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Boxouse (YC W17) Co-Founder (with Heather Stewart). Made off-grid, open-source tiny homes out of shipping containers. Outcome: built ~11 boxouses, achieved CA-wide approval as factory built housing, then ran out of money and open-sourced plans. |
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Y Combinator Director of Hardware. Outcome: Helped YC become the best place to start a hardware company. |
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Edyn Garden (YC W14) Co-Founder. Invented a solar-powered, wifi-connected garden sensor. Outcome: Made it to the finals at Techcrunch Disrupt, raised substantial capital from hardware-focused investors, and got into Y Combinator. After I left, Edyn performed a successful Kickstarter campaign and made it to the shelves of Home Depot. |
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Shop-In-A-Box Inventor. I designed and deployed a shipping-container-based, off-grid-capable, open-source factory. Outcome: collaborated between microfactories in Oakland and rural Kenya, iterating on hardware *almost* as fast as software. Also did CNC plasma cutting on the Gates Foundation's deck and at Burning Man:) |
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Re:char: CTO. Sequestered carbon and improved yields on farms in Western Kenya by selling farmers a novel, affordable biochar kiln. Outcome: Manufactured and deployed several hundred biochar kilns in rural Kenya. |
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Wetique: Co-founder. Built a website to rate your friends and receive better media recommendations. Outcome: went from idea to working product in 3 months by teaching ourselves everything we needed to build an MVP. Realized we hadn't made something people wanted. |
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Dirtnail Pedicab Founder. Designed, built, and operated a fleet of 25 bicycle taxis. Outcome: learned to weld, provided jobs for a bunch of dirtbag bicyclist friends, and grew enormous calves. |
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Make Magazine: Writer. Covered sustainability for Make Magazine's blog. Outcome: convinced myself that people making impressive things are no different than any of us. |
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Garduino Inventor. Developed a hobbyist-friendly automated garden controller. Outcome: bootstrapped and shipped ~100 DIY kits, teaching myself circuit design in the process. |
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Bazaarvoice Partnerships Director. Developed strategic integrations with other SAAS etail products. Outcome: realized I'm not cut out for a desk job;) |