodic batch auctions and the IEX speed bump, don't address any of these.
Imagine that a buyer values two goods A and B at $10 for the package, but only $4 for each individually since they're complements. Similarly, a seller might unload the package for $8 while demanding $5 for each good individually. Both agents have "exposure risk" if A and B are bought and sold separately\u2014they might get stuck with an incomplete package. No trade happens if the risk is high enough (buy at $4, sell at $5, no cross). But if they can trade the package atomically, there's a mutual win of $2 in gains from trade. Similar missed opportunities happen if agents only want A XOR B or have different prices for different counterparties (price discrimination). This game of imperfect information and missed opportunities plays out every day in capital markets globally.
The straightforward solution to these problems is called "Expressive Bidding"\u2014the ability to communicate parametric bids to the auctioneer, e.g., buy at most one of {$10 for A and B, $4 for A, $4 for B} or sell at most two units of A, pricing it at $10 for counterparty C_1, $9 for C_2, or $8 for C_3. Given everyone's Expressive Bid and a well-chosen objective function, the auctioneer uses constrained optimization to clear the market and unlock efficiencies. Awesome. So why didn't this happen when markets first started going electronic?
General combinatorial auctions are isomorphic to weighted set packing. Clearing them is an NP-complete optimization problem. Finding feasible and near-optimal solutions at the speed and scale of capital markets is deep tech problem #1. Furthermore, bidding in combinatorial auctions can be challenging in both a computational and UX sense. Making it easy is deep tech problem #2.
We tackle problem #1 similarly to how game AI like AlphaZero and optimizers like AlphaFold work. The combination of deep learning, heuristics, and classical AI search techniques is powerful, and applying them to combinatorial auctions in novel ways is a core part of our IP. Problem #2 involves the magic of formal methods. Expressive Bidding users submit snippets of code (a functionally pure subset of OCaml/ReasonML) called a Proxy Bidder. These proxies are essentially functions mapping "proposals" (allocations of goods) to prices, e.g., f({2A, -B}) \u2192 -5, meaning that the bidder wants $5 for buying two units of A and selling one unit of B. Using formal methods, we turn Proxy Bidders into Expressive Bids that our optimizers can understand. You can see what that looks like here [3]. This approach is dead simple for end users, but it took years of collaborative R&D with our friends and formal methods legends at Imandra [4] to enable.
Not everyone needs to write or use Expressive Bids. For common use cases, we're offering pre-canned/forkable Expressive Bids for things like pairs trades and factor neutral portfolios. That aside, users who don't use Expressive Bidding still benefit from those who use it and create unique liquidity that doesn't exist on other trading venues. Our economic mechanism prevents "dark forest" scenarios in which Expressive Bidding has adversarial uses that detract from overall match quality. "Power users" can only benefit those who treat us like a vanilla trading venue\u2014and each other.
We make money by charging a small commission in line with other venues ($0.0009) on each share traded. Longer-term, we're excited about a pricing model that balances computational resources used against liquidity contributed and compensates OneChronos based on how much value we add. Specifically, we'll measure how much notional dollar price improvement we generate for the market beyond what's generated by a "vanilla" double auction that we run in parallel (a neat trick enabled by Expressive Bidding\u2013we can run an arbitrary number of auctions with different rulesets in parallel to measure relative performance). This approach aligns our incentives with our customers and eliminates fixed costs (which cause market friction) from trading.
Only FINRA registered broker-dealers connect to OneChronos directly. If you work at one, and you're not yet a subscriber, please get in touch. We love talking to both subscribers and their customers, and we'd love to hear from institutional investors looking to leverage OneChronos through their existing broker algo and DMA workflows. Retail customers will eventually access us through brokers that choose to allow it (PFOF is its own thing). In the meantime, stay tuned for other more decentralized asset classes :) You can reach us at info (at) onechronos.com.
And we're hiring! If you're passionate about deeply technical problems ranging from mechanism design to applying ML to combinatorial optimization to writing compilers and engineering sophisticated distributed systems to HFT tolerances, get in touch \u2014 careers (at) onechronos.com.
Steve and I will be online today and would love to talk about our technical challenges, auctions/mechanism design, market structure, and the future of OneChronos.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_market
[2] https://news.stanford.edu/2020/11/19/bid-picture-nobel-prize... - Paul Milgrom, one of the laureates, is the Chair of OneChronos Labs, our research arm.
[3] https://www.onechronos.com/docs/expressive/bidding-guide/#in...
[4] https://www.imandra.ai/"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: OneChronos (YC S16) \u2013 Combinatorial auctions market for US equities"}},"_tags":["story","author_lpage","story_30247159","launch_hn"],"author":"lpage","children":[30247296,30247364,30247696,30247919,30247936,30247994,30248135,30248706,30249030,30249058,30249229,30249230,30249360,30249642,30249947,30250057,30250120,30250219,30250260,30250312,30250330,30250964,30250987,30251215,30252407,30253453,30253586,30254530,30254532,30254883,30256171,30256842,30257145,30258292,30263078,30266480,30268479],"created_at":"2022-02-07T16:36:09Z","created_at_i":1644251769,"num_comments":118,"objectID":"30247159","points":231,"story_id":30247159,"story_text":"Hi HN\u2014we're Kelly and Steve, co-founders of OneChronos (https://www.onechronos.com). OneChronos is a "Smart Market" for US equities\u2014meaning we match counterparties using mathematical optimization instead of classical human auctioneer mechanics [1]. Our flavor of Smart Market\u2014combinatorial auctions\u2014lets users enter orders spanning multiple securities and specify matching preferences way beyond just price and quantity.
We didn't invent Smart Markets or combinatorial auctions. Roughly $1T/year flows through them in industries ranging from display advertising to telecommunications. The underlying theory was the subject of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences [2]. We're bringing them to capital markets, and we have both the customers and the regulatory clearance to do so. Our initial user base contains the household names cumulatively responsible for \u224870% of US equities trading volume.
Today's market structure costs institutional investors at least a trillion dollars annually. We'll go into the details below, but the big thing to understand is that mutual/pension/sovereign funds, 401K plans, and ETF managers pay the price, and ultimately it gets passed on to households. Given diverse investment time horizons and risk preferences, capital markets are not a zero-sum game, but the existing market structure makes it one. Any form of market friction that prevents mutually beneficial trades from happening is an economic loss. Our goal is to make a lot more mutually beneficial trades happen.
We started working on OneChronos as experienced traders and auction theorists. Even so, getting here has taken five years of iterating with customers, tackling two deep tech problems, and working through an involved regulatory process. We'll describe what's causing existing market friction, the solution, and why that solution is a significant technical lift.
When people hear about market friction and hidden costs, they usually think about low latency technology, market data, exchange fees, and predatory HFT practices. Those are significant, and yet they are rounding errors compared to others. The principal sources of market friction that we're attacking are bidders' inability to express economic complements (things that are worth more together than separately), substitutes (things with diminishing marginal utility that are replacements for each other) and non-price factors, and game-theoretic incentives against bidding "truthfully"\u2014that is, against specifying how many units of a good you have and the highest price at which you'd buy or the lowest at which you'd sell them (your supply and demand curve). The most commonly proposed market structure "fixes," like single good periodic batch auctions and the IEX speed bump, don't address any of these.
