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Density raises $51M Series C led by Kleiner Perkins

density.io

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Re: Density raises $51M Series C led by Kleiner Perkins

#31

Post by guscost »

heyflyguy wrote: post #28
guscost wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now our production backend relies on Postgres, Django, Kafka, Docker, Nomad, Celery (yes, those queues probably should be folded back into Kafka eventually), and lots of other open-source tech. I'm not sure if I should share much, and can't talk in depth anyway, about the embedded stack. And then there are the tools for developing the algorithm, and custom systems for assembly/test/pack in Syracuse. Our web app…

The hardware is yours?

Yes, designed in-house by some very talented colleagues.

Re: Density raises $51M Series C led by Kleiner Perkins

#32

Post by jartelt »

shard wrote: post #30

I wonder how much more accurate this solution is compared to a simple IR beam across the entry. Is the extra HW and SW complexity needed to implement a computer vision solution worth the increase accuracy? I suppose the answer would depend on the use case. Mom-and-pop shops might only need an IR beam, if that, while megacorps that optimize costs down to the penny might have use for exact customer trends so they can d…

Basic IR beam solutions cannot tell the difference between someone going in the store vs someone going out, so keeping a real-time count of occupancy is difficult (or impossible). They also struggle with two people going through a doorway at the same time (counted as one entry vs 2).

Re: Density raises $51M Series C led by Kleiner Perkins

#33

Post by dexterdog »

guscost wrote: post #8
james412 wrote: post #4

Anyone know what kind of depth measurement they are making? It looks like some kind of radio widget

Density (software) engineer here. Our sensor uses active infrared lasers to read depth, and it classifies "persons" with a deep-learning algorithm that runs on the device.

Why not just scan for MAC addresses? Legal reasons? Can't you black box something like that and not safe the actual IDs but use them for unique counting?

Re: Density raises $51M Series C led by Kleiner Perkins

#34

Post by mistrial9 »

dtertman wrote: post #6

I remember when this was a Show HN, it was my first comment to say that the homepage didn't work for me in an old version of Firefox (and the developers reached out, thanked me for the report, and fixed the problem). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9878597 Now so many businesses needs to count capacity, and they're perfectly positioned with 5 years of experience in the space. Amazing foresight (and/or a bit of l…

earlier thread - 2014

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7305097

Re: Density raises $51M Series C led by Kleiner Perkins

#35

Post by PragmaticPulp »

dexterdog wrote: post #33
guscost wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Density (software) engineer here. Our sensor uses active infrared lasers to read depth, and it classifies "persons" with a deep-learning algorithm that runs on the device.

Why not just scan for MAC addresses? Legal reasons? Can't you black box something like that and not safe the actual IDs but use them for unique counting?

Most OSes and devices randomize MAC addresses during scans to prevent this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_spoofing#MAC_Address_Rando...

It's also not guaranteed that every person is carrying a phone or that their phone is turned on.

Re: Density raises $51M Series C led by Kleiner Perkins

#38

Post by shekispeaks »

On my street in SF that has a dead end, cars keep coming up looking for parking and on weekends they usually find nothing. But they get stuck turning around and cause a mess.

Could I use Density to count cars and display number of empty spots at the entrance of my street?

Re: Density raises $51M Series C led by Kleiner Perkins

#39

Post by realtalk_sp »

Do you worry that you're taking money at a valuation that's predicated on artificially and transiently elevated demand? It doesn't sound like you have a business compatible with the VC hyper-growth model, outside of the present extraordinary circumstances.

It also feels intuitively like many person counting use cases are satisfactorily addressed by far simpler and lower cost heuristics such as, for example, Google lining up device 'throughput' with lat/long and business records. In fact, I just used their estimate to time my visit to the DMV and it worked perfectly.

Admittedly, it may just be that I'm not creative enough to envision sustainable, valuable use cases for this. But if you've been around 6 (?) years and just took $51M in Series C without being significantly diluted, KP is presumably assigning you at least a $250M valuation and possibly a lot higher. After accounting for terms like e.g. liquidation preference, the economic picture of Density could easily be a house of cards.

Re: Density raises $51M Series C led by Kleiner Perkins

#40

Post by afar »

realtalk_sp wrote: post #39

Do you worry that you're taking money at a valuation that's predicated on artificially and transiently elevated demand? It doesn't sound like you have a business compatible with the VC hyper-growth model, outside of the present extraordinary circumstances. It also feels intuitively like many person counting use cases are satisfactorily addressed by far simpler and lower cost heuristics such as, for example, Google li…

Lower cost systems like Google's Popular Times, are not as accurate as they seem. The next time you see a graph on google, you'll notice there's no y-axis. It's a clever way to look like actuals when it's relative to itself. Also we have units in many GPT locations. They're not accurate. On the vc returns thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We'll see.
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