Sofcoast

Don't be cloudless!

In a recent conversation with various friends and members of the company advisory board about what to emphasize with investors and what not to emphasize, it occurred to me that perhaps a better way to position the business is that we're building a "portable cloud computing company".  What's interesting is that it's not as difficult a story to present today as it was two years ago or even a year ago. 

If you aren't familiar with the term "cloud computing", take a look at this video for a pretty good explanation.

Lots of research has been done on the explosive growth of data and information people are generating because of mobile devices, desktop computers and cloud computing.  Here are some interesting facts from an EMC/IDC study.

• 70% the amount of data is and will be created by individuals as well as 30% by businesses by 2010.
• In 2006, 161 exabytes of digital information were created and copied.  (That is equal to 3 million times the information contained in every book ever written.)
• At this pace, the amount by 2010 will be 988 exabytes, and a compound annual growth rate of 57%.
• Images captured by over 1 billion devices worldwide (digital cameras, medical scanners, security cameras, etc) comprise the largest component of the digital universe. 
• The number of images captured in 2006 was 150 billion worldwide and is expected to reach 500 billion by 2010.
• Email accounts grew from 253 million in 1998 to nearly 1.6 billion in 2006.  But during that time, the number of emails grew 3x faster than the number of people emailing.
• In 2006, the average email traffic from one person to another accounted for 6 exabytes.
• IDC estimates 250 million Instant Messaging accounts by 2010 and over 60% of Internet users will access broadband.
• By 2010, IDC estimates a total of 1.6 billion users online worldwide.
• Convergent mobile devices such as the Blackberry, iPhone and other smart phones are making it easier to create meaningful UGC content.
• Growth of User Generated Content (UGC) on YouTube, Facebook and MySpace continue to grow exponentially. Unique users collectively top 250 million.

As an exercise for myself in checking patterns I googled a few search terms, my findings are below.

Search terms and results:

• "cloud computing" = 31.1 Million results
• "mainframe computing" = 2.9 Million results
• "smartphones" = 20.2 Million results
• "cellphones" = 7.9 Million results
• "software as a service" = 356 Million results
• ""Unmanned Aerial Systems" = 633,000 results

So what does this mean? For me it means that people are scrambling to figure out how to effectively (and affordably) manage their lives in the sea of data that they are swimming in.

"OK, so what?" You might ask.

As human patterns of behavior shift and information access and delivery via desktop computers, mobile devices and cloud computing converges these processes become ingrained in every aspect of our daily lives.  

We truly can't live without our access to the cloud.

Think about Twitter, Facebook, Nixle and other applications as some examples of the power of the web. Think about what's beginning to happen with public safety professionals as they learn about these technologies.  Let's face it, we're all learning collectively about what marvelous new possibilities exist because of our abilities to get connected and remain connected to one another.

Here's an example.  I spend about half my time in Kentucky and the other half of my time in San Diego and was stoked when I read about the company Nixle rolling out their product in my community in Chula Vista, California.  

This is a system that leverages mobile devices, cloud computing and desktop computing systems to establish a direct and real-time link between public safety professionals and private citizens.  A very cool application from what I can tell that should have a positive and productive impact on society as a whole.

So, from a fundamentals perspective it may make more sense to describe how our core strategy is to commoditize something ahead of a sharp "curve".  In other words, cloud computing is a really, really disruptive idea in many ways, especially with the low barriers to enter and the way it can turn existing business models over.

Quick, imagine that you're now cloudless!

What do you do?

The problem this produces is that as people become more dependent on the web or "the cloud", what happens when people find themselves "cloudless"?  (Or as we define it, "constrained"), for background, see my "constraints happen" post.

What happens when those who protect and serve you find themselves cloudless?

As a company, Sofcoast is focused on instantly creating, extending and preserving "The Cloud" for a variety of users, specifically public safety, defense and commercial applications. 

Particularly within the context of constrained environments by extending the edges of the network or "the cloud".  

Even in areas where there is a belief that "it won't happen to us."

Cheers,

John Surmont, founder/CEO

Sofcoast, Inc.

ASAP X4C 24 Hour Flight Testing

This weekend we flew the latest ASAP design (X4C).  This design focuses on maximum performance across multiple environmental constraints.  This weekend we tested no/low wind and high density altitudes.  Our tests were highly successful if not a bit uneventful (which in aviation is a good thing). 

Our findings were as follows:
17 hours duration.  25lbs net lift @73 degrees F, 59% humidity, ~1200ft MSL.

