Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

xnx wrote: post #3

Good timing "At least 10 sites have suspended or limited weather balloon launches because of the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Weather Service." https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/weather-balloon...

Their agenda is to intentionally make government dysfunctional as a catalyst to privatize everything. It's working.

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#6

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 5:50 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#7

Post by khazhoux » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 5:57 PM UTC

Congrats to the team.

I gotta say, though, these days I'm used these announcements all being "Two-month old FooBar startup announces $850M angel round at a $38B valuation"

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#8

Post by huslage » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 5:59 PM UTC

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society.

No one should fund this.

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#9

Post by jaccola » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 6:12 PM UTC

huslage wrote: post #8

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society. No one should fund this.

By this logic anything could become government run but never transition from government run to privately run, creating a ratcheting mechanism that would eventually lead to ~everything being government run!

The pro case for privatisation (that I happen to believe in) is: you were paying for it anyway, via your tax dollars, having it private leads to competition and stronger incentives to improve/cut costs meaning it will net cost you less.

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#10

Post by shaism » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 6:16 PM UTC

huslage wrote: post #8

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society. No one should fund this.

Do you mind elaborating?

I agree that weather data should be public but I don’t see why we should restrict innovation in the private market if there is demand for it.

Also more generally, I see no issue in the government outsourcing work to a competitive private market wherever possible.