Five months of wondering, and over two years of wandering.
In the early days of September 2022, we finally released NetsPresso 1.0. The culmination of years of hard work.
NetsPresso 1.0 is our first product that makes clear what NetsPresso is. For years, we spoke glowingly of our 'Deep Learning Model Lightweight Platform', but had nothing tangible to show for it, until now.
The design draft of NetsPresso 1.0 was released in mid-March 2022, but in truth the process started much earlier, way back in May 2020. At that time, we had voted to use the name Automatic Model Compression (AMC). In fact, if you look back at the record of when the first code was written, the AMC is timestamped January 2020. In other words, it took 2 years and 8 months for NetsPresso 1.0 to finally come to fruition.
There was a long gap between the moment NetsPresso was conceived as an idea, and realized as a product. During this time, we often felt lost at sea. As the waves crashed around us, I tried to help us navigate the waters. Drawing out a map piece by piece. I am still drawing new maps to this day.
A long and winding road.
Looking back now on the last two years, I can see the path that we forged, but it wasn't easy. We struggled a lot in the early days, unsure of ourselves, often meeting failure and disappointment. But we were never deterred, when things didn't go as we planned, we worked even harder to find new opportunities.
Looking back now, it's clear to me that the time we spent struggling was the most important part of the development process. Things that I had considered failures, were actually missing pieces of the puzzle, I just didn't know it at the time. Had I known this, I would have enjoyed the process a lot more! It is important to look back in time with understanding eyes, appreciating the work and effort of others. If we do this, we can't fail to see the value in what we achieved together.
During development, whenever I was asked what NetsPresso actually was, I honestly didn't know how to answer. In fact, even today, I still can't answer every question posed to me. This is probably down to my own faults, but in my defense, I do have an excuse. During development, NetsPresso was something totally novel, which couldn't really be compared to something else. In other words, we were making something that had never been seen before, so it was difficult to describe. But over time, the process began to take shape, and NetsPresso 1.0 arrived.
Truthfully, I don't fully understand the business of research and development (R&D). I'm just someone who worked hard and tried my best over the last couple of years. I can say that R&D is very difficult, and much like the stock market, caution should be advised, it doesn't always go your way. All that's left for the average person is to work hard, remain humble, and try new ideas.
As someone well aware of my own average ability, I have tried my best to summarize my thoughts and experiences from the project. I plan to post some more detailed stories in the future, hopefully they can be a helpful reference for someone in the same position as I once was.
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NetsPresso is the culmination of years of hard work with my colleagues, we all worked together to make it happen. I have grown a lot through the process, feeling joy, sorrow, frustration, and finally, elation. From my immediate colleagues, to the strategy team, marketing team, and others, I feel an indescribable gratitude to you all. NetsPresso would not exist without you.
