
Ask HN: What's a radical company more people should hear about - iameoghan
Pretty much as per the title what&#x27;s a really amazing company that more people need to hear about, and why?<p>For me there are a couple that I find hugely impressive.<p>Buurtzorg [1] - a nurse-led model of holistic care that revolutionised community care in the Netherlands.
Everlade [2] - Transparent pricing [3] on their garments
Lemonade [4] - I don&#x27;t know how to describe this other than revolutionising insurance for the 21st century.<p>What are the other business that are disrupting traditional business, either with their business model, or via a disruptive customer experience?<p>[1]https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.buurtzorg.com&#x2F;
[2]https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.everlane.com&#x2F;
[3]https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.everlane.com&#x2F;about
[4]https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lemonade.com&#x2F;
======
mabil
Semco [1] It is not a new company but they are still miles ahead when dealing
with transparency, work-life-balance and many others well being attributes for
its employees and future generation.

I would love to see and know more radical companies in terms of methodoligies
and personal evolution as examples as well, not only tech.

[1]
[https://www.ted.com/talks/ricardo_semler_how_to_run_a_compan...](https://www.ted.com/talks/ricardo_semler_how_to_run_a_company_with_almost_no_rules?language=en)

edit: clarification

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AndrewOMartin
Thanks for this post. You saved me the embarrassment of writing something like
"that company that ran everything in a much more humane way and benefited for
it that a friend told me about years ago but I forgot the name".

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davehcker
Shameless self-promotion here; but I think it meets your requirements.

Hexafarms ([https://hexafarms.com/](https://hexafarms.com/) )- an indoor
farming startup which can match a throughput that will enable us to grow food
in the urban pockets at an efficiecy between 10-200x (depending on what you're
meauring).

The website is a bit flashy and not very detailed. Also it is only this month
I'm gonna be working ~full time hours on it. Here's why it's radical:

* A empty single-floor 2000 sq. ft. space can produce ~200k KGs of produce. Hence also the idealization of distributed and small farms and not those 10-storey robot driven ones. * Possibility of growing 'crafted-produce', say low-sodium lettuce for diabetes, bitter and juicy lettuce for kids (apparently they like it), very high oil content mint plants so you get same amount of mint oil from half the weight. * All of this greatly affects (and positively) the current supply chain. * It's heavily data driven. And this is not just because it's cool. Think of it as openAI GPT, but for X produce.

~~~
majewsky
Link that works: [https://hexafarms.com/](https://hexafarms.com/)

Do you have any images of how the setup would look? Also:

> A empty single-floor 2000 sq. ft. space can produce ~200k KGs of produce.

Per which unit of time?

~~~
davehcker
Thanks for fixing the link. That's another little known thing- an average
field (max) produces three harvests of lettuce. I don't have actual data, but
based on my experimentations I think a realization of 13-20 harvests is
possible; actually there's literature on this as well. How exactly? Just a
basic application of the queuing theory. A lettuce needs to sit in the main
hole for max 20 days. Before that, within the same 2k sq. ft. that I
mentioned, keep it in separate 'incubator'space which will take much less
volume.

In the coming weeks I'll add pictures too.

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mrDmrTmrJ
Maybe not radical, but I'm have a really good experience with
[https://www.future.fit/](https://www.future.fit/)

They pair you with a personal trainer who comes up with a detailed workout
plan just for you. Each workout arrives as a set of videos, showing ever
exercise or stretch stitched together. You just follow along the video, but
it's based exactly on what you want to achieve. (E.g. 'lessening pain from
sitting and getting active'.)They send you an apple watch to track heart rate
and ensure you're active.

B/c you text with your coach, and they see you're activity, you have a ton of
accountability. So I've been working out more than ever while locked at home
:)

Yes, it's a little expensive. But far cheaper than in person personal
training. I'm benefiting from it!

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JunkDNA
Syapse here! We are a real-world data company working across life science
(pharma), hospitals, and with the FDA. We want to use real-world evidence to
improve the outcomes of cancer patients. When many think of Health IT, they
think primarily of patient tools, which are important. However, lots of
decisions are made between pharma, hospitals, regulators and health plans that
effect us; and aren't always grounded in what happens in the "real-world". We
are hoping to help those decision-makers make better decisions for oncology
patients using data, analytics and expertise.

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crcastle
This article about Everlane [1] and OP mentioning the company makes me wonder
if we (outsiders) are capable of truly judging a company of being “radical”
and deserving of free marketing by us outsiders / customers.

Of course we can look at financial results, but OP seems to be asking about
something more intangible.

