These are great questions! I'll let Billy and Mike chime in, but it's meant to take advantage of WIG efficiencies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-effect_vehicle) which lets the aircraft have a much longer range and a shorter certification pathway.
It's amazing watching and industry (space launch vehicles) grow so rapidly, and then watching all of the surrounding companies emerge that support the workflow/operations. Epsilon3 seems to be a great example of this.
I wonder how many other SpaceX employees will start founding companies in a similar vein: building some of the toolsets to be used across companies.
Unrelated extra point: this is a cool video of the CEO talking to the SpaceX astronauts when they first reached space: https://youtu.be/z9uAN6YNkP0?t=5610
YC will get you access to great investors, help you get better terms, think through business decisions, offer a great network, etc, but to be honest many of those things can be had through other accelerators/incubators/investors/schools/programs.
What’s truly unique about YC is the mindset and environment you’re in during your time there. If you’re open to embracing the experience, it’s absolutely worth it. Having a tight-knit group of fellow founders to push and encourage you through a hyper intense 3 month period leads you to accomplishing some amazing things. Things that you may not have thought were possible or pulled off otherwise. Of course you get a crash course in entrepreneurship and a great network, but I’d argue you also learn a ton about yourself, about leading, about how to truly focus on the right problem, and what you’re capable of.
Absolutely worth it. Always happy to chat with people if they’re uncertain.
It’s critical to not underestimate the non-technical steps here, in terms of how do you deploy at scale, convince venues to install, deal with throughput rates, tie results to individuals, etc. All solvable, but it’s important to think about those sooner rather than later.
I have some experience on the security side here and how to deploy technologies like this at scale... happy to help (my email is in bio).
I may be naive, but some of the responses to COVID 19 seem overblown.
Swine flu caused over 10,000 US deaths and the response seemed nowhere as dramatic, especially with regards to the press.
Is novel Coronavirus that much worse? Or is social media and the press driving it to new levels?
In theory, the price of the stock should account for the future free cash flows of the underlying company, so the growth should be priced in.
Any future growth at the end of the day is speculation.
If one doesn’t want their data to be consumed/owned by Google, what’s the best alternative fitness band (not smart watch) on the market?
I specifically do not want all of the smart watch features... just fitness/health tracking.