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Bit of an aside, but as a new entrepreneur selling physical products (https://narwallmask.com https://narwallmask.com) I've been surprised by how much time I sp

Bit of an aside, but as a new entrepreneur selling physical products (https://narwallmask.com https://narwallmask.com) I've been surprised by how much time I spend banking. Moving money around is way more of a headache than I would have anticipated. And that's before you even get into questions of working capital etc. As a former eng at Stripe who didn't know this product was coming, I'm very excited to see what gets built on top of it, and to see innovation spurred in business fintech in general.

carabiner 6y ago
Did you design the mask from scratch, or is this a rebrand of an existing product?
- rattray 6y ago
  I created this product, but wouldn't say from scratch. It's based on a full face snorkel mask, with a few adaptors for filters (instead of water) that I designed with the help of an industrial engineer and the manufacturer of the snorkel mask. Goal was to reuse existing design and injection molds to reduce cost and increase speed to market (wanted to get them out in July, took till November!)
renewiltord 6y ago
What a fascinating device! Did you find that airlines are willing to accept it? They no longer accept my half-mask respirator with P100 filters.
- rattray 6y ago
  Thanks! Usually yes - sometimes the gate attendant doesn't understand that the exhale is filtered (I assume this was the problem with your respirator). We have guidance on that here: https://narwallmask.com/pages/usage-guide#h:flying https://narwallmask.com/pages/usage-guide#h:flying
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    Yeah, I actually had an attachment to filter the exhale valve. I decided to just swap out as soon as they asked rather than explain (because I had a 3M 1860 N95 in my pocket) which seems to have been the right choice since one of them started to get belligerent about the respirator very quickly as I started taking it off. It looks like they're very sensitive to people doing non-standard things. I'm not even one to argue with people in these situations so I was happy to play along but that attendant seemed eager to escalate. Perhaps having the extra filters like you recommend might help, but I suspect it wouldn't have. Hope things have improved since then (a month ago on Alaska).
    - sebmellen 6y ago
      What a shame that the flight attendants are either 1) so scared of their management that they won't listen to people explaining the masks are filtered or 2) simply unable to understand that a non-standard mask could have a filtered exhale valve (which is much safer than a cloth mask for others, too). I had the exact same thing happen to me on 4 different flights, with the flight attendants becoming very aggressive. I brought a short note with a diagram of how the filtration works, and pointed it out to them, and they just told me "sorry, Mayo Clinic guidelines say you can't wear that." This was on United, American Airlines, and Delta. The tip I figured out on my last flight was to wear a hoodie that covered up the respirator on the side, and then wear two surgical masks over the respirator in front. Haven't gotten a second look since then. I don't think this would be possible with the narwhal mask (unfortunately).
      - renewiltord 6y ago
        Honestly, I was very surprised by the belligerence. My strategy for interacting with any authority with disproportionate power over me is to tend towards normalcy so I was pretty rapidly complying with the mask swap. A friend of mine postulated that they couldn't hear me through my mask, but as I took it off and was swapping I said "I'm complying, I'm complying, I'm not arguing" in a conciliatory tone, it didn't seem to help. I was playing the 100% doormat. Didn't stop the attendant from saying to me as I was leaving to go to my seat: "It's not that dangerous". I can only guess that they encounter people who do insist or that they are on web forums / chat groups with other attendants who have encountered people who do argue and so they're primed for someone like that. Puzzling interaction, to be honest. It was the first time I've had any sort of negative interaction with a service professional.
rattray 6y ago
(since a few folks have been interested in the mask and this is hn, I should mention that I'm currently looking for some freelance frontend dev help right now - I don't have time to fix the hideous parts of my homepage and it's giving me heartburn. Email in profile).
artvark11 6y ago
Is that an actual product or a joke page? I can't imagine anyone actually wearing something like that.
- rattray 6y ago
  I know it can be hard to believe, but it's very real (just like COVID). Maybe this quote from a recent customer helps explain: > I'll look like a freak in the mask, but a LIVING freak. Thank you. We sold over 1000 of them in our first week, not many returns. I've been wearing mine for months and get way more interest/thumbs-up than "looks". We do get our fair share of internet trolls, though.
  - artvark11 6y ago
    It reminds me of CodysLab's mask https://youtu.be/_iwxyzXcP7k https://youtu.be/_iwxyzXcP7k
  - graeme 6y ago
    Instant virality too. I just shared with a friend cause it’s so novel.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- tricolon 6y ago
  It looks much less intimidating than my Honeywell North full facepiece respirator, which I've worn in public.
sebmellen 6y ago
What's your supply capacity on these masks? I have a friend who works in a medium-sized hospital system in the South, and we talked about using snorkelling masks back in May. (They were reusing one N95 mask for 10 days per person.) I was surprised no one had repurposed snorkelling masks yet. I sent him the link. If he gets back to me and his hospital system is interested, perhaps we could arrange a call. Would your HN profile email be okay for reaching out?
- rattray 6y ago
  We have over 15,000 on the way this month (some are spoken for). Yes, do reach out! Some folks actually did do this in April, just with 3D-printed adaptors: maskson.org and pneumask.org. They don't have built-in exhale filters, though, which limits the utility.

