[tyho]

Why does this need to connect to your servers? What happens if you become insolvent? Why can't I just buy the damn thing then use it? Why do I have to pay for a subscription to a service which is effectively a simple proxy between the device and my infrastructure?

[afar]

[a Density founder here] Okay...

> Why does this need to connect to your servers? Because that's where the signal gets processed. We store all signal data ever captured and do all the math on an analyze server. The benefit of this is that as our hardware can be cheap enough to replace or give away and when our algorithm improves so too does all historical data.

> What happens if you become insolvent? Not sure yet. What happens if any of your providers become insolvent?

> Why can't I just buy the damn thing then use it? Because there's no margin or recurring value in the damn thing. And selling hardware is a bad idea right now.

> Why do I have to pay for a subscription to a service which is effectively a simple proxy between the device and my infrastructure? Because we're not selling the device. We're selling the analyzed data. Also, I should probably say, you're not our target customer. We're after companies that control / manage large networks of locations not individual developers.

To be honest, we'd love to give this to any developer who wants it and just see what they build. Hopefully, we'll be able to do that someday and support that community properly. Until then, this is the best way for us to be a sustainable business and not rely on the crazy thin and ever-decreasing margins of hardware sales.

Hope that addresses some of your questions.

Andrew

[maxsilver]

"Density has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Ludlow Ventures, Jason Calacanis and Bill Draper. "

http://fortune.com/2015/05/22/meet-density-a-startup-that-le...

The cynic in me sees this as as a requirement to justify their (current or future) venture funding. So that they can justify a high valuation in their eventual acquisition and shutdown in the next 12-36 months.

It's not enough to 'just' build a good product and sell it to customers anymore.

[soggypretzels]

That is my biggest thought. If this is oriented to hackers, let me own the thing so I can do some really cool stuff with it.

[tyho]

I hate this user hostile trend among hardware startups, that is requiring/involving third party "cloud" infrastructure for no particular reason other than to extort money out of customers.

[dotBen]

for no particular reason other than to extort money out of customers

Yeah, isn't it terrible that there are companies trying to get money out of customers... :P

My comment is tongue-in-cheek but the macro point here is why should a company that invents something or provide a value need to do so in a way that minimizes their profit margin?

[mng2]

The hardware sounds dead simple, not to mention cheap. The service is the actual product here.

[PascLeRasc]

I don't think the hardware is simple. How would you design something like this? I've thought about this problem for years and no elegant solution has occured until I saw this.

[icelancer]

Hmm? Two beams detecting directionality + WiFi?

[afar]

Hardware's intentionally simple. We've even considered open sourcing it :).. [Density founder here]