SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — “Do you want to cut a piece of rocket science steak?” Eric Norman asked.
Those three words, “rocket science steak,” had brought me to this tiny conference room in a shared workspace in the SoMa district here, the famous hotbed of technology startups. And judging by the envious looks on the faces of many of the people on the other side of the conference room’s glass door, I made the right decision.
I’ve come to check out Cinder, a brand-new high-tech cooking appliance from Cinder Cooklabs, a member of the current class of startups in Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s best-known accelerator program, that goes on sale today.
Norman, formerly a product developer at Toyota Motors, is Cinder’s cofounder and CEO. Right now, he’s wearing a pair of surgical gloves and lovingly showing off a shiny, spotless prototype of his device, which is expected to be available early next year.
