Problems · Research agenda
Twelve problems stand between us and companies that work
Index
Most problems belong to more than one domain
Bd Build (4 Seasons) · En Energy (Current) · Wa Water (Flow) · Co Connectivity (Relay) · Cp Compute (Groundwork)
01
Hardware and firmware
Needed by Energy (Current) · Water (Flow) · Connectivity (Relay)
Build a device that runs for fifteen years next to a water heater or an electrical panel, and updates itself safely the whole time.
- Why it is hard
Garages, attics and utility closets in a Georgia summer run far hotter than a living room, and some of them flood. Capacitors, relays and flash memory wear out sooner than fifteen years unless each part is chosen and derated for the heat it will see.
Every update installs on a device nobody can reach. A bad update on a Flow Node can leave a house unable to close its own water valve.
A valve that sits open for years can seize. The Flow Node has to turn it on a schedule and confirm it moved.
- What we know so far
Signed firmware, two partitions and automatic rollback are established practice in other fleets, and we plan to use all three. Parts are chosen by rated life at temperature, and accelerated aging tests come before any unit goes into a house.
- What a solution makes possible
Devices that a utility or an insurer can rely on for the length of a contract, and a fleet we can keep improving for years after the install.
- Roles on this problem
- Founding hardware engineerEmbedded firmware engineerManufacturing and test engineer
02
Measurement
Needed by Energy (Current) · Water (Flow)
Measure savings and leaks well enough that a utility, an insurer and a homeowner all pay on the same number.
- Why it is hard
A saving is the difference between what happened and what would have happened, and the second number is never observed. Baselines drift with weather, with who is home and with every new appliance.
A leak alarm that is wrong once a month gets ignored. One that misses a slow leak behind a wall costs a floor.
The hardest leaks are slow: under about a tenth of a gallon a minute, like a toilet that keeps refilling or a leaking ice maker line.
- What we know so far
Utility programs already settle savings on measured baselines adjusted for weather, with methods such as CalTRACK and IPMVP Option C, and some use randomized control groups. Interval readings at the device give far more data than a monthly meter read. We will publish our method next to every number we report, with our error measured against control days.
- What a solution makes possible
Payment on measured results, where each party pays for the share of the result it receives and no one has to take it on trust.
03
Operations research
Needed by Build (4 Seasons) · Compute (Groundwork)
Match thousands of jobs a day to qualified crews across a metro area, with the right parts on the truck.
- Why it is hard
Each job has a skill, sometimes a license, parts that may not be in stock, and a duration nobody knows until the crew is in the house. Drive times in a metro this size change by the hour.
Every reschedule moves a customer's day and a crew's pay, so the plan has to hold up when the morning goes wrong.
4 Seasons runs a small number of crews today. The software has to hold up at thousands of jobs a day.
- What we know so far
Vehicle routing with time windows is well studied, and solvers handle the fixed version of the problem well. The difficult part is uncertainty in job length, and better scoping before the visit reduces it.
- What a solution makes possible
More finished jobs per crew per day, and arrival windows short enough that a customer does not lose a day of work waiting.
- Roles on this problem
- Founding engineer, GroundworkField operations lead
04
Field operations
Needed by Build (4 Seasons) · Compute (Groundwork)
Turn what a master plumber or electrician knows into procedures a new technician can follow on the first day.
- Why it is hard
Much of what an experienced tradesperson knows is judgment: what a sound in a pipe means, which old fitting will crack, when to stop and call for help. It is rarely written down, and it changes with the age of the house.
Procedures that are too rigid get ignored in the field, and procedures that are too loose do not change the outcome.
- What we know so far
Step checklists with a photo at each check catch many common mistakes. Every job record shows where a step was skipped and what happened after, so procedures can be corrected from evidence.
- What a solution makes possible
Shorter training for new technicians, and the same standard of work on every crew, in every part of the city.
- Roles on this problem
- Field operations leadMachine learning engineer, field operationsFounder in residence
05
Machine learning
Needed by Build (4 Seasons) · Compute (Groundwork)
Scope and price a repair from a homeowner's phone video, before anyone drives to the house.
- Why it is hard
The video shows a stain on a ceiling, not the pipe behind it. The model has to estimate quantities, materials and hidden conditions, and say how sure it is.
A price that is too low costs the crew money, and a price that is too high loses the job. Both errors are expensive, in different directions.
- What we know so far
Current vision-language models can identify fixtures, materials and visible damage in ordinary video. Every finished job gives a labeled example: what the video showed, what the crew found and what the work cost.
- What a solution makes possible
A fixed price before a truck rolls, and fewer visits that end without any work done.
- Roles on this problem
- Machine learning engineer, field operationsFounding engineer, Groundwork
06
Resilience
Needed by Energy (Current) · Water (Flow) · Connectivity (Relay)
Keep a house powered, supplied with water and connected when the grid and the cell network fail at the same time.
- Why it is hard
Storms take out power and cell sites together, and cell sites run on backup power that lasts a limited time. The house needs power to run its network equipment, and its devices need a network to coordinate.