Imagine that a buyer values two goods A and B at $10 for the package, but only $4 for each individually since they're complements. Similarly, a seller might unload the package for $8 while demanding $5 for each good individually. Both agents have "exposure risk" if A and B are bought and sold separately\u2014they might get stuck with an incomplete package. No trade happens if the risk is high enough (buy at $4, sell at $5, no cross). But if they can trade the package atomically, there's a mutual win of $2 in gains from trade. Similar missed opportunities happen if agents only want A XOR B or have different prices for different counterparties (price discrimination). This game of imperfect information and missed opportunities plays out every day in capital markets globally.
The straightforward solution to these problems is called "Expressive Bidding"\u2014the ability to communicate parametric bids to the auctioneer, e.g., buy at most one of {$10 for A and B, $4 for A, $4 for B} or sell at most two units of A, pricing it at $10 for counterparty C_1, $9 for C_2, or $8 for C_3. Given everyone's Expressive Bid and a well-chosen objective function, the auctioneer uses constrained optimization to clear the market and unlock efficiencies. Awesome. So why didn't this happen when markets first started going electronic?
General combinatorial auctions are isomorphic to weighted set packing. Clearing them is an NP-complete optimization problem. Finding feasible and near-optimal solutions at the speed and scale of capital markets is deep tech problem #1. Furthermore, bidding in combinatorial auctions can be challenging in both a computational and UX sense. Making it easy is deep tech problem #2.
We tackle problem #1 similarly to how game AI like AlphaZero and optimizers like AlphaFold work. The combination of deep learning, heuristics, and classical AI search techniques is powerful, and applying them to combinatorial auctions in novel ways is a core part of our IP. Problem #2 involves the magic of formal methods. Expressive Bidding users submit snippets of code (a functionally pure subset of OCaml/ReasonML) called a Proxy Bidder. These proxies are essentially functions mapping "proposals" (allocations of goods) to prices, e.g., f({2A, -B}) \u2192 -5, meaning that the bidder wants $5 for buying two units of A and selling one unit of B. Using formal methods, we turn Proxy Bidders into Expressive Bids that our optimizers can understand. You can see what that looks like here [3]. This approach is dead simple for end users, but it took years of collaborative R&D with our friends and formal methods legends at Imandra [4] to enable.
Not everyone needs to write or use Expressive Bids. For common use cases, we're offering pre-canned/forkable Expressive Bids for things like pairs trades and factor neutral portfolios. That aside, users who don't use Expressive Bidding still benefit from those who use it and create unique liquidity that doesn't exist on other trading venues. Our economic mechanism prevents "dark forest" scenarios in which Expressive Bidding has adversarial uses that detract from overall match quality. "Power users" can only benefit those who treat us like a vanilla trading venue\u2014and each other.
We make money by charging a small commission in line with other venues ($0.0009) on each share traded. Longer-term, we're excited about a pricing model that balances computational resources used against liquidity contributed and compensates OneChronos based on how much value we add. Specifically, we'll measure how much notional dollar price improvement we generate for the market beyond what's generated by a "vanilla" double auction that we run in parallel (a neat trick enabled by Expressive Bidding\u2013we can run an arbitrary number of auctions with different rulesets in parallel to measure relative performance). This approach aligns our incentives with our customers and eliminates fixed costs (which cause market friction) from trading.
Only FINRA registered broker-dealers connect to OneChronos directly. If you work at one, and you're not yet a subscriber, please get in touch. We love talking to both subscribers and their customers, and we'd love to hear from institutional investors looking to leverage OneChronos through their existing broker algo and DMA workflows. Retail customers will eventually access us through brokers that choose to allow it (PFOF is its own thing). In the meantime, stay tuned for other more decentralized asset classes :) You can reach us at info (at) onechronos.com.
And we're hiring! If you're passionate about deeply technical problems ranging from mechanism design to applying ML to combinatorial optimization to writing compilers and engineering sophisticated distributed systems to HFT tolerances, get in touch \u2014 careers (at) onechronos.com.
Steve and I will be online today and would love to talk about our technical challenges, auctions/mechanism design, market structure, and the future of OneChronos.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_market
[2] https://news.stanford.edu/2020/11/19/bid-picture-nobel-prize... - Paul Milgrom, one of the laureates, is the Chair of OneChronos Labs, our research arm.
[3] https://www.onechronos.com/docs/expressive/bidding-guide/#in...
[4] https://www.imandra.ai/","title":"Launch HN: OneChronos (YC S16) \u2013 Combinatorial auctions market for US equities","updated_at":"2026-03-26T15:10:49Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"rich-cartwright"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hey HN! I'm Richie from Fella (https://www.joinfella.com), a telehealth clinic for men with obesity. Fella helps men get to a healthier weight by matching them with a board-certified obesity doctor to prescribe an FDA-approved medication, while they undertake personalized health coaching.
I personally struggled with stress eating for 6 years. During that time, I was at Cambridge University, then built and sold my first company working with the UK government. It was tough, and poor eating habits as a teenager became a coping mechanism as an adult.
Fella first started as a "CBT+community" product to help men battling stress eating. It resonated due to the stigma around men's eating struggles. But we realized we were only half-serving most of our customers: even when no longer stress eating, most guys weren't getting to a healthier weight.
So we started researching effective, evidence-based treatments for obesity. When I say "we", I really mean my co-founder Luke. He studied medicine at Cambridge University, developing a patented AI approach to detecting cancer at a YC bio company, before moving to Microsoft Research. He parses bio papers better than me...
Obesity treatment is about to radically change. This is thanks to a breakthrough medication \u2014 NY Times called it a "game changer" in Feb 2021 [1]. The medication was approved by the FDA in June 2021 [2]. It leads to an average 15% decrease in body weight, efficacy close to bariatric surgery [3]. However, medication-assisted treatment for obesity is still stigmatized by family doctors and therefore hard to access.
Moreover, only 10% of those using weight management services are men, despite men representing 50% of those with obesity. This is because almost all programs market to women, placing too much emphasis on looks and not enough on health for a male audience. Stress eating is widespread among bigger guys, but mostly ignored \u2014 with too much focus on willpower and "eat less, move more". This needs to change.
So we pivoted to the Fella you see today: a telehealth experience with a board-certified obesity doctor for FDA-approved medication, combined with personalized health coaching. We went live in Texas in July, and are soon to be live in California and New York. Fella is a 12-month program and costs $149/month, paid quarterly. We\u2019ll bring costs down over time to improve accessibility.
We still have lots of difficulties ahead. The main one could be insurance reimbursement: the latest wave of medications are expensive and insurers don't like to cover them [4].
