INTERVIEW: Scotty Tidwell

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you Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host Chris Hacker and Aaron Norris.

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What's going on everybody?

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Welcome to a very, very special episode of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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I'm one of your hosts, Aaron Knowles, and today I'm going Han style.

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That's right, baby.

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Solo.

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Chris is busy working.

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He's probably at another convention because he seems to love going to those for his new job.

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So it's just me.

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And for this very special episode, we're discussing my current and definitely long-term ongoing obsession with the puck.

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gaming ecosystem.

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Joining me today is the chief marketing officer at puck gaming, e-sports enthusiast and man who seems to know everything going on in the gaming community since he has spent more than 15 years in and around it.

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Scotty Tidwell.

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You also may have known, you know, his name from around the gaming space.

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If you've ever interacted with companies like G fuel, which you know that I love, he is also the former executive vice president of content and creators at enthusiast enthusiast gaming.

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Excuse me.

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where he had focused on strategy growth and monetization of content and creators.

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That is one hell of a title you got, Scotty, where he reached more than 300 million gamers every month.

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That is some reach that we all wish we could have.

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The list goes on and on for Scotty's accolades, but let's just say that he is actively involved in a lot of gaming brands.

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And if you don't know which ones, get out from under your rock.

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Let's welcome Scotty Tidwell onto the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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What's going on, Scotty?

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Hey Aaron, how you doing buddy?

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Thanks for having me, number one.

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Absolutely.

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You know, we've worked together in the past.

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You know, I'm a huge fan of a lot of things that you've laid hands on.

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And it's just, you know, I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule because you seem to be everywhere and doing everything.

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So it's great to get a chance to speak to you finally on the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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And again, it's just it's it's a privilege for me to get a chance to interview you, especially about like Puck, you know, and what's going on over there.

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So.

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If you don't mind, give us a little bit of a rundown about you and then we'll get into some some puck business.

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Yeah, I'll take it back to one of the first kind of full-time jobs I've had in the gaming space.

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I originally had background in engineering.

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Fell in love with the internet in like 2001 when I first had my first broadband connection.

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I just had a lot of fun with like, I knew the future of how you're going to do business and sell products.

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I really believed it was the internet.

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And so I went to night classes, all the things.

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I went back to school.

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all marketing, everything you could think about, like how the world was changing because of the internet.

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first full-time job in the space, transitioning out of engineering was a company that nobody knew of called Stuff Gaming.

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Stuff Gaming was founded by a guy I'll talk more about in a moment named Simon Burgess.

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And he had a co-founder named Duncan Aermonger.

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Those two, I think were like childhood friends growing up.

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Simon's very much the inventor, Duncan very much the sales kind of business side.

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And together they created this company called Stuff Gaming, which was perfect for me because at the time I was like modifying Xbox controllers, putting buttons on the back of it, just so it could make me play better at Call of Duty and all these crazy games.

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Going back like 2007 when COD4 launched, I played probably several years of my life on that one game.

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I loved it so much.

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I met Docket in 2011, maybe 2010, started working with the company and the first marketing hire at Steph Gaming.

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we basically took products that were, nobody knew what a performance gaming controller was.

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And so we created an entire new vertical around performance gaming controllers.

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with Simon's inventions of the stuff, paddles, the trigger stops, and all these other various components or pieces of the puzzle, if you will, for somebody playing on controller, because most people always felt like people that play controller were not as good as people that played keyboard mouse, right?

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The PC Master Race.

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Yeah, right.

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It's a big thing.

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And so with the invention of the scuff controller, allow people to keep their thumbs on the thumb sticks at all times.

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So you didn't have to use the face place buttons.

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You could use the back paddles and then we added remapping technology.

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So then you can map certain paddles to certain button button functions.

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then lo and behold, now it's a, it's a whole thing, created a massive industry.

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then so grew that brand.

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can't really speak to the revenue, but we grew that brand in a big way.

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Later on, we partnered with Microsoft and that they rolled out the Microsoft Xbox Elite controller and you can look up public data on those controllers.

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They sold a gazillion of them.

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And then so I left stuff gaming here in March 2016 to go be a CEO of a startup company, media company.

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And that was probably one of the worst years of my life.

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It was this chaos.

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And then did a lot of other marketing stuff, companies online tournaments, was going to do some ICO, initial coin offering, crypto stuff.

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I just felt like that was like hippie space.

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then, yeah, kind of like, you know, I'm watching TV and there's a CMO and a CEO going up the courthouse steps, going to jail.

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I'm like, yeah, I just don't, I'm good.

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So I went to work at G field 2018, chief media officer and really had a big impact on that company.

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G Fuel, when I got there, the revenue was okay.

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Three years later, revenue was outstanding.

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Like it was phenomenal, the growth that G Fuel had.

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I think all the original team now is gone from G Fuel.

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think Cliff, Cliff is gone, Cliff Morgan, pretty much.

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And I was very proud of what I built there, the team that I built.

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had, most people wouldn't know this, but G Fuel had one of the largest influencer marketing programs in the world.

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and we work from creators of all sizes, all walks of life.

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I had probably, I guess a 20 person team and we did a good job.

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And a lot of those people are still doing very well.

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They're running their own things now.

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And it's like, I keep in touch, I watch them and see how they've transitioned and they went on to work at other companies and they're all doing great things.

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Like a proud dad moment for me.

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Without saying too much, it's changed quite a bit over at G Fuel, is.

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I've heard, which is sad.

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I would love to have bought that company and then in my eyes kept it on track or at least kept it going away that I personally thought it should go, but I digress.

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which does wish whoever's still there, the best, obviously, went to do this gaming, did a bunch of fun stuff there from a public and traded company standpoint, dipped in, out of that, went into private advising for a while.

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on some fun stuff.

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And then Simon reached out to me, Simon Burdice reached out to me, like, hey, I've been inventing, let's get the game back together.

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That's, that's put gaming.

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And it really, just like the stuff controller to me was a no brainer.

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The put gaming ecosystem for mobile gaming is a no brainer.

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As somebody who has been an absolute demon on the thumb sticks, if you will, controllers and games, very competitive.

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When I played mobile games, it just wasn't the same.

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The touch controls were wonky.

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I didn't like the way I had to hold the phone in my hand.

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It felt like it just wasn't something I could pick up even remotely easily.

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Simon sent me over some from first prototypes.

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And I think the second game I played, I dropped a nuke on COD Mobile with that.

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And before, I think my best KD was like, 0.7 something, not even the one kitty.

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And at that moment, I knew that we had something that I thought would actually add value to the lives of mobile gamers, if you will.

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So real quick, the team is Simon.

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He's the inventor founder of Plut Gaming.

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His son Dylan, who started at Stuff Gaming when he was so young, helped running an EU office as a co-founder.

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We have some more executives from all over.

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I get the fun job of interacting with all the cool people in the industry and the space.

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and lot of product education and showing the product and talking to people like yourself and others.

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And it's very much a relationship business.

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Although we're selling a product that adds value to your life, helps you play better, helps you play longer.

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It's a lot of similarity in stuff gaming.

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Back then everybody was playing the claw grip on their controller.

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And now some of these guys are in their mid thirties and their hands are all deformed and they have bad arthritis.

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And it's like, we try to help you.

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And now it's the same thing for mobile gamers.

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We have a solution that again, is more intuitive, better control, will actually help them play longer, especially from a duration of years and months as they go older.

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Absolutely.

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I know for me, that's that was kind of the issue I was having as I've said on social media.

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I've been you know, I really never thought about the competitive nature of mobile gaming.

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I never really put a lot of stock into it and I never really felt I think for me, it's always been an issue of finding a game that really spoke to me and a few years ago there was you know, Final Fantasy the first soldier which was really the first mobile like you know, battle like like Battle Royale game.

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And I fell in love with that game.

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And I was I was like top like top Katie, like, you know, top percentage in the world in that game.

