NZXT PODCAST - #045 - Mary

Episode Date: June 11, 2020

This week on the podcast, the crew are joined by NZXT’s Sr. Finance Analyst: Mary! Mary and the crew discuss shiba inus, blowing up power supplies, and spending $4000 on keyboards. Follow Mary on Instagram: instagram.com/dangmarydang Listen live to the NZXT 💜 CLUB CAST on our Discord server at discord.gg/nzxt every Thursday at 10AM PT! Thanks to killy#3417 for the artwork!

Here we go. Hello and welcome back to episode 45 of the N60 Clubcast, the official podcast of the NXT community. This podcast is recorded live every Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific Center time on the official NXT Discord server and is available to stream wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. My name is Dennis and always with me is Ivan. I am always with you. Always with me in spirit. In my heart, he lives in my brain, and on my phone, constantly. Yes.

All the time. Joining us today to not talk about finance is NXT's senior financial analyst Mary. Hello, everyone. Hey, it's going on, Mary. Nothing much. How's it going? Nothing much. We're on a podcast.

How is that? Nothing much. All right, all right. probably the most exciting days of my life because I get to talk to Mary. I'm super. No, I'm actually really excited to talk to you because I know nothing about finance. I mean, I know nothing about a lot of things, right? This is true.

But I'm actually really curious, like, what a senior financial analyst at NZXT does. How is your day going so far, Mary? It's going good. You know, just today is going to be a really, chatty day for me so after this podcast I'll be on some meetings throughout until 7 p.m. tonight.

Ooh, that's a lot. It's all good. It's part of the job. I'm pretty sure that you and Ivan can compete in number of meetings per day, right? Oh, no. I'm sure Ivan will beat me. Yesterday I had nothing.

I'm sure hers are more useful than mine. My meetings are literally like, We'll have meetings about memes. We're not having meetings about, like, high-level financial discussions or anything like that. I'm sure. triggers are more important. Unless.

Imagine just having a meeting about like financial memes. They sharing through like the finance Slack channels. Steve Long and I have like met about random stuff. Like, you know, like I'm into key. So I'm like something long look at my keyboard that I just built right so I'll show him that and they'll get on the call and talk about it. Do you so I'm just before we get into everything, I'm really curious. How is long to the rest of the financial team to the finance team? Is you like is it like the cool finance guy or do you guys make fun of them like me and Ivan do? No, he's really good at what he does. And yeah, like working for him so far has been really fun, honestly.

Yeah, sometimes he can be, you know, he has expectations for us, right? And sometimes they can be a bit aggressive. But honestly, I've been learning so much for him and whatnot. Hopefully he doesn't hear this then. I did let him know that I am on his podcast today. Just to let him know, like, don't bother me during these times. Bug me, I'm having fun, right? Yes, exactly.

So, Mary, what is your position at NCXT and what is it entail? What do you do? Okay, yeah. So I'm the senior financial analyst pretty much. There's only two finance people. in the company long and I um long's my boss um and yeah we do anything finance related anything forecasting budgeting um so you know like uh head count as well uh i mean just anything right anything that has to deal with a dollar sign we're on it so when i put in like a requisition

for i need to buy uh or like i have needs to buy a skeleton hand so we can make Instagram videos that goes through you. I think everyone has their own threshold. Once we hit like a certain number, that's when it goes to finance for approval. What's the magic number so we know to bug you? 10K. Yeah.

And everything that we buy for community is definitely under 10K. So we don't get bugged a lot by primary or long. It's like, you know, we'll spend a couple hundred bucks here and there on stickers. and things like that. So we're, we fly under the radar when it comes to finance. And I want to keep it that way, Dennis. I don't say it sounds like it's time to kind of like bump that number up a little bit. So yeah, so like I need a really nice camera for Instagram.

I need like a studio grade, Sony. If you could, if you could get that for me, please, that'd be great. Oh, you can. Yeah, for sure. So, Mary, how long have you been at NZXT? I've been here just over three months now. Oh, okay. How's it been so far?