We\u2019re excited to hear your ideas, questions, concerns, feedback \u2014 and maybe any personal stories. I\u2019ll be responding to comments all day, or feel free to shoot me an email at richie@joinfella.com.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/health/obesity-weight-los...
[2] https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-appr...
[3] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183
[4] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-07-19/weight..."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) \u2013 Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching"}},"_tags":["story","author_rich-cartwright","story_28257352","launch_hn"],"author":"rich-cartwright","children":[28257549,28257595,28257611,28257738,28257744,28257823,28257843,28257882,28258011,28258041,28258061,28258087,28258170,28258345,28258592,28258842,28258928,28259062,28259133,28259225,28259299,28259381,28259420,28259500,28259631,28260352,28260631,28260635,28260823,28261062,28261562,28261789,28262206,28262577,28262602,28262628,28262832,28262993,28263598,28263913,28264656,28267346,28272777,28275771,28276197,28290991],"created_at":"2021-08-21T14:36:36Z","created_at_i":1629556596,"num_comments":309,"objectID":"28257352","points":190,"story_id":28257352,"story_text":"Hey HN! I'm Richie from Fella (https://www.joinfella.com), a telehealth clinic for men with obesity. Fella helps men get to a healthier weight by matching them with a board-certified obesity doctor to prescribe an FDA-approved medication, while they undertake personalized health coaching.
I personally struggled with stress eating for 6 years. During that time, I was at Cambridge University, then built and sold my first company working with the UK government. It was tough, and poor eating habits as a teenager became a coping mechanism as an adult.
Fella first started as a "CBT+community" product to help men battling stress eating. It resonated due to the stigma around men's eating struggles. But we realized we were only half-serving most of our customers: even when no longer stress eating, most guys weren't getting to a healthier weight.
So we started researching effective, evidence-based treatments for obesity. When I say "we", I really mean my co-founder Luke. He studied medicine at Cambridge University, developing a patented AI approach to detecting cancer at a YC bio company, before moving to Microsoft Research. He parses bio papers better than me...
Obesity treatment is about to radically change. This is thanks to a breakthrough medication \u2014 NY Times called it a "game changer" in Feb 2021 [1]. The medication was approved by the FDA in June 2021 [2]. It leads to an average 15% decrease in body weight, efficacy close to bariatric surgery [3]. However, medication-assisted treatment for obesity is still stigmatized by family doctors and therefore hard to access.
Moreover, only 10% of those using weight management services are men, despite men representing 50% of those with obesity. This is because almost all programs market to women, placing too much emphasis on looks and not enough on health for a male audience. Stress eating is widespread among bigger guys, but mostly ignored \u2014 with too much focus on willpower and "eat less, move more". This needs to change.
So we pivoted to the Fella you see today: a telehealth experience with a board-certified obesity doctor for FDA-approved medication, combined with personalized health coaching. We went live in Texas in July, and are soon to be live in California and New York. Fella is a 12-month program and costs $149/month, paid quarterly. We\u2019ll bring costs down over time to improve accessibility.
We still have lots of difficulties ahead. The main one could be insurance reimbursement: the latest wave of medications are expensive and insurers don't like to cover them [4].
We\u2019re excited to hear your ideas, questions, concerns, feedback \u2014 and maybe any personal stories. I\u2019ll be responding to comments all day, or feel free to shoot me an email at richie@joinfella.com.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/health/obesity-weight-los...
[2] https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-appr...
[3] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183
[4] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-07-19/weight...","title":"Launch HN: Fella (YC W20) \u2013 Tackling men's obesity using medication and coaching","updated_at":"2025-10-06T20:59:17Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jacknagz"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hey HN,
My name is Jack Naglieri. I\u2019m the founder of Panther Labs - an SF-based cybersecurity startup. Prior to Panther, I was an engineering manager at Airbnb. Before that a security engineer/analyst/forensic analyst.
Today, I\u2019m excited to announce Panther v1.0, an open source, cloud-native SIEM:
http://github.com/panther-labs/panther
Teams can use Panther as an alternative to traditional SIEMs like Splunk.
Panther is the culmination of our team\u2019s experience building security tools at scale, including StreamAlert at Airbnb and critical internal monitoring systems at Amazon.
Panther runs entirely on serverless to enable small teams to detect threats at scale. Our backend is Golang and our frontend is React/Typescript. Panther is also self-hosted and uses Python3 for flexible detections.
At a high level:
- Panther receives security logs
- Panther baseline scans cloud infra and determines security posture
- All data is saved to your data warehouse (powered by Athena/Glue/S3)
- Alerts are dispatched to your team via Slack, PagerDuty, etc
- Automatic remediations can also be applied to fix infrastructure
Panther v1.0 includes support for:
- Analyzing logs from AWS, OSS tools such as Osquery, OSSEC, Suricata, and more
- Threat hunting on all your security data with standardized fields (IPs, domains, etc)
- Real-time cloud configuration monitoring
- 150+ built-in detections
- A UI for creating, updating and tuning detections
To get started:
- Quick-start: https://docs.runpanther.io/quick-start
- Read our v1.0 announcement: https://blog.runpanther.io/panther-v1-open-source-siem/
- Register for our webinar tomorrow: https://webinars.runpanther.io/panther-101
You can also find us on Slack (https://panther-labs-oss-slackin.herokuapp.com/), Twitter (@panther__labs), and Github (github.com/panther-labs/panther).
We\u2019re happy to answer your questions. Just drop a message here.
Thanks!
We also send our best wishes to those affected by COVID-19"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: Panther v1.0 \u2013 Open Source, Cloud-Native SIEM"}},"_tags":["story","author_jacknagz","story_22686913","show_hn"],"author":"jacknagz","children":[22686995,22687250,22687331,22687361,22687381,22687431,22687447,22687653,22687708,22688011,22688345,22688814,22689218,22689272,22690173,22690497,22691229,22691561],"created_at":"2020-03-25T17:58:14Z","created_at_i":1585159094,"num_comments":44,"objectID":"22686913","points":143,"story_id":22686913,"story_text":"Hey HN,
My name is Jack Naglieri. I\u2019m the founder of Panther Labs - an SF-based cybersecurity startup. Prior to Panther, I was an engineering manager at Airbnb. Before that a security engineer/analyst/forensic analyst.
Today, I\u2019m excited to announce Panther v1.0, an open source, cloud-native SIEM:
http://github.com/panther-labs/panther
Teams can use Panther as an alternative to traditional SIEMs like Splunk.
Panther is the culmination of our team\u2019s experience building security tools at scale, including StreamAlert at Airbnb and critical internal monitoring systems at Amazon.
Panther runs entirely on serverless to enable small teams to detect threats at scale. Our backend is Golang and our frontend is React/Typescript. Panther is also self-hosted and uses Python3 for flexible detections.
