8 ms·

Dark Sky has a new owner

206 points by achariam 12y ago

chipotle_coyote 12y ago
This is fascinating from a startup funding point of view, especially the rather bracing bluntness in the last paragraph ("Are they going to fuck things up?").
- thegrossman 12y ago
  Heh, the check's already in the bank. What can they do to us now? (Just kidding. I actually ran the post by them and they had no issues at all -- I'm honestly not sure what I would have done if they did have a problem with it).
  - chipotle_coyote 12y ago
    Well, if things don't go well, the Long Now has a terrific bar you can drown your sorrows at! But seriously, it's an interesting matchup.
  - shawn-butler 12y ago
    Sent an email before I realized you comment here. "This team of several dozen engineers, scientists, and wackos have helped farmers figure out when to fertilize and plant crops" What was this ag project of theirs that you mention in your blog post? I can't find anything. Sounds pretty interesting.
  - guiambros 12y ago
    Congrats! Incredibly happy for you guys. I was an early backer on Kickstarter, and really looking forward to the next chapter on Dark Sky's evolution.
- jbigelow76 12y ago
  That was very enlightening. I'm surprised that a there have been enough one time purchases through the app store to cover two developer's salaries, Apple's commission, and a hundred-ish Linode servers over the course of three years. I would think with a one time purchase each user becomes increasingly unprofitable (until they eventually reach a negative LTV) and the operation becomes untenable. Does Forecast.io monetize in ways other than the Dark Sky app? (I admit only being vaguely aware of them as a non iPhone user)
  - thegrossman 12y ago
    Dark Sky is kind of an expensive app, as apps go: $3.99. Which means we have a small percentage of the market, giving it a very different growth curve from free apps. Our rate of revenue has been slowly increasing since we launched. And since our market share is so low, I don't see us running out of potential customers any time soon. (And to answer your other question: Forecast.io makes some money, but not much. And we do have an increasingly large revenue stream in our data API)
    - cryptoz 12y ago
      Hi Adam, this is a fascinating post, thanks for writing it! I'm Jacob, of PressureNet, and in fact Dark Sky is the reason I'm still building weather software! You beat me to consumer-focused radar postprocessing (I was working on this using McGill's radar data in 2010, and stopped when you launched) and you did a really good job - such a good job I took a look around and started collecting barometric pressure data in a new attempt at making the best hyperlocal weather forecast! You and your team are inspiring. :) I'd be thrilled to talk about your data API and forecast tech, especially if you're considering working with phone sensors to improve your forecast models. I'm jacob@cumulonimbus.ca, have a look at http://pressurenet.io http://pressurenet.io if you're interested. Thanks for building great products and writing great posts!
      - wensing 12y ago
        CEO of Riskpulse here. I've been through all of the monetization trenches for weather software and we are now capitalizing on real demand in B2B/enterprise. If either of you guys ever want to connect to talk shop or (in)formally partner or share ideas, let me know: matt@riskpulse.com
stevebot 12y ago
heh I love their openness and I also love their app and API. From a consumer perspective, I'm happy for them and hope they don't go away anytime soon. And in case you're not aware their hourly feed has kick ass data that is amazingly accurate.
dewitt 12y ago
There's a chance that the audience here hasn't yet seen http://forecast.io http://forecast.io or the Dark Sky app. This is a shame. They are radically better weather experiences than any you've seen before. Go check them out now.
- learnstats2 12y ago
  They are radically better at very-short-term forecasting: I use forecast.io frequently for knowing when to take the dog for a walk etc. I don't find them an improvement for medium-term or longer-term forecasting, and I continue to use other sources for these cases. Good luck Dark Sky, keep improving :)
  - HCIdivision17 12y ago
    Very much so. I would use it to time to the minute when to leave on my motorcycle to avoid rain, but it's less accurate a couple days out. But it seems it usually fails pessimistic, which is just what I want to be prepared. (And frankly, with a name like Dark Sky, it's just what I would expect!)
    - learnstats2 12y ago
      I thought it was well-known that consumer weather forecasting is almost always pessimistic. Forecasting sun when it rains generates complaints; the other way around, not so much. Personally, I prefer it when they give percentages (which I assume are still pessimistic). The Met Office appears to forecast "rain" on a "30%" chance of precipitation.
      - HCIdivision17 12y ago
        Consider me one of the 10k learning that today :) It certainly makes sense to do so, but I had doubted it simply because of the many times people would argue with me about how "it wouldn't be that bad/cold/rainy". I assumed one should plan for the worst, but many liked to be reminded of bright days ahead. YMMV and different strokes and all that.
smeyer 12y ago
I've long been a big fan of the app, and I also quite liked this post. Thanks for all the lovely weather predictions so far and congrats on the deal!
mrfusion 12y ago
I love this app. The only issue I've been noticing lately is it's been predicting snow when it's really rain. I wonder what could be causing that.
seeingfurther 12y ago
BEST WEATHER APP HANDS DOWN! Yes, I needed all caps there because I'm shouting.
ar_turnbull 12y ago
Would love to see Dark Sky in Canada. Hopefully the new owners make that a priority :-)
k-mcgrady 12y ago
Congrats on the deal. I've been using Dark Sky for about a year and it compliments the longer term Weather iOS app fantastically. I can't tell you how many times I've been about to go for a walk only to check the app and see a heavy 10 min shower starting in a few minutes. It's great being able to delay a few minutes and not get soaked!
nandhp 12y ago
Since the server seems to be too busy: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.forecast.io%2Fdark-sky-has-a-new-owner%2F http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%...
xal 12y ago
Please come to Canada.
- Polyphonie 12y ago
  Yes, please.
gajeam 12y ago
This post makes me like them even more, which I didn't know was possible. Love the Are they going to fuck things up? section
