# Burning Man Maker, Music Mogul, and PCB Revolutionary—Flux CEO Matthias Wagner

- Show: [Moore's Lobby](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby)
- Published: 2023-05-02
- Length: 1h 00m
- Episode: 5
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner
- Listen: https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/podcast/burning-man-maker-music-mogul-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner

## Summary

Matthias Wagner, CEO of Flux, discusses his unconventional career path from Siemens to music production and back to hardware, explaining how his experience creating the viral 'Crazy Frog' track and designing modular energy systems for Burning Man informed his vision for Flux. He details the frustration hardware engineers face with legacy, waterfall-style PCB design tools, contrasting them with the fluid, real-time collaboration found in modern software and music production workflows. Wagner explains how Flux aims to democratize hardware design by combining GitHub-style version control with Figma-like usability, allowing users to iterate quickly without managing complex file formats or manual footprints. The episode concludes with a look at Flux's new AI assistant, which helps engineers with component selection, schematic validation, and even generating entire designs from natural language prompts.

## Chapters

- [0:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner#t=1) Introduction: Matthias Wagner and Flux
- [1:15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner#t=75) Early Engineering at Siemens and Reverse Engineering
- [8:25](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner#t=505) Pivoting to Music Production and Crazy Frog
- [13:18](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner#t=798) Lessons from Music Software for PCB Design
- [19:27](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner#t=1167) Burning Man Energy Systems and Modular Design
- [24:35](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner#t=1475) Time at Facebook and Oculus Quest Development
- [33:06](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner#t=1986) Identifying the Problem with Legacy PCB Tools
- [38:17](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner#t=2297) Flux: GitHub and Figma for Hardware
- [44:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner#t=2656) Flux AI Assistant and Future Features

## Topics

- [PCB design & layout](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pcb-design)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)
- [Industrial & consumer product design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/industrial-design)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Flux (company)
- Siemens (company)
- Facebook (company)
- Oculus (product)
- Crazy Frog (product)
- Ableton (product)
- Pro Tools (product)
- Steinberg Cubase (product)
- GitHub (other)
- Figma (other)
- ESP32 (chip)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Can AI Design IoT Hardware? | Flux's Matthias Wagner | Internet of Things Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2026-04-14-can-ai-design-iot-hardware-fluxs-matthias-wagner-internet-of-things-podcast) (IoT For All Podcast)
- [T-25-007 : Valentina Ratner - Mechanical Engineer to SaaS for Hardware CEO](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/tradeoffs/2025-03-21-t-25-007-valentina-ratner-mechanical-engineer-to-saas-for-hardware-ceo) (TRADEOFFS)
- [An Interview with Matt Berggren](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-12-16-an-interview-with-matt-berggren) (The Amp Hour)
- [#440.2 - Interviews with Greg Davill and Michael Ossmann](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-05-01-440-2-interviews-with-greg-davill-and-michael-ossmann) (The Amp Hour)
- [Hatch Duo: Industrial Design, Navigating AI, Branding, Hardware Innovation | Hard Tech Podcast #16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hard-tech-podcast/2024-03-20-hatch-duo-industrial-design-navigating-ai-branding-hardware-innovation-hard-tech) (Hard Tech Podcast)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2023-05-02-burning-man-maker-music-mogul-and-pcb-revolutionary-flux-ceo-matthias-wagner. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Moore's Lobby.