At a high level:
- Panther receives security logs
- Panther baseline scans cloud infra and determines security posture
- All data is saved to your data warehouse (powered by Athena/Glue/S3)
- Alerts are dispatched to your team via Slack, PagerDuty, etc
- Automatic remediations can also be applied to fix infrastructure
Panther v1.0 includes support for:
- Analyzing logs from AWS, OSS tools such as Osquery, OSSEC, Suricata, and more
- Threat hunting on all your security data with standardized fields (IPs, domains, etc)
- Real-time cloud configuration monitoring
- 150+ built-in detections
- A UI for creating, updating and tuning detections
To get started:
- Quick-start: https://docs.runpanther.io/quick-start
- Read our v1.0 announcement: https://blog.runpanther.io/panther-v1-open-source-siem/
- Register for our webinar tomorrow: https://webinars.runpanther.io/panther-101
You can also find us on Slack (https://panther-labs-oss-slackin.herokuapp.com/), Twitter (@panther__labs), and Github (github.com/panther-labs/panther).
We\u2019re happy to answer your questions. Just drop a message here.
Thanks!
We also send our best wishes to those affected by COVID-19","title":"Show HN: Panther v1.0 \u2013 Open Source, Cloud-Native SIEM","updated_at":"2024-09-20T05:56:08Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"urs"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hey HN! I\u2019m Uday, and I co-founded Epihub [0] with Kwasi and Michael (https://epihub.com). Epihub is Shopify for teaching online. Our software lets you schedule, meet, and bill clients from your own website.
A few years ago, we started building a product called Epigrammar, which was a collaborative document annotation tool that let teachers rapidly give feedback to their students by identifying trends in their feedback. Kwasi and I really wanted to see if we could scale the tutoring experience to an entire classroom, since my co-founder Mike was teaching Classics at a private school in Connecticut while running a non-profit tutoring program in Latin/Greek for public school students in New York. Mike would try out our products that we had built over the weekend during the week (sometimes to success), but oftentimes, things were not actually helping him teach. That\u2019s when we'd go back to the drawing board. We spent a few years experimenting with different ideas in edtech trying to scale tutoring, as we obsessed over Bloom\u2019s 2 sigma problem [1] including Superhuman for grading and even a test generator that could build assessments based on \u201cbackward-design [2]. We all lived together in Manhattan, built stuff, and would send it out to Mike to see what worked and what didn't.
This spring, however, as COVID-19 shut down local businesses across the city (we still live in New York), we realized that there were much bigger problems facing tutoring, coaching, and training businesses like Mike's: bringing the actual business online.
Whether you want to start up a coding bootcamp or run a tutoring business, you need a handful of products that are (ideally) white-labeled: a website builder, a way to process application forms, a CRM, a system to book appointments, a ticketing system for virtual classes, virtual classrooms, invoicing, and paystub tracking. When we spoke with tutors, coaches, and trainers, it was clear that there was a similar problem facing many different but similar businesses. How do you handle appointments? How do you handle virtual classes? How do you manage your team\u2019s schedules?
We spent our summer trying to build everything end-to-end, and finally, we\u2019re excited to share that product with you today. Epihub lets you build a website (or embeds into your existing website) and also comes with a full system to schedule, meet, and bill clients in one place (you can change all the buttons, images, and language within your account to reflect your business so you can rename your employees to instructors or your currency to Solari).
Similarly, you\u2019re working online with individuals or groups, you can start teaching anyone on username.epihub.com and easily grow your entire team by adding additional seats for new instructors to manage their schedules and paystubs. So far, we\u2019ve been working with tutors, coaches, trainers, but we have seen a bunch of interesting use-cases as well (including someone who wants to set up Epihub for virtual wine tasting and tours).
The stack actually borrows a lot from our original product: it\u2019s an Elixir/Phoenix application with a React frontend. We have a Zoom and Google Calendar integration, so you\u2019ll also see appointments and requests in your calendar, as each hub comes with yoursubdomain.epihub.com/reserve to handle bookings from prospective clients. It's like a Calendly built to scale your team\u2019s operations by syncing up invoicing, paystubs, and virtual classrooms. (Recently, we\u2019ve been contemplating Liquid templating, and we\u2019re considering building a Wordpress plugin. If anyone has worked with Liquid, Kwasi and I would love to chat.)
If there\u2019s anyone running a coaching, tutoring, or training business, or coding bootcamp, we'd love to hear how we could support your team. You can also book a personal onboarding with Mike over Zoom (https://vip.epihub.com/reserve).
Finally, I\u2019ve been a member of HN for as long as I can remember. I\u2019ve had my share of unfinished projects, and things I\u2019ve been a bit nervous to launch here. I didn\u2019t think I ever would launch anything, so this is pretty exciting. I\u2019ll be online all day with my co-founders to chat about Epihub, tutoring, backward design, or Elixir in no specific order!
[0]: https://epihub.com
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backward_design"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: Epihub (YC S20) \u2013 Shopify for teaching online"}},"_tags":["story","author_urs","story_24215376","launch_hn"],"author":"urs","children":[24215583,24215778,24215831,24216131,24216322,24216767,24216778,24216838,24216920,24216923,24217002,24217155,24217613,24217957,24218631,24218887,24221423,24221986,24222210,24222693,24222828,24223254,24223542,24235980],"created_at":"2020-08-19T19:50:44Z","created_at_i":1597866644,"num_comments":47,"objectID":"24215376","points":136,"story_id":24215376,"story_text":"Hey HN! I\u2019m Uday, and I co-founded Epihub [0] with Kwasi and Michael (https://epihub.com). Epihub is Shopify for teaching online. Our software lets you schedule, meet, and bill clients from your own website.
A few years ago, we started building a product called Epigrammar, which was a collaborative document annotation tool that let teachers rapidly give feedback to their students by identifying trends in their feedback. Kwasi and I really wanted to see if we could scale the tutoring experience to an entire classroom, since my co-founder Mike was teaching Classics at a private school in Connecticut while running a non-profit tutoring program in Latin/Greek for public school students in New York. Mike would try out our products that we had built over the weekend during the week (sometimes to success), but oftentimes, things were not actually helping him teach. That\u2019s when we'd go back to the drawing board. We spent a few years experimenting with different ideas in edtech trying to scale tutoring, as we obsessed over Bloom\u2019s 2 sigma problem [1] including Superhuman for grading and even a test generator that could build assessments based on \u201cbackward-design [2]. We all lived together in Manhattan, built stuff, and would send it out to Mike to see what worked and what didn't.
This spring, however, as COVID-19 shut down local businesses across the city (we still live in New York), we realized that there were much bigger problems facing tutoring, coaching, and training businesses like Mike's: bringing the actual business online.
Whether you want to start up a coding bootcamp or run a tutoring business, you need a handful of products that are (ideally) white-labeled: a website builder, a way to process application forms, a CRM, a system to book appointments, a ticketing system for virtual classes, virtual classrooms, invoicing, and paystub tracking. When we spoke with tutors, coaches, and trainers, it was clear that there was a similar problem facing many different but similar businesses. How do you handle appointments? How do you handle virtual classes? How do you manage your team\u2019s schedules?
We spent our summer trying to build everything end-to-end, and finally, we\u2019re excited to share that product with you today. Epihub lets you build a website (or embeds into your existing website) and also comes with a full system to schedule, meet, and bill clients in one place (you can change all the buttons, images, and language within your account to reflect your business so you can rename your employees to instructors or your currency to Solari).