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I was killing it.

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And then the game shut down and I've been searching for a long time for what was kind of going to be taken over.

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But that was the other thing was it's hard for me because I do have nerve damage from my years in the military that don't make it easy for me to grip the phone.

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And phones are coming in all different sizes and shapes these days.

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Everybody seems to offer these different shape things like I've tried the What do they call it?

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The backbone.

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I've tried like some of these weird things and they're just these weird.

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They either have weird interfaces or they have weird like they're not ergonomic.

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And I just want to jump real quick and describe this ecosystem, which I love.

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Again, Scotty, I love the fact that you guys are calling it an ecosystem because you don't need just you don't need the entire thing.

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So we'll talk about that, right?

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So there, we have, like most businesses, we have competitors and we wish them the best, but then the day we feel we have a better product, you know, and some of the ones that you kind of know are the ones that are traditional controllers, if you will, you have to charge them up, you have to attach them to your phone.

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You have, you know, a lot of them suffer from high latency.

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There's no device charging.

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And then the big thing is too, is like, there's no cooling, right?

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So if you have, If you're playing a top mobile game and I say top mobile game, a demanding game such as like PUBG mobile, COD mobile, know, even stuff like, you could break it down to like even something as crazy as like Brawl Stars, your phone will heat up.

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The phones are really impressive, so much computing power, but when you run a game like that on the phone, even when I'm on my cell phone talking, the phone's going to get hot.

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And so, One thing that we have that those products don't is we have the ability, our system is built around the idea of having a cooling, additional cooling system attached to your phone.

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That little cooler might not seem like much, but it actually makes the phone, then the game, if you will, run better.

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So you have less lag, you have less frame rate issues.

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It's just a faster, more responsive way to play.

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So our ecosystem is very basic.

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And we tell everybody, We're not trying to say you're full of controller, so which you may or may not need.

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For example, I love Brawl Stars.

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I mean, a thumb stick is incredible because you have the joystick function.

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It's smooth as glass.

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You have this tactile feedback, which is a lot different than having your finger or your thumb on the, you have more control.

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It's smooth as butter.

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The friction.

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Like if you have a, if you wear a finger sleeve or a thumb sock, et cetera, it's just a different level of friction.

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So for us.

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ecosystem.

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It just, it just snaps on there.

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Like it just sticks so easily.

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ecosystem works because you can buy as much into gaming as you want or as little as you want.

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And we found that a lot of people love the thumbstick, they love the triggers and some people might not have any use for the cable itself.

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And that's okay.

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It's not a big deal.

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It doesn't hurt our feelings because we're helping you some way, somehow anyways.

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And if you want to buy two products that cost you 30 bucks or 40 bucks, that's okay.

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That's we're here to help you.

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And if all you need is a thumbstick, and a set of triggers we got.

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If you want to have a better gaming experience by using our grips, so it holds the phone more organomically in your hand, which allows you to activate the triggers in a less stressful way for your hands and your fingers and your knuckles, we had that.

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And there's some people that want the full kit.

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They want the grips, they want the thumb stick, they want the triggers and they want the cable.

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And that's OK.

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We had that for you.

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But we do have a lot of competitive advantages.

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We support cooling a lot of these other devices that they always support like controller supporting games only.

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And then you have subscriptions to a lot the full service of the full fee, which is again, we don't have a subscription model.

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Our products, when you buy them, they work for your your device.

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And so we don't have no hidden ways we our thumbstick technology is just direct touch, it's magnetic re-centering, there's no slow turn, there's no drift, there's no dead zone.

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It's a smooth field.

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And I think of all the parts of the ecosystem, I personally, the thumbstick is the shining star because I noticed when I play mobile games, the reason I do so well now and other people do not, is because of the putt thumbstick, I'm moving and I'm strafing.

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It's easier for me to strafe back and forth.

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And you know yourself, if you walk in a straight line, whether it's in the war or in a video game, you're gonna have a rough day.

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Stationary targets are the easiest ones to hit.

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And I think that's where we've seen the biggest success is the putt thumbstick.

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Yeah, I know that like again with me, like I was saying earlier, it's been hard to find a game and I actually have never really been a big fan of like Call of Duty or Battlefront or or a battlefield or any of these.

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And so for me, you know, I just started playing and I've and I've posted the pictures of my results.

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Like I played my first game ever of PUBG Mobile Battle Royale and I came out number one, you know, and that was with using the the the full ecosystem.

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Same thing with with call of duty mobile.

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Like I'm having an absolute blast in a game that I've never enjoyed before simply because this is making me feel like I'm more confident.

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Plus my hands aren't hurting and you're good.

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And you probably noticed something too is odd mobile.

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after you start, you've played several mini and mini, games.

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If you think back that game, in my opinion is so much better than any console called it a game.

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There's more things to do.

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There's more guns.

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There's more skins.

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There's more, it's more fun.

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The hip detection is better.

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The, it's just, to me, it's just a, it's light years ahead.

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And don't get, this is coming from a console guy now.

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It's a light years ahead of what we have traditionally had on mobile.

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And I think, and you're going to see that trend continue because smart people know that mobile is the now and the future.

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mean, you, you're talking about e-sports, like let's look at some of the prize pools and some of the viewership numbers for some of the recent world championships.

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mean, you know, you're talking.

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incredible numbers for mobile games, not only from a prize pool standpoint, but also from a viewership standpoint.

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Yeah.

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And we're going to, we're going to hit some of those in a minute.

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And, I think that I wanted it.

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The one thing I wanted to bring up that you mentioned a few minutes ago was the fact that you and the guys over at scuff, you know, kind of came up with that, the mouse, I forget the term for it, but the trigger where it kind of, shortens it and makes it feel like it has the mouse click to it.

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and that's what I, that's one thing I love.

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You talk about the, the, the thumb stick being your favorite part of it.

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I mean, not only am I enjoying the thumb stick, but the grips as well.

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because they go on to a really any phone case that you want to put it on, you can attach those to it semi permanently.

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But these triggers, the compatible triggers have that mouse click feel to them.

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And I love that.

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absolutely think that's so like how you incorporated that from it has that same scuff quality feel to it.

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you know, a years ago, you know, I I was able, because of your help, was able to do a review of a SCUF controller and I had an awesome time with it.

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And this is so reminiscent that click just feels so good.

00:18:26.818 --> 00:18:37.392
Again, the ecosystem is the thumb stick, the grips, the compatible triggers, and then the ability link, which gives you that, it's like curved so it goes over your hand.

00:18:37.392 --> 00:18:43.415
So it's not in the way you don't have to like, you don't have to adjust your hand so that you can reach around the cable.

00:18:43.415 --> 00:18:44.828
put it between your fingers.

00:18:44.828 --> 00:18:48.557
It's that curve is so helpful.

00:18:48.557 --> 00:18:54.218
It would think something so easy like, because again, nobody wants to have a cable between their fingers.

00:18:54.218 --> 00:18:55.357
It's annoying.

00:18:55.498 --> 00:18:58.278
And it's a whole thing.

00:18:58.278 --> 00:19:09.178
And so, you know, the thing just to touch on the triggers real quick, the thing that you love about the triggers is the fact that it's a short, it's a very short, tactile pull.

00:19:09.377 --> 00:19:18.246
Traditional controllers, when you would press the triggers on an Xbox controller or a PlayStation controller, had the trigger had a long pull to it.

00:19:18.529 --> 00:19:21.211
And it's like if you're a sniper in the military, right?

00:19:21.211 --> 00:19:26.522
The longer the pull is, the number one, the slower the pulls on the B.

00:19:26.522 --> 00:19:31.496
you can't, and it's taking longer to fire a single shot weapon.

00:19:31.496 --> 00:19:37.337
So our triggers have a much shorter length of pull, which allows you to almost rapid fire.

00:19:37.337 --> 00:19:41.960
And if you wanted to, you could actually play with two fingers and have both triggers.

