Entrepreneurial Friends

I've been meaning to post something about what two friends of ours, and up until recently, co-workers of mine at Lockheed, are up to now that they have started their own self-run businesses. I'm very impressed with people that can do that, and wish them both the best!

First up is Dustin, who has taken his skills as a machine/electronics/mechanical designer and created his own company, Protoplant. He's been flying solo for the past 6 months or so, and has been working on some really neat projects. Check out his website - I wish you could see some of his work in person as it's quite impressive! And, ummm, if you are in the Bay Area and need some custom industrial machine equipment prototyped, uhhh, give him a call.


Second is Luke, a Dartmouth/Thayer friend who also happened to move out to Sunnyvale to work at Lockheed after getting his MEM with me. Luke and his wife SK (who is in Business School at Duke, they have moved back East to Durham, NC) have created VisibleEnergy, a startup designed to (as described here) "provide residential power consumers with an energy monitoring device and an online community. The monitoring device will deliver a low-cost data feed from the consumer’s electricity meter to the VisibleEnergy data processing center. Our website will translate usage into meaningful terms, allow users to compare their consumption with similar homes, and provide tailored recommendations for cost and energy savings." Still in the early stages, Luke and SK have a great blog focused on responsible home energy consumption. Head over and give it a read or add it to your RSS feed, maybe it will inspire you to air dry your clothes more, adjust your thermostat settings, decide whether to replace your bulbs with CFLs, or maybe unplug some unused appliances. I enjoyed reading, and learned a few things too! Hopefully VisibleEnergy will take off, along with home energy savings. I know many of our family members have these electricity monitors in their homes and have commented how it has inspired them to change their behavior and consumption. Maybe my sister and family in Durham can participate in their trial phase! Here's another article about VisibleEnergy, also linked on their blog.