psgibbs's comments

psgibbs | 4 years ago | on: The Electrification of Everything

Range goes way up – electrification can turn a 10+ mile commute from something intense (where you need a shower when you arrive) into something manageable.

It allows bikes to be a substitute for far more things that you'd otherwise use a different mode of transportation for.

psgibbs | 5 years ago | on: The next fleet of Breitbarts is already raking in ad dollars

I think there's some "both sides are equal" aspects in your position that mischaracterize the reality as I understand it.

In 2016 Democrats thought manipulation / fake news (exactly the root problem in this article) was happening, and it appears it was. They recognized there is risk to systems and proposed to enhance election security based on the new (and proven) information that state actors were directly involved in trying to manipulate our election. I do not remember (I may be proven wrong), Democrats undermining the fidelity of the election itself, or alleging fraudulent votes, excepting one or two places where it was proven to happen (see the Dan McCready campaign).

My understanding is both parties now are roughly aligned with their longstanding positions in terms of how they view election security and relative occurrence of voter fraud and malfeasance. Comparing the 2016 positions on interference via fake news is apples and oranges, it is fundamentally a different subject – and the allegations of election interference were literally proven true by a justice system run by the Republican party.

psgibbs | 7 years ago | on: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

Without much more detail than this, they don't sound like cofounders. If they're waiting until you launch to go 100%, then you're assuming all the risk right now.

Again take with a grain of salt, bc I have no context, but , if there's one you think is clearly the best, that you like working with them, get them to be a cofounder and make them go all in. They can do lots of manual work to validate the idea/product (ie manually do things you'd like your product to do). If there's noone you could see doing this, then their role is probably not going to grow that much when there is a 'product'.

Also: the product will never be done, and framing launch as a binary event doesn't help you (or your potential cofounders). It's all just a continuous spectrum of trying to cover as much scope/utility as possible for your users, and using a product to try to automate that. After 7 years, you'd be shocked how much stuff my sales cofounder does manually that we had framed as a 'required feature for launch'.

psgibbs | 7 years ago | on: Lyft Files for IPO

I'd make the argument that because there are low costs of switching (as has been mentioned elsewhere), these are scale effects (like in most industries), rather than network effects.

psgibbs | 10 years ago | on: Ask HN: Do you feel like you're missing out?

Yes – every day. By most metrics, my startup is going great, but it's taken years of all-nighters, working weekends, and skipped vacations. I love what I'm doing, but I'm also cognizant of all the friends, relationships, family-time, and other experiences I'm not investing my time in as much as I should.

Whether things work out or not, I'll always wonder what the counterfactual was, all the unknown-unknowns I chose to miss out on.

Regardless of what you read, what you feel like you're missing out on, know everything comes with a sacrifice. My only advice would be to think carefully about what you choose to invest your time in.

psgibbs | 11 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2014)

Folsom Labs, San Francisco, Full Time Software Engineers (www.folsomlabs.com)

We make powerful design tools for Solar PV (think cloud-based AutoCAD with built in physics modeling). Our mission is to make these tools as easy to use as possible, which dramatically broadens the availability of solar. It's a unique place in the solar industry, new technologies desperately need software like ours to convince both banks and installers that they can have positive impact on energy production.

We launched to revenue in January, and have real traction and high growth, and we're still just a 4 person team, so there's a ton of opportunity. Everyday we get to deal with a range of problems that few startups get to offer – we have a modern web-stack, we need to use our cloud-clusters for the simulation half of the product, but also get to solve interesting physics/optimization problems on a regular basis (if that's your thing).

– Paul [email protected]

[1] http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/better-faster-ba.... [2] AngularJS, Python/Flask (API/Backend), Cython/C (Physics Simulation Engine)

psgibbs | 11 years ago | on: Angular Restmod – Rails-inspired REST ORM

We use it for our core app, and now have a bit over 10K lines of application code.

Our general strategy is to organize the app by functional areas, each area of which is organized similarly to how most angular sample projects are: with a directives.js, controllers.js, services.js, etc. We use ui-router to tie this all together.

psgibbs | 12 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2014)

Folsom Labs, San Francisco, Full Time (www.folsomlabs.com)

Basically, if you are interested in science and/or energy, and want to do software engineering at a place that actually let's you leverage the math/physics you learned in college/grad school, we're probably as good a fit as you'll find. We make powerful design tools for Solar PV systems, making them very easy to use by leveraging a pretty sophisticated simulation engine (so we handle the physics for the user).

