Wattvision: what are you guys doing differently then Googles plan for web based energy readings?
Well, for one thing, Wattvision exists. Google put out a press release. For another, Wattvision works with existing power meters. Google (and pretty much everybody else) is waiting for the magical day that everybody gets new meters.
To an outside observer, Wattvision doesn't exist yet either :). But given that I doubt I'll be getting a new meter anytime soon, it does seem a better bet. If anyone from Wattvision is reading, I would love to be a beta tester...
I would like to beta test as well. I live in an apartment though so I guess I'll have to convince our officemanager to install this at work. Will give it a shot if you need beta testers.
Google seem to be intending some kind of magic platform that other peoples meters will send data to (kind of like amee/pachube), whilst Wattvision is device & app. Presumably Wattvision could output data to the google platform. Either way they're different products.
I'm intrigued that YC is doing more non-web/non-SW startups: Wattvision and Propable in this batch. Does YC add just as much value in such different areas?
all businesses are the same once you remove what they actually do
no offense, but this makes almost no sense. I mean, I guess when you remove what reader's digest, ycombinator, and my local model train shop all actually do, they're "the same" in that they have customers and exist to make a profit, but that's hardly a practical or helpful piece of information.
I'd think that YC's contact network and funding would help a lot of different people - and I love that they're doing things based on more physical products. (I also really like PicWing for that reason.)
I happen to now that the largest energy supplier in Germany has a concept similar to what wattvision is doing. The dude who was working on it was working at the same lab as I was, and he told me about the concept. It's some type of infrared thing you put on top of your meter, and it sends the signal per wlan and desktop client to the web.
So, the wattvision idea seems like it's going to be the new hotness in coming months.
I hope this doesn't turn into a "let's pick winners and losers" thing today. We can do that tomorrow.
Let's just congratulate all 16 teams on being accepted into YC and for making it to Demo Day successfully. I hope you're all getting wildly drunk and then sleep for a very long time tomorrow morning.
They presumably wouldn't be getting drunk tonight, because there is a second (identical) day of Demo Day tomorrow. We can't fit all the investors into our building at once, so Demo Day is now actually 2 days.
The audience today was one of the most encouraging signs I've seen that the recession is not going to shut down the startup world. Not just the number of people, but the degree of interest they had. You could not have told there was anything amiss with the economy if you didn't already know.
reMail: what will you guys be doing differently then the new iPhone email search announcement from yesterday?
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Wattvision: what are you guys doing differently then Googles plan for web based energy readings?