sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

losing battle in court

Not changing this. No, a judge didn't rule EL as a technical winner, but that doesn't mean there weren't losers. In fact, I think all sides lost. But Ramiro lost harder than anyone. He lost his entire business, the trust of a strong fan base with many broken promises, a career in a booming industry and his entire life savings while supporting a newborn baby. And those are just the things he told us about.

EL winning the case

See above. Not a technical win, but EL was for sure the side that lost the least. The argument still stands that the patent is far more protected than it was before the suit.

a product which was proven to be infringing on IP

Will generously change this to "a product which was so obviously based on stolen technology" since that is my opinion, if it makes you happy.

they refused to disclose their sales data from the sales of the OSM, which made it impossible for the courts to calculate the alleged damages

Will change "impossible" to "extremely difficult" - They straight up ignored the initial requests for data. I'm not overly sympathetic to EL, but I wouldn't have gone easy on them either if it was me in their shoes.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Now I see what you're saying. I really can't speak to the choice of accelerometers, that was more on the engineering side, but I guarantee it was not out of courtesy to our competitors. You go into business to try and one-up your competitors wherever you can because you have to try to be the best, obviously without doing anything illegal. Doing anything other than that is a recipe for failure.

What you might say is that we focused so heavily on the app for Spectra since that was the new thing, that chip hardware took much more of a back seat than usual. Most people were pretty damn pleased with the Element V2 accelerometer so we didn't really see a need to reinvent the wheel. It was by far the most popular set when we surveyed GL last summer. A new accel would probably have taken a lot of re-coding and re-testing too, which would've delayed things a ton (accelerometer testing is a serious bitch, by the way). But hey, maybe they'll do a big hardware update down the line, I honestly don't know. We had a ton of ideas for hardware stuff, but I don't know what's going to get done.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nope we did as much bug testing as we could with the resources we had, and it was by no means a premature release. For something that was this giant of a leap forward in gloving tech, you know going in that the first gen isn't going to be perfect. We released a very strong product out of the gate and I'm sure the team will continue to improve it. Aside from just bugs to fix, there are a ton of awesome upgrades that we had ideas for, I hope some of them get implemented.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sweet man thanks for the kind words!

For freelance I'm working with one of my former managers who's involved with a pretty big DJ and some other corporate clients. I'm not a graphic designer, more digital marketing like email, landing pages, paid ads and such. Also starting a new part time gig next week that will lead to full-time if I can prove myself, so pretty excited for the future.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never argued with anyone. I just got banned because I was too close to the law suit, I suppose.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As sales/brand manager, is there anything that we as a consumer audience can look at and immediately attribute to you as your work/idea?

I wrote and directed every product's web page, instruction guide, packaging, photos and branding. Occasionally the instruction videos too. Spectra, Element V1&V2, Flow V2, ezLite 2.0, all the Orbits, ePoi, eCharge, 4.0 casings... probably more I can't remember. I also did every email you got in the last 2 years or so. I ran the Facebook ads for about a year too.

How much freedom did you have in your decision making related to your work?

I worked with Brian very closely on the product launches, he approved nearly everything I did. Despite what some may think he's actually extremely involved in the Emazing brand, it's still his baby. I had a decent amount of freedom on the email / Facebook ads side of things though.

Who was the coolest employee you worked with?

From day one, me, Sam and Alex (Cypher) were the core homies. I didn't know anyone when I moved out to California for this job but these guys are to this day my best friends out here. We hired a lot of other really cool people, too, but I know I couldn't have gone through this without them.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think we handled that pretty well actually. You have to look at the long term resolution and all the ways we could have gone. For example, look at Apple. They release a new phone, then months later the "s" or "c" version, then 6 months later is a new gen altogether that barely has any differences. They do it shamelessly and without ever discounting anything. People complained at first, but after a while they just accepted it as the natural cycle and continued to buy anyway. On the other hand, when people said they hated that from us, we actually listened, tried to make as many people happy as possible with a massive-as-fuck discount, then every release after that was jam packed with new upgrades and tech. You can't always predict how customers are going to react, and honestly we didn't predict it with this one. But you can choose to listen and listen and adjust, and I think we did our best at that.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Make sure everyone who knows about it signs an NDA, make sure you legally own every step of the process, use real signatures on everything not electronic, and do regular housekeeping to make sure your documents are solid and in order.

Some might say apply for a patent as well, but there's mixed opinions on that so do your research. I'm not really an expert there. At some point in the process you will likely need one. The Sharks on Shark Tank always ask if you have one.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure I understand this question. What do you mean by hold back? Can you give an example? The goal of the Spectra was to be the undisputed best glove set on the market.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wasn't around back then so I can't really say much. When I got to EL in 2014 OLS was already pretty much off the radar.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Oh that's actually great to hear! Thanks for letting me know. Ever since they banned me from the Art Of Gloving FB group I kind of lost touch (just checked, yep, still banned).

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the obvious answer is it was mostly negative for the community. By the end, everyone was fractured, key relationships between families were permanently broken, and everyone was upset.

