Matty Schaefer: YouTube Fame, Surveillance Tech, Solving City Congestion | Hard Tech Podcast #18

Hard Tech Podcast · 12 May 2024 · 2h 09m

What this episode covers

Matty Schaefer, founder and former CEO of Vade, discusses his journey from building a successful tech review YouTube channel, MS Tech, to solving urban congestion through smart parking technology. He explains how Vade uses wireless, solar-powered cameras to provide real-time curb data to cities, addressing the mismatch between parking supply and modern delivery/rideshare demand. Schaefer details the technical challenges of building proprietary hardware and computer vision models, the strategic decision to pivot from a consumer app to a B2G data provider, and his eventual decision to sell the company after five years of intense startup life.

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