lor3 12y ago
As a user of their great API I have asked myself (strangely very recently) what would I do if forecast.io ever disappeared... Hopefully with this change I'm less to have to find out. Please keep the API up and running! And congratulations!
- thegrossman 12y ago
  The API is going to be a big priority for us going forward. We have some new development planned on that front, and AI will be able to help us out tremendously.
andrea_s 12y ago
I've been using their APIs in the past, they're definitely the most developer-friendly forecast service that I know of. It's good to see their hard work is paying off!
jarrettch 12y ago
This is great news. forecast.io is often the 2nd thing I check when I wake up, after checking email/texts. Hopefully with more devs and support, an Android version of the app will be in the works!
CaseFlatline 12y ago
Congrats on the news! I was one of the kickstarter contributors and love the service. Best wishes to your future growth. It's amazing to see a KS campaign blossom.
rwhitman 12y ago
Dark Sky has been letting me down in some pretty grandiose ways over the last few months, to the point where my wife sees my unbroken faith in it as a kind of running joke. The "Are they going to fuck things up?" section at the bottom of their post certainly sheds some light on why the reliability has dropped off of late. For whatever reason where I live in Brooklyn is completely unreliable. If the problem is scaling, I guess it would makes sense that they're choking on the volume of users in the NYC region Glad to see that instead of selling to the weather channel or something they're continuing to put engineering muscle behind it. Dark Sky & Forecast.io are just awesome and I really want to see these guys succeed.
- slacka 12y ago
  I gave Dark Sky an honest shot for a few weeks, but their reliability was atrocious. Could you please explain what is responsible for your "unbroken faith"? Is there something about the idea, app, or people that I'm missing here?
  - rwhitman 12y ago
    Dark Sky when it worked was almost magic - it could predict precipitation to the minute. An alert would go off and you'd know you have 5 minutes to seek shelter before the rain started.. it was freakishly accurate. The developers are an indie app store success story as well. Started the project on Kickstarter with a new way to present hyper-local weather data down to the minute, in an industry dominated by a few big players and conventional hourly forecasts based on region. Based somewhere in upstate NY if I recall too
- MBCook 12y ago
  Agreed. About two years ago I used to use Dark Sky Inwood amaze people with how freakishly accurate it was. At this point I've given up. I use Forecast.io because it's a well-made app (except for no iPhone 6 update, very sad), but I completely ignore the forecast for the next hour. It's basically never correct, predicting rain far more than it ever happens and often telling me that it's raining when it's not.
demetris 12y ago
I love forecast.io and I was happy when I finally found a good Android forecast.io app, Weather Timeline: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.weather https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.... Three things I’d like to comment on after reading the post: 1. The post title confuses me: Looking at the content of the post, I understand that Dark Sky has a new co-owner rather than a new owner. 2. I enjoyed the openness and directness of the last paragraph. 3. I did not enjoy the language at a couple of places. :-) Congratulations and best wishes for the future of the company, its services and its apps!
lisbakke 12y ago
We built http://weatherornot.io http://weatherornot.io on top of the forecast.io API and these guys do awesome work. Adam, Jay, thanks a lot for the quick support and the high quality API. You guys are doing awesome work! Keep it up.
- DiabloD3 12y ago
  Why not for Android too? This looks like the kind of weather app I'd start recommending to other people... problem is, all my other people are Androids.
  - lisbakke 12y ago
    Hey! Yeah, unfortunately it's just me writing code and it's enough work keeping up/improving the iOS version.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
yanowitz 12y ago
I love the app but I've found the data feed can sometimes be spotty (maybe this is just in Chicago)? For example, it's snowing outside right now and Dark Sky shows no precipitation for the next hour. Yahoo Weather correctly showed it was snowing (and showed it was likely to continue for several hours, so I parked in the garage). It would be useful to have some insight into the underlying data, it's freshness, and an easy way to report inaccuracy (I've sent support emails but they've gone unanswered -- I assume the support load is enormous for a small team).
- jwoldan 12y ago
  I've found the near term forecast a bit flaky in New York as well, though I've always imagined the city to be particularly unpredictable. I still use it regularly, but I hope they'll devote some of their new resources to improvements to the core forecast algorithm.
Contraptor 12y ago
The service engine I've been building to power http://www.ifweather.com http://www.ifweather.com is powered by their API. I'm not sure I would have picked their API originally had I known the company was run by just two guys, but I am very pleased with the API so far. I'm happy to hear that the API is "going to be a big priority for us going forward". Many best wishes and best of luck to Adam and Jay as this new sunrise for your business begins.
- kamakazizuru 12y ago
  just had a look at your site. Why would I use this over a simple IFTTT alert?
  - Contraptor 12y ago
    You might use this instead of a simple IFTTT alert exactly because IFTTT is so simple. In other words, ifWeather.com is designed to be more of a weather alert management console for people that would like to setup and manage multiple alerts for multiple locations. I think that we in the technology industry forget that for so many other industries the weather really matters, and not just the weather where you or your phone are. A couple examples: - a surprising percentage of people that have signed up so far are photographers that want to be alerted to ideal forecast conditions for several locations. - My wife is a hydro-geologist, so a lot of her sampling needs to be done after specific weather conditions. Her sample locations are spread all over a large region and it's a real pain for her to check weather conditions for so many locations daily. Thanks for checking out the site.