00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:45.663
So they hit one, the shoot function on cod.

00:19:45.663 --> 00:19:47.295
And much like a paintball gun, right?

00:19:47.295 --> 00:19:56.013
If you ever watch people play paintball, they'll use two fingers on the triggers and they're just walking both fingers back and forth to shoot as fast as they can.

00:19:56.013 --> 00:20:00.105
You could do that with our triggers in a mobile game.

00:20:00.105 --> 00:20:06.161
And I think going back to stuff gaming, Simon invented the idea of a trigger stop.

00:20:06.161 --> 00:20:10.054
the first ones were perfectly positioned.

00:20:10.054 --> 00:20:15.698
So just a moment of activation of a traditional trigger pull, it would stop.

00:20:16.011 --> 00:20:18.944
And that was the shortened length of pull on the trigger.

00:20:18.944 --> 00:20:26.932
And then as time went on, we were able to invent and work up Swayze, where it's just almost tactile instant triggers, call them.

00:20:26.932 --> 00:20:28.782
We've brought that to Get Mobile.

00:20:28.782 --> 00:20:54.170
And I'm the same like ever since I've started using that I can't go back Whenever now I have a regular controller and I don't have that that click that it's it feels like it just it's an eternity from pull to trigger to firing so one thing too is like, the people that are still trying to play like four fingers and then tap the screen, when I'm tapping the screen, the phone's moving, right?

00:20:54.330 --> 00:20:58.074
But when I'm pulling, the phone is locked into my hand.

00:20:58.074 --> 00:21:02.218
When I'm pulling the trigger, I'm not moving the phone around.

00:21:02.218 --> 00:21:11.147
So your accuracy actually goes up from a shooting standpoint compared to playing a tap to shoot on the screen.

00:21:11.147 --> 00:21:13.019
I'm going to do a couple of clicks here.

00:21:14.401 --> 00:21:15.060
You hear that?

00:21:15.060 --> 00:21:17.643
That's that's that's quality right there.

00:21:21.727 --> 00:21:27.340
So, know, it's funny because I have this transcript and we have we've talked about so much of this already.

00:21:27.340 --> 00:21:34.376
And I want to get to actually the first question that I had in the transcript, which is, you've been around the gaming and e-sports industry for so long.

00:21:34.376 --> 00:21:39.101
You have a huge network of creators, brand leaders, influencers, investors.

00:21:39.101 --> 00:21:41.922
And before we get into Puck, which we've already have.

00:21:42.182 --> 00:21:47.241
I'd love to know why gaming, e-sports, and just how do you just keep getting involved with companies?

00:21:47.241 --> 00:21:54.082
Like, how are you finding these companies that create amazing products and are needed in this space?

00:21:54.082 --> 00:21:55.582
are you anticipating them?

00:21:55.582 --> 00:21:57.642
Are you, do people come to you?

00:21:57.642 --> 00:21:59.077
tell me about that.

00:21:59.266 --> 00:22:04.690
Yeah, so the key is, and now this is gonna sound corny and it's done.

00:22:05.651 --> 00:22:10.213
But my approach in business is very simple.

00:22:10.654 --> 00:22:16.479
Whether it was at Stuff Gaming, G Fuel, Enthusiast Gaming, even at Plot Gaming.

00:22:16.479 --> 00:22:19.721
Number one is I try to treat people the way I wanna be treated.

00:22:20.741 --> 00:22:21.422
Number one.

00:22:21.422 --> 00:22:26.682
Number two, I try to respect people until they give me a reason not to, right?

00:22:26.682 --> 00:22:37.944
And I try to be fair to people and even in business, which has a lot of companies that should listen to this, who won't listen to this probably and definitely won't take note of this.

00:22:37.964 --> 00:22:43.346
You can make tough decisions in business and still treat people with dignity.

00:22:43.967 --> 00:22:54.609
You can make a very tough business decision that will affect somebody's life in a negative way, but you can still do it with grace and.

00:22:55.339 --> 00:22:59.182
and within having that person's best interests in mind.

00:22:59.182 --> 00:23:02.383
And you can be graceful in doing bad things.

00:23:02.383 --> 00:23:09.756
I say bad things, but doing tough things in business that you businesses have to do to carry on and succeed.

00:23:09.796 --> 00:23:14.978
And so my biggest thing is I've treated people well and I've always tried to add value.

00:23:15.219 --> 00:23:23.231
You know, whether it was, you know, Nate shot like, dude, like I've made more money off of stuff gaming through.

00:23:23.231 --> 00:23:37.775
affiliation and affiliate sales and I did at McDonald's, you know, whether it's, you know, phase reign saying, dude, you're paying me more than I made at this and he's like, and so I've always tried to add value to creators lives.

00:23:38.056 --> 00:23:45.573
And sometimes I can add more value to certain people's lives and others, but again, I'm still trying to bring that same amount of respect and value.

00:23:45.573 --> 00:23:48.925
And I think that's a, that's a part of it.

00:23:49.016 --> 00:23:55.951
But from the business standpoint, you've got to always get up every day and work your butt off and add value.

00:23:57.932 --> 00:24:05.680
I tell everybody that I've been blessed and business is fun, but privately people don't see you waking up at 5 a.m.

00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:07.080
and immediately getting to work.

00:24:07.080 --> 00:24:11.634
They don't see you taking breaks for lunch and dinner, telling your kids good night.

00:24:11.634 --> 00:24:13.926
I'll try to see you some more tomorrow.

00:24:13.926 --> 00:24:16.157
And then you work till one o'clock in the morning and you're back up.

00:24:16.157 --> 00:24:18.569
But they don't see that type of grind.

00:24:19.137 --> 00:24:23.901
They see, you know, Scotty, Scotty, he's he went here, he's doing that.

00:24:23.901 --> 00:24:27.061
But they don't see that it's an all day, everyday thing.

00:24:27.061 --> 00:24:31.178
And for me, I'm OK with that because I love what I do.

00:24:31.178 --> 00:24:35.926
And I think as long as you love what you do, you can have a clear vision.

00:24:35.926 --> 00:24:37.307
You can treat people well.

00:24:37.307 --> 00:24:38.758
You can work hard.

00:24:38.758 --> 00:24:42.650
And then sometimes you get lucky in life and get things happen.

00:24:42.891 --> 00:24:53.262
But sometimes through your hard work, your preparation, your dedication, you can create lucky things, you know, those are a best prepare.

00:24:53.262 --> 00:24:57.015
Those that worked the hardest tend to get lucky at times.

00:24:57.276 --> 00:24:58.526
And then sometimes they don't.

00:24:58.526 --> 00:25:08.863
But again, you can't let one, you know, I failed one time as a CEO and that, that instilled to this day inspires me, you know, I just okay to fail.

00:25:08.943 --> 00:25:12.905
If you never fail, that tells me you're probably not trying hard enough.

00:25:13.046 --> 00:25:18.670
We've had some, I've been a part of some amazing companies that were just too early.

00:25:19.192 --> 00:25:23.342
like the market wasn't ready for what we had.

00:25:23.342 --> 00:25:26.297
We were too early and the company had failed.

00:25:26.297 --> 00:25:37.334
And then three years later, it's like, if we could have just sort of, we could have survived three more years, we'd crushed it, but we were too good too soon.

00:25:37.402 --> 00:25:42.107
And there wasn't enough awareness around the product or the end service.

00:25:42.107 --> 00:25:48.781
think again, work hard, try hard and treat people with respect.

00:25:48.865 --> 00:25:50.430
Good things usually happen.

00:25:50.430 --> 00:25:51.069
Absolutely.

00:25:51.069 --> 00:25:57.163
I, know, we always talk about it here on the, on the oblivion bar, you know, passion and purpose, you know, you got to have those two things.

00:25:57.163 --> 00:26:01.452
Cause if you, if you're not, if you, if you don't have passion, you don't have purpose, you're not going to roll out of bed.

