In this episode of the Uncertain Value podcast, I’m talking with Mario Zechner again. He shares how he designed and built a portable, Gameboy-like audio player for his son — motivated by the shortcomings he saw in the Toniebox and Yoto Player, the two biggest products in the market. Issues like unintuitive controls, underpowered speakers, the potential fire hazards of lithium-ion batteries, content limitations, and privacy concerns about the mandatory internet connection sparked his desire for something better.

Although this was Mario’s first real adventure into electronics, how much can someone who usually writes game engines and compilers really be held back by designing circuit boards, soldering, and 3D printing? Listen and find out!

Resources

• Mario's in-depth blog post on how he built the audio player.
• Book recommendation: Make: Electronics by Charles Platt
• Book recommendation: Electronics for Beginners by Jonathan Bartlett

Anthony Parker lives in San Rafael, California, and created a successful online guitar school. The success of his business is deeply rooted in social media. He has a strong presence on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Patreon. His business, called "Anthony Parker - Near Life Experience", is the go-to destination for aspiring guitarists. In our conversation, Anthony tells the story of how & why he founded his business, what didn't work, and how he made it successful using a lot of experiments.

The dead milkmen

Brandon grew up in Idaho and earned both a Master of Science and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Boise State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California. Most recently, he served as the Director of Accounting and Operations at Split Software in Redwood City, California. Prior to that, he was an Accounting Manager at Officengine in Oakland and an Audit Associate at PwC.

In our conversation, we focus on the three key financial statements: the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. We discuss their importance in assessing the financial health of a business. We delve into the details of the income statement, starting with an explanation of the difference between the top line and bottom line. Together with Brandon, we analyze Datadog's recent 10-K filing to better understand the company's financial health through mandatory SEC disclosures. We conclude with a list of finance and accounting questions that startup employees should ask during all-hands meetings to gain insights into their company’s financial well-being.

David Burrowes, who goes by “Deej” earned a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science from Brown University. He also studied Chinese at National Taiwan University and Tzu Chi University. He has held various engineering roles in Silicon Valley over the last 30+ years, including Senior UI Engineer at Sun Microsystems, Staff Engineer at Box, Principal Engineer at Split Software, and Engineering Architect at Harness.

The conversation with Deej begins in the small Ohio town where he grew up, reflecting on why it was, in hindsight, an ideal place. Deej shares his experiences at Brown University, where the freedom to design his own curriculum drew him in. This flexibility allowed him to take a class on Islam, which later helped him process the events of 9/11 and its aftermath. Deej also talks about his move to Silicon Valley in 1990 and how he was laid off six months into his first job. We discuss his time at Sun Microsystems and the final days of the once-great company. Deej explains what sparked his interest in learning Chinese and how he realized that immersing himself—studying the language in Taiwan for over a year—was the only way he could truly learn. We delve into company culture, its significance, and why Slack is a powerful but costly tool for fostering it.

Book recommendation: Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency

Richard Koscher is an Artist and Creative Director. Originally from Austria, Richard has been residing in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1999. He has served as the Art Director for the George Lucas Educational Foundation and has contributed his expertise to technology companies such as NextRoll, Neo4J, Mesosphere and Matillion. In addition to his work in the tech industry, Richard actively produces his own art. He recently published a book titled “Reveal: The Empowerment of Appropriation Art”, where he explains the process of recreating masterpieces and demystifies artistic techniques.

Richard has been a guest on Uncertain Value before. He promised to come back to talk about Austrian painters with me. But we don’t want to talk about household names like Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, or Maria Lassnig. These artists are amazing and rightfully well-known internationally. In this episode we talk about great but lesser known Austrian artists. We talk about the works of

Richard shares the story of how he discovered a Max Oppenheimer etching in a small antique shop in Northern California.

Audrey Do grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended UC Santa Cruz, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Astrophysics. For the past three years, she has worked as a Data Analyst and, more recently, as a Product Manager at Split Software, which was acquired by Harness. In our conversation, we discuss how, as a child, learning about a comet that might destroy Earth inspired her to study astrophysics. Audrey explains how her knowledge of the cosmos helps her stay calm and put things into perspective when situations get intense. She also shares her experiences as a Data Analyst, explaining how she helped stakeholders ask better questions and achieve better results. We explore Audrey's recent transition to Product Management and what motivated the change. Finally, Audrey shares how she helped preserve and secure funding to keep the traditional Vietnamese zither alive in California.

Johannes Deubener grew up in Germany and is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he leads AI partnerships at Deutsche Telekom. Johannes brings a wealth of experience in business development, product, and innovation, having worked in various strategic roles at Deutsche Telekom for over five years. Before his current position, he co-founded and managed 'As Good As Pros Sports,' a sports marketplace focused on on-demand training and team sports. In our conversation, we discuss the differences and similarities between German and Silicon Valley startup cultures. Johannes shares his experiences as a startup founder in Germany, how COVID disrupted their growth multiple times, how they persevered, and how they ultimately closed the business. He also offers insights into what he would do differently if starting the company again. Additionally, we talk about his role in GenAI at Deutsche Telekom and DT's plans to launch an AI-native phone.

Richard Koscher is an Artist and Creative Director. Originally from Austria, Richard has been residing in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1999. He has served as the Art Director for the George Lucas Educational Foundation and has contributed his expertise to technology companies such as NextRoll, Neo4J, Mesosphere and Matillion since 2007. In addition to his work in the tech industry, Richard actively produces his own art. He recently published a book titled “Reveal: The Empowerment of Appropriation Art”, where he explains the process of recreating masterpieces and demystifies artistic techniques.

Avash grew up in South Africa and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Science from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and an Executive MBA from the Henley Business School. Avash currently is the Vice President of Corporate Finance at Meta Mind. He has an extensive background in Mergers & Acquisitions, working many years for CitiBank and Deutsche Telekom. Besides working in M&A, Avash helps as a Startup Mentor at the Plug & Play Tech Center in San Francisco, helping young companies get funding.

Charles was born in China and moved to the United States after finishing high school there. He attended Wabash College in Indiana, where he studied Psychology and German. After completing his undergraduate studies, he moved to Pennsylvania to become a PhD student in Cognitive Neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University. He earned his doctoral degree in 2020. Since then, he has worked as a Data Scientist at various companies, including Spark Neuro and Split Software.