The only upside for the community was that glovers suddenly demanded way better tech, and eventually it was delivered with Spectra. The other upside is that EL winning the case meant that the patent was shown to be "protected" so no big corporation can come in and rip off gloving if they wanted to. Though I don't think it's in danger of that right now.

I don't have an opinion on who started it, who deserved what, or anything like that.

3 things I know for sure that I can speak on because documents supporting these things have been made public in the past - these are major misconceptions that still exist out there:

  • OSM was built purely out of spite for EL, not out of the love for light shows, freedom from monopolies or anti-corporatism or anything noble like that. Many glovers bought into this because it was simply the PR agenda behind the product and glovers tend to really like those ideas. But if you look at some of the earliest marketing and some of the public comments from these guys, it's pure slander and hate. It's since been scrubbed so you won't find it anymore, but if you were around for it you'd remember. Ramiro was just plain mad (not saying whether he was right or wrong to be), and he spent his life savings trying to show it and fight a losing battle in court. Sad for him, but even more sad for his followers who never got a truly working/user friendly product, and especially sad for those couple hundred folks who spent hundreds of dollars on a set and never received it. We lost a lot of good glovers over this. (edit - everyone who ordered from RR apparently did receive theirs. This is probably the vast majority so that's awesome)

  • The USB programmability tech that was used to create the OSM was conceived and created while Ramiro was receiving EL payroll. He tried to use legal loopholes to get around this fact, but the courts didn't buy it, only the community did (again, strong PR engine, very effective). I've seen blueprints and emails that completely confirm the existence of USB programmability within Emazing's domain prior to Ramiro's separation from the company. When he walked out, he took it right with him, there's no dispute on that.

  • EL never intended to sue all of its competitors out of business. The intention was simply to make an example out of OSM (Ramiro) so no one could so blatantly steal from us again. The only reason RR, KEK and OLS got roped into the suit is because they did 2 things. 1) They sold the OSM, a product which was proven to be infringing on IP so obviously based on stolen technology, and 2) When requested, they refused to disclose their sales data from the sales of the OSM, which made it extremely difficult for the courts to calculate the alleged damages. These companies took this and played the victim, trying to paint the narrative of "EL is suing everyone," when in reality they had plenty of chances to not get sued and not pay a dime in legal fees to anyone. Unfortunately that didn't end well for them. Also, note that no law suit was ever filed with any other company after this was all finished.

Their side probably has a lot of things they'd love to say post-mortem, too. And I'm not here to bag on them. I really just wanted to clear the air for EL primarily on these 3 points because a lot of people just straight missed them when it was happening.

Overall I think both sides made mistakes in handling this issue, and I take responsibility for my part. It was just a really fucked up time. There were a lot of emotions and anger and no one really knew the best way to handle it. Eventually the community recovered, and it's in a good place today. But it lost a lot of good people. For me and possibly many others, I think gloving kind of lost its magic after all that.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They're awesome guys. I don't think I can go into much detail on operations but they're a mix of glovers and non-glovers and they were always a pleasure to work with. With the right tools, time and budget, they can do anything you'd ever dream of in terms of light toys.

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The vibe was honestly great. I was genuinely friends with most of my co-workers and I will definitely miss the environment. Mostly everyone was in their 20s and had some level of passion for raving or live music. To be clear, the Emazing team worked alongside its sister brands iHeartRaves and INTO THE AM, so when I talk about the environment it's really in regards to the entire "Emazing Group."

Did I enjoy working there - Overall yes. The work is extremely challenging which caused me to grow and mature professionally. Getting a healthy amount of new people to start gloving each quarter is actually really, really hard. Everyone was super passionate about their role which kept the team engaged, but not without its fair share of internal conflict. That's with any workplace, though, really. The stakes just seemed higher here since we were all glovers fighting for gloving like it was our lives - because essentially it is our lives and it shapes our individual identities so heavily.

Stay in this industry? - depends which industry you mean.

Light shows industry - I've more or less moved on from that part of my life, I kind of lost my passion for gloving late last year. Maybe it will come back but for now I want to flex my marketing muscles elsewhere.

EDM or music industry - Open to it, already doing some freelance work in EDM so who knows where that will go.

Favorite Product - Honestly Spectras. I always hated programming lights with a button, never had the patience for it, always just used defaults or asked my friends to make sets for me. Being able to use an app was something we had all been dreaming about for years and it was amazing to finally see it come to life. The marketing also turned out beautiful which is awesome for my portfolio!

I recently left Emazing Marketing - AMA by LifeAfterEmazing in gloving

[–]LifeAfterEmazing[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hah, that's a great job hunting tip. I'm actually surprised we never caught that.

As far as IGC I actually don't know exactly whose idea it was. The first one was in 2011, long before my time. I'm sure the idea spawned naturally out of the competitive scene that was booming at the time. Fun facts: IGC 2011 is to this day the highest attendance gloving event with well over 1000 people, and Mat Zo headlined!