00:26:01.452 --> 00:26:02.257
You're just going to sit there.

00:26:02.257 --> 00:26:02.903
You're to lay there.

00:26:02.903 --> 00:26:04.347
You're to doom scroll for a while.

00:26:04.347 --> 00:26:06.828
You need something that pulls you out of bed to get started.

00:26:06.828 --> 00:26:08.579
So you have something to work for.

00:26:08.599 --> 00:26:19.705
And I love that you said that, you know, there's, there are ways of, of, you know, inspiring and giving, you know, and helping people within the community that also like pays back to you and, and dividends as well.

00:26:19.902 --> 00:26:27.066
And I say this because on your website, you yourself, you're an advocate of creators building their own brand.

00:26:27.385 --> 00:26:34.970
It tells me that not only do you want to succeed in this space, but you want creators, you want people to like, you want to bring people up with you.

00:26:34.970 --> 00:26:39.352
They say, you know, when the tide rises, you know, all boats are lifted.

00:26:40.032 --> 00:26:54.884
And if the listeners, if you guys don't know this, go over to Scotty's website, scottytidwell.com and you can see he's published articles on everything from using chat GPT to help your brand building and why it's important to build your own brand.

00:26:54.884 --> 00:27:00.205
A letter to e-sports pro players that has a wealth of knowledge.

00:27:00.205 --> 00:27:12.361
you know, you know, I just released a book recently on using chat GPT and open AI and basically using AI to help build a brand and especially for small creators.

00:27:12.361 --> 00:27:19.243
So, you know, I saw a lot of similarities and, you know, I'm a huge proponent of again, building your own brand.

00:27:19.336 --> 00:27:28.511
So I all this to ask, Scotty, like, what do you get out of mentoring, motivating, investing your time and your energy into the success of really?

00:27:28.511 --> 00:27:33.829
I mean, pretty much from what I've seen, anybody who's willing to listen like you have, you make time for people.

00:27:34.112 --> 00:27:35.202
It's the hardest.

00:27:35.202 --> 00:27:41.144
Well, number one, I appreciate that my website, there's not much on there, guys.

00:27:41.145 --> 00:27:44.527
I think the first one I published a lot, I took some downs.

00:27:44.527 --> 00:27:49.730
I think some things were there was some articles and blogs that I read and that I don't think a lot of people were ready for.

00:27:49.730 --> 00:27:51.142
I left some of them up.

00:27:51.142 --> 00:27:52.405
I haven't published one.

00:27:52.405 --> 00:27:55.512
Probably it's been a while, but there's some that are on there.

00:27:55.512 --> 00:27:57.854
If you go back and look historically.

00:27:58.513 --> 00:28:00.315
I got a lot of things right.

00:28:00.835 --> 00:28:04.876
There's lot of things I'm talking about.

00:28:04.876 --> 00:28:06.596
I got a lot of things right.

00:28:06.596 --> 00:28:08.298
But hey, get some things wrong too.

00:28:08.298 --> 00:28:15.290
But no, seriously, going back to the point you're trying to make, the greatest gift you can give anybody in this world is your time.

00:28:15.290 --> 00:28:20.403
Because number one, you don't know how much of it you have.

00:28:21.002 --> 00:28:21.903
Right?

00:28:21.903 --> 00:28:24.664
None of us know how much time we have left.

00:28:24.664 --> 00:28:34.346
So to give somebody an hour or two hours, I had a guy one time, I met this guy and I'll never say his name, but he means a lot to me.

00:28:34.346 --> 00:28:36.936
And if he hears this, he'll know that I'm talking about him.

00:28:36.990 --> 00:28:43.269
I had a really bad, I had a couple of bad surgeries, laid up, playing Call of Duty 4.

00:28:43.844 --> 00:28:46.065
And every night this guy got online after work.

00:28:46.065 --> 00:28:48.507
We played four hours straight.

00:28:48.728 --> 00:28:50.429
And then he was very good in his job.

00:28:50.429 --> 00:28:51.500
He was a marketing guy.

00:28:51.500 --> 00:28:54.853
And he's like, man, I want to get in the video game industry.

00:28:54.853 --> 00:28:56.203
So I made an introduction.

00:28:56.203 --> 00:28:59.175
and he got a job at a really great gaming company.

00:28:59.297 --> 00:29:02.299
And then one day he's like, dude, I bought my first house and it's because of you.

00:29:02.299 --> 00:29:05.903
I'm like, no, you bought your first house because of you.

00:29:05.903 --> 00:29:08.404
You worked your butt off for that, not me.

00:29:08.625 --> 00:29:10.527
I just made an introduction.

00:29:10.727 --> 00:29:22.738
And I think the cool thing is as human beings, we had the ability to change people's lives in ways we don't even understand by a simple phone call, email, text.

00:29:23.263 --> 00:29:24.775
where everybody's busy, right?

00:29:24.775 --> 00:29:25.705
Everybody's busy.

00:29:25.705 --> 00:29:28.336
I've been stupid busy myself.

00:29:28.557 --> 00:29:29.786
Million things going on.

00:29:29.786 --> 00:29:33.951
New grandfather, like his life is incredible and crazy.

00:29:33.951 --> 00:29:35.301
We all, we all have that.

00:29:35.301 --> 00:29:36.342
Thank you.

00:29:37.182 --> 00:29:41.669
But I try to pay it forward and try to help people cause I have children.

00:29:41.669 --> 00:29:48.098
I have a grandson now and I hope one day somebody pays it forward for one of mine, you know?

00:29:48.098 --> 00:29:54.030
And I think at times in life, you do get that which you put out into the world.

00:29:54.251 --> 00:29:57.593
And that's why I just try to carry myself the way I do.

00:29:57.593 --> 00:29:58.813
And that's why I try to help people.

00:29:58.813 --> 00:30:09.036
And also it's cool to watch somebody that you've mentored, or you hired knowing damn well they didn't have a clue of what they're gonna be doing or how to do it.

00:30:09.036 --> 00:30:12.717
And I've let some people, instead of holding the hand, you let them fail a little bit.

00:30:12.717 --> 00:30:14.156
Like failure is the best teacher.

00:30:14.156 --> 00:30:16.498
I can sit there and hold your hand all day long.

00:30:16.685 --> 00:30:21.925
But until you figure something out, you execute it, then you're like, oh my God, I screwed up.

00:30:21.925 --> 00:30:23.145
Now, how do I fix it?

00:30:23.145 --> 00:30:24.486
How do I recover?

00:30:24.486 --> 00:30:30.086
That's when you really learn and like know and letting people fail and knowing they're going to fail.

00:30:30.086 --> 00:30:36.226
Obviously, keep them from destroying the business, but let them fail and let them learn from it.

00:30:36.326 --> 00:30:44.586
Something is so gratifying about setting back, watching those people continue to grow in their careers and as people.

00:30:45.811 --> 00:30:48.298
That's pretty cool to see for sure.

00:30:49.407 --> 00:30:53.662
you hear that people Scotty's a big old softie and I am.

00:30:53.662 --> 00:30:58.445
might look like a, I might seem like a big, tough guy, but I'm a softie.

00:30:58.445 --> 00:31:00.477
Cutthroat businessman, Big Softy.

00:31:00.477 --> 00:31:02.107
Big Softy.

00:31:03.449 --> 00:31:07.611
I'm going to jump to a little bit of a different subject now.

00:31:07.611 --> 00:31:18.498
And recently, I saw a Yahoo Finance article and it was titled, Gaming Unveils, Innovative Mobile Gaming Accessory Ecosystem, Led by Industry Veterans.

00:31:18.498 --> 00:31:24.941
And obviously I'd been doing some research and I looked into the leadership of Puck.

00:31:24.941 --> 00:31:26.476
And as you said earlier, so this is...

00:31:26.476 --> 00:31:30.587
It's not really a question that you haven't already answered, but I'm just going to put it out there.

