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Skully has crashed and burned

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Re: Skully has crashed and burned

#31

Post by ben_jones »

hkmurakami wrote: post #9
ChuckMcM wrote: post #3

For those of you going through this for the first time, this is what the loss of "loose money" feels like. For some it will feel "sudden" but it started last year. "Big name" startups were getting re-valued downward by their investors and founders trying to raise a series A or B kept getting "we would prefer to follow in this round, rather than lead it." I feel for the employees. One of my friends in the dot com bust…

I also feel for the junior developers being minted in droves from the various bootcamps across the country, but particularly in the SF Bay Area. Since we have it the hottest here, the pain will be the most acute as well when the downturn finally arrives in full force. Those who believed in the narrative that a 10 week developer bootcamp was the ticket to a good job in the "new era" will be in for a rude awakening. It…

I would feel for them if their weren't tens of thousands of C.S. graduates who payed north of $80,000 and four years of their lives for the privilege of entering the future job market. We need more STEM right?!

Re: Skully has crashed and burned

#32

Post by aianus »

sundvor wrote: post #6

Well that's a lot of sad. I was following the helmet project and thought it was a great idea ... should I ever (be foolish enough to) buy another motorbike. Some rear view mirrors are just ludicrously small. Having the rear view projected inside the helmet's AR display would be a massive boost to safety and confidence, as any rider who has ever waited at lights should be able to tell you. I feel sorry for the enginee…

> as any rider who has ever waited at lights should be able to tell you.

You should always filter straight to the front of the line at a stop light to avoid being hit from behind.

Re: Skully has crashed and burned

#34

Post by AcerbicZero »

The idea of buying a helmet with the tech built in, from a no-name startup is ridiculous when there are so many other factors in play.

I think the folks over at NUVIZ came up with a better stand alone solution, as its just an external attachment that projects the HUD for any normal full face helmet. That said, its been awhile since I've heard any updates so I'm not exactly hopeful.

Re: Skully has crashed and burned

#35

Post by argonaut »

hkmurakami wrote: post #9
ChuckMcM wrote: post #3

For those of you going through this for the first time, this is what the loss of "loose money" feels like. For some it will feel "sudden" but it started last year. "Big name" startups were getting re-valued downward by their investors and founders trying to raise a series A or B kept getting "we would prefer to follow in this round, rather than lead it." I feel for the employees. One of my friends in the dot com bust…

I also feel for the junior developers being minted in droves from the various bootcamps across the country, but particularly in the SF Bay Area. Since we have it the hottest here, the pain will be the most acute as well when the downturn finally arrives in full force. Those who believed in the narrative that a 10 week developer bootcamp was the ticket to a good job in the "new era" will be in for a rude awakening. It…

The downturn is in startups. I see these bootcamps graduates being snapped up by large corporations all the time. Including lots of companies that are not as sexy as the big Silicon Valley firms, yet still desperate for tech talent.

Re: Skully has crashed and burned

#36

Post by kstrauser »

danielhooper wrote: post #29
hkmurakami wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also feel for the junior developers being minted in droves from the various bootcamps across the country, but particularly in the SF Bay Area. Since we have it the hottest here, the pain will be the most acute as well when the downturn finally arrives in full force. Those who believed in the narrative that a 10 week developer bootcamp was the ticket to a good job in the "new era" will be in for a rude awakening. It…

What about all the tens of thousands of students that graduate with CS or related degrees every year?

They seem to fare much better, at least that I've seen. I've been in places that've hired freshly minted BS/CSes, but I'm only aware of hiring one bootcamp grad. She was exceptionally brilliant and motivated, and did the bootcamp to round out her otherwise excellent skillset.

I contrast that with some I've seen turned away for being able to make a Rails site, for instance, but with little or no knowledge of CS fundamentals. They too might have been brilliant and motivated, but they didn't come with the underlying knowledge they'd need to succeed in the roles we had available.

Bootcamps seem to teach tech, not theory. That's fine if you're hiring for that specific tech! My employers have been more interested in broad theory, though.

Re: Skully has crashed and burned

#37

Post by mikestew »

sbierwagen wrote: post #27
a_small_island wrote: post #18

Skully has a few interesting glassdoor reviews: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/SKULLY-Reviews-E1046917.ht...

Why does management always plant incredibly glowing fake reviews? At least do 3 stars, that would look more plausible than a 5 star review praising the CEO in a sea of 1 star reviews talking about how the CEO is burning investor money.

Pro tip on Glassfoor reviews: if under "advice to management" it says, "keep doing what you're doing" it's an HR-planted review. And given how often I see those exact words, I assume they all went to the same HR conference session.

Re: Skully has crashed and burned

#38

Post by mikestew »

cdibona wrote: post #22
mikestew wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Skully design is neat, but I don't see a big enough market for it. How much of a market could there possibly be for a $1500 helmet? I shudder at the thought of a $700 Shuberth hitting the ground. I consider a helmet to be disposable as well. How disposable is a $1500 helmet? And are you a Shoei head or an Arai? IOW, will this helmet even fit my style of head, or is it going to leave hotspots after a few hours? Co…

The article says that there were 3000 units pre-ordered. That's a fair amount of cash, but spinning up a hardware line where there are real safety and fit questions at hand is not trivial. Maybe they would have been better off making something that would replace the visor on a popular model of helmet like a shoei.

So, 3.5 million to develop safety equipment with electronics that have to endure wind, rain (at 90mph), shock, and general misuse (I don't treat my helmets with nearly the care I do my iPhone)...and still make a profit. My napkin scribbles say that would be a tall order.

EDIT: oh, yeah, and DOT/Snell testing. Don't know how much that is.

Re: Skully has crashed and burned

#40

Post by dav »

I'm a Skully helmet owner. I've had it about six weeks (although only three weeks of usage as I was on a long vacation). I picked up my helmet directly from employees at a Skully HQ BBQ release event for the first batch of non beta testers, so I met a lot of them. They are a good bunch, and obviously put in a lot of effort, and found success, on a difficult and audacious endeavor. I feel sad for them.

I'm still quite happy with my helmet. The battery life seems to not be as good as I hoped (maybe 2-3 hours) but not a big deal as my commute is under 15 minutes.

The software is definitely beta level, but not too surprising, and software is relatively easy to improve. I had very early on figured out a vector to load my own firmware onto the helmet (it's basically request with a response that points to a tarball of an android system that the helmet will download and install). I hadn't actually tried it yet, but I suppose now that's the only way to get improvements.

If any other hackers would like to collaborate on improving the software, or other owners would like to commiserate, I created a face book group Skully Owners:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/269680180066362/

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