It's been good. So this is my first company where I'm actually a consumer of the products. Oh, okay. So I graduated college four years ago. This is my fourth company that I've worked for since I've graduated. And my three prior ones were all, you know, like software. companies or just kind of in a way random. So I started out with trading derivatives, derivative trading for Wells Fargo.

You know, thought I wanted to get into banking but decided, you know, this is not my kind of lifestyle. My hours were 630 to 530 every day. And that was not fun. So those are my hours. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then after that, you know, I moved to the Bay Area from Oregon to join the tech company, to join the tech field, right? So I went to this other company called Omnicell, which is a medical hardware and software company. Pretty much didn't like it there.

And then after that, I joined a startup, which was my last company, a cybersecurity firm. And that was, I learned a lot from that company. It was really fast-paced. It was fun. But ultimately, you know, I got to this point where he's like, okay, I kind of want to join a company where I am, like, I'm, I know the products at least, right? Or I used the products before. And one of my dreams was always to be in this industry, either, you know, PC hardware or gaming. industry because I did during when I was in college a lot of my projects were on gaming companies or

you know PC hardware companies. Yeah. So I'm finally here. What was your first Zanxie product? Definitely the case, right? I think only in the case. And it wasn't until, you know, I joined this company where I got the cooler as well. What case was it, do you know?

Do you remember? I have no idea. I don't remember. What did it look like? See if we can try to figure it out. Honestly, just looks like a white rectangle. Okay, yeah, it's like, it's from a collar rectangle. There's like everything, right?

Oh, yeah, the white rectangle. Yeah, that one, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That one NZXT case, right? Yeah. Okay, so, so you went from like finance, to almost, well, you are in finance, but you went from like almost banking and like derivatives, which I not really, I don't know anything about money stuff, right? I just, I just have

a debit card. So, and then from there to tech sector and then you wanted to work more in the hardware space, correct? Yeah. Okay. Um, was you curious like, uh, why, why NST from like a, I want to buy this product stamp. point. Like what, what stood out to you? Just like how simple to look. That's pretty much it. Like, there's just some, I'm pretty minimal with how I like things to look. Like, honestly, my favorite color is gray, right? It just works for everything, right? Like, day, night, gray just works. Yeah, like, it's just super simple. I like how the logo doesn't just pop out at you. but it's still there.

And yeah, like, you know, sometimes I like stuff with curves on it, but I mean, other times I just, I like the straight edges, you know, that are really, yeah. Straight edge gang right up. So how did you end up getting hired in ZXT? Was it a recommendation or did you just apply like the website? So I saw it popped up on LinkedIn. Like seriously, it was posted a minute.

And then I just applied right away, you know, it just happens to me. I was actually looking for a new job during that time. And my boss, the hiring manager, like, looked at my, he looked at my LinkedIn right away after, right after I applied. Right. And this was like 12 a.m. And yeah, and then I received an email for him the next day. we got onto a call. It was really fast.

The interviewing process was really fast because anytime I spoke to someone, I had that night scheduled another interview, like another round of interviews. So it took about three weeks from me applying to getting an offer letter. Oh, wow. That's actually, I think it's actually kind of quick for us, Because I know that depending on the department, it can definitely take a while. There's like a lot of interviews.

I know when I did my interviews, I spoke to one, two, three, like five people, I think. Six, six people actually. So I was literally like the entire marketing team essentially at that point. And it was like a really, really long day. And I don't know if I was a good thing or a bad thing, right? Like I didn't know if it was like. I still don't know either. Yeah.

It's like, I don't know if this guy likes me. So they're bringing somebody in. I don't know if they real like me. so they're just having me everybody. It was actually kind of scary because I didn't really have any idea one way or the other

other than my conversation with Ivan because my last friend of interviews was with Wes and Andy and Emily. And if you guys know anything about Andy, it's always hard to read Andy because he's just like a super positive person in general. Yeah. I don't think you ever say anything rude

to anybody ever to their face. And then West is just like this very kind of like straight dude. And he's really hard to get a read on him, right? So we're doing this interview. And I'm like, I can't tell these people like me or not? Oh, yeah. You still can't tell, huh?

