So now "took money from VCs, tried to do the fast growth and over hiring but learned the hard way, and now still on it work with a small team" counts as indie hacking... Who knew? Taking money from VCs is not bad if that is the path you are choosing, I'm just pointing out it is disingenuous to get featured on a site which is all about an alternative slow growth but higher ownership path.
Not only is this super interesting but it is also an example of something negative becoming useful with the application of some creativity. A spill of toys or nike sneakers would normally not be something to celebrate of course, but in this case it revealed information about ocean currents and deepened our understanding. Normally we see this type of effect in medical cases where someone has suffered an accident or has a genetic defect which, while terrible for that person, can still be used to learn something with is either hard or unethical to reproduce in experimentation. For me the Floatees are a reminder that we should work to avoid medical, ecological, societal, etc. disasters but once they have happened there is a silver lining of learning we can gain with the right mindset.