00:31:30.587 --> 00:31:48.107
the leadership, you know, Simon, Dylan Burgess, Matt Hooper, Paul Andrews, and looking at your guys' background, each one of you brings a wealth of knowledge that spans not only e-sports industry, but innovation, engineering, business, strategy, and much, much more.

00:31:48.107 --> 00:31:55.102
And how did those meetings go when you just have so much experience and knowledge in the room?

00:31:55.731 --> 00:31:58.520
It's that's actually a great question.

00:32:00.738 --> 00:32:03.119
I believe that everybody can talk about everything.

00:32:03.119 --> 00:32:20.050
So when I ran business units for businesses and I had big teams beneath me and I had leadership teams beneath me, I always tell everybody, if I'm the only one with an answer and an opinion, I'm in the wrong room, which means I don't have the right people around me.

00:32:20.411 --> 00:32:23.153
So we talk about everything.

00:32:23.153 --> 00:32:25.003
Nothing is off the table.

00:32:25.261 --> 00:32:27.501
Um, I can pry into engineering.

00:32:27.501 --> 00:32:28.761
They can pry into marketing.

00:32:28.761 --> 00:32:31.362
I can pry into strategy.

00:32:31.842 --> 00:32:32.842
They can pry into me.

00:32:32.842 --> 00:32:33.862
It's biz dev.

00:32:33.862 --> 00:32:36.021
Like it's a team thing.

00:32:36.021 --> 00:32:40.461
And I think the best teams, the best companies.

00:32:40.882 --> 00:32:43.602
Operate off of this open communication.

00:32:43.602 --> 00:32:48.061
And I think I'm a fan of, me.

00:32:48.521 --> 00:32:50.662
I'm a big fan of radical feedback.

00:32:50.662 --> 00:32:53.461
Um, there's a guy with the name of Ray Dalio.

00:32:53.506 --> 00:32:57.028
Ray Dalio started a company called Bridgewater out of Harvard.

00:32:57.028 --> 00:33:05.736
Looked up Bridgewater, of the, think the top macro investment firms in the world out of Massachusetts.

00:33:05.736 --> 00:33:10.160
And so Ray Dalio created this system called Principles.

00:33:10.601 --> 00:33:14.786
And he installed the Principles method in all his companies.

00:33:14.786 --> 00:33:19.607
And the idea is that anybody can give feedback on anything.

00:33:19.607 --> 00:33:26.905
And if you haven't created an environment where For example, if I say, Aaron, what do you think about this?

00:33:26.905 --> 00:33:35.855
And if I haven't as a leader, create an environment where you could truthfully say exactly what you really think, then I've failed as a leader.

00:33:36.416 --> 00:33:43.422
And so the idea of being able to get radical feedback, because when you, most of my career has been spent.

00:33:43.594 --> 00:33:57.280
in the direct consumer product businesses, whether it's G Fuel or a scuff controller, we're shipping something to people who are purchasing it, whether they're consuming it in their bodies, or they're using it on a daily fashion to help them play video games.

00:33:58.102 --> 00:34:13.311
Having radical feedback is important because leadership's team, our job is to ensure that we have it figured out so that our potential customers and future customers and current customers don't have headaches or problems with what we're shipping to them.

00:34:13.311 --> 00:34:14.603
and what we've created for them.

00:34:14.603 --> 00:34:17.614
So that's your question.

00:34:17.614 --> 00:34:19.286
Our calls are very open.

00:34:19.827 --> 00:34:21.501
Everybody can have an opinion.

00:34:21.501 --> 00:34:25.050
And just because you have an opinion doesn't mean you're right or wrong.

00:34:25.331 --> 00:34:26.161
And it's OK.

00:34:26.161 --> 00:34:30.655
It's OK for one person to disagree with five of the people or vice versa.

00:34:30.655 --> 00:34:33.436
It's it's completely OK.

00:34:33.436 --> 00:34:40.161
And then that reasoning in the talking through how you arrive to your stance or conclusion.

00:34:41.099 --> 00:34:50.115
you have to create an environment where that's okay and you're not have to worry about risk and getting fired or like that open communications.

00:34:50.536 --> 00:34:51.257
Yes.

00:34:51.257 --> 00:34:52.157
Right.

00:34:52.585 --> 00:35:00.528
Yeah, I mean, it's that's not an easy leadership style to to encompass.

00:35:00.909 --> 00:35:06.012
And it's something that people aren't used to having to adapt to because it's not something you see too often because.

00:35:06.012 --> 00:35:29.987
I understand how necessary it is, especially like you said, when you have a direct to consumer product, if somebody comes up that's internal, that has a qualm, an issue, a comment, whatever it needs to be, they need to be comfortable enough to bring it up immediately, because if it's going to affect you know, the bottom line or the customer in a negative way, everybody needs to be aware of it and have the and somehow be working towards the answer or the solution for it.

00:35:29.987 --> 00:35:32.789
So I totally that makes so much sense to me.

00:35:32.789 --> 00:35:40.010
So it sounds like you guys have a really tight knit team over there, and especially if you can if you can run meetings like that.

00:35:40.871 --> 00:35:45.943
You mentioned this earlier, we're to jump into again a little bit more of the e-sports and the mobile industry.

00:35:45.943 --> 00:35:50.286
You mentioned this earlier with some of the the numbers, the viewership, things like that.

00:35:50.286 --> 00:36:01.925
A study shows that mobile gaming is continuing to grow, which gaming itself, like pre-COVID, during COVID and post-COVID has continued to grow.

00:36:01.925 --> 00:36:05.985
And there was a little bit of a lull, but it's definitely still continuing to grow.

00:36:05.985 --> 00:36:12.306
We've seen PlayStation delving into mobile gaming with their portal, Microsoft just doing Microsoft things.

00:36:12.306 --> 00:36:16.110
But true mobile gaming on a mobile gaming device is continuing to be booming.

00:36:16.110 --> 00:36:17.809
a booming economy.

00:36:17.809 --> 00:36:22.570
2024, the mobile gaming market generated more than $92 billion in revenue.

00:36:22.570 --> 00:36:32.510
And some of the top e-sports tournaments in 2024 were a PUBG Mobile tournament with 985,000 peak viewers during the grand finals.

00:36:32.809 --> 00:36:35.869
Arena of Valor, which I download, that's a pretty fun game.

00:36:35.869 --> 00:36:42.050
The grand finals had a peak viewership of 762,583 viewers.

00:36:42.190 --> 00:36:55.434
And with these numbers only continuing to grow, I'd love to know how you see puck being implemented and then impacting mobile gaming industry.

00:36:55.947 --> 00:36:56.788
Yeah, absolutely.

00:36:56.788 --> 00:37:14.507
So when we talk about the game and when people throw out the industry and the numbers, oftentimes what people don't talk about is how mobile gaming is bigger than console and PC gaming and browser gaming combined.

00:37:15.289 --> 00:37:20.831
Enthusiast Gaming, we had a company that we acquired.

00:37:20.831 --> 00:37:24.757
It was a mobile, it was a browser game.

00:37:24.757 --> 00:37:25.208
system.

00:37:25.208 --> 00:37:28.380
So like you could go on the website and play games.

00:37:28.380 --> 00:37:29.751
It was called Addicting Games.

00:37:29.751 --> 00:37:37.146
So if you remember, you might know Addicting Games dot com and you can load it up in your browser and play all these different games.

00:37:38.188 --> 00:37:40.909
Mobile gaming is bigger than everything combined.

00:37:40.929 --> 00:37:42.731
And so people forget that at times.

00:37:42.731 --> 00:37:46.304
And so the question was, where do I see this going?

00:37:47.853 --> 00:37:49.653
I think it's very clear.

00:37:49.914 --> 00:37:52.634
This is what's gonna happen in the near future.

00:37:53.054 --> 00:37:56.673
You I used to, there was a fight over who's gonna be the entertainment device in your home.

