đ Gaming, Side Gigs, Big Tech
DIY video games, Q&A w/ Anthony Castrio, some more tools + founder advice.
How are people passing the time? With a new, noticeable gap in place of previously-allocated commute time, summer internships, social events, etc., itâs time to try something new. Unfortunately, Netflix/Hulu, junk food, and Settlers of Catan arenât quite doing it for me. Gaming has seen a serious boom (or revitalization) in recent months, with sales reaching all-time highs and eSports/gaming companies raising an eyebrow-raising amount of capital in the age of COVID-19. I sat down with Ken Railey, founder of Flowlab.io, to talk visual programming, software and game development.
Flowlab is a tool for people who want to âcreate things instead of consuming themâ. The company's NoCode game development environment allows users to create deployable, easy-to-make iOS, Android or PC games, all in a browser.
Engage with 1M+ Flowlab community members and find updates in the Forum, create and market your own games from scratch, or participate in Game Jams (like hackathons for game development). Additionally, you can play games others have created and open up the editor to see how they were made. This is a go-to for customizable content creation, new project inspiration and pocket cash if thatâs your jam.
Create a free account & become a game developer đ€
Work-Life Balance w/ Anthony Castrio
Anthony is a freelancer, indie hacker, and traveler. Previously he worked for tech co's Loom, Redfin, and Splunk and organized two of the largest global hackathons, Bitcamp and Technica. Anthony currently runs Indie Worldwide, an online meetup group for freelancers and bootstrapped startup founders.
What career moves drove you to where you are now?
After graduating from UMD, I accepted an offer to work at Loom full-time in San Francisco as a full-stack engineer. Worked there for 6 months. When I left, I didn't want to jump straight to another similar job, so I started freelancing. I found I had a lot more control over my time.
I met my first client volunteering at a conference in SF. I helped out in the green room where they prep presenters and talked to everyone there. After a good conversation, one of the speakers hired me on the spot to build out a healthcare platform. From there I found more gigs through friends, networking, and posting online.
What are your tips for new founders in the idea/early stage?
Do whatever makes sense for your company. If you need a lot of capital to start the business, then fundraise. If you can build it scrappy, then you retain ownership of your company. Smaller outcomes can still lead to bigger personal paydays if you never diluted. It's not a dichotomy.
Tips and Tricks? Build an audience, document what you're working on publicly (e.g. Twitter, blog posts, YouTube), ship often.
Living abroad, I learned that the world of software engineering is already completely compatible with remote work. Any team I build in the future would be remote-first. I have a lot of thoughts about that, but one big non-obvious benefit of a good remote work culture is automatic documentation. If the majority of communication is written and stored somewhere searchable (eg Slack, Notion), then you have less institutional knowledge getting lost.
What projects are you working on now that you're excited about?
Indie Worldwide, an online meetup group for indie founders. We meet online semi-monthly and invite guests for Q&A sessions. Past guests have included the founder of Indie Hackers, the founder of bubble.io, roboticists, marketers, and no-code pros.Â
*Thanks @Anthony for taking the time to chat. Funny enough, we actually met at an Indie Worldwide meetup. Would recommend!
Breaking Up Big Tech: A Deep Dive Into This Weekâs Testimony
with Reggie Cai
On Wednesday, the chief executives of Americaâs largest tech companies gathered (virtually) in front of the Houseâs antitrust subcommittee to defend themselves against inquiries into their broad market control, handling of user data, and free speech censorship. The CEOs - Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sundar Pichai of Google, and Tim Cook of Apple - were largely consistent in their responses to the barrage of questions by lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle, walking a fine line between vague and sufficient (for more than 5 hours!). Hereâs our analysis of two hot topics addressed in the testimony:
Antitrust concerns
Honing in on Amazonâs command over online retail and Facebookâs domination in social media, conservative and liberal leaders alike grilled Bezos and Zuck on their companiesâ anti-competitive activity. When threatened with government action, they repeated the same argument made by John D. Rockefeller over a century ago in Standard Oil v. United States: that any increased regulation would simply harm consumers and raise prices. Indeed, in the decades that have passed since the breakup of Standard Oil, the alleged benefits of that decision are still up for debate. Even more relevant is the antitrust case against Microsoft more than twenty years ago. Despite the eventual ruling in Microsoftâs favor, some argue the legal quagmire eroded its market position and paved the way for younger firms like Google and Amazon to expand more rapidly. Could this weekâs testimony be history repeating itself? Whether todayâs scenario is more analogous to that of Standard Oil back in 1911 or Microsoft in 2001 (or neither) is up for debate. One thing is certain: the role of government regulation and the ideals of a free market are once again seemingly in conflict.Â
User data handling
In our increasingly digital world, data (and data privacy) has seen much controversy. When questioned by lawmakers, Google defended its widespread packaging of user data by affirming its commitment to providing personalized experiences for consumers. Amazonâs relationship with data, on the other hand, is under fire for different reasons. Though claiming to uphold a strict division between its in-house Amazon brand and the teams that manage extensive third-party seller data, Bezos was unable to comment on whether it had been breached. If this is the case, it would mean that Amazon uses its trove of proprietary data to improve its own brand and launch products that compete with their own customers. Thereâs no question that data allows these companies to better target consumers and provide worthwhile engagement.
Foreign governments remain fearful of data espionage, and the possibilities for misuse of private data are endless. Though lawmakers traditionally focus on monopoliesâ control over consumer prices, this benchmark may be an anachronism of the past: the âcostâ of data could arguably be a more relevant metric today. And we, as consumers, must wonder -- is this cost too high?
*If youâre interested, hereâs a more nuanced hour-by-hour analysis of the hearing.
Tech Trends & Startups Weâre Watching
Gaming sales reached $1.2B over the last month, while mobile and eSports companies lead in capital raises YTD
Blockchain, Conversational AI and XR are major growth drivers behind emerging Foodtech trends
Online medical visits on track to hit 200 million (6x COVID expectations), telehealth startup Heal raises $100M
Paperchain ($330K, Seed) đâïž - Allows labels, creators and artists to access their streaming payments faster
Point ($12.68M, Series A) đł - Secure, digital bank account with a point-based system to reward purchases and transfer money without overdraft fees
Abacus.ai ($18.25M, Series A) 𧟠- AI platform designed to help organizations create large-scale, real-time customizable deep learning systems
NoCode Tools of The Week
Descript - audio processing platform that enables editors, producers, podcasters and more to manipulate sound files and create audio
MemberStack - add memberships, user accounts, and payments to websites
Alloy - transfer data and trigger actions across any app you use to automate your workflow
Flowlab - (see above!)
Our Light Bulbs đĄ
-Paul Grahamâs essay on The Four Quadrants of Conformism
-Big data in a post-pandemic world by Rebecca James of Hackernoon
-NASA launched Perseverance on Thursday, a new mission to Mars attempting to discover signs of life, collect samples and bring audio into the equation
-With a COVID vaccine on the way, who should get it first?
-Another one bites the WFH, Google announces remote work until July 2021
-Universal & AMC sign an agreement allowing for the release of movies to on-demand services after only 17 days, forecasting what could be the end of movie theaters
Thing of the week
Aggregated resources, leadership development and other advice for founders, created by Steve Schlafman and Rishi Tripathy:
Thatâs all for this week. Prioritize health and spend time with family.
If you missed the last newsletter, find it here!
Hi! đ Thanks for reading The Void. Weâre Zach and Jack, Partners @ Practicum and Students @ WashU + Georgetown. Leave some feedback, check us out on LinkedIn or contact us!