206 points by achariam 12y ago

This is fascinating from a startup funding point of view, especially the rather bracing bluntness in the last paragraph ("Are they going to fuck things up?").

thegrossman 12y ago
Heh, the check's already in the bank. What can they do to us now? (Just kidding. I actually ran the post by them and they had no issues at all -- I'm honestly not sure what I would have done if they did have a problem with it).
- chipotle_coyote 12y ago
  Well, if things don't go well, the Long Now has a terrific bar you can drown your sorrows at! But seriously, it's an interesting matchup.
- shawn-butler 12y ago
  Sent an email before I realized you comment here. "This team of several dozen engineers, scientists, and wackos have helped farmers figure out when to fertilize and plant crops" What was this ag project of theirs that you mention in your blog post? I can't find anything. Sounds pretty interesting.
- guiambros 12y ago
  Congrats! Incredibly happy for you guys. I was an early backer on Kickstarter, and really looking forward to the next chapter on Dark Sky's evolution.
jbigelow76 12y ago
That was very enlightening. I'm surprised that a there have been enough one time purchases through the app store to cover two developer's salaries, Apple's commission, and a hundred-ish Linode servers over the course of three years. I would think with a one time purchase each user becomes increasingly unprofitable (until they eventually reach a negative LTV) and the operation becomes untenable. Does Forecast.io monetize in ways other than the Dark Sky app? (I admit only being vaguely aware of them as a non iPhone user)
- thegrossman 12y ago
  Dark Sky is kind of an expensive app, as apps go: $3.99. Which means we have a small percentage of the market, giving it a very different growth curve from free apps. Our rate of revenue has been slowly increasing since we launched. And since our market share is so low, I don't see us running out of potential customers any time soon. (And to answer your other question: Forecast.io makes some money, but not much. And we do have an increasingly large revenue stream in our data API)
  - cryptoz 12y ago
    Hi Adam, this is a fascinating post, thanks for writing it! I'm Jacob, of PressureNet, and in fact Dark Sky is the reason I'm still building weather software! You beat me to consumer-focused radar postprocessing (I was working on this using McGill's radar data in 2010, and stopped when you launched) and you did a really good job - such a good job I took a look around and started collecting barometric pressure data in a new attempt at making the best hyperlocal weather forecast! You and your team are inspiring. :) I'd be thrilled to talk about your data API and forecast tech, especially if you're considering working with phone sensors to improve your forecast models. I'm jacob@cumulonimbus.ca, have a look at http://pressurenet.io http://pressurenet.io if you're interested. Thanks for building great products and writing great posts!
    - wensing 12y ago
      CEO of Riskpulse here. I've been through all of the monetization trenches for weather software and we are now capitalizing on real demand in B2B/enterprise. If either of you guys ever want to connect to talk shop or (in)formally partner or share ideas, let me know: matt@riskpulse.com