00:37:56.673 --> 00:37:57.793
Is it a PC?

00:37:57.793 --> 00:37:58.893
Is it an Xbox?

00:37:58.893 --> 00:38:00.954
Is it a PlayStation?

00:38:02.213 --> 00:38:06.967
No, it's literally, it's literally your, it's a phone.

00:38:06.967 --> 00:38:08.461
It's in your hand already.

00:38:08.461 --> 00:38:13.773
And I'll tell you why, because with cloud gaming and cloud computing, you got options.

00:38:13.773 --> 00:38:32.929
So if you have an older phone that's not as powerful as you know, iPhone 16 Pro Max or a Red Magic 9 Pro, which I over here, or it could be even a $300 phone that's a very low end, super cheap phone.

00:38:32.929 --> 00:38:40.769
This phone here is way more powerful than a lot of these different PC that you can buy today for lot of money.

00:38:40.769 --> 00:38:52.750
And so I think the future is going to be, since this is already your lifeline, this is your banking, this is your credit score, this is, you your social, your family, your mom, your dad, your...

00:38:52.750 --> 00:38:54.789
The future is this.

00:38:54.789 --> 00:38:58.570
You're gonna either A, have a phone that can run modern games.

00:38:59.010 --> 00:39:01.909
And now we just, now we're also your controller.

00:39:01.909 --> 00:39:04.342
So you can play directly on the phone.

00:39:04.342 --> 00:39:06.121
and have a great user experience.

00:39:06.121 --> 00:39:08.152
We help you play longer and we help you play better.

00:39:08.152 --> 00:39:15.065
Or if you want to play on a larger screen, we have the ability to help you play going forward on a panel.

00:39:15.065 --> 00:39:17.666
So this is where it comes in.

00:39:17.666 --> 00:39:29.009
If your phone is older and slower and it can't run modern games, you can usually use the phone the same way, whether it's a controller, to play it through a connected TV or connected panel.

00:39:29.628 --> 00:39:32.505
And I think that's what people are going to have in the future.

00:39:32.505 --> 00:39:45.442
You're going to have big panel if you want to watch it on a bigger screen or a 24 inch monitor or you want to play on a 15 inch panel and your phone is going to be the conduit for that to happen.

00:39:46.802 --> 00:40:09.885
Especially with you know in the US we're actually lagging behind a lot of other places around the world you know like India the Philippines you know don't even get me started about South Korea and like China like they're so far ahead of us because One part is that their technology advancements, they have better networks.

00:40:09.885 --> 00:40:22.481
So as 5G networks with low latency and high quality gaming, as the US catches up, It's a no brainer.

00:40:22.481 --> 00:40:31.565
And I think again, there's a, the biggest thing about the mobile market, there's a big gap in the quality of products.

00:40:31.824 --> 00:40:37.206
You have a lot of cheap junk you can find on Tmoo that you can buy for your phone.

00:40:37.206 --> 00:40:38.527
And we've already tested it all.

00:40:38.527 --> 00:40:39.317
It doesn't work.

00:40:39.317 --> 00:40:40.023
It breaks.

00:40:40.023 --> 00:40:40.777
It's terrible.

00:40:40.777 --> 00:40:43.068
Thus our inventions.

00:40:43.068 --> 00:40:46.695
You can do the big controller style things that you have to charge.

00:40:46.695 --> 00:40:50.094
You have to plug them in and deal with latency.

00:40:50.094 --> 00:40:52.014
There's no option to cool your phone.

00:40:52.014 --> 00:40:54.233
It actually makes your phone run hotter.

00:40:54.494 --> 00:40:57.514
At the time, the right side doesn't work with the left side.

00:40:57.514 --> 00:41:00.014
You know, you can go online and read all the complaints.

00:41:00.014 --> 00:41:04.853
And these companies have raised tons and millions and millions of millions of dollars.

00:41:05.114 --> 00:41:09.813
And I think they're going to struggle in the future because number one, they're not mobile.

00:41:09.813 --> 00:41:14.753
can't, you know, imagine me, imagine me trying to walk around and this is the stuff.

00:41:14.753 --> 00:41:17.134
Imagine me trying to walk around this in my pocket.

00:41:17.134 --> 00:41:18.614
That's not mobile.

00:41:19.179 --> 00:41:21.001
at all, but I can, have a case.

00:41:21.001 --> 00:41:24.414
can put my thumb stick in my pocket.

00:41:24.414 --> 00:41:26.056
This is how big it is.

00:41:26.637 --> 00:41:27.775
I dropped it.

00:41:28.318 --> 00:41:32.681
This, this is how big my thumb stick is.

00:41:32.822 --> 00:41:33.413
There it is.

00:41:33.413 --> 00:41:35.525
That's my thumb stick.

00:41:35.525 --> 00:41:37.255
There's my AirPods, right?

00:41:37.496 --> 00:41:38.985
Small in your AirPods.

00:41:39.181 --> 00:41:41.101
This goes in my pocket.

00:41:41.101 --> 00:41:46.222
when I'm on a train, plane, automobile, whatever, I take this thing out.

00:41:47.061 --> 00:41:48.862
I got the, you got two pieces.

00:41:48.862 --> 00:41:52.802
This is the top, this is the bottom, but this is also the anchoring point.

00:41:52.882 --> 00:41:55.021
You snap it on the back of your phone.

00:41:55.021 --> 00:41:56.262
You throw it on your phone.

00:41:56.262 --> 00:42:07.442
And now I can play Brawl Stars anywhere instantly and have the best time because I now have a functioning joystick that I can just feel and get tactile feedback.

00:42:07.442 --> 00:42:07.974
So.

00:42:08.673 --> 00:42:10.389
The future is definitely mobile.

00:42:10.389 --> 00:42:12.585
future mobile is now.

00:42:14.114 --> 00:42:20.670
But the future is really mobile and people don't, you do you want to put this in your pocket or you want to try to carry that in your pocket?

00:42:21.983 --> 00:42:39.103
I mean, again, even with with, you know, the the console wars with the the cost of, you know, chips as going up in price, like all this stuff, it's going to have more of an impact on the console sales because it's just people don't a people don't have the space for it.

00:42:39.304 --> 00:42:42.576
And it's again, it's just going to keep driving up in cost.

00:42:42.576 --> 00:42:48.554
And then you have to buy the device like every year you have to buy new versions of the game, update it, download it.

00:42:48.554 --> 00:42:57.068
have the subscription services where Like right now, you you're talking about, you know, mobile like phones are they are they're controllers for just about everything.

00:42:57.507 --> 00:43:01.458
Netflix now you can have Netflix streaming to your television and you can continue.

00:43:01.458 --> 00:43:07.090
can connect your your mobile phone to be your controller so you can play the video games on Netflix.

00:43:07.090 --> 00:43:08.471
Movie theaters, movie theaters.

00:43:08.471 --> 00:43:14.463
You walk in there, you scan the QR code and you're playing like asteroids on the screen right there in IMAX theater.

00:43:14.463 --> 00:43:19.693
Like it's amazing what they're doing and how they're incorporating mobile technology into these events.

00:43:19.693 --> 00:43:20.273
Yeah.

00:43:20.273 --> 00:43:24.233
And I'll tell you just to jump backwards real quickly.

00:43:24.414 --> 00:43:33.494
The average person doesn't know that PlayStation's, the PS5, they were being sold for less than it costs to make them.

00:43:34.253 --> 00:43:35.554
same with Xboxes.

00:43:35.554 --> 00:43:48.393
I mean, you're talking at, you know, series X, the bomb, the build materials, $475,000 and they're selling it for $499.

00:43:49.057 --> 00:43:55.141
You know, and, their idea is we're going to lose money to acquire users to subscription services and selling games and add-ons.

00:43:55.141 --> 00:44:00.523
like the console idea of is, is long gone.

