DaniFong

26 ms·

211.
by DaniFong 13y ago
An MVP is a totally different think when you're talking about electromechanical equipment that needs to attach to the grid. You need to work so hard just to get something out of the door, you might as well make it good. Luckily, the ma
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Speaking as a engineer who generally applauds the competitive attempts but is sometimes freaked out by the technical challenges they put ahead of themselves... Gravity Power: I hope they have a good idea for how they can make and seal a gia
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Hard to speculate, but it probably gave them a lot of leverage.
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by DaniFong 13y ago
I'm a founder of an energy storage company, Lightsail Energy. To say all government funded energy storage companies went belly up is an exaggeration. Many still survive, although you will note a strange anti-correlation between gover
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Really fantastic interview, thanks.
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Big data: 0. Smart analysis: 1. Snark: 100. :-)
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Would love to be pointed towards any kind of mathematical analysis of this at all. There's a really big problem -- you need high ion temperatures to achieve fusion, but it's electron pressure that's transfered by a shockwave,
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by DaniFong 13y ago
I'm wondering if this is true, and if so, why? It's the same winner take most dynamics. In most fields, like disk storage, it was extremely competitive and most profits disappeared. VC in general has poor returns for funds outside
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Apple barely made it also; this is a nature of this game. High risks, power returns, winner take most.
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by DaniFong 13y ago
There are really a lot of potential legitimate reasons for wanting one partner on your board rather than another; particularly Doerr at KPCB vs Ray Lane, now emeritus. Like I said, politics. I don't know the scoop.
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Important folks are leaving places like GE and joining places like Tesla, SpaceX, and my own company LightSail, precisely because they are disenchanted with the proclivity of GE to actually decide to invest in real new inventions. Despite t
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by DaniFong 13y ago
I hugely disagree with this. KPCB very nearly owned the lion's share of Tesla, and missed out due to a mere $20MM in delta in valuation (VantagePoint offered $70MM, Kleiner offered $20MM). They then missed out again simply because of p
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by DaniFong 13y ago
I hope I'm not the only person terrified about the lag/fidelity on Skype for surgery!
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by DaniFong 13y ago
The cycle life of lead acid batteries is terrible. Lithium-ion has a shorter shelf life if you treat them both well, but can cycle without much degradation.
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Modeling the organizational behavior of monopolies as a steady state, or an example of rationality, is a perilous process. Many utilities are starting to flirt with it, but they really do think in decades -- if you can call their deliberati
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by DaniFong 13y ago
I'd actually like to see the comparison. It seems to me that there is a case for us understanding the long-term evolution of climate. We have a decent record of atmospheric composition and temperature in ice cores, and, after all, we d
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Agree that, especially, the recent uncovered Origin lawsuit stuff looks pretty bad. It is probably worth considering the activities of customers, allies, partners, and taking responsibility. (e.g. for that matter, we are allied with Saudi A
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Sorry! Good point. What I meant to say was that if they are a patent troll, they are not the trolliest of the trolls. They are merely the most public.
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by DaniFong 13y ago
This is a good point, but far from complete. It is not like they are rolling in the proceeds. Word on the street is that the IV funds are not profitable yet. Also, inventors, who they purchase patents from, are in fact getting checks in the
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by DaniFong 13y ago
As for whether knowing him matters, the question is not whether you know him personally, but whether you actually understand what he does or is trying to do. Honestly I think most people who pay judgement do not, but it is too painful to se
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by DaniFong 13y ago
In his own words: "The patent system exists to give economic incentive to create inventions -- not products. After all, profit is the incentive to create and sell products. In order to have a level playing field, inventors must have a
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Do you know him? Honesty I don't have a huge amount of information about his other dealings, but I think there is a genuine case for what he is trying to do with IV, even if you disagree with with methods. With me and my company, he ha
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Amazing!
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Not exactly efficiency, (though they have high combustion efficiency) but low cost and very good mass ratio. If they make it reusable, that where the killer improvement is. Elon says they're getting there; I'm crossing my fingers.
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by DaniFong 13y ago
"I think we should create a West Coast "Institue for Advanced Study" in the middle of the desert with a few million dollars and a bunch of dreamers who want to get their hands dirty and try ideas that everyone else thinks are
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by DaniFong 13y ago
In time I'll publish a paper and technical report. In a little more, I'll show a prototype. But I do have my hands fairly full! I don't usually work from the literature (it is hard to access papers outside of academia, and th
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by DaniFong 13y ago
It's not widely known or understood, but there are, in my opinion, quite a few ways to make significantly superior jet engine replacements. Factors of 2 or 3 in specific power and efficiency are possible. Due to the rocket equation, th
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by DaniFong 13y ago
For whatever it's worth, that's not me down voting you. I will say two constructive things, and leave it as that: - Startups cannot possibly afford to pay people what they are worth in cash salaries, because the value that they create is re
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by DaniFong 13y ago
Let me try again. Maybe it will enlighten some other readers. You're cherry picking some of the outermost outliers of both of their ranges, ignoring the cost of storage and transmission and distribution infrastructure, and ignoring the fact
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by DaniFong 13y ago
I'm very confused by this. Who is "selling hopes and dreams to the masses in exchange for their servitude as employees who will never join their ranks." The dream we sell to our employees is one version of an idyllic California life. Awesom

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