Similarly, you\u2019re working online with individuals or groups, you can start teaching anyone on username.epihub.com and easily grow your entire team by adding additional seats for new instructors to manage their schedules and paystubs. So far, we\u2019ve been working with tutors, coaches, trainers, but we have seen a bunch of interesting use-cases as well (including someone who wants to set up Epihub for virtual wine tasting and tours).
The stack actually borrows a lot from our original product: it\u2019s an Elixir/Phoenix application with a React frontend. We have a Zoom and Google Calendar integration, so you\u2019ll also see appointments and requests in your calendar, as each hub comes with yoursubdomain.epihub.com/reserve to handle bookings from prospective clients. It's like a Calendly built to scale your team\u2019s operations by syncing up invoicing, paystubs, and virtual classrooms. (Recently, we\u2019ve been contemplating Liquid templating, and we\u2019re considering building a Wordpress plugin. If anyone has worked with Liquid, Kwasi and I would love to chat.)
If there\u2019s anyone running a coaching, tutoring, or training business, or coding bootcamp, we'd love to hear how we could support your team. You can also book a personal onboarding with Mike over Zoom (https://vip.epihub.com/reserve).
Finally, I\u2019ve been a member of HN for as long as I can remember. I\u2019ve had my share of unfinished projects, and things I\u2019ve been a bit nervous to launch here. I didn\u2019t think I ever would launch anything, so this is pretty exciting. I\u2019ll be online all day with my co-founders to chat about Epihub, tutoring, backward design, or Elixir in no specific order!
[0]: https://epihub.com
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backward_design","title":"Launch HN: Epihub (YC S20) \u2013 Shopify for teaching online","updated_at":"2024-09-20T06:44:15Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"kwent"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hi HN, Quentin and JJ here! We are co-founders at Rootly (https://rootly.com/), an incident management platform built on Slack. Rootly helps automate manual admin work during incidents like the creation of Slack channels, Jira tickets, Zoom rooms & more. We also help you get data on your incidents and help automate postmortem creation.
We met at Instacart, where I was the first SRE and JJ was on the product side owning ~20% GMV on the enterprise and last-mile delivery business. As Instacart grew from processing hundreds to millions of orders, we had to scale our infrastructure, teams, and processes to keep up with this growth. Unsurprisingly, this led to our fair share of incidents (e.g. checkout issues, site outages, etc.) and a lot of restless nights while on-call.
This was further compounded by COVID-19 and the first wave of lockdowns. We surged in traffic by 500% overnight as everyone turned to online grocery. This highlighted our need for a better incident management process as it stressed every element of it. Our manual ways of working in Slack, PagerDuty, Datadog, simply weren\u2019t enough. At first, we figured this was an Instacart-specific problem but luckily realized it wasn\u2019t.
A few things here. Our process lacked consistency. Depending on who was responding and their incident experience it varied greatly. Most companies after they declare an incident rely on a buried-away runbook like on Confluence/Google Docs to try and follow a lengthy checklist of steps. This is hard to find, difficult to follow accurately, slow, and stress inducing. Especially after you\u2019ve been woken up to a page at 3 am. We started working on how to automate this.
Fast forward to today, companies like Canva, Grammarly, Bolt, Faire, Productboard, OpenSea, Shell use Rootly for their incident response. We think of ourselves as part of the post-alerting workflow. Tools like PagerDuty, Datadog act like a smoke alarm to alert you to an incident, which hand off to Rootly so we can orchestrate the actual response.
We\u2019ve learned a lot along the way. We realized the majority of our customers use the same 6 (Slack, PagerDuty, Jira, Zoom, Confluence, Google Docs, etc.) tools, follow roughly the same incident response process (create incident \u2192 collaborate \u2192 write postmortem), but their process varies dramatically. The challenge in changing these processes is hard.
Our focus in the early days was build a hyper opinionated product to help them follow what we believe are the best practices. Now our product direction is focused on configuration and flexibility, how can we plug Rootly into your already existing way of working and automate it. This has helped our larger enterprise customers be successful with their current processes being automated.
Our biggest competition is not PagerDuty/Opsgenie (in fact 98% of our customers use them) or other startups. Its internal tooling companies have built out of necessity, often because tools like Rootly didn\u2019t exist yet. Stripe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ8rvMhLyI4) and GitLab (https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/infrastructure...) are good examples of this.
Our journey is just getting started as we learn more each day. Would love to hear any feedback on our product or anything you find frustrating about incident response today.
Leaving you with a quick demo: https://www.loom.com/share/313a8f81f0a046f284629afc3263ebff"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: Rootly (YC S21) \u2013 Manage Incidents in Slack"}},"_tags":["story","author_kwent","story_31653985","launch_hn"],"author":"kwent","children":[31654177,31654313,31654427,31654507,31654699,31654783,31654941,31655122,31655259,31655605,31658106,31658750,31659066,31659104,31659962,31660179,31661571,31661861,31663141,31668160,31670361],"created_at":"2022-06-07T13:29:31Z","created_at_i":1654608571,"num_comments":93,"objectID":"31653985","points":132,"story_id":31653985,"story_text":"Hi HN, Quentin and JJ here! We are co-founders at Rootly (https://rootly.com/), an incident management platform built on Slack. Rootly helps automate manual admin work during incidents like the creation of Slack channels, Jira tickets, Zoom rooms & more. We also help you get data on your incidents and help automate postmortem creation.
We met at Instacart, where I was the first SRE and JJ was on the product side owning ~20% GMV on the enterprise and last-mile delivery business. As Instacart grew from processing hundreds to millions of orders, we had to scale our infrastructure, teams, and processes to keep up with this growth. Unsurprisingly, this led to our fair share of incidents (e.g. checkout issues, site outages, etc.) and a lot of restless nights while on-call.
This was further compounded by COVID-19 and the first wave of lockdowns. We surged in traffic by 500% overnight as everyone turned to online grocery. This highlighted our need for a better incident management process as it stressed every element of it. Our manual ways of working in Slack, PagerDuty, Datadog, simply weren\u2019t enough. At first, we figured this was an Instacart-specific problem but luckily realized it wasn\u2019t.
A few things here. Our process lacked consistency. Depending on who was responding and their incident experience it varied greatly. Most companies after they declare an incident rely on a buried-away runbook like on Confluence/Google Docs to try and follow a lengthy checklist of steps. This is hard to find, difficult to follow accurately, slow, and stress inducing. Especially after you\u2019ve been woken up to a page at 3 am. We started working on how to automate this.
Fast forward to today, companies like Canva, Grammarly, Bolt, Faire, Productboard, OpenSea, Shell use Rootly for their incident response. We think of ourselves as part of the post-alerting workflow. Tools like PagerDuty, Datadog act like a smoke alarm to alert you to an incident, which hand off to Rootly so we can orchestrate the actual response.
