Hardware Podcasts

Interview with the Upverter Founders - Ramiform Reciprocity Raconteurs

The Amp Hour · 18 Sept 2013 · 1h 45m · Episode 163

What this episode covers

Upverter founders Zach Homet, Steve Hamer, and Michael Woodworth discuss building a multiplayer web-based CAD tool for electronics design. They detail their journey from a garage startup to Y Combinator, explaining how they raised $650,000 over three years and recently closed a seed round. The founders explain their strategic focus on collaboration, data interoperability with distributors like Octopart and DigiKey, and their philosophy against building a marketplace to protect open-source hardware.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Y Combinator, Octopart, DigiKey, Mouser, Texas Instruments, GitHub, Heroku, SparkFun, Tindie, Freescale, Arrow, Newark
Products
Upverter, Altium, Cadence, Eagle, Pebble, BeagleBone, HackRF, KiCad

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • TRADEOFFS · 58m

    T-25-007 : Valentina Ratner - Mechanical Engineer to SaaS for Hardware CEO

    Valentina Ratner, co-founder and CEO of AllSpice, explains how she adapted Git workflows for hardware engineering to solve collaboration issues in electronics design. She details the transition from building Amazon delivery lockers to founding AllSpice, focusing on version control for PCBs, schematics, and BOMs. The episode covers the strategic decision to charge for the tool to ensure commitment, the shift from SMB to enterprise sales, and the challenges of integrating with ECAD tools like KiCad and Cadence.

    PCB design & layoutEDA & CAD tools
    10 chapters

  • Moore's Lobby · 56m

    VC-Backed Hardware Design Collaboration is the (All) Spice of Life

    Valentina Ratner and Kyle Dumont, co-founders of Allspice, explain their mission to bring Git-style version control and collaboration workflows to hardware engineering, addressing the industry's reliance on outdated methods like printed schematics and PDFs. Chrissy Meyer, a general partner at Root Ventures, discusses her transition from electrical engineering at Apple to VC, explaining how she recognized the visceral pain of inefficient design reviews and invested in Allspice to solve these collaboration gaps. The team details how Allspice Hub enables asynchronous design reviews and connects disparate tools, aiming to bridge the gap between electrical engineering and software development practices.

    EDA & CAD toolsStarting a product company
    10 chapters

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 15m

    353: Red for the Ones That Might Blow Up

    Seth Hillbrand, lead developer for KiCAD and founder of KiCAD Services Corporation, discusses the evolution of the open-source EDA tool from a physics experiment necessity to a professional-grade design suite. He details how commercial licensing restrictions at Zuken and SolidWorks forced his team to adopt KiCAD for the EBEX balloon experiment, leading to his contributions and eventual leadership role. Hillbrand explains how KiCAD Services provides paid support to professional engineers, creating a sustainable funding model that allows the core team to focus on development while maintaining a welcoming, inclusive community culture that actively moderates against toxic behavior.

    EDA & CAD toolsStarting a product company
    8 chapters

  • Embedded.fm · 43m

    293: Skateboard Tricks (Repeat)

    Limor Fried, founder of Adafruit, discusses the company's 13-year history of manufacturing open-source hardware in New York, highlighting recent products like the PyGamer and PyBadge. She explains the engineering philosophy behind TinyUSB, an open-source USB stack developed by engineer Hathach to replace proprietary vendor stacks, and details the business model of supporting a community of 4,000 products. Fried emphasizes that while hardware design is easy, the value lies in firmware, documentation, and tutorials, which she balances with business operations and education.

    PCB design & layoutEmbedded firmware
    13 chapters

  • Embedded.fm · 56m

    35: All These Different Reasons Why You Might Want to Do Something

    Chris Gammell, co-host of The Amp Hour podcast and employee at a large industrial electronics company, discusses his new online course, Contextual Electronics, which bridges the gap between academic theory and practical hardware design. He explains the course's structure, which targets advanced Arduino users by teaching them to design, source parts for, and build a 'Bench Buddy' project using KiCad and open-source tools. Gammell details the logistical challenges of running a remote hardware class, including managing global time zones, version control via GitHub, and optimizing for low-cost, low-quantity component sourcing.

    Validation & product-market fitEDA & CAD tools
    8 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by The Amp Hour. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.