# Vellicate Videogame Vocation

- Show: [The Amp Hour](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour)
- Published: 2012-04-23
- Length: 1h 09m
- Episode: 92
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation
- Listen: https://theamphour.com/the-amp-hour-92-vellicate-videogame-vocation/

## Summary

Jeff Kaiser, founder of the MightyOhm electronics kit business, discusses his transition from self-employment to joining Valve as a hardware engineer. He details Valve's unique flat organizational structure, the rigorous interview process, and the importance of maintaining a public portfolio of open-source hardware projects to demonstrate engineering breadth. The conversation also covers the scaling challenges of the Pebble Kickstarter campaign and the legal implications of Twitter's Innovators Patent Agreement.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation#t=0) Introduction and Valve Job Announcement
- [9:53](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation#t=593) Valve's Flat Culture and No-Managers Policy
- [19:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation#t=1177) Networking and the Interview Process
- [26:14](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation#t=1574) Building a Hardware Portfolio for Job Hunting
- [38:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation#t=2317) MightyOhm Kit Business and Outsourcing
- [42:11](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation#t=2531) Pebble Kickstarter and Supply Chain Scale
- [51:02](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation#t=3062) Twitter's Innovators Patent Agreement
- [59:40](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation#t=3580) Vacuum Tube Mercury Lawsuit

## Topics

- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [Crowdfunding & preorders](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/crowdfunding)
- [Intellectual property](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/intellectual-property)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies, large enterprises

## Mentioned

- Valve (company)
- MightyOhm (company)
- Pebble (product)
- Twitter (company)
- Dangerous Prototypes (company)
- Altium (company)
- Hackaday (company)
- SparkFun (company)
- Seeed Studio (company)
- SEG Market (other)

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- [389: Blobs Are Not Stressful](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-10-14-389-blobs-are-not-stressful) (Embedded.fm)
- [293: Skateboard Tricks (Repeat)](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-12-23-293-skateboard-tricks-repeat) (Embedded.fm)
- [Ep. 8 - Ryan from V1 Engineering](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/open-hardware-manufacturing-podcast/2023-11-09-ep-8-ryan-from-v1-engineering) (Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2012-04-23-vellicate-videogame-vocation. 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 The Amp Hour.