Each device has to reach a safe state with no power and no network. The house then has to come back in the right order when service returns.
- What we know so far
A Relay Node can reach neighbors over a local radio mesh and the outside over satellite. A Current Hub can drop large loads to stretch a battery. A Flow Node closes its valve with no network at all.
- What a solution makes possible
Houses that keep basic service through an outage, and a precise record of which systems failed, where and for how long.
- Roles on this problem
- Embedded firmware engineerFounding hardware engineerCarrier partnerships
07
Capital
Needed by Energy (Current) · Water (Flow)
Pay for equipment in thousands of houses out of the savings that equipment produces.
- Why it is hard
Savings arrive monthly over years, while the equipment and the install are paid for on the first day. Lenders price risk on default and savings history, and that history does not yet exist for these products.
The terms have to fit on one page that a homeowner can read and agree to.
- What we know so far
Efficiency financing and solar leases show that paying from savings works when the measurement is trusted. That makes this problem depend on the one-number problem above.
- What a solution makes possible
Equipment in houses whose owners could not pay for it upfront.
- Roles on this problem
- Utility and insurance partnerships
08
Data
Needed by Compute (Groundwork)
Keep one trusted record of each house: its systems, what was done to it and the condition it is in.
- Why it is hard
What is known about a house sits with the county, the builder, past contractors, the utilities and the insurer, in formats that do not match. Houses change and nobody updates anything.
A record is useful only if people trust it, and trusted only if every entry says where it came from and who made it.
- What we know so far
Every 4 Seasons job and every install can write to the record with photos, serial numbers and readings. We think the record should belong to the house and pass to the next owner when it sells.
- What a solution makes possible
Faster diagnosis, better prices, and insurance and lending based on the actual house instead of its zip code.
- Roles on this problem
- Founding engineer, GroundworkDevice fleet engineer
09
Installation
Needed by Build (4 Seasons) · Energy (Current) · Water (Flow) · Connectivity (Relay)
Install a Current Hub, a Flow Node and a Relay Node in one visit, in under half a day.
- Why it is hard
Every house differs: panel brand and capacity, pipe material and size, where the main enters, where the signal is strong.
Each visit needs a licensed plumber and a licensed electrician, or a crew holding both. Some counties require permits for the valve, the panel work or both.
Any surprise on site turns one visit into two, and a second visit can cost more than the device.
- What we know so far
Scoping from photos before the visit tells the crew what to bring. Mounting kits and pre-terminated harnesses move work from the house to the warehouse. Our goal is under four hours for all three devices.
- What a solution makes possible
An install cost low enough for Current, Flow and Relay to work as businesses, and one visit instead of three for the homeowner.
- Roles on this problem
- Field operations leadFounding hardware engineerSupply chain lead
10
Manufacturing
Needed by Energy (Current) · Water (Flow) · Connectivity (Relay)
Manufacture devices at low cost and high reliability at volumes a young company usually cannot reach.
- Why it is hard
Low volumes mean high unit costs and little leverage with suppliers. Reliability comes from test coverage, burn-in and traceability, and each of those costs money on every unit.
One bad component lot can fail thousands of units in the field before anyone sees the pattern.
- What we know so far
Three devices that share parts, one contract manufacturer and serialized end-of-line test give us volume and traceability sooner than three separate companies would get them.
- What a solution makes possible
Hardware cheap enough to install widely, and a production line that later products in every domain can share.
- Roles on this problem
- Manufacturing and test engineerSupply chain leadFounder in residence
11
Telecom
Needed by Connectivity (Relay)
Keep a household's phone number working on whichever network is up.
- Why it is hard
A phone number lives on a carrier's account. Keeping it on any network needs carrier agreements or an MVNO arrangement, and we do not have either yet.
A call to 911 has to carry the right address on every path out of the house, including satellite and the neighborhood mesh.
- What we know so far
MVNOs already resell capacity on the large networks under wholesale agreements, and many phones already hold two carrier profiles at once. Relay plans to hold the number on its own account, which needs carrier agreements we do not have yet.
- What a solution makes possible
A house whose calls and internet keep working when one carrier or the cable line is down.
- Roles on this problem
- Carrier partnershipsEmbedded firmware engineer
12
Demand
Needed by Build (4 Seasons) · Energy (Current) · Water (Flow) · Connectivity (Relay)
Get a homeowner to say yes to three devices at a price that pays for the install.
- Why it is hard
Few homeowners shop for a leak valve, a load controller or a backup internet box before something fails. The offer has to make sense before that day.
The price has to cover the hardware and the visit, and each device can have a different payer: the homeowner, a utility program or an insurer.
- What we know so far
4 Seasons crews are already in houses for repairs and renovations, so the offer can come from the crew that is there. Some utilities pay for load control, and some insurers discount leak shutoff valves. We have not tested our offer yet.
- What a solution makes possible
Devices in enough houses for the other eleven problems to be worth solving.
- Roles on this problem
- Field operations leadUtility and insurance partnerships
Work on one of these problems
Pick the one you would spend years on, and tell us how you would start.