Keep it up, Ivan, keep it up. Yeah, it was, let's see, I talked to Long. I talked to, and then I talked to Veroon, Jeff, Long again in person. Jeff? Jeff, wait, Jeff from Korn Team? Why was Jeff in a interview for? Because I was, I was just, because I was, you know, I was going to work up in their space, right? And it was more like a cold thing.

Like, you know, Baroon and Jeff came in. Well, I work with Varun quite a bit. He's part of science. But yeah, it was more of a culture check. And like, yeah, it was really funny because he got into the meeting and he's like, yeah, I'm an engineer. Like, I really don't have anything. But do you have any questions for me? else.

I think it's like a Jeff thing to do. Yeah, and then I talked to Rob, Justin, Johnny. So you went from the culture check to the vibe check. Yeah. Yeah, so, yeah, I mean, it was just an enjoyable experience, honestly. It was the best interview experience I ever had. You know, I was like, holy, you know, holy crap, this company

He's moving really fast, right? And that's just how long is. You know, like he, he moves at like, you know, 100 miles per hour. So, yeah, it was enjoyable that I really did. It was, I really did like it. Now I kind of wish that Jeff just walked into my interview just because, like. Yeah, I mean. How was it interviewing with Jeff?

Was it like, it's like fun or was it? Yeah, it was fun. I mean, you know, those are. Like, I always, you know, the interview with your boss is always going to be the hardest, right? Because you're, you know, you need to make a really good impression of them, right? Whereas the others, yes, you still need to make a good impression, but you can also have fun, right? So that's what I was, you know, we were just having fun, just chatting about stuff and whatnot. I think my interview with Ivan is probably the best one because everyone else was like, people that I, again, couldn't read or it was like a Jerry.

who was like just a really interesting person in general and then there was there was Taka at the time who was our people ops guy I think honestly like yeah I think honestly the easiest interviews I had was with Ivan because we were just talking about like each other and what else and everyone else

they asked me these really kind of weird uptuce questions trying to get a read on me and I'm like I don't know what you guys are on for me I got well when when our interview started I found out we grew up in the same city I went to the same high school So it kind of changed the direction of everything. I was like, what?

Yeah. Are you my cousin? But Evan also has a weird list of questions that he asked. Like, he comes in very prepared with this long list that he just goes down. So that was kind of weird. I forget what the questions were, but I remember who it was that we were. I think we were talking, I think it was Josh who we had on a few weeks back. and he was like, yeah, that the Ivan interview was the most difficult one

because he was very just like, question one, question two, question three. Yeah, like, you know, I try to have fun in the interviews, but I also have a list of questions that I need answered for sure. Yeah. I need you to answer these right away. Yeah. So, Mary, what's your favorite thing about finance or the finance department? at NST.

So right off the bat, I like the size of the team. So my last company, I was also part of a two-man finance team, but we had no accounting people. So I was stuck doing accounting as well. And, yeah, that was quite difficult. You know, we were the company that was just at, we grew to, I think I was a employee number like 73, then we grew up to, you know, 120. But yet we didn't grow the finance accounting team whatsoever. So that was kind of difficult. So one of the reasons why I joined the

company was like, oh, you have an accounting team? Well, you have 11 people in your accounting team. Okay. Like, awesome, right? So yeah, so I knew that I didn't have to do much accounting work when I joined the company. But yeah, that's, you know, it's really nice to not have to do that. Another thing too I like about our finance team is that they're always willing to help you out. So this is also going to be one of my least favorite things about the department. But basically, like, since I don't know anyone, I don't know why I would reach out to someone. You know, if I have a problem, like, okay, who do I reach out to? I still don't know who should I reach out to because typically I talk to the controller.

I talk to the senior manager, right? But I don't want to reach out to them for everything. So I just go to our, you know, our finance Slack channel. And I just ping everyone. I was like, so I have this problem. I don't know who to go to, but if anyone can help me out, let me know, right? And so, so yeah. So my favorite thing is like, you know, people are willing to help you out.

