That would explain it. I was planning on leaving this as a throwaway account, but at this point I may as well go 'legit'. I'll email Daniel and ask him to change the account name too.
I was a massive doubter (like a few of the folks here) when I met co-founder Gavin 8ish years ago.
Unlike many of the other founders in our little startup ecosystem, he and Will have stuck with it long term, and I’ve watched from afar as this project has grown, technically and commercially to what it is today.
From the outset, this project appeared to be doomed. The earliest iterations of their product seemed far too limited to be of any use (The view area was hardly bigger than a large grapefruit, the enclosure was massive, and the resolution/clarity was … not great), and speaking of use, who would need such a thing?
Against all odds, they’ve prevailed. The hardware is way better, the integrations have improved significantly, and while I’m still not sure what their customer are using this for, clearly there’s enough revenue coming in that they can retain a team of software engineers (they were hiring recently too).
This is speculation but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was mainly or even entirely bootstrapped with the exception of one or two government/university grants.
They’re not even based out of a “good” city for entrepreneurship, Adelaide (as much as I love it) is not exactly known as a hotbed of innovation.
This product shouldn’t exist, and yet it does. It’s almost like they’ve willed it into existence. I’m not sure if it’s passion or persistence, but I have to admire how they’ve stuck with it, defied the odds, built a business and turned sci-fi into reality.
I’d bet good money that they’ll still be here, growing in 10 years time.
P.s. I don’t know if he’s still there but Ken Silverman was/is on the team (He's the creator of Duke Nukem 3D's Build Engine and is highly regarded by John Carmack)