00:44:00.523 --> 00:44:03.606
mean, it's a dying thing.

00:44:03.905 --> 00:44:18.146
And I think people, especially the youth of this country and other countries, you know, the ones that are 15 years old and they've had a cell phone for six years, you know, the ones that they're used to seeing vertical style format that they don't.

00:44:18.146 --> 00:44:23.393
They don't care about a console because the console keeps them attached to a physical location.

00:44:23.514 --> 00:44:27.500
When they can't take those games with them, it's a whole thing.

00:44:27.500 --> 00:44:34.858
Like play out computing is great, it's like mobile is definitely the now and the future for sure.

00:44:36.981 --> 00:44:46.849
So yeah, no, it's I definitely I saw I so agree with you because I see you know, everybody everybody these days I don't care if you're like a 80 year old grandma on the subway in New York.

00:44:46.849 --> 00:44:48.521
You have you have a game on your phone.

00:44:48.521 --> 00:44:52.434
You're like crushing candy or you're matching diamonds or gems or something.

00:44:52.434 --> 00:44:55.097
But everybody's a gamer on their phone these days.

00:44:55.297 --> 00:45:06.326
One thing that I personally love and we talked about this also a little bit before was one thing I personally love about the puck gaming ecosystem is not only the affordability of the price tag.

00:45:06.594 --> 00:45:10.246
but also the design being so like natural and neutral, like in your hands.

00:45:10.246 --> 00:45:19.213
And, you know, I don't know if this, if, it was as intended, but like I said, I suffer from nerve damage in my arms from time, you know, a good majority of the time.

00:45:19.213 --> 00:45:22.885
And it's not easy to hold my phone when I'm laying in bed or sitting on the couch.

00:45:23.606 --> 00:45:29.309
So when I use the puck accessories, I find myself, obviously my, my fatigue in my hands is less.

00:45:29.969 --> 00:45:30.990
I can play longer.

00:45:30.990 --> 00:45:32.161
could play more effectively.

00:45:32.161 --> 00:45:35.724
You know, I can reach the buttons because of the triggers.

00:45:35.755 --> 00:45:41.943
Was this idea built into it already or was it a happy coincidence for, you know, for people?

00:45:41.943 --> 00:45:44.976
This was 100 % designed by this.

00:45:44.976 --> 00:45:50.561
So Simon identified all the challenges in mobile gaming, right?

00:45:50.561 --> 00:45:53.253
And I'm gonna run through some of these challenges you just named off.

00:45:53.253 --> 00:45:58.407
So the most common issues were hand pain, distomp, or during long gaming sessions.

00:45:59.027 --> 00:46:04.152
And then also inconsistent and poor ergonomics compared to traditional gaming setups.

00:46:04.873 --> 00:46:11.677
And the third point on this one is where a lot of people struggle is it was a very steep learning curve.

00:46:11.735 --> 00:46:22.579
for most people because the average person has played a video game with a controller, whether it was a Nintendo or a Wii, they go to their friend's house and they're playing on the Xbox.

00:46:22.579 --> 00:46:26.981
Like a controller is very simple and intuitive for people to understand.

00:46:26.981 --> 00:46:28.971
Your thumb goes on the thumb stick.

00:46:28.971 --> 00:46:33.291
And then from there, you should hold it in a certain way to see it, look at it.

00:46:33.393 --> 00:46:43.902
And so those are like common issues, but like also too, you know, we tell it like in every thumb, every thumb stick, include a free thumb sock.

00:46:44.242 --> 00:46:59.365
Because when you hold a phone, the thumb stock in your right thumb, that's a lower level of precision because you're just slightly moved because you have the friction and it's easier to be a little bit more precise.

00:46:59.365 --> 00:47:03.920
It's like having a mouse on like a low sensitivity versus a high sense.

00:47:03.920 --> 00:47:06.481
High sense is hard to be precise.

00:47:06.702 --> 00:47:19.621
And so we actually think that having using your right thumb instead of trying to use two thumb sticks on games that support it, we actually think with the thumb stick on your left thumb and a sock on your right, you do have great precision.

00:47:19.621 --> 00:47:35.681
again, and we're addressing things like, you know, discomfort, hand strain, poorly optimized joysticks, because at Steph Gaming, we we spent a lot of money on the, you know, developing and designing.

00:47:35.916 --> 00:47:43.530
different thumbsticks and the way that the ring of the face plate worked and how it slid on the thumbstick.

00:47:43.911 --> 00:47:50.894
That same tech was like the ideas that we invented in the past were forward to mobile.

00:47:50.894 --> 00:47:56.978
And so I think then there's obviously more and more things around aiming issues.

00:47:57.217 --> 00:48:07.438
there's, for example, some of these controllers have thumbsticks, both of them are high and one's low and some of the thumb sits are small and it's terrible.

00:48:07.438 --> 00:48:12.139
we're trying to address the major change.

00:48:12.139 --> 00:48:21.844
The major challenges in mobile gaming are ergonomic overheating problems and then obviously connectivity limitations.

00:48:21.844 --> 00:48:44.981
and one thing too, like, and we also care about e-sports because You know, these mobile devices and controllers that you charge and you plug in the phones that have an app or a subscription or you got to use the app, there's not a world where those things are legal to use in the e-sport settings.

00:48:45.661 --> 00:48:48.322
It's like, it's not going to be a thing.

00:48:48.943 --> 00:48:57.429
By us being things that are physical adaptations that do not plug into the controller, we don't access hardware.

00:48:57.474 --> 00:49:02.755
We don't access connectivity, we don't access any apps, any data, nothing.

00:49:02.833 --> 00:49:04.617
It's generally touch 2.0.

00:49:04.617 --> 00:49:09.179
And so we're looking also ahead for eSports.

00:49:09.179 --> 00:49:15.902
And we think we can have a big impact on eSports professionals who use our products.

00:49:16.483 --> 00:49:20.775
Because it really is touch 2.0 is what we've created.

00:49:21.364 --> 00:49:22.114
Absolutely.

00:49:22.114 --> 00:49:23.994
And it's and it's it's awesome.

00:49:23.994 --> 00:49:24.695
Take it from me.

00:49:24.695 --> 00:49:26.135
It's it's awesome.

00:49:27.717 --> 00:49:37.300
I can only imagine with that much experience, like an innovation, engineering and strategy, you guys are already gearing up for the next several launches of products.

00:49:37.300 --> 00:49:40.413
What does the future of Puck look like?

00:49:40.413 --> 00:49:42.664
If you can't share, I understand.

00:49:42.664 --> 00:49:46.706
If you can tease us with a little something we would love to know.

00:49:46.706 --> 00:49:47.788
I would love to know.

00:49:47.788 --> 00:49:51.760
Now, this is one I wish I could talk a lot about.

00:49:52.541 --> 00:49:54.751
We have a few things.

00:49:54.751 --> 00:49:58.625
We have a pretty robust product roadmap.

00:49:58.784 --> 00:50:02.447
can tell you that.

00:50:03.047 --> 00:50:07.590
know, Stuff Gaming, we just focused on controllers.

00:50:08.010 --> 00:50:13.063
I would love to turn that brand into a competitor to Razer.

00:50:13.505 --> 00:50:15.166
Cause we had something that Razor didn't have.

00:50:15.166 --> 00:50:21.110
We had a super rabid fan base, a highly engaged audience that we were growing faster than anybody.

00:50:21.449 --> 00:50:27.994
And we could have done a lot more, think, than what we'd done by having a larger product catalog.

00:50:28.795 --> 00:50:32.509
At Punt Gaming, we're not going to have a small product catalog.

00:50:32.509 --> 00:50:35.181
And I'll leave it at that.

00:50:35.181 --> 00:50:36.601
That's all I can say.

00:50:36.601 --> 00:50:38.422
There's a lot of stuff coming.