stevebot 12y ago

heh I love their openness and I also love their app and API. From a consumer perspective, I'm happy for them and hope they don't go away anytime soon. And in case you're not aware their hourly feed has kick ass data that is amazingly accurate.

dewitt 12y ago

There's a chance that the audience here hasn't yet seen http://forecast.io http://forecast.io or the Dark Sky app. This is a shame. They are radically better weather experiences than any you've seen before. Go check them out now.

learnstats2 12y ago
They are radically better at very-short-term forecasting: I use forecast.io frequently for knowing when to take the dog for a walk etc. I don't find them an improvement for medium-term or longer-term forecasting, and I continue to use other sources for these cases. Good luck Dark Sky, keep improving :)
- HCIdivision17 12y ago
  Very much so. I would use it to time to the minute when to leave on my motorcycle to avoid rain, but it's less accurate a couple days out. But it seems it usually fails pessimistic, which is just what I want to be prepared. (And frankly, with a name like Dark Sky, it's just what I would expect!)
  - learnstats2 12y ago
    I thought it was well-known that consumer weather forecasting is almost always pessimistic. Forecasting sun when it rains generates complaints; the other way around, not so much. Personally, I prefer it when they give percentages (which I assume are still pessimistic). The Met Office appears to forecast "rain" on a "30%" chance of precipitation.
    - HCIdivision17 12y ago
      Consider me one of the 10k learning that today :) It certainly makes sense to do so, but I had doubted it simply because of the many times people would argue with me about how "it wouldn't be that bad/cold/rainy". I assumed one should plan for the worst, but many liked to be reminded of bright days ahead. YMMV and different strokes and all that.

smeyer 12y ago

I've long been a big fan of the app, and I also quite liked this post. Thanks for all the lovely weather predictions so far and congrats on the deal!

mrfusion 12y ago

I love this app. The only issue I've been noticing lately is it's been predicting snow when it's really rain. I wonder what could be causing that.

seeingfurther 12y ago

BEST WEATHER APP HANDS DOWN! Yes, I needed all caps there because I'm shouting.

ar_turnbull 12y ago

Would love to see Dark Sky in Canada. Hopefully the new owners make that a priority :-)

k-mcgrady 12y ago

Congrats on the deal. I've been using Dark Sky for about a year and it compliments the longer term Weather iOS app fantastically. I can't tell you how many times I've been about to go for a walk only to check the app and see a heavy 10 min shower starting in a few minutes. It's great being able to delay a few minutes and not get soaked!

nandhp 12y ago

Since the server seems to be too busy: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.forecast.io%2Fdark-sky-has-a-new-owner%2F http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%...

xal 12y ago

Please come to Canada.

Polyphonie 12y ago
Yes, please.

gajeam 12y ago

This post makes me like them even more, which I didn't know was possible. Love the Are they going to fuck things up? section

lor3 12y ago

As a user of their great API I have asked myself (strangely very recently) what would I do if forecast.io ever disappeared... Hopefully with this change I'm less to have to find out. Please keep the API up and running! And congratulations!

thegrossman 12y ago
The API is going to be a big priority for us going forward. We have some new development planned on that front, and AI will be able to help us out tremendously.

andrea_s 12y ago

I've been using their APIs in the past, they're definitely the most developer-friendly forecast service that I know of. It's good to see their hard work is paying off!

jarrettch 12y ago

This is great news. forecast.io is often the 2nd thing I check when I wake up, after checking email/texts. Hopefully with more devs and support, an Android version of the app will be in the works!