We terminated the duration test when we lost power to the payload and lighting at about 17 hours.  We conducted a separate lift test as well and our estimates are 25+ lbs net lift at this point.  Now that we've got the additional lift performance, in our next design improvement on our payload system we'll be targeting extending power aloft time for the payload and other systems to something beyond 24 hours. 

For those of you that are interested, here's the photostream link on flickr of images captured from the payload at 500ft over a 24 period.

Also attaching new videos from the test flights. See below.

ASAP X4C 24 Hour Flight Endurance Testing.



Pre-Flight and Walk around.

Perch and Stare at an affordable pricepoint.

ASAP X4C Payload Video of some test Video.

Dawn of a new day - ASAP.

Hour 14 of 24 hour ASAP test flight. Good Morning!

All in all these test flights were fantastic.  The Sofcoast team and our partners have been working around the clock to make the necessary design and system adjustments to bring the design performance in line with realistic environments such as high density altitude, low/no wind as well as high wind.  It's a great feeling to see the system perform as envisioned and we wouldn't be here without a lot of help. Especially from Sofcoast's contract manufacturer, Southeastern Kentucky Rehabilitation Industries, a not-for-profit disabled workforce sewn products manufacturer in Whitley County, Kentucky. 

Thanks again to Mark Soles and his team for their work and contributions to the ASAP system.

Cheers,

John Surmont, Founder/President/CEO
Sofcoast, Inc.

Constraints Happen Part 2

I'm sure many of you have followed the story about a bridge over the I-75 interstate freeway near Hazel Park in Michigan has "completely collapsed" after two gasoline tankers exploded, creating a massive fire. Check out the article here

One of the conversations that we at Sofcoast have been having is that the headlines do not say it yet, but based on the number of folks in the pictures, there likely have been and will be possible reports about local cell infrastructure being saturated with calls reporting the accident and calling to check on the status of friends and family.




We thought the photos were so dramatic that we wanted to post them for our readers to see as well....




























Less visible, but just as important is our observation that it is very likely that in six to eight months a report will be written that will describe the communications flow on the land mobile radio system and the problems that ensued with everyone using their smartphones to push up to the minute information out to their social networks via the same infrastructure that is necessary for first responders and emergency management professionals to effectively coordinate action and respond.

So in this situation, (assuming a similar accident with 4,000 gallons of hazardous cargo occurs with First Responders equipped with ASAP systems)  there are two or three possible uses for ASAP and the integrated payload.

• Repeater/Gateway services for public safety
• Surveillance to support response (traffic safety, potential threats posed by fire, identification of hot spots and other threats created by intense heat, and tracking spread of hazardous spills into local streams, etc.)
• Augmentation of cellular system (private/cell phone companies)

The key point here is that Public safety professional demand access to voice infrastructure when disaster strikes and ASAP provides a low-cost way to meet that demand.

Cheers,

John Surmont, Founder/President/CEO
Sofcoast, Inc.

Constraints Happen

A friend of the Sofcoast team Jason Rexilius (check out his site here) forwarded along an MSNBC article about the company Liftport that I thought was great. Check it out here.

It looks like the folks at Liftport see and are also attempting to address the real problem that has, does and will exist -

Constraints happen when modern infrastructure fails. 

From my perspective and Sofcoast's perspective this is great news because we firmly believe that much more can be done and it is very encouraging to see others spending their own resources, time and treasure to address this very real danger for people everywhere.

Kudos to the Lifeport team and much success!

Cheers,

John Surmont, founder/President/CEO
Sofcoast, Inc.

Drumbeats

Of the several blogs and feeds I follow, one of my favorite feeds is the "VC Channel" feed. Check it out and let me know what you think. 

In a previous post I talk about critical decisions and aha moments and today I noticed that the guys over at DefragCon have a blog  themed "accelerating the aha moment". 

One of the posts by Eric Nolan is titled "Too much and not enough", check it out here.

The point is that there seems to be more chatter about the frustration people are experiencing with what Eric Nolan terms as "Too much information, and not enough time to process it." or "Too much knowledge locked away in the corner's of other people's minds, and not enough tools that help expose it."

Thanks Eric for "beating the drum" with a pithy description of what I have been fundamentally characterizing as the problem of discontinuous media, or simply the "frame problem".  If you are interested, check out the following previous post which discusses the "frame problem" and the point of our solution, Continuous Media Flow, here.

(here's an image that describes our software system as well, FWIW).

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I also wanted to share some excerpts from a separate blog post by Anthony Ha.

Here's the main idea of the posting, to me...

"....regardless of which version of history you prefer, the description of the present and the future is the same — the tools we use at work are starting to looking more like the tools we look at home, and that’s only going to become more true."