00:50:38.422 --> 00:50:46.516
We have a lot of fun partnerships and stuff we've worked on with a lot of different people from lot of different industries and it's gonna be fun.

00:50:46.516 --> 00:50:48.217
So it'll be a fun ride.

00:50:48.217 --> 00:51:03.672
But as you you notice, you're watching a new brand, new products, there's a lot of education, there's a lot of headaches, there's a lot of fun stuff, there's a lot of stress, there's all the things, but these are all fun things.

00:51:03.672 --> 00:51:09.438
These are all good problems to have, the ones that are actually problems, or good problems to have.

00:51:10.007 --> 00:51:11.177
Absolutely.

00:51:11.338 --> 00:51:19.601
And also like, you know, I kind of just thought of this while we were talking about it, but also you guys have started a partnership program as well very early on.

00:51:19.601 --> 00:51:25.083
And cause you've seen a lot of really good responses from the community over your product.

00:51:25.083 --> 00:51:32.726
how, you know, how can people look into becoming a partner if they, if they truly believe in the, the puck system?

00:51:33.173 --> 00:51:36.155
Number one is engage with us on social.

00:51:36.155 --> 00:51:40.016
It's lot gaming pretty much on all platforms.

00:51:40.016 --> 00:51:41.456
Engage with us.

00:51:41.916 --> 00:51:43.416
Feel free to reach out to me.

00:51:43.416 --> 00:51:46.458
And again, people say, what does it take?

00:51:46.458 --> 00:51:51.568
We don't have to find, you don't have to, there's not these defined, because you're not a metric.

00:51:51.568 --> 00:51:57.181
So we don't have defined metrics of what we're looking for as a person, as a partner.

00:51:57.181 --> 00:52:02.092
We're looking for people that we think are a good fit for our brand.

00:52:02.188 --> 00:52:13.523
And that's regardless if you get 10 views a video or you get 10 million, if you're not a fit for our brand and what we're about, I don't care how big you are.

00:52:13.523 --> 00:52:19.144
I've already had calls with some massive creators, huge creators.

00:52:19.144 --> 00:52:23.786
like, it's just not a fit.

00:52:23.827 --> 00:52:35.777
if you care about mobile gaming, if you're making content, an overall decent human being, and you're active on social, there's a chance you can work with us.

00:52:35.777 --> 00:52:49.538
Says again, we're not, I invest in people, just like I did at Stuff Gaming, and just like I did at G Fuel by giving people a chance on a partnership or giving people a chance on a job.

00:52:49.978 --> 00:52:51.938
If I believe in somebody.

00:52:53.293 --> 00:52:54.114
I'll invest in them.

00:52:54.114 --> 00:52:57.405
And that's from a company standpoint or otherwise, like give them a chance.

00:52:57.405 --> 00:53:01.697
Because sometimes people just need a chance and you'll be surprised at what they can do.

00:53:01.817 --> 00:53:20.268
And then also too, it's like, working together, like that's a weird thing because over the past six to seven years, influencer marketing has become such a transactional thing where it's like, hey, you're gonna do this.

00:53:20.268 --> 00:53:21.905
I'm gonna give you this.

00:53:21.905 --> 00:53:23.329
And that's it.

00:53:23.597 --> 00:53:25.157
There's no collaboration.

00:53:25.157 --> 00:53:28.898
There's no, Hey, there's no, there's no true partnership.

00:53:28.898 --> 00:53:31.418
It's so transactional.

00:53:31.418 --> 00:53:33.717
And they're going to disservice to your fans.

00:53:33.717 --> 00:53:38.677
Like you're doing a disservice to, I mean, it's just, it doesn't work.

00:53:38.677 --> 00:53:42.117
like, can't be just simply transactional.

00:53:42.117 --> 00:53:43.576
That doesn't, that doesn't work.

00:53:43.576 --> 00:53:58.255
So yeah, I've been a part of way too many partnership programs over the last few years where it just feels like, you you're, like, you apply, you're given a login and you just log into like a dashboard and there's no, there's no personnel, there's no personal connection.

00:53:58.255 --> 00:54:03.217
You don't feel like you're, you're being invested into by the, by the organization.

00:54:03.217 --> 00:54:08.271
You feel like you're just, all you're doing is sharing like, you know, their graphics and it's like, what am I getting out of this?

00:54:08.271 --> 00:54:14.561
Like I, you know, I, I, you know, I wanted to partner with this company because I believed in the people behind it.

00:54:14.561 --> 00:54:15.733
And now I'm just a number.

00:54:15.733 --> 00:54:26.101
you know, yeah, there's been too many, too many organizations and I've been a proponent of making sure that streamers and content creators out there know that you guys are, your, your time is valuable.

00:54:26.101 --> 00:54:26.851
You are valuable.

00:54:26.851 --> 00:54:28.592
Your talent is valuable.

00:54:28.592 --> 00:54:30.063
And don't just be a number out there.

00:54:30.063 --> 00:54:31.715
Don't just take any partnership.

00:54:31.715 --> 00:54:41.688
But again, you've heard it here that, you know, Scotty and the, and the puck gaming system crew, like they are all about believing in people, but I feel like we've taken enough of your time.

00:54:41.688 --> 00:54:42.920
I appreciate it so much.

00:54:42.920 --> 00:54:43.791
You being here, Scotty.

00:54:43.791 --> 00:54:48.036
Thank you so much for your time and spending time here with the oblivion bar podcast.

00:54:48.036 --> 00:54:55.005
Our listeners, before we do go, I want to hand it over to you to add anything that you feel like we didn't hit during the interview.

00:54:55.268 --> 00:54:56.278
The floor is yours.

00:54:56.278 --> 00:54:57.480
Please take it.

00:54:57.878 --> 00:54:58.918
This has been great.

00:54:58.918 --> 00:55:01.048
Aaron, thanks for inviting me on.

00:55:01.048 --> 00:55:03.137
I'm glad we could chat today.

00:55:03.137 --> 00:55:07.570
I hope your fan base and your audience found it.

00:55:07.570 --> 00:55:11.862
If they took something from it, that makes it worthwhile for me at least.

00:55:11.862 --> 00:55:19.983
And so I hope somebody was able to get something out of this, whether it was something that I said, something that you said, or just some fun stuff that we talked about.

00:55:20.284 --> 00:55:25.206
Again, Puck Gaming is a brand that I feel very bullish on.

00:55:25.742 --> 00:55:27.742
and not just the brand, but the products.

00:55:27.742 --> 00:55:29.521
Very bullish on it.

00:55:29.521 --> 00:55:32.061
New brand, sick us out if you're interested.

00:55:32.061 --> 00:55:33.902
If you have questions, hit me up.

00:55:33.902 --> 00:55:35.822
Hit up to social accounts.

00:55:35.981 --> 00:55:37.481
We'll respond back to you.

00:55:37.481 --> 00:55:43.021
And again, thank you so much for having me on the call today and the show.

00:55:43.081 --> 00:55:44.677
And I appreciate it.

00:55:44.903 --> 00:55:46.094
Absolutely.

00:55:46.094 --> 00:55:46.454
All right.

00:55:46.454 --> 00:55:47.985
Thanks again, everybody, for listening in.

00:55:47.985 --> 00:55:50.318
I hope you had a great time, just like I did.

00:55:50.318 --> 00:55:53.661
And like, like Scotty said, look out for him, look out for Puck.

00:55:53.661 --> 00:55:57.184
Go follow him over on all those socials and keep your ear to the ground.

00:55:57.184 --> 00:55:59.568
Because like you said, he's got a long roadmap ahead.

00:55:59.568 --> 00:56:03.331
That team's got a lot of their sleeve and I guarantee you it's going to be a game changer.

00:56:03.331 --> 00:56:05.532
And that is pun intended.

00:56:05.532 --> 00:56:06.793
Have a good one.

00:56:06.849 --> 00:56:07.335
Peace.

00:56:07.335 --> 00:56:08.201
Thank you.