We\u2019ve learned a lot along the way. We realized the majority of our customers use the same 6 (Slack, PagerDuty, Jira, Zoom, Confluence, Google Docs, etc.) tools, follow roughly the same incident response process (create incident \u2192 collaborate \u2192 write postmortem), but their process varies dramatically. The challenge in changing these processes is hard.
Our focus in the early days was build a hyper opinionated product to help them follow what we believe are the best practices. Now our product direction is focused on configuration and flexibility, how can we plug Rootly into your already existing way of working and automate it. This has helped our larger enterprise customers be successful with their current processes being automated.
Our biggest competition is not PagerDuty/Opsgenie (in fact 98% of our customers use them) or other startups. Its internal tooling companies have built out of necessity, often because tools like Rootly didn\u2019t exist yet. Stripe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ8rvMhLyI4) and GitLab (https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/infrastructure...) are good examples of this.
Our journey is just getting started as we learn more each day. Would love to hear any feedback on our product or anything you find frustrating about incident response today.
Leaving you with a quick demo: https://www.loom.com/share/313a8f81f0a046f284629afc3263ebff","title":"Launch HN: Rootly (YC S21) \u2013 Manage Incidents in Slack","updated_at":"2025-03-07T19:30:26Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"morraa"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hey everyone! We\u2019re Alpha, Matt and Aaron, co-founders of PostEra (https://postera.ai/). The title above is quite a mouthful (we used all 80 characters) so we'll begin by breaking down what it means.
What is medicinal chemistry? It\u2019s part of discovering new drugs. A drug hunter decides what disease to focus on and then selects \u2018targets\u2019: usually proteins whose activity is key to the disease. Then they look for a molecule that can \u2018hit\u2019 that target and stimulate a response which will hopefully have beneficial effects. Developing such a molecule that is potent and safe is medicinal chemistry.
Despite it being a crucial part of drug development, this field has relied on trial-and-error approaches\u2014a very expensive way to muddle toward a drug. Where computational tools have been used, they have emphasized the 'best' designs without any awareness of what it would take to physically make the drug in a lab and test it. Our approach is to apply computational methods that know how to make these designs.
We\u2019ve been working on developing machine learning tools to advance the field for the last 3 years. Alpha formed a lab at Cambridge in 2017 to apply machine learning to drug discovery. Matt joined the group and soon some exciting results began to emerge, particularly in the area of how to make molecules. We published the first model to outperform trained human chemists in predicting the outcomes of chemical reactions. Alpha then got Aaron, his former mathematics classmate and debate partner at Oxford to leave his job for the world of drug discovery.
We decided to focus on the one challenge that exists at almost every step: molecules need to be made. No matter how clever it looks on paper, a molecule is worthless unless it can be tested in a lab. The task of actually making molecules, known as chemical synthesis, is often a challenging problem, involving the combinatorial explosion of games like Go with moves that can\u2019t be defined in a simple rulebook.
You start with a set of simple molecules which can be combined through chemical reactions (a \u2018move\u2019) to form more and more complex molecules, known as the \u2018route\u2019, until you arrive at your desired drug candidate. But how to combine these molecules? Trial and error is not an option, given the enormous cost of doing chemistry, and just enumerating all options to a client is unhelpful given that your average molecule can have hundreds of theoretically-possible routes. Searching this tree of routes and scoring the viability of such routes is where ML becomes very powerful.
We developed a machine-translation approach which takes in reactants and outputs the product of a reaction; an approach very similar to how Google Translate operates. This allows us to score the viability of each move. We combine this with fast tree search algorithms, used in models like AlphaGo to efficiently search the large combinatorial space of possible reactions.
To get this technology in front of users, we're building a cloud-based platform. Clients input the molecule they want to be made, our system designs a route for how to make it, and then the client can order this molecule through our platform. We don\u2019t own a lab, but we partner with chemical manufacturers around the world who execute the routes we design. Combining automated chemical synthesis with compound ordering creates a better experience for the drug hunter who wants to focus on their science and just wants a vial with their compound without the cumbersome process of figuring out how to make it and where to get it from.
All that is what we were working on until the pandemic hit... and now we can answer the second part of the title: COVID Moonshot.
We had just finished YC W20 when a tweet from a team of scientists quickly changed our travel (and company) trajectory. A team of scientists at Diamond Light Source in the UK had shown that a selection of chemical fragments were effective at binding to a key part of the COVID virus. We realised there were hundreds of chemists sitting at home, with their projects on hold, who could help take these fragments and turn them into genuine drug candidates\u2014an open-science approach to crowdsourcing a new drug. We created a platform where designs could be submitted and hoped for maybe 50 to 100 submissions. In the first few weeks, we\u2019ve received over 4000 submissions from 200 scientists around the world.
This was the start of a COVID Moonshot initiative that we are now helping lead. It is an international consortium of scientists drawn from academia, biotechs, and pharma, all working pro bono or at cost with no IP claims on any resulting drug candidates. The aim is to find an antiviral candidate for COVID-19 by the end of the year\u2014a \u2018moonshot\u2019 of a time frame compared with the standard drug discovery paradigm.
That standard paradigm is unfortunately broken when it comes to pandemic-related diseases. Biology and chemistry are hard enough, but things become even intractable when there are little or no commercial incentives to develop new therapies. Sadly, this explains why promising antibiotic companies like Achaogen go bankrupt and why, even after SARS-CoV brought the Far East to a halt in 2003, we still didn\u2019t invest in coronavirus therapies during the last 17 years. For therapies that only become critical once every few decades, we need a new approach to developing drugs.
We think that drug hunters can learn something from the CS community and its embrace of open source. Similarly to open-source software development, someone has to manage the roadmap and triage suggestions. For Moonshot, the candidate drug submissions are great but we obviously can\u2019t make and test all of them, so how do you pick the most promising ones? Here is where our technology comes in: it can identify which candidates can be synthesized easily. Since in a pandemic you need to move quickly, prioritizing compounds that can be synthesized easily is a natural triaging mechanism. Where a human chemist would take 3-4 weeks, we were able to design synthetic routes for all submissions within 48 hours. The top route designs were then passed on to our chemical manufacturing partner for synthesis. We\u2019ve now experimentally tested over 500 compounds and found several promising candidates which we are now testing further. All data is publicly available on the site: https://postera.ai/covid
Inspired by open-source software, we\u2019re seeing advantages of open-science collaboration in areas where market incentives are lacking. We started with the opportunity to connect drug hunters with the latest ML, but have expanded this into a platform that helps connect scientists with each other. This is particularly needed when it comes to drug discovery logistics\u2014the fragment screens are conducted in Oxford and The Weizmann Institute in Israel, computational methods are done by PostEra in California and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and chemical synthesis is carried out across several countries. Many of the features we are rolling out, such as automated alerts on suggested drug designs, open forum discussions, and live data uploads, feel very akin to a \u2018GitHub for drug development\u2019.