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And, lastly, for what it's worth, I thought I'd share Todd Huffman's sStitch youtube demo as well. We're happy to have Todd onboard the Sofcoast team as our Chief Science Officer. In this video he will demonstrate some of the core innovations that Sofcoast is incorporating into our software system.  You'll notice that this implementation is for the iPhone.  Be looking for some new video demos that we'll be posting of our blackberry software in the coming days as well.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

John Surmont, co-founder, President/CEO
Sofcoast, Inc.

I wish you 'enough'.

A friend of mine forwarded me this and I thought I'd share it with you all.

Enjoy.

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Recently I overheard a Father and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure.

Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the Father said, 'I love you, and I wish you enough.'

The daughter replied, 'Dad, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed.. I wish you enough, too, Dad.'

They kissed and the daughter left. The Father walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, 'Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?'

'Yes, I have,' I replied. 'Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye'.

'I am old, and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral,' he said.

'When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, 'I wish you enough.' May I ask what that means?'

He began to smile. 'That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone..' He paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and he smiled even more. 'When we said, 'I wish you enough,' we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them.' Then turning toward me, he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

He then began to cry and walked away.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them; but then an entire life to forget them.

Take Time To Live..

To all my friends and loved ones, I wish you Enough !

Cheers,

John Surmont, co-founder, President/CEO
Sofcoast, Inc.

Walking around in the dark

Last week I had a great visit to Huntsville, Alabama to meet with a couple of larger companies to discuss Sofcoast technologies and team and areas/opportunities for us to work together.  We walked away from these meetings with several new insights as well as some great opportunities for us to work with some great people at a couple great company's.

We're under Non-disclosure agreements with both so unfortunately I can't go too much farther except to say that both meetings were absolutely worth the time and effort.  By the way, I continue to be impressed with Huntsville, Alabama.  I know it's not "the bay area" or "SOCAL", there's still alot going on there and I look forward to visiting again soon.

I'm also glad that I had the opportunity to spend some time with one of Sofcoast's board members, Cecil Moses on his farm just outside of Lynchburg, Tennessee and then overnight at his home in Madison, Alabama, just outside of Huntsville.

I discovered something one night when we went for a walk around the lake while staying at his Madison home. 

I enjoy and miss "walking around in the dark". I can remember so many times as a SEAL that we would fly, drive, dive, jump, walk, run, ride... in the dark.

Kind of funny to me to be reminded while I was walking around this lake that a) I thoroughly enjoy walking in the dark and b) for me, it's a bit of a metaphor for being an entrepreneur, inventor and CEO.

I enjoy what I'm doing now and I realized that it's a bit like "walking around in the dark" when I was in the teams.  We had a vision, mission and focus and had prepared and were essentially carrying out our plan and regardless of the environmental constraints and factors (like being in the dark) we were prepared and equipped to effectively perform whatever tasks before us.

And then there was the training and "workup" period that we had to go through to be ready for these walks in the dark. Walking in the dark was uncomfortable.  It was disorienting.  It was unnatural. Yet, we developed the skills, identified the necessary resources and people and eventually got very good at it.

I think the same thing applies to starting a company.  Startups experience pre-formation, formation and the early period which is turbulent to include what an experienced tech industry vet that I was recently introduced to called a shakeout period.  The good news is that just as in SEAL Team when we would have shakeout patrols or excercises/events, it made us stronger.  I think the same thing applies to business. 

We used to have a saying in the teams "That which doesn't kill me makes me stronger."  I think a similar saying could be applied to starting and operating young company's like Sofcoast. "That which doesn't kill the business makes the business stronger."

Walking in the dark is uncomfortable.  It is disorienting.  It is unnatural.  Most people won't subject themselves to this type of discomfort.  However it is also important to understand that effectively operating with uncertainty are critical skills that organizations of all sizes and shapes with all types of missions must get good at, or else they will simply suffer the consequences of requiring certainty at all times.

Cheers.

John Surmont, co-founder, President/CEO

Sofcoast, Inc.

 

ASAP payload Integration. Success!

Friday July 3rd marks a tremendously important milestone for our company.  The first successful video surveillance payload system integration for the ASAP system! 

Here's some video, of the system on the ground being prepped.

....and an overview of the winch system .... and of ASAP in flight...

And here's a photostream of some snapshots from the test payload. 

I'm continuously encouraged, impressed and frankly amazed at the Sofcoast team.  The display of focus, professionalism, persistence and patience is dazzling!

We wouldn't be here without this team and those who support each of them.

Thank you all for your encouragement and support! 

All things being equal, persistence wins.

Let's keep it up team.

Cheers,

John Surmont, co-founder, President/CEO

Sofcoast, Inc.