# Standing With Ahmed

- Show: [The Amp Hour](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour)
- Published: 2015-09-18
- Length: 1h 02m
- Episode: 267
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2015-09-18-standing-with-ahmed
- Listen: https://theamphour.com/267-standing-with-ahmed/

## Summary

Dave Jones and Chris Camel discuss the viral story of Ahmed Mohammed, a student arrested for bringing a clock to school, using it to critique societal fear and the lack of common sense in education. They analyze a Bolt diagram of hardware venture capital, noting investors like SK Ventures backing companies such as Sphero and OpenROV, while debating the merits of VC funding versus bootstrapping. The conversation shifts to the XOXO conference, where Chris highlights the rise of independent contractors and the importance of community, before concluding with technical debates on the practicality of using high-level platforms like Raspberry Pi versus low-level assembly programming.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2015-09-18-standing-with-ahmed#t=0) Introduction and Show Recap
- [11:08](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2015-09-18-standing-with-ahmed#t=668) The Ahmed Mohammed Clock Incident
- [21:50](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2015-09-18-standing-with-ahmed#t=1310) Chris Camel's XOXO Conference Experience
- [32:48](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2015-09-18-standing-with-ahmed#t=1968) Hardware Startup Funding and Bolt Diagram
- [48:21](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2015-09-18-standing-with-ahmed#t=2901) Engineering Trade-offs: Assembly vs. High-Level Platforms

## Topics

- [Crowdfunding & preorders](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/crowdfunding)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Microcontrollers & dev platforms](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/microcontrollers-and-platforms)
- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [Maker community & events](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/maker-community)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Contextual Electronics (company)
- EEV Blog (other)
- Bolt (other)
- SK Ventures (company)
- Sphero (product)
- OpenROV (company)
- Y Combinator (company)
- KiCad (tool)
- Altium (tool)
- Raspberry Pi (product)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [228: Pedantic or Andrantic](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2018-01-03-228-pedantic-or-andrantic) (Embedded.fm)
- [184: Not Likely, Possible, or Safe](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2017-01-18-184-not-likely-possible-or-safe) (Embedded.fm)
- [89: I Have New Batteries](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2015-02-18-89-i-have-new-batteries) (Embedded.fm)
- [144: Asking For Clippy](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-03-23-144-asking-for-clippy) (Embedded.fm)
- [139: Easy to Add Blood Splatter](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-02-17-139-easy-to-add-blood-splatter) (Embedded.fm)

## 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/2015-09-18-standing-with-ahmed. 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.