[1]: [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/fashion/everlane-
employee...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/fashion/everlane-employees-
ethical-clothing.html)

------
madalinab
TypingDNA [1] recognises people by the way they type, and provides typing
biometrics (aka keystroke dynamics) as a service via an API. This is currently
used for Multi-Factor Authentication in industries like Banking and Education
[2].

Don't take my word for granted, see it with your own eyes and even try it with
a friend (can somebody else replicate your typing pattern?) [3]

There are free accounts provided to developers, so you can easily call the API
yourself [4]

[1] [https://www.typingdna.com/](https://www.typingdna.com/) [2]
[https://www.typingdna.com/authentication-
api.html](https://www.typingdna.com/authentication-api.html) [3]
[https://www.typingdna.com/demo-sametext.html](https://www.typingdna.com/demo-
sametext.html) [4]
[https://www.typingdna.com/clients/signup](https://www.typingdna.com/clients/signup)

~~~
kohtatsu
Google's CAPTCHA also captures keyboard biometrics;
[https://www.businessinsider.com.au/google-no-captcha-
adtruth...](https://www.businessinsider.com.au/google-no-captcha-adtruth-
privacy-research-2015-2)

~~~
madalinab
Thank you for sharing this, very interesting! Although a bit old (2015), the
article raises some questions on privacy & transparency, which are more
important than ever (eg: the increasing legislation like GDPR, CCPA).

Luckily, the TypingDNA solution is secure and compliant, in accordance not
only to the Privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA), but also to other kind of legislation
like Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) required by the EU Payment Services
Directive (PSD2)

------
hrishios
Self-promotion, but our company Greywing ([https://grey-
wing.com](https://grey-wing.com)) automates Covid-19 assessments and crew
changes for maritime.

Over a million seafarers are still stuck on vessels around the world as
governments refuse to let them in, and we're trying our best to bridge the gap
with software.

------
lbrindze
Apeel Sciences: [https://apeelsciences.com/](https://apeelsciences.com/) I
don't work for this company or have any affiliation but they are up to some
really cool stuff in the food space. They develop a plant based coating for
fresh produce that keeps it fresh for longer minimizing food waste and making
produce easier and safer to distribute.

[https://andela.com/](https://andela.com/) is another company that is really
awesome and doing some cool stuff with helping make technology jobs more
accessible to people all over Africa.

------
cch_
[https://nius.tv](https://nius.tv) is a next-gen news aggregator that uses an
AI anchor. The mobile app will be released in October.

For now you can check out news videos here,
[https://twitter.com/nius_tv](https://twitter.com/nius_tv) or subscribe to
their website to get newsletters.

There is also a Medium post detailing the tech and motivation,
[https://medium.com/@calufa/converting-news-into-video-
storie...](https://medium.com/@calufa/converting-news-into-video-
stories-5d8d4fc5a32b).

------
karanke
Some companies I'd put on the list:

1) Okta – Single Sign-On as a service

2) Snowflake – Cloud-native data warehouse as a service

3) Crowdstrike – Cloud-native security as a service

~~~
milkytron
My company uses Okta now, and it's been the only SSO service I've used that's
truly SSO.

Every other SSO service I've used only worked for certain accounts, or only
for first party company accounts, or for specific things. Okta is the SSO that
actually does what SSO stands for, and I've been loving it because I don't
have to think about it.

~~~
iameoghan
I'm a N00b - what makes this so special?

~~~
milkytron
It worked.

Other SSO systems I have used were not entirely SSO.

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eappleby
A little on the nose, but check out RADiCAL
([https://getrad.co/](https://getrad.co/)). 3D Motion Capture from your phone.
It's already pretty useful in the entertainment world, but once they bring
down their rendering times, the possibilities are pretty exciting.

~~~
iameoghan
That's pretty cool - thanks for sharing.

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i24543
BluWave-AI [1] applying ML to modernize power grids. Not flashy, but
revolutionary behind the scenes work.

[1][https://www.bluwave-ai.com/](https://www.bluwave-ai.com/)

~~~
iameoghan
What makes it revolutionary? Sounds amazing btw but I would already expected
grids to be using ML for surge detection etc. Is it not the norm?

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kasey_junk
Radical is a hard bar to get over but I routinely tell people fly.io is the
most interesting infrastructure company out there right now.

If only I had time to build all the things on it I want to.

~~~
iameoghan
That look uber cool.

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giantg2
Why is Lemonade radical?

~~~
tornato7
It's online-only, chatbot-driven, no sales associates in offices to visit. You
just snap some pics on your phone and you're insured.

~~~
brokensegue
i get my renters insurance through geico and i didnt have to take any pictures
at all

~~~
giantg2
Same, when I was a renter I applied online. Same for when I became a
homeowner. My car insurance was also setup online.

