We've released open source projects (most notably ElephantDB and Cascalog) in the past that are successfully used in production by us as well as other companies. You should check them out if you're interested in a measure of quality, though I understand your concern.
We're a startup — we're not going to write an academic paper supporting the claims in the post. Nevertheless, Storm's an exciting project many people are curious to learn more about; that's why we've written something about it now.
We have a demo coming soon, and Storm itself will be open sourced soon enough.
I absolutely understand the issue of being resource constrained.
It seems like this is buzz-worthy, (like http://mailchimp.com/omnivore/), but this pitch is nerd-focused, not potential-customer focused. If you pitch to nerds, you want a github link. If you pitch to potential customers, highlight the benefits that are now possible due to this innovation.
At least in our batch, we got drilled this repeatedly: Don't talk features. Talk benefits.
Since we're using BackType as well to calculate the score, it was easier to do both requests server-side. We pre-ran a long list of popular users and all of their followers, but guess we didn't reach enough people :(
The score's based on your use of GitHub, who follows you and your projects, as well as (this is where BackType comes in) how much they are shared on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Hacker News, etc.
What you're seeing is Disqus' Reactions feature, which we help power. Part of our business is data services, which companies like Disqus, Bitly, The New York Times, SlideShare, etc use.
Our own product is a marketing intelligence platform; essentially, it provides analytics for social media marketing programs so brands understand what's working, what isn't and how to improve.
Many startups are C corporations which typically do not have a sole "owner" i.e. I'm an owner of BackType, I'm also an owner of Google if I buy their stock, etc.
Essentially, it's up to the immigration offer to decide whether a certain level of equity disqualifies you from receiving TN status. Much more scrutiny is applied to the actual proposed employment, your responsibilities, whether these fit in the TN status categories, etc.
The TN is obviously not intended for self employment, but that becomes subjective once you've grown beyond a company of size one.
I've received different advice, mainly stemming from significant ownership (you presumably have significant ownership of BackType where as you wouldn't Google) and role as "founder" and that not being inline with non-immigration intent. You can to claim your work in US is temporary whereas the company presumably isn't.
But you have it, and that is what counts. Congrats.
We're a startup — we're not going to write an academic paper supporting the claims in the post. Nevertheless, Storm's an exciting project many people are curious to learn more about; that's why we've written something about it now.
We have a demo coming soon, and Storm itself will be open sourced soon enough.