In this episode Sean is finally ready to reveal the new product Miscreants is building! Meanwhile Andrew's robotics team is getting dangerously close to qualifying for the World Championships, and the guys debate marketing new products. This episode was originally supposed to go out a couple weeks ago, but we're playing with our publishing schedule a bit. 

Links:

• Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskins
• Andrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/
• MetaMonster: https://metamonster.ai/
• Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsun
• Miscreants: http://miscreants.com/
• Sean's website: https://seanqsun.com/

For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/.

Transcript:
00:00:01.03
Sean
How you doing?

00:00:01.98
Andrew
I'm good.

00:00:02.68
Sean
Happy Wednesday.

00:00:03.55
Andrew
Happy Wednesday. Things are hectic. My entire life is robotics and also trying to launch a product on Monday. But yeah, I'm kind of delighted that I don't have, no offense, but I'm delighted I don't have any miscreants clients right now.

00:00:09.88
Sean
Hell yeah.

00:00:16.49
Sean
For yet, you know I got two product inbounds in like one day.

00:00:21.53
Andrew
Oh, I knew about one. I didn't know about both.

00:00:24.39
Sean
i got another Well, i actually, technically, Osuja's got another.

00:00:28.53
Andrew
So we're up to three. Great.

00:00:29.56
Sean
Yeah.

00:00:29.65
Andrew
Cool. Cool.

00:00:30.24
Sean
yeah

00:00:30.41
Andrew
Cool.

00:00:31.14
Sean
I can just not close them.

00:00:31.22
Andrew
Okay.

00:00:32.71
Sean
You know?

00:00:33.75
Andrew
I mean, I do like being able to pay my bills.

00:00:35.38
Sean
Cash.

00:00:37.32
Andrew
So yeah, I probably will tell them I can't start on anything until May though. All right, good.

00:00:44.47
Sean
That's fine. That's what we're telling everyone right now. We're all inbound that comes in. We're swamped for RSA at the moment. We can kick things off and start like loosely, but it's like hands-on keyboard stuff.

00:00:57.38
Sean
Everyone's tied up.

00:00:58.19
Andrew
Nice. When is RSA?

00:00:59.99
Sean
April 28th. 26th is when Gyside starts.

00:01:01.61
Andrew
Okay, cool.

00:01:01.81
Sean
Yep.

00:01:03.19
Andrew
So the reason that I can't start anything until May is, one, we're launching Metamonster, the beta, on Monday, and I need to like ramp all of our marketing back up, like start up Google Ads, start doing cold outreach, all that stuff again.

00:01:17.34
Sean
Hell

00:01:18.56
Andrew
But two... There is now a non-zero percent chance that my robotics team makes it to Worlds and has to raise $10,000 and figure out how to get 15 high schoolers to Houston in like two weeks.

00:01:28.86
Sean
he yeah. That's awesome. 10K. Okay.

00:01:32.02
Andrew
Yeah, I don't actually know what it will cost. That's just like kind of a number I'm pulling out of my ass. But like we need to pay for like 15 flights, hotel rooms, and to transport a robot across the country.

00:01:36.40
Sean
okay

00:01:43.57
Andrew
Yeah.

00:01:44.78
Sean
just have them take the pieces apart, put it in a suitcase, and rebuild it. And then you...

00:01:51.04
Andrew
Yeah, that is that sounds like an idea from someone who has never touched a first robotics robot in their life.

00:01:56.15
Sean
I've done Legos and failed at the at the tech whatever it's called, the kinetic Legos.

00:01:57.97
Andrew
Yeah, same thing. Same thing.

00:02:03.14
Andrew
The, like, robo-LEGO thing?

00:02:04.71
Sean
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:02:05.70
Andrew
Yeah.

00:02:05.81
Sean
I tried once was over.

00:02:07.62
Andrew
Yeah, so...

00:02:07.79
Sean
went back. Yeah.

00:02:09.30
Andrew
we crushed our second competition again and what that means this is i'll try not to get too into the weeds because first robotics is so incredibly convoluted but basically we have racked up 112 district ranking points between our first two competitions you need about 70 to qualify for the state championships

00:02:11.88
Sean
Congrats.

00:02:21.21
Sean
Nice. Overqualified.

00:02:29.05
Sean
nice

00:02:34.30
Andrew
which, so we have officially qualified for states. I leave at 6.30 tomorrow morning to go to the state championship for the first time ever.

00:02:37.49
Sean
overqualified

00:02:43.78
Andrew
Our team has never been. And then district rank points are also how you qualify for worlds. So generally speaking, if you get 150 state rank points, then you qualify for worlds.

00:02:58.55
Andrew
And points at states count for triple what normal points count for so if we finish kind of middle of the road and make it into playoffs and like win a playoff match we will almost definitely qualify for worlds Which would be absolutely bonkers because then we, as I mentioned, have to raise a bunch of money, figure out how to get a bunch of kids to Houston, and compete against the best robots in the world as a tiny scrappy team that has never even been to States before.

00:03:33.77
Andrew
And it gets crazier. I've been doing some research. I don't think a Detroit public school from like our school district has ever made it to Worlds.

00:03:46.99
Andrew
There's only one team from DHDC that's ever made it. And I think they might have been like a private team, a private school or a charter school or something. There are a ton of teams from the Detroit metro area who make it, but they're all in the suburbs.

00:04:00.99
Andrew
I think we'd be the first Detroit public school from, at least from our school district, to ever make it to Worlds if this happens.

00:04:08.93
Sean
this is This is like a real like Mr. Shushita moment.

00:04:11.87
Andrew
It's crazy.

00:04:12.81
Sean
This is awesome. This is cool.

00:04:14.19
Andrew
It's like total Cinderella story vibes.

00:04:16.66
Sean
Yeah. was going to work.

00:04:17.56
Andrew
Now, if we make it to Worlds, we are going to get obliterated.

00:04:18.25
Sean
Glee.

00:04:21.47
Andrew
we are like I've been watching videos of some of the top robots, and they're insane.

00:04:25.80
Sean
yeah

00:04:28.59
Andrew
There's a robot from San Francisco that is like, it can put up three or four X the points that we can put up in a given match by itself.

00:04:37.99
Sean
Gotcha.

00:04:38.84
Andrew
It's stupid.

00:04:39.98
Sean
I see.

00:04:40.96
Andrew
But...

00:04:40.98
Sean
What makes their robots so good? I see.

00:04:43.63
Andrew
So actually really, really fucking clever strategy.

00:04:48.36
Sean
i see

00:04:49.24
Andrew
So you have to know a little bit about the game to understand this, but basically like one of the core mechanisms of the game is, you get these like foot-long PVC pipes, and you have to deliver them to a station in the middle of the field and place them on a rung of this ...