But then it's also like, I don't, I haven't really, you know, connect with most of the folks on our team yet. So, you know, I'm only three months in, so hopefully I get to know everyone a little bit more. Yeah, I think you started right before we got told to not go back in the office anymore, right? So I'm sure it's pretty difficult to kind of make that connection with people, especially if you don't see them every day, right? Yeah, yeah. Because I know with like, you know, with me and Ivan, you know, we've been working together for a little over a year now, right? So we've had a lot of time like face-to-face or, you know, we'll go grab lunch or something or we'll, like, hang out. So it's a little bit easier to make that connection. But when you had to do it like online,

it's a little bit different, right? Because you got to keep like constantly communicating or you kind of like start missing certain things from certain people. Yep, exactly. Yes. That's why Long made us do a mandatory on phase. You know, you have to turn on your webcam. Oh, really? Yeah. Maybe we should do that, Ivan. I mean, we started with that, but then after a while, I I stopped caring because of just having webcam issues. So it's like every time I go into any meeting, my webcam and my mic and my headset don't work. And I have to like adjust all these settings. So I'm kind of over it.

I think you've seen a brand new computer, dude. I just have different settings. I have different settings for Slack, for Discord, for, you know, for video games, for everything. So it just screws up a lot of things I've used. I'm also really dumb Oh don't Like dude when I got my work PC I was getting the blue screen of death

So I had a hit up customer service And then And then I remember And then I put in another GPU Not knowing that It may have Not knowing that my power supply May not be able to handle it

With everything connected to it Right So I So I actually blew up my power supply. Like it popped. It popped and it sparked. And I was like, oh, shit. Oh, sorry.

But yeah, I was so scared. Like it, and it smelled like it was burning. And I was like, oh, my God, what did I do? Right? And I'm like talking to my boyfriend. He's like, what did you do? I was like, I don't know. I feel like I should work for QA now, though.

And yeah, so I was talking to Dakota. who's part of our customer service team. He's like, okay, well, if you get another power supply, you can maybe test it out, but your cables may have been fried too, so that could cause a fire. And I was like, you, I don't have a fire extinguisher. I'm not going to do that.

So I just, I was just like, hey, guys, I popped to my power supply. Can you all send me another one? So, yeah. And they were, like, so confused. They were like, how'd you do that? You know? And so I actually had to send them the unit back just so that they can perform some testing and see what happened.

I've never heard of a power supply popping before ever. And like I know that like our resident's PSU guru, who's no longer PSU guru, always like talks about it being a thing. and I think you're the first person I've legitimately like personally known who's had a power supply explode on them. Because I think like if there's not enough power, it would just not work, right? But for it to explode like that, I feel like that's, that's really weird. Something was done to it. There's no way. Yeah, I mean like, you know, I hit up, I was, I hit up the channel, the Slack channel right away.

I was like, uh, guys, um, my power supply is, uh, smells like a, it's, uh, it's, uh, it sounds like a burning help right and johnny our CEO was the first one to hit up so and then everyone got involved right um felix from the uh hardware engineering software engineering um product managers got involved yeah people were just like what what happened and i'm just here i'm just like oh my gosh like talking to my boyfriend i was like i wonder they think i'm dumb right like how did i get this PSC to pop And it's like, I think it was like, um, it was less than a month of working here. Yeah. I can't imagine.

I really want to know just like, like what we, what we gave you. Like, I don't know what that that was. That's so weird. I had another question as a follow, but I totally, I got sidetracked by that story. Your powers are probably exploding. It's so weird. Um, all right. Let's see here.

So, Mary, what's your day to day like? Like, so you wake up in the morning, right? You grab your coffee and or tea or just water if you're like a psychopath. I don't drink caffeine. What, you don't? No, caffeine actually makes me sleepy. Like, if I'm on a road trip and I need to just sleep on a road trip, you know, my friend's driving. I was like, okay, I need to like sleep for like six hours.

