SEA HW Meetup at First Mode

Join us for our first official Seattle Hardware Meetup at First Mode, a great Seattle-based company building BIG hardware for people and planet.

While we met for the first time over drinks earlier this year, our usual Hardware Meetup programming focuses on hardware founders and professionals sharing their lessons learned building physical things. We're excited to kick off our flagship event series in Seattle!

We have a great speakers lined up, including:

- Spencer Anunsen of First Mode. Spencer is the Senior Director of First Mode's Haul Truck Systems organization, an org with a total headcount of 80+ team members. He is responsible for providing guidance and insight to his teams’ leads and the delivery of Haul Truck Systems progress to our VP of Products. Spencer has been with First Mode since the beginning back in 2018 – he is one of the 11 founders of First Mode and continues to exhibit their mission statement through his work and team. A better world for people and planet!

- Lucas Whipple of Omni Venture Labs. Lucas has been working in hardware for the last 15 years in many capacities. He is an alumnus of Apple, Tesla, Alloy PD, and most recently Valve, where he was the R&D mechanical engineer for the Steam Deck. He is currently a venture partner at early-stage deeptech VC firm Omni Venture Labs, where he primarily performs technical due diligence on potential investments.

- Matthew Callaghan of Glowforge: a mechanical engineer, maker, and rapid prototyping enthusiast, currently working to bring laser cutting and engraving to the masses. His responsibilities include R&D, manufacturing, test, reliability, FA, and—most recently—packaging, with Glowforge’s newest product release, the Aura Craft Laser.

Thank you to our partner organizations:

informal is a freelance collective for the best independent professionals in hardware and manufacturing. Whether a client is 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 right collection of people for the job. With projects as varied as 3D printers to electric vehicles, informal members work with companies at every scale to design, manufacture, and ship physical products.

First Mode is a clean technology manufacturer with a mission to decarbonize heavy industry. We started by removing the diesel engine from an ultra-class mining haul truck and replacing it with a hybrid battery-hydrogen engine, the world’s largest zero emission truck. We are now commercializing our zero emission haulage solutions to decarbonize the source of our global supply chains – the mining sector.