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Nest has a huge staff for what it currently sells. I thought something similar. And then I worked there for a summer. Building hardware is much more difficult

by grinich 13y ago

Nest has a huge staff for what it currently sells. I thought something similar. And then I worked there for a summer. Building hardware is much more difficult than you think, in ways that aren't immediately obvious. Someone like Tony can easily raise capital in Silicon Valley, and Nest's products were selling extremely well across many retail locations. I'd be astonished if they were running out of money. Why is it surprising that scaling is the issue? Tony's entire background is in devices and hardware, not large software systems. They have a huge complex stack. Imagine building a system with tens (or hundreds) of thousands of connected nodes, all streaming realtime data that must be analyzed, and which can't ever go down. A Django app just won't cut it. And that's just the tip of the iceberg for Nest. The machine learning is surprisingly sophisticated.

hueving 13y ago
>which can't ever go down. The thermostats don't cease to function if they can't contact nest's website. I agree that it's important, but it's no more critical than any other day-to-day website.
- AVTizzle 13y ago
  They do have smoke detectors too though. 100% uptime is critical.
  - tlrobinson 13y ago
    Presumably they'll still function like a normal smoke detector if Nest's servers go down. Right? RIGHT?!
    - smackfu 13y ago
      Of course. Interesting also is that the Nest Protects form a mesh network to set off the alarm across all of them, even if the wifi is down.
      - throwaway092834 13y ago
        I believe that's a recent requirement in California for new or updated dwellings. See R314.5: http://osfm.fire.ca.gov/firelifesafety/pdf/Smoke%20Alarm%20Task%20Force/R-32%202010%20CA%20Residential%20Code.pdf http://osfm.fire.ca.gov/firelifesafety/pdf/Smoke%20Alarm%20T... Also interesting is that quite a few municipalities forbid connecting the fire alarm system to any external system, unless the external system is UL listed. Could be some regulatory hurdles in Nest's future.
peterjs 13y ago
I am quite sure that by "scaling" he meant the scaling of their business activities and not software. "... Google offers to bring that scale to us. For me, ultimately building great products is key.... ...you have to look at markets outside of the US. We are doing very well in the US and Canada but we need to get to Europe and around the globe. Just getting to UK has taken up a lot of time and energy and when you look at Europe, there are many countries and many opportunities. It is an atoms-based business and a lot goes into getting it to scale — legal, physical distribution and even localization are time consuming and need new kind of scale." Here is the interview: http://gigaom.com/2014/01/13/nests-ceo-tony-fadell-explains-why-he-teamed-up-with-google-its-about-infrastructure/ http://gigaom.com/2014/01/13/nests-ceo-tony-fadell-explains-...

by grinich 13y ago

hueving 13y ago

>which can't ever go down. The thermostats don't cease to function if they can't contact nest's website. I agree that it's important, but it's no more critical than any other day-to-day website.

AVTizzle 13y ago
They do have smoke detectors too though. 100% uptime is critical.
- tlrobinson 13y ago
  Presumably they'll still function like a normal smoke detector if Nest's servers go down. Right? RIGHT?!
  - smackfu 13y ago
    Of course. Interesting also is that the Nest Protects form a mesh network to set off the alarm across all of them, even if the wifi is down.
    - throwaway092834 13y ago
      I believe that's a recent requirement in California for new or updated dwellings. See R314.5: http://osfm.fire.ca.gov/firelifesafety/pdf/Smoke%20Alarm%20Task%20Force/R-32%202010%20CA%20Residential%20Code.pdf http://osfm.fire.ca.gov/firelifesafety/pdf/Smoke%20Alarm%20T... Also interesting is that quite a few municipalities forbid connecting the fire alarm system to any external system, unless the external system is UL listed. Could be some regulatory hurdles in Nest's future.

peterjs 13y ago

I am quite sure that by "scaling" he meant the scaling of their business activities and not software. "... Google offers to bring that scale to us. For me, ultimately building great products is key.... ...you have to look at markets outside of the US. We are doing very well in the US and Canada but we need to get to Europe and around the globe. Just getting to UK has taken up a lot of time and energy and when you look at Europe, there are many countries and many opportunities. It is an atoms-based business and a lot goes into getting it to scale — legal, physical distribution and even localization are time consuming and need new kind of scale." Here is the interview: http://gigaom.com/2014/01/13/nests-ceo-tony-fadell-explains-why-he-teamed-up-with-google-its-about-infrastructure/ http://gigaom.com/2014/01/13/nests-ceo-tony-fadell-explains-...