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I built an AI company to save my open source project

timefold.ai

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Re: I built an AI company to save my open source project

#31

Post by vasco »

yorak wrote: post #28

Geoffrey, thanks for sharing your story with us. OR sure is a weird niche. Good enough algorithms for solving these problems have existed for decades1, but we still see low adoption and your 95% estimate of the companies not optimizing their operations rings true. Similarly to you, I spent a short while trying to sell VRP optimization with an API business model, and what dawned on me was that most companies do not ha…

If nobody does something in a whole industry perhaps it's because it's not a differentiating factor. Do you have a link to the Swedish company? It just sounds like typical "software engineers know better" story where they go bankrupt after a few years because turns out the important bits are in other parts of the business.

Re: I built an AI company to save my open source project

#33

Post by jaypii172 »

yorak wrote: post #28

Geoffrey, thanks for sharing your story with us. OR sure is a weird niche. Good enough algorithms for solving these problems have existed for decades1, but we still see low adoption and your 95% estimate of the companies not optimizing their operations rings true. Similarly to you, I spent a short while trying to sell VRP optimization with an API business model, and what dawned on me was that most companies do not ha…

I like anecdote about the Swedish team of optimization experts! Did they succeed with their transportation company?

Edit: vasco was faster with their question haha

Re: I built an AI company to save my open source project

#34

Post by uwemaurer »

chime wrote: post #6

I haven’t tried Timefold but did try a ton of solvers (local and web) a few years ago when trying to optimize MRP schedule. One of the hardest parts was converting my business logic into constraints, especially date based calculations. Instead of explicit constraints, is there a way to provide a calculation that can be minmaxed? If every order has a due date, can I say +/- 3 days = 0, 7 early = 9999 (not allowed), 7+…

I didn't use Timefold but the predecessor Optaplanner, and I remember there were hard constraints which must always be true (eg one room can only be used for one meeting at a given time) and then there were soft constraints which were minimized (eg shorter distance is better)

so an optimization problem can then be described with a set of those hard/soft contraints

Re: I built an AI company to save my open source project

#35

Post by LDWNS »

whatever1 wrote: post #12
chime wrote: post #6

I haven’t tried Timefold but did try a ton of solvers (local and web) a few years ago when trying to optimize MRP schedule. One of the hardest parts was converting my business logic into constraints, especially date based calculations. Instead of explicit constraints, is there a way to provide a calculation that can be minmaxed? If every order has a due date, can I say +/- 3 days = 0, 7 early = 9999 (not allowed), 7+…

You need piecewise linear cost function and auxiliary variables. An experienced practitioner should be able to help you with either mixed integer linear programming or constraint programming

No need when using the timefold solver, the constraint streams allow for a more "human readable" approach. e.g. Penalise when the minimum is not reached, Penalise when the maximum is exceeded (2 constraints).

Re: I built an AI company to save my open source project

#36

Post by ge0ffrey »

menaerus wrote: post #26

Interesting story but what I don't get is this > Founders might get a wage to avoid personal financial stress How do you make a living as a founder if you don't get a wage? Is that really a norm? > but then also need skin in the game, typically by investing personally And also this. Does it assume that you will invest your savings or what exactly?

When you make the leap, you're basically living of off your savings.

Until the startup has investors that agree to pay the founders a wage (to reduce personal financial stress so they can concentrate on the company) - or the startup is profitable - it's vital that your savings don't run out...

Re: I built an AI company to save my open source project

#37

Post by [deleted] »

wedocharlie wrote: post #17

Hmmm... Some co-founders and I are building a UK startup that needs to do skills-based task routing and optimize job assignment for workers who will drive to remote jobs. Would love to have a quick chat with you or someone at timefold.ai to see if this is something we could potentially use.

[deleted]

Re: I built an AI company to save my open source project

#38

Post by ge0ffrey »

yorak wrote: post #28

Geoffrey, thanks for sharing your story with us. OR sure is a weird niche. Good enough algorithms for solving these problems have existed for decades1, but we still see low adoption and your 95% estimate of the companies not optimizing their operations rings true. Similarly to you, I spent a short while trying to sell VRP optimization with an API business model, and what dawned on me was that most companies do not ha…

Thanks for sharing your story too, Yorak.

Yes, having in-house expertise to integration optimization into their existing tools is hard. Especially if they use low level solver APIs (especially if it's math equations).

We're working making that easier with high-level REST APIs (Timefold Field Service Routing, etc). And with education (Timefold Academy) by creating videos and articles on how to integrate real-time planning, continuous planning, labor law constraints, fairness, cost reduction, etc

See https://www.youtube.com/@timefold/videos

Re: I built an AI company to save my open source project

#39

Post by matt-p »

What a great story and indeed you're an excellent storyteller.

I want to wish you all the luck in the world with this, it sounds like it's going well.

Have you considered offering public pricing for your API, or maybe a few trial? Even if it's only for small use cases, I'd love to know I can just give you guys $100/month to cover my small use case.

Re: I built an AI company to save my open source project

#40

Post by ahofmann »

viccis wrote: post #19
PeterStuer wrote: post #16

Great story, and great choices made. The lesson in this to young people: you can either sell your time by the hour, or buy other's time and use that productively. The former is very finite, the latter scales.

That is true. I think a guy wrote a book about this in the 19th century.

A friend of mine wants to know the author and the name of the book...
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