We'll get, we'll go to like Starbucks, get like a double shot or something. thing and then I'll just drink it right away and then fall asleep. That's the opposite of how it's supposed to work though. Yeah, so another than that, but yeah, my day-to-day is pretty much, it depends what I have, like how early I start. If I start before 8 a.m., typically I'm on calls with Germany, you know, at least once a week or once every other week. and when I talk to them, it's around like 7 a.m.,

my day starts with just getting out of bed and getting on my computer and maybe having a blanket over me. This is when I don't turn on my webcam, by the way. And then I just go through the meeting. After that meeting, I'll, you know, do my personal stuff before I actually start. and I usually start around 9.30 or 9. Yeah, so most of it is meetings.

I do a lot of Excel work as well, you know, forecasting. I work with a bunch of teams, which is like I work with the sales folks quite often. You know, right now we're forecasting for, you know, the year 2021. on and just kind of talking to them about like, hey, what's your process? Also documenting what's their process and what's the finance process, like how we're going to basically move on. But yeah, like, you know, just there's a lot of meetings and Excel work, I would just say. All right. So just a quick kind of step back to a previous question I was going to ask you.

You're mentioning finance and accounting. For those who don't know, what's the difference between finance and accounting? Sure. So accounting is when you're actually dealing with a lot of actuals. Hold on. Let me turn off my headset. Yeah. So accounting, you're dealing with a lot of actuals.

So basically like a customer pays for an invoice, right? And the invoice is like $2,000. You log that $2,000 into your, you know, into your system. And then to me, accounting is a number punching game. Oh, boy. But yeah, like you're following rules. There's gap rules that you have to abide to and whatnot. finance, which is the fun part, is when you're taking those actuals, and let's say, okay, let's say this invoice is $2,000, and you want to mark up your pricing, right? You want to get a little bit more margin. So what is the appropriate percentage to mark that $2,000 item, right? Like, okay, we mark it up to $2,500. Why are we doing that?

Like, are we going to sell more or should we mark it down? Because then we'll sell more. But, you know, then we're going to lose margin on it, right? So there's a lot of just forecasting and just seeing like what's the market's doing right now. And how can we combat within that market and stuff. So that's the fun part. Just trying to read what's, you know, what's the demand right now and seeing how we perform. So do you have like a crystal ball or something that you guys like kind of consult when you have like super hard questions or just like what just read a lot of financial literature or how does that work into like forecasting that stuff?

Um, you typically do you'll have multiple scenarios. You have like a worst case scenario. A, you know, if we do the same thing, what's the scenario? And then we have like a really optimistic scenario. Right. We're like, we're just like, we're just. going to blow it out of the water, right? So yeah, you'll have, and then you'll actually communicate with your, like, the sales folks, right? I've talked to them quite a bit. I'm like, hey, if I am going to increase the MSRP or I'm going to try to get them to sell more, so generate more revenue, you're kind of talking to them about like, like, if they can really do it, right? And if you were to put these tasks onto them, like, what they think they, they can do and like what happens if you don't meet that number right um so yeah you're you're constantly ping ponging with uh with folks like i talk to the pms you know i talk to sales i talk to

marketing and seeing um you know you're just it's a really collaborative um project and uh so yeah everyone gets their own input but yeah we we eventually get to a number So you're saying that you're the one who's in charge or you're the person behind PCs not being free? Correct. Definitely not. Is there a world financially speaking where we could make PCs free and still survive as a company? What do you think? Is it possible?

We definitely have to sell other stuff then, right? Right. Because you heard you first. Buy everything else. Buy everything else, guys. And then we can make PCs free. That's your, that's the plan. Go first.

It'll be a bundle. It'll be like, you had to buy this product and then you get a box for free. All right. Cool, cool, cool. It's actually really interesting. I literally had no idea what you did in that respect. Because, you know, like, I mean, there's so many departments and there's so many people joining the company now. And like, I feel like we're getting, we're finally getting to the place where we don't have someone like,

Ivan Hood is like 50 million jobs, right? Like we're getting a lot more specialized and we have people whose sole job is just to think about these things, right? So it's like really, really kind of cool to hear like from as many people as we possibly can. So thank you for that. And I mean, if you guys in the chat have any questions about that in particular, feel free to ask them. No, we are, we do take community questions.

