Pole-mounted weather stations and grid-decision
software for rural electric cooperatives
Risk mitigation for the rural electric grid
Infrastructure managers are forced to make high-stakes decisions in the dark. Without asset-level hardware, utilities are left with regional “weather blindness” — relying on generalized forecasts that can't see the reality on their own lines. That lack of visibility turns critical operations into guesswork: lost line, endangered customers, and unmitigated liability.
WatchPost closes that gap with weather stations that mount directly to distribution poles, paired with software that turns their readings into operating decisions. Jack founded the company and specifically led hardware, taking the station from concept to field-deployed product in under 3 months.
The weather station
Jack's ownership covered the hardware. This included a cellular gateway, power system, sealed enclosure, and pole-mount — a self-contained, grid-independent unit.
At its core is a 4G/LTE cellular gateway that pulls readings from the weather module over RS485. An embedded program on the gateway derives wind gusts from the raw wind-speed signal, alongside wind direction, temperature, pressure, humidity, and PM2.5 and PM10. Telemetry is configurable up to once per second, and the system runs entirely off-grid on a 12V 50W solar panel feeding a 12V 30Ah battery. Data is fed through AWS into the backend of WatchPost's software platform, delivering actionable insights to customers — starting with these stations.
Idea to deployment in three months
WatchPost went from idea to deployed, revenue-generating hardware in three months. In the first week, the team designed the station and ordered the supplies for eight units. They manufactured and delivered all eight the week after.
When the parts and materials arrived, Jack's apartment became the manufacturing floor — wiring solar controllers, sealing enclosures, and bench-testing each sensor before it shipped. Seven days later, Jack and co-founder Josh were on the road to Moon Lake and La Plata Electric to put the units on the pole.
Deployed in Colorado
WatchPost units are installed across two Colorado electric grids — Moon Lake Electric and La Plata Electric — mounted by linemen.
Both cooperatives have given strong feedback, and are using the data to reduce wildfire risk and weather-caused power outages.
First out of 127 ventures
At the 2026 CU Boulder New Venture Challenge, WatchPost competed against 127 ventures and took both 1st place and Audience Choice.
Jack led WatchPost as founder and CEO through its first deployments, and now serves as a board advisor as the team scales.