Identifying biological mechanisms of diseases and forecasting clinical outcomes are huge problems, but we believe that the chemistry stage of drug discovery can become a reliable industry rather than an artisanal craft. Machine learning tech is a key part and we're still working on it, but our clients have been constantly reminding us that just the logistical aspects of drug discovery are a great source of pain. Science software is also notoriously hard to use so we've learned that combining good UI with good ML should be our ambition. Our current mantra is: ordering a molecule through PostEra should be as easy as ordering a pizza!
We need more researchers, coders and chemists to help us on this journey and we\u2019d love to hear from you if our vision sounds like something you could get on board with! Here are the open positions within the company we are now actively hiring for: https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13332
Over to you, HN! We're eager to hear your feedback, questions, ideas and experiences in this area."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: PostEra (YC W20) Medicinal Chemistry-as-a-Service and Covid Moonshot"}},"_tags":["story","author_morraa","story_23700275","launch_hn"],"author":"morraa","children":[23700943,23700988,23701036,23701419,23701438,23704988,23705204,23705302,23706006,23706800,23708902,23715623,23721544],"created_at":"2020-07-01T11:27:09Z","created_at_i":1593602829,"num_comments":40,"objectID":"23700275","points":114,"story_id":23700275,"story_text":"Hey everyone! We\u2019re Alpha, Matt and Aaron, co-founders of PostEra (https://postera.ai/). The title above is quite a mouthful (we used all 80 characters) so we'll begin by breaking down what it means.
What is medicinal chemistry? It\u2019s part of discovering new drugs. A drug hunter decides what disease to focus on and then selects \u2018targets\u2019: usually proteins whose activity is key to the disease. Then they look for a molecule that can \u2018hit\u2019 that target and stimulate a response which will hopefully have beneficial effects. Developing such a molecule that is potent and safe is medicinal chemistry.
Despite it being a crucial part of drug development, this field has relied on trial-and-error approaches\u2014a very expensive way to muddle toward a drug. Where computational tools have been used, they have emphasized the 'best' designs without any awareness of what it would take to physically make the drug in a lab and test it. Our approach is to apply computational methods that know how to make these designs.
We\u2019ve been working on developing machine learning tools to advance the field for the last 3 years. Alpha formed a lab at Cambridge in 2017 to apply machine learning to drug discovery. Matt joined the group and soon some exciting results began to emerge, particularly in the area of how to make molecules. We published the first model to outperform trained human chemists in predicting the outcomes of chemical reactions. Alpha then got Aaron, his former mathematics classmate and debate partner at Oxford to leave his job for the world of drug discovery.
We decided to focus on the one challenge that exists at almost every step: molecules need to be made. No matter how clever it looks on paper, a molecule is worthless unless it can be tested in a lab. The task of actually making molecules, known as chemical synthesis, is often a challenging problem, involving the combinatorial explosion of games like Go with moves that can\u2019t be defined in a simple rulebook.
You start with a set of simple molecules which can be combined through chemical reactions (a \u2018move\u2019) to form more and more complex molecules, known as the \u2018route\u2019, until you arrive at your desired drug candidate. But how to combine these molecules? Trial and error is not an option, given the enormous cost of doing chemistry, and just enumerating all options to a client is unhelpful given that your average molecule can have hundreds of theoretically-possible routes. Searching this tree of routes and scoring the viability of such routes is where ML becomes very powerful.
We developed a machine-translation approach which takes in reactants and outputs the product of a reaction; an approach very similar to how Google Translate operates. This allows us to score the viability of each move. We combine this with fast tree search algorithms, used in models like AlphaGo to efficiently search the large combinatorial space of possible reactions.
To get this technology in front of users, we're building a cloud-based platform. Clients input the molecule they want to be made, our system designs a route for how to make it, and then the client can order this molecule through our platform. We don\u2019t own a lab, but we partner with chemical manufacturers around the world who execute the routes we design. Combining automated chemical synthesis with compound ordering creates a better experience for the drug hunter who wants to focus on their science and just wants a vial with their compound without the cumbersome process of figuring out how to make it and where to get it from.
All that is what we were working on until the pandemic hit... and now we can answer the second part of the title: COVID Moonshot.
We had just finished YC W20 when a tweet from a team of scientists quickly changed our travel (and company) trajectory. A team of scientists at Diamond Light Source in the UK had shown that a selection of chemical fragments were effective at binding to a key part of the COVID virus. We realised there were hundreds of chemists sitting at home, with their projects on hold, who could help take these fragments and turn them into genuine drug candidates\u2014an open-science approach to crowdsourcing a new drug. We created a platform where designs could be submitted and hoped for maybe 50 to 100 submissions. In the first few weeks, we\u2019ve received over 4000 submissions from 200 scientists around the world.
This was the start of a COVID Moonshot initiative that we are now helping lead. It is an international consortium of scientists drawn from academia, biotechs, and pharma, all working pro bono or at cost with no IP claims on any resulting drug candidates. The aim is to find an antiviral candidate for COVID-19 by the end of the year\u2014a \u2018moonshot\u2019 of a time frame compared with the standard drug discovery paradigm.
That standard paradigm is unfortunately broken when it comes to pandemic-related diseases. Biology and chemistry are hard enough, but things become even intractable when there are little or no commercial incentives to develop new therapies. Sadly, this explains why promising antibiotic companies like Achaogen go bankrupt and why, even after SARS-CoV brought the Far East to a halt in 2003, we still didn\u2019t invest in coronavirus therapies during the last 17 years. For therapies that only become critical once every few decades, we need a new approach to developing drugs.
We think that drug hunters can learn something from the CS community and its embrace of open source. Similarly to open-source software development, someone has to manage the roadmap and triage suggestions. For Moonshot, the candidate drug submissions are great but we obviously can\u2019t make and test all of them, so how do you pick the most promising ones? Here is where our technology comes in: it can identify which candidates can be synthesized easily. Since in a pandemic you need to move quickly, prioritizing compounds that can be synthesized easily is a natural triaging mechanism. Where a human chemist would take 3-4 weeks, we were able to design synthetic routes for all submissions within 48 hours. The top route designs were then passed on to our chemical manufacturing partner for synthesis. We\u2019ve now experimentally tested over 500 compounds and found several promising candidates which we are now testing further. All data is publicly available on the site: https://postera.ai/covid
Inspired by open-source software, we\u2019re seeing advantages of open-science collaboration in areas where market incentives are lacking. We started with the opportunity to connect drug hunters with the latest ML, but have expanded this into a platform that helps connect scientists with each other. This is particularly needed when it comes to drug discovery logistics\u2014the fragment screens are conducted in Oxford and The Weizmann Institute in Israel, computational methods are done by PostEra in California and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and chemical synthesis is carried out across several countries. Many of the features we are rolling out, such as automated alerts on suggested drug designs, open forum discussions, and live data uploads, feel very akin to a \u2018GitHub for drug development\u2019.
Identifying biological mechanisms of diseases and forecasting clinical outcomes are huge problems, but we believe that the chemistry stage of drug discovery can become a reliable industry rather than an artisanal craft. Machine learning tech is a key part and we're still working on it, but our clients have been constantly reminding us that just the logistical aspects of drug discovery are a great source of pain. Science software is also notoriously hard to use so we've learned that combining good UI with good ML should be our ambition. Our current mantra is: ordering a molecule through PostEra should be as easy as ordering a pizza!
We need more researchers, coders and chemists to help us on this journey and we\u2019d love to hear from you if our vision sounds like something you could get on board with! Here are the open positions within the company we are now actively hiring for: https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13332
Over to you, HN! We're eager to hear your feedback, questions, ideas and experiences in this area.","title":"Launch HN: PostEra (YC W20) Medicinal Chemistry-as-a-Service and Covid Moonshot","updated_at":"2026-10-04T04:21:23Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Assafgeuz"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Hi HN! It's Assaf and I'm the co-founder of Jiga\n(https://app.jiga3d.com). We make it fast and easy to produce parts for hardware products.
You can upload a 3D model (such as STL or SLDPRT) file and get a production quote within seconds. We have a vetted network of manufacturers around the world who can produce your part with 3D printing (plastic and metal), CNC machining (plastic and metal), or sheet metal. It's literally 3 clicks: 1. upload your file on https://app.jiga3d.com. 2. select manufacturing process 3. select quote and order.
We built this because we are hardware makers ourselves. I was running a 3D printing manufacturing service before starting Jiga, and we were shocked by how bad an experience it was to get quotes and order parts online, or from machine shops. I spent a significant amount of my time and money on inefficient communication, paperwork, sourcing and quoting.
Ok, so now you're probably asking how we're different from other online manufacturing companies? Well, besides being not as fast, they act as an unnecessary middleman. They cut a huge fee, block hardware builders from talking directly to manufacturers and getting professional feedback (such as making sure they can produce that 0.15mm tolerance exactly on that little hole).
For examples, take some of our customers: an enterprise that builds jets for the US army, a company that builds a device that enables tractors to be autonomous, a hospital that builds 3D printed ventilation machines to tackle Covid-19 (first parts ordered with Jiga!) or a company that builds robotic arms.
These companies start by looking for the right supplier to make their part. They email quote requests with the designs, some suppliers reply after a week, some don\u2019t. They log this data into spreadsheets and folders while making comparisons. Finally after two weeks the supplier is ready to take your order but oh no! They mixed up the email threads and made a mistake - and the wrong part was produced.
Worse, when getting into producing more than just prototypes, they have to manage the supply of many different components and timelines, making sure that that they won\u2019t find themselves delaying over some little component and avoiding any miscommunication about parts or revisions. All this inefficiency is not only frustrating but also costly - makers and companies lose millions every year because of miscommunication and delays. We built Jiga to make this process efficient and painless.
We handle all logistics (always first class/priority shipping) and make sure that customers are 100% happy with every order that they get. Additionally, we let you read supplier reviews, check their certifications and communicate directly with them. Want to make sure that the supplier is aware of that 0.15mm hole? No problem, reach to them over our platform and they will answer promptly.
We make money from commissions on orders based on agreements with suppliers.
I\u2019m looking forward to talking to anyone who builds hardware, and to hearing your feedback and ideas and experiences in this space. If you've ever needed parts for things you were making, I hope you'll give us a spin. Have at it, HN!"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Launch HN: Jiga (YC W21) \u2013 Faster custom parts for hardware products"}},"_tags":["story","author_Assafgeuz","story_26066276","launch_hn"],"author":"Assafgeuz","children":[26066532,26067034,26067346,26067393,26068096,26068741,26068862,26069592,26069596,26069626,26071121,26071596,26073475,26074981,26075618,26075916,26075935,26077395],"created_at":"2021-02-08T16:03:42Z","created_at_i":1612800222,"num_comments":51,"objectID":"26066276","points":111,"story_id":26066276,"story_text":"Hi HN! It's Assaf and I'm the co-founder of Jiga\n(https://app.jiga3d.com). We make it fast and easy to produce parts for hardware products.
You can upload a 3D model (such as STL or SLDPRT) file and get a production quote within seconds. We have a vetted network of manufacturers around the world who can produce your part with 3D printing (plastic and metal), CNC machining (plastic and metal), or sheet metal. It's literally 3 clicks: 1. upload your file on https://app.jiga3d.com. 2. select manufacturing process 3. select quote and order.
We built this because we are hardware makers ourselves. I was running a 3D printing manufacturing service before starting Jiga, and we were shocked by how bad an experience it was to get quotes and order parts online, or from machine shops. I spent a significant amount of my time and money on inefficient communication, paperwork, sourcing and quoting.
Ok, so now you're probably asking how we're different from other online manufacturing companies? Well, besides being not as fast, they act as an unnecessary middleman. They cut a huge fee, block hardware builders from talking directly to manufacturers and getting professional feedback (such as making sure they can produce that 0.15mm tolerance exactly on that little hole).
For examples, take some of our customers: an enterprise that builds jets for the US army, a company that builds a device that enables tractors to be autonomous, a hospital that builds 3D printed ventilation machines to tackle Covid-19 (first parts ordered with Jiga!) or a company that builds robotic arms.
These companies start by looking for the right supplier to make their part. They email quote requests with the designs, some suppliers reply after a week, some don\u2019t. They log this data into spreadsheets and folders while making comparisons. Finally after two weeks the supplier is ready to take your order but oh no! They mixed up the email threads and made a mistake - and the wrong part was produced.
Worse, when getting into producing more than just prototypes, they have to manage the supply of many different components and timelines, making sure that that they won\u2019t find themselves delaying over some little component and avoiding any miscommunication about parts or revisions. All this inefficiency is not only frustrating but also costly - makers and companies lose millions every year because of miscommunication and delays. We built Jiga to make this process efficient and painless.
We handle all logistics (always first class/priority shipping) and make sure that customers are 100% happy with every order that they get. Additionally, we let you read supplier reviews, check their certifications and communicate directly with them. Want to make sure that the supplier is aware of that 0.15mm hole? No problem, reach to them over our platform and they will answer promptly.
We make money from commissions on orders based on agreements with suppliers.
I\u2019m looking forward to talking to anyone who builds hardware, and to hearing your feedback and ideas and experiences in this space. If you've ever needed parts for things you were making, I hope you'll give us a spin. Have at it, HN!","title":"Launch HN: Jiga (YC W21) \u2013 Faster custom parts for hardware products","updated_at":"2024-09-20T07:54:32Z"}],"hitsPerPage":50,"nbHits":86,"nbPages":2,"page":0,"params":"query=At+19%2C+founder&tags=story&hitsPerPage=50&advancedSyntax=true&analyticsTags=backend","processingTimeMS":13,"processingTimingsMS":{"_request":{"roundTrip":19},"afterFetch":{"format":{"highlighting":10,"total":12},"merge":{"mergeLoop":{"prepareNextHit":2,"total":2},"total":2},"total":2},"fetch":{"query":4,"scanning":5,"total":10},"total":13},"query":"At 19, founder","serverTimeMS":26}