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For hardware devices that raised >$100mm before launch, how have they gone? Successes: * Tesla Non-successes: * Magic Leap * Juicero * Nuro * Segway What else am I missing? I suspect there are other successes that raised >$100mm pre-launch that I'm not thinking of. I wonder why they wouldn't start smaller. That said, I still expect they'll succeed, and I hope they succeed. I don't believe in any rules of thumb, great…
$1Bn pre launch funding + Softbank = not a good omen
I don't know much about softbank, but my brain strongly associates them with bad bets, failure, and losing money.
There's a reason why the iphone team was so small (https://www.theregister.com/2014/03/27/apple_employee_reveal...) you need to be ruthlessly focussed and not pressurised by outside investors or managers who don't know what they're talking about (Softbank)
I'm not sure what the money would be spent on at OpenAI. Maybe they will keep it small, and hyper-focussed. But I worked in VC for a while and VC money was described to me as rocket fuel, you don't want to go dousing it on things before the rocket is built because it stinks and has a tendency to blow things up
More discussion yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37681663
What the hell is an "AI device"? Unless we're talking robotics, I don't see why you would need a separate device for AI. Seems like we already have all the right form factors (phones, speakers, etc). This reminds me of when Facebook tried to make a Facebook phone. Turned out iPhones and Androids were significantly better as phones and they could do Facebook just fine.
> What the hell is an "AI device"? Puck and a pair of AirPods? (Maybe compute in the case?) A device optimised to run a set of LLMs and not sacrifice battery for e.g. a screen seems like it would have a niche, if it just worked. Picture the AIs profiled in the later series of Westworld.
Man, I can't even begin to imagine what they're going to come up with. Titanium AIPods. Non-detachable alluminum RayBans. Google Glass, but it's a literal Black Mirror worn on your face. Self-driving Segway. Transparent plastic smart lunchbox. Electric long-board that's also a tablet. Fist-mountable selfdefense impact jackhammer. 5G base station Zurb ball. A keyboard that starts repeating nnnn when you think of what…
Bravo, sir.
What the hell is an "AI device"? Unless we're talking robotics, I don't see why you would need a separate device for AI. Seems like we already have all the right form factors (phones, speakers, etc). This reminds me of when Facebook tried to make a Facebook phone. Turned out iPhones and Androids were significantly better as phones and they could do Facebook just fine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to public sources Tesla has raised 'only' 60.5m before delivering the first roadsters in February 2008. Though that total increased to 100.5m by the summer of that year. But I get your point. [0]: https://www.startupranking.com/startup/tesla/funding-rounds
The original roadster was a Lotus Elise with laptop batteries. It was essentially a prototype, albeit a production prototype.
I still remember when everybody suddenly added “COM” or “NET” to product and company names during the .COM bubble. Same with “AI” today. Good PR but ultimately meaningless.
What the hell is an "AI device"? Unless we're talking robotics, I don't see why you would need a separate device for AI. Seems like we already have all the right form factors (phones, speakers, etc). This reminds me of when Facebook tried to make a Facebook phone. Turned out iPhones and Androids were significantly better as phones and they could do Facebook just fine.