Everyone wants to talk to Sam
If you’ve ever had a chance to connect with our cofounder and resident product development engineer extraordinaire Sam Holland, you know how knowledgeable, approachable, and fun he is. To boot, his enthusiasm for all things hardware engineering and manufacturing is downright contagious. So it’s no wonder he’s been interviewed by two media outlets recently: one from Channel 3 News in his home state of Vermont and the other on The Hardtech Podcast.
WCAX Channel 3 News runs a regular segment titled “Made in Vermont” and they recently chatted with Sam in his Colchester basement workshop. (Though the informal hardware collective is entirely distributed, Sam is proudly based in the green mountain state.) They talk about the process of bringing an idea to life through engineering and showcase some of the awesome and groundbreaking products informal has helped bring to market.
While the news segment is a great overview of what Sam and the other 500+ talented contractors of informal do, The Hardtech Podcast segment is a more in-depth conversation that runs about 30 minutes. Hosts Grant Chapman and DeAndre Harakas of Glassboard product development company get into the nitty-gritty with Sam. In a nutshell, this is some real talk from folks with a wealth of experience when it comes to taking a great idea and transforming it into an amazing product.
Glassboard and informal both help folks with this undertaking, but they do it in markedly different ways, each best suited to a different type of project. They all agree on some fundamentals, though, that they discuss in this episode, including common pitfalls, ideal client relationships (and how to maximize them), and the downfalls of fixed bids and equity for work. You’ll want to grab a cup of coffee and a cozy chair for this one.
Sam is also a prolific writer who loves to freely share knowledge! If you haven’t read any of his blog posts, you can peruse his collection on our site.
informal is a freelance collective for the most talented independent professionals in hardware and hardtech. Whether you’re looking for a single contractor, a full-time employee, or an entire team of professionals to work on everything from product development to go-to-market, informal has the perfect collection of people for the job.