So please, you know, ask away or you know, ask about anything else. It's totally cool too. Mary, what is your favorite N-Z60 product? You know, I'm actually digging the cooler, the Z73. I'm digging that quite a bit. So I'm not that big of a fan of RGB. Oh, no. But it's pretty cool, man.

You know, having your gifts on it. It's pretty cool. Yeah. And like, you know, I joined the company. I did not know how to build a PC whatsoever, right? and like orientation they make you build one they're they're like here you go here are the parts and here's the instructions um good luck right and i was like oh my god how am i going to do this right and then i remember the instructions saying like to put your motherboard inside the case

before you do anything else right and i'm just like oh my god this is so this is so hard but yeah i eventually got someone else to build it for me But anyways, but yeah, like... Do you remember who that was? That was Eugene. Sorry, no, that was not Eugene. That was Ed. Ed came over, and he's like, he was, he saw me try to put the CPU, or sorry, the fan on top of the CPU.

And he's like, do you have thermal paste? I was like, what is that? I was never provided thermal pace. So I was like, I had no idea what I would do. Ed should know that our crackens come pre-applied thermal paste. So it's actually on him. Yeah. So.

You know that. Well, actually, I had another fan. I got the Cracken after I came back to the Bay Area. And our office had a spare Cracken. So I was able to put that in. And yeah, it was pretty, it was cool. The product is really nice itself. I've never, you know, I've only had like regular.

cooling fans before or I don't know what I had to be honest but yeah is an air cooler right? Yeah yeah so what is what is your least favorite NZC product least favorite

hmm you can be honest don't worry Johnny totally does not listen to the podcast which PMs do I want to piss off exactly My least favorite. Oh, God. What is that?

I don't know. I mean, I just haven't experienced all of them yet, right? Looks like we should hit up your boss long so you can get you. Oh, okay. Okay, I got my least favorite. Oh, okay. The gaming chair. Oh, really?

The park chair. So I don't really like gaming chairs. They're honestly uncomfortable to me. Um, yeah. There's actually Long's idea, so, um, we're going to allow them. No, it's funny. Like, I don't like gaming chairs either, but I find them super comfortable. I just hate the way they look.

Yeah, I think they're, I think they're really comfortable. I just don't like how they all look like a race car seat. Yeah, it's really bulky for sure. Um, my boyfriend had a DX racer. and he's like every time I like if I want to leave from my desk I have to walk by him right so depending you know depending how hard he's into his gaming right if he's like really into it his seat is right against the table so I can walk past by but if he's doing something that's more relaxing then it's in my way so so yeah we both upgraded to Herman Miller's so so Yeah, no longer having to deal with that now. Nice flex, nice flex. I know, right?

Must be nice, right? Yeah. Remember, Miller's are definitely, like, the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in. But they're so expensive, though. They are, but, I mean, think about how much time we actually spent sitting down in a chair, you know? Like, especially now working from home,

I'm probably sitting, like, 10, 12 hours a day at this point. Yep. So it's like, it's actually a really good office too, right? You're still steady most of the time. Well, actually, no, at the office, I have a standing desk, so I alternate. Like, whenever I don't. I do, whenever, whenever. I've never seen you stand at your standing desk, dude.

What are you talking about? Don't you lie to the podcast audience. Don't lie to me. I think I've ever seen you crank that thing up once. I also have a standing desk and long, long chewed me out on it. He's like, do you ever stand? I was like, no, the whole point of a standing desk for me is to actually get lower. Yeah, I'm going to post a video clip of me standing on my desk and it's to.

If this is at the old office, I don't believe you. Prove that you're in your line. This is the old office like, okay, how long it was this? This was in 2018. It is June 11th, 2020. I don't think I've ever seen you stand at your desk. dude. I don't believe you. This is before we even started the company, so

there's no way to. I do. I think the person's office who has the record for the most stand up and sit downs has to be Mike. Mike Newton. Because Andy Andy actually sits while he stands.

Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, no. I came to get back to the office. I can take more photos and videos. I think when I came to L.A., Ivan, you were standing. Yeah, that's what I mean. I don't know why Dennis is saying, I don't. I don't believe a lot. You're sitting. I don't know if you have a stand desk, though.

But yeah, you were city. I just like having that option, you know, like when I need it, it's there. But I don't stand on my desk every day. But, you know, when I feel like I need to stand, I do. Unless. All right, Mary. Last question. from me.

We have a lot more for you. The last question for me, what product would you like to see NXT make? A better chair. A better chair, man. Who actually, whose idea was it to have the chair, Ivan? Do you remember?

Yeah, so, you know, we're friends with the verdure guys and they have some branded chairs for, like, e-sports teams. And I don't know. know who kicked off the discussion of you know do you guys want an nt xt chair but um you know basically someone someone in that relationship i don't know who exactly um just started that discussion and we ended up making it all right cool nothing much more to say than that honestly

whoever that is get with mary she'll give you her tips on a better a better nzx t gaming chair actually would like to see us make a chair but like not brand one out. Like I actually like make our own and like Yeah, that'll be awesome. You know, like the best way for a gaming chair. If I had my choice, my ideal gaming chair would have the ability to remove the arms

that when I'm playing fighting games with my fight stick, my arms aren't like super cramped up and like stuck in like this little box. But that also might be like a very, a very niche requirement. So maybe it's not going to happen. Hold the arms up. My arms do not fold my friend on this one.

a $200 hibata from Amazon and I like it, but I also hate it very much. So I'm still not fond of the chair that I enjoy like 100%. Okay. Last question, Mary, do you have a special shout out for anybody in the company? Someone who deserves some love, some unspoken hero. Who do you want to give some love to? Some love to? Hmm.

I'm going to pick my company twin, Vivian. That's mainly because when I was... This was Vivian I was talking to the whole time. What? Yeah, so I was in a call, right? And they were like, wait, is this Vivian? I was like, no. Like, this is Mary.

And then you sound just like Vivian. And I was like, I've never talked to Vivian yet. You know, we've only slacked each other, but we've never had a voice chat or anything like that. So I actually don't know how she sounds like. But she has a Shiva as well. And she drives a Subaru. that's all I know about her.

Do you drive a Subaru as well? My boyfriend does. Everyone's driving Subaru these days. I'm looking at one of two a two a Subaru then. Well, yeah, when I went to, when I visit the office, the first thing was, dang, everyone has a Subaru here, right? Like, I took a phone. I record a video of all the Subaru's and I sent it to my boyfriend.

That's definitely Vivian's doing, I think, right? Yeah, Vivian. Yeah. I was actually So I don't want to get a new car Sorry I don't need to get a new car What do you have? I have a Honda

I have a 2012 Civic Which I love it's great right But I was like just looking around And I was looking at how terribly How terrible of an idea it would be To lease Tesla Model 3 And then it's a terrible idea But I was also like

I could just sew my car And lease this thing out It's only like Why do you need a car? $500 a month for the payment. Where do you need to drive? Everywhere, dude. I would drive just a drive.

It's nowhere to go. I can drive around here and Southern California. We're relatively safe, you know. Does this go down to the burger shop, in and out and whatnot? I bought two Subaru's because of Vivian. What do you have? I have a Subaru assent.

Oh, dang. he's a big money baller dude he doesn't show it but he's like a secret millionaire do you have kids I have a daughter oh how old she is 26 months oh okay

you have one child you have a seven-seater car 24 months yeah well we used to have before this car we had the the outback and like just putting her stroller and going grocery shopping, like the car was super packed.

So, and that's like their crossover SUV. So when the lease was up for that, we were looking at the other SUVs, we just decided to get the biggest one they had. Because, yeah, like Dennis says, she's a big kid. Like me and my wