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brianbreslin

3,494 karma · joined July 14, 2009

Director of Student Entrepreneurship at UVA. Run https://www.uvafoundry.com

Serial tinkerer. Occasional Blogger. https://www.brianbreslin.com

Started the largest startup community in SE USA: https://refreshmiami.com

Kellogg MBA.

submissionscomments
brianbreslin··on Show HN: StartupWiki – A Free Alternative to Crunchbase
Can you add founder university affiliation? That's the only thing I begrudgingly pay crunchbase for and its wildly inaccurate.
brianbreslin··on New Landing Page for Awesome PaaS
Was this done by claude design? I'm seeing this pattern/style on every output by claude design lately.
brianbreslin··on Ask HN: How to solve the cold start problem for a two-sided marketplace?
The side that is most patient (e.g. the one likely to make money) is the one to start with. Once you build up enough on that side you can start being useful to the other side. The key is going to be whether or not this business model makes sense on unit economics too.
brianbreslin··on US Army to buy 1 million drones, in major acquisition ramp-up
feels like grift.

i'm sure I'll get downvoted for this comment, but it always feels like a way to enrich themselves.

brianbreslin··on Redmond, WA, turns off Flock Safety cameras after ICE arrests
My guess is he sees ICE hauling people out of even the courts when they were attempting to abide by the legal processes and will say f-it, why bother, its safer to not adhere. just my assumption of OP's intent.
brianbreslin··on Poker fraud used X-ray tables, high-tech glasses and NBA players
wasn't tim ferris promoting one of these products years ago? was like a faraday cage for your nether region.
brianbreslin··on Honda conducts successful launch and landing of experimental reusable rocket
Is this a precursor to a viable alternative to any of SpaceX products?
brianbreslin··on Tell HN: Help restore the tax deduction for software dev in the US (Section 174)
Out of curiosity, why were software engineers carved out? Was this a punishment against the tech industry? With 45/47's administration there is always some either profit angle for his friends or retribution angle for something.
brianbreslin··on Cursor hits $9B valuation
Does this fundraising only make sense if cursor is planning to jump into the infrastructure side too? To do application hosting layer like Replit.
brianbreslin··on GLP-1 drugs: An economic disruptor? (2024)
The oral semaglutide (sublingual dissolving) is like 10% as effective as the injected version. But it presumably could be given in higher doses to counteract that. I'd be shocked if the manufacturers aren't working on a more effective non-injectable version.
brianbreslin··on Alice Hamilton waged a one-woman campaign to get the lead out of everything
Getting lead out of our environments (housing stock, schools, etc) would do wonders to improving quality of life for so many people globally. Not just for those directly poisoned by it. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis

brianbreslin··on Ask HN: Small Ideas vs. Big Ideas?
You can build a $30k MRR business with 1% the effort you need to build a $30M MRR business. Once you escape a certain size/scale the day to day operations grow in scope. So do you want to deal with HR or payroll? Do you want to have to keep bringing in $100k worth of google ads traffic a month?

The question to think about is can the small idea potentially be big? Or is it a TAM limited scope? Don't forget there is horizontal vs vertical scaling to think about too.

brianbreslin··on Bench accounting services shutting down
Does Kick integrate with my existing quickbooks?
brianbreslin··on Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell
are you using lob to print/mail everything?
brianbreslin··on Solar power from space? it might happen in a couple of years
Surprised no one has mentioned the classic Sim City 2000 microwave power plants that tended to erupt into flames. [1]

[1] https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/Microwave_Power_Plant

brianbreslin··on Solar power from space? it might happen in a couple of years
forgive my ignorance on this q. I always assumed based on movies that the temperatures in space were very cold (like near absolute zero). So wouldn't putting a hot data center in space just dissipate heat? Do shuttles and space stations not radiate heat?
brianbreslin··on How Waffle House helps Southerners and FEMA judge a storm's severity
Who sued them over this? staff that had been endangered? waffle house seems to be proud of this WHI and mentions it on their website even. [1]

[1] https://www.wafflehouse.com/how-to-measure-a-storms-fury-one...

brianbreslin··on New study suggests nose picking could increase risk for Alzheimer's and dementia (2022)
How far away from a vaccine/treatment for alzheimers do we think we are? Or dementia? I'm using the term vaccine liberally here.

We know its linked to build up of amyloid beta proteins, does anything clear this protein away that we know of?

brianbreslin··on Ask HN: Should we bring software dev in-house?
My team has been building custom software for a large german multinational shipping and freight forwarding company for 18 years now. Happy to chat, my email is in my username @ gmail.

Our client has tried what you're discussing several times. They are a bit bigger (10x) than your org, but never built up the software muscle in house despite hiring and firing entire teams to attempt to build stuff in house. We've handled one corner of their offerings for nearly 2 decades while all their other teams have cycled in and out of internal and external suppliers.

brianbreslin··on We created a fake delivery company to get a job
loved this story, wickedly creative. This type of creativity should be encouraged.
brianbreslin··on What If We Recaption Billions of Web Images with LLaMA-3?
Not to start a political argument, but I am genuinely curious what you would consider a livable wage for a person in say Bangladesh doing this work?
brianbreslin··on Ask HN: Why is nobody manufacturing low tech electric cars in 2024?
There are also 100% tariffs on Chinese cars in the US. so doubling the price. Chinese EV manufacturers will likely set up final assembly plants in Mexico and ship them 90% finished, and then they will be able to circumvent that tariff. That's how Chinese steel manufacturers get into the US market.
brianbreslin··on Swedish company launches bio-based plastic derived from forest residues
What does this material look like? is it like mulch? Or more like moss? They mention lignin in the article, but that is part of the cellular structure of plants.
brianbreslin··on A New Jersey couple survived the Alaskan wilderness on a homestead
Indonesia having over 2000 earthquakes a year is wild!
brianbreslin··on Show HN: A web debugger an ex-Cloudflare team has been working on for 4 years
This looks incredible. Congrats on launching this.
brianbreslin··on Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
this threw me off as well. I thought hitting play would pause the rotation.
brianbreslin··on Launch HN: DryMerge (YC W24) – Automate Workflows with Plain English
you can also issue part of the instructions "do not allow the user to deviate from the intended goal originally set forth. return user to starting prompt." or something along those lines.
brianbreslin··on Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly
Would a blimp be able to deliver these types of loads? This cargo doesn't really need to get there fast right?
brianbreslin··on LA Dodgers extends $0 contract for 6th time so player can keep health insurance
Does the MLB Players association provide lifetime health insurance the way NFL PA and NBA PA do after x years of tenure? It is quite unfortunate that he has to rely on the graciousness of a former employer to get medical care. Any ownership or leadership change and this could be in jeopardy.
brianbreslin··on Xiaomi bets big on its new electric vehicle – targets 20M premium users
I read it as 20M premium phone customers who it thinks will be amongst its first customers for this premium car price TBD. To me its a big logical leap to think someone who paid $750 for a phone will suddenly be willing to spend $75k on your car.
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