CaseFlatline 12y ago

Congrats on the news! I was one of the kickstarter contributors and love the service. Best wishes to your future growth. It's amazing to see a KS campaign blossom.

rwhitman 12y ago

Dark Sky has been letting me down in some pretty grandiose ways over the last few months, to the point where my wife sees my unbroken faith in it as a kind of running joke. The "Are they going to fuck things up?" section at the bottom of their post certainly sheds some light on why the reliability has dropped off of late. For whatever reason where I live in Brooklyn is completely unreliable. If the problem is scaling, I guess it would makes sense that they're choking on the volume of users in the NYC region Glad to see that instead of selling to the weather channel or something they're continuing to put engineering muscle behind it. Dark Sky & Forecast.io are just awesome and I really want to see these guys succeed.

slacka 12y ago
I gave Dark Sky an honest shot for a few weeks, but their reliability was atrocious. Could you please explain what is responsible for your "unbroken faith"? Is there something about the idea, app, or people that I'm missing here?
- rwhitman 12y ago
  Dark Sky when it worked was almost magic - it could predict precipitation to the minute. An alert would go off and you'd know you have 5 minutes to seek shelter before the rain started.. it was freakishly accurate. The developers are an indie app store success story as well. Started the project on Kickstarter with a new way to present hyper-local weather data down to the minute, in an industry dominated by a few big players and conventional hourly forecasts based on region. Based somewhere in upstate NY if I recall too
MBCook 12y ago
Agreed. About two years ago I used to use Dark Sky Inwood amaze people with how freakishly accurate it was. At this point I've given up. I use Forecast.io because it's a well-made app (except for no iPhone 6 update, very sad), but I completely ignore the forecast for the next hour. It's basically never correct, predicting rain far more than it ever happens and often telling me that it's raining when it's not.

demetris 12y ago

I love forecast.io and I was happy when I finally found a good Android forecast.io app, Weather Timeline: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.weather https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.... Three things I’d like to comment on after reading the post: 1. The post title confuses me: Looking at the content of the post, I understand that Dark Sky has a new co-owner rather than a new owner. 2. I enjoyed the openness and directness of the last paragraph. 3. I did not enjoy the language at a couple of places. :-) Congratulations and best wishes for the future of the company, its services and its apps!

lisbakke 12y ago

We built http://weatherornot.io http://weatherornot.io on top of the forecast.io API and these guys do awesome work. Adam, Jay, thanks a lot for the quick support and the high quality API. You guys are doing awesome work! Keep it up.

DiabloD3 12y ago
Why not for Android too? This looks like the kind of weather app I'd start recommending to other people... problem is, all my other people are Androids.
- lisbakke 12y ago
  Hey! Yeah, unfortunately it's just me writing code and it's enough work keeping up/improving the iOS version.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

yanowitz 12y ago

I love the app but I've found the data feed can sometimes be spotty (maybe this is just in Chicago)? For example, it's snowing outside right now and Dark Sky shows no precipitation for the next hour. Yahoo Weather correctly showed it was snowing (and showed it was likely to continue for several hours, so I parked in the garage). It would be useful to have some insight into the underlying data, it's freshness, and an easy way to report inaccuracy (I've sent support emails but they've gone unanswered -- I assume the support load is enormous for a small team).

jwoldan 12y ago
I've found the near term forecast a bit flaky in New York as well, though I've always imagined the city to be particularly unpredictable. I still use it regularly, but I hope they'll devote some of their new resources to improvements to the core forecast algorithm.

Contraptor 12y ago

The service engine I've been building to power http://www.ifweather.com http://www.ifweather.com is powered by their API. I'm not sure I would have picked their API originally had I known the company was run by just two guys, but I am very pleased with the API so far. I'm happy to hear that the API is "going to be a big priority for us going forward". Many best wishes and best of luck to Adam and Jay as this new sunrise for your business begins.

kamakazizuru 12y ago
just had a look at your site. Why would I use this over a simple IFTTT alert?
- Contraptor 12y ago
  You might use this instead of a simple IFTTT alert exactly because IFTTT is so simple. In other words, ifWeather.com is designed to be more of a weather alert management console for people that would like to setup and manage multiple alerts for multiple locations. I think that we in the technology industry forget that for so many other industries the weather really matters, and not just the weather where you or your phone are. A couple examples: - a surprising percentage of people that have signed up so far are photographers that want to be alerted to ideal forecast conditions for several locations. - My wife is a hydro-geologist, so a lot of her sampling needs to be done after specific weather conditions. Her sample locations are spread all over a large region and it's a real pain for her to check weather conditions for so many locations daily. Thanks for checking out the site.