We've already launched our product[1], have some great traction (including a federal grant), and we're still just a 2 man team, so there's a lot of opportunity. Everyday we get to deal with a range of problems that few startups get to offer – we have a pretty modern web-stack [2] (that we actually need, not just to be trendy), but also get to solve interesting physics/optimization problems on a regular basis. It's a really unique place in both the solar industry, and as a software company.

– Paul [email protected]

[1] http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/better-faster-ba... [2] AngularJS, Python/Flask (API/Backend), Cython/C (Physics Simulation Engine)

psgibbs | 12 years ago | on: Ask HN: Where are the interesting jobs?

I posted this on the "Who's hiring" thread a few days ago, but didn't get much traction. Basically, if you are interested in science and/or energy, we're going to be doing a lot of really interesting things spanning physics simulations, system optimizations, and, yes, 'cranking out web application features'.

We're literally two people right now, but have a great product, and great traction. It's not a traditional VC style market or exit opportunity, but our opportunity/headcount ratio is absolutely massive, and we desperately need to hire.

=======

Folsom Labs, San Francisco CA, Full-time Software Engineer http://www.folsomlabs.com

We're building the next generation in solar (PV) system design tools; basically we make it very easy to analyze the potential value of a new PV systems by leveraging an advanced physics simulation engine. We've been in beta for about a year, and are formally calling it 1.0 in a few weeks. We've got a lot of great traction, and almost universally stellar feedback from our users. We've also recently received a federal grant[1] to help fund our next generation of products (and a round of hires).

Everyday we get to deal with a range of problems that few startups get to offer – we have a pretty modern web-stack [2] (that we actually need, not just to be trendy), but also get to solve interesting physics/optimization problems on a regular basis, while also acting as industry thought-leaders. It's a really unique place in both the solar industry, and as a software company.

We've made it this far as a two-man team, and we're poised for a lot of growth in the next year, so it's about time we brought on some help. If you're a full-stack engineer looking to do some really interesting work (and occasionally put your undergrad physics courses to real use), we'd love to hear from you.

– Paul

[email protected]

[1] http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/sunshot/incubator_projects....

[2] AngularJS (frontend), Python/Flask (API/Backend), Cython/C (Physics Simulation Engine)

*edit:reformatted the original "Who's Hiring" post

psgibbs | 12 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2014)

Folsom Labs, San Francisco CA, Full-time/Intern Software Engineer

http://www.folsomlabs.com

We're building the next generation in solar (PV) system design tools; basically we make it very easy to analyze the potential value of a new PV systems by leveraging an advanced physics simulation engine. We've been in beta for about a year, and are formally calling it 1.0 in a few weeks. We've got a lot of great traction, and almost universally stellar feedback from our users. We've also recently received a federal grant[1] to help fund our next generation of products (and a round of hires).

Everyday we get to deal with a range of problems that few startups get to offer – we have a pretty modern web-stack [2] (that we actually need, not just to be trendy), but also get to solve interesting physics/optimization problems on a regular basis, while also acting as industry thought-leaders. It's a really unique place in both the solar industry, and as a software company.

We've made it this far as a two-man team, and we're poised for a lot of growth in the next year, so it's about time we brought on some help. If you're a full-stack engineer looking to do some really interesting work (and occasionally put your undergrad physics courses to real use), we'd love to hear from you.

– Paul

[email protected]

[1] http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/sunshot/incubator_projects...

[2] AngularJS (frontend), Python/Flask (API/Backend), Cython/C (Physics Simulation Engine)

psgibbs | 12 years ago | on: AngularJS 1.2.0: timely-delivery

You can always create functions that refer to the private element:

MyObject.prototype.id = function(){return this._id;};

Which gives you: leagues/{{ league.id() }}

psgibbs | 12 years ago | on: Cash Flow and Destiny

While I agree with this statement in general, it is a bit of a tautology - do cash reserves come from success, or cause it?

I agree that cash reserves help, but I think it's hard to ascertain how big a driver of success it is, given that it is also the result of success.

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