carabiner 6y ago

Did you design the mask from scratch, or is this a rebrand of an existing product?

rattray 6y ago
I created this product, but wouldn't say from scratch. It's based on a full face snorkel mask, with a few adaptors for filters (instead of water) that I designed with the help of an industrial engineer and the manufacturer of the snorkel mask. Goal was to reuse existing design and injection molds to reduce cost and increase speed to market (wanted to get them out in July, took till November!)

renewiltord 6y ago

What a fascinating device! Did you find that airlines are willing to accept it? They no longer accept my half-mask respirator with P100 filters.

rattray 6y ago
Thanks! Usually yes - sometimes the gate attendant doesn't understand that the exhale is filtered (I assume this was the problem with your respirator). We have guidance on that here: https://narwallmask.com/pages/usage-guide#h:flying https://narwallmask.com/pages/usage-guide#h:flying
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Yeah, I actually had an attachment to filter the exhale valve. I decided to just swap out as soon as they asked rather than explain (because I had a 3M 1860 N95 in my pocket) which seems to have been the right choice since one of them started to get belligerent about the respirator very quickly as I started taking it off. It looks like they're very sensitive to people doing non-standard things. I'm not even one to argue with people in these situations so I was happy to play along but that attendant seemed eager to escalate. Perhaps having the extra filters like you recommend might help, but I suspect it wouldn't have. Hope things have improved since then (a month ago on Alaska).
  - sebmellen 6y ago
    What a shame that the flight attendants are either 1) so scared of their management that they won't listen to people explaining the masks are filtered or 2) simply unable to understand that a non-standard mask could have a filtered exhale valve (which is much safer than a cloth mask for others, too). I had the exact same thing happen to me on 4 different flights, with the flight attendants becoming very aggressive. I brought a short note with a diagram of how the filtration works, and pointed it out to them, and they just told me "sorry, Mayo Clinic guidelines say you can't wear that." This was on United, American Airlines, and Delta. The tip I figured out on my last flight was to wear a hoodie that covered up the respirator on the side, and then wear two surgical masks over the respirator in front. Haven't gotten a second look since then. I don't think this would be possible with the narwhal mask (unfortunately).
    - renewiltord 6y ago
      Honestly, I was very surprised by the belligerence. My strategy for interacting with any authority with disproportionate power over me is to tend towards normalcy so I was pretty rapidly complying with the mask swap. A friend of mine postulated that they couldn't hear me through my mask, but as I took it off and was swapping I said "I'm complying, I'm complying, I'm not arguing" in a conciliatory tone, it didn't seem to help. I was playing the 100% doormat. Didn't stop the attendant from saying to me as I was leaving to go to my seat: "It's not that dangerous". I can only guess that they encounter people who do insist or that they are on web forums / chat groups with other attendants who have encountered people who do argue and so they're primed for someone like that. Puzzling interaction, to be honest. It was the first time I've had any sort of negative interaction with a service professional.

rattray 6y ago

(since a few folks have been interested in the mask and this is hn, I should mention that I'm currently looking for some freelance frontend dev help right now - I don't have time to fix the hideous parts of my homepage and it's giving me heartburn. Email in profile).

artvark11 6y ago

Is that an actual product or a joke page? I can't imagine anyone actually wearing something like that.

rattray 6y ago
I know it can be hard to believe, but it's very real (just like COVID). Maybe this quote from a recent customer helps explain: > I'll look like a freak in the mask, but a LIVING freak. Thank you. We sold over 1000 of them in our first week, not many returns. I've been wearing mine for months and get way more interest/thumbs-up than "looks". We do get our fair share of internet trolls, though.
- artvark11 6y ago
  It reminds me of CodysLab's mask https://youtu.be/_iwxyzXcP7k https://youtu.be/_iwxyzXcP7k
- graeme 6y ago
  Instant virality too. I just shared with a friend cause it’s so novel.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
tricolon 6y ago
It looks much less intimidating than my Honeywell North full facepiece respirator, which I've worn in public.

sebmellen 6y ago

What's your supply capacity on these masks? I have a friend who works in a medium-sized hospital system in the South, and we talked about using snorkelling masks back in May. (They were reusing one N95 mask for 10 days per person.) I was surprised no one had repurposed snorkelling masks yet. I sent him the link. If he gets back to me and his hospital system is interested, perhaps we could arrange a call. Would your HN profile email be okay for reaching out?

rattray 6y ago
We have over 15,000 on the way this month (some are spoken for). Yes, do reach out! Some folks actually did do this in April, just with 3D-printed adaptors: maskson.org and pneumask.org. They don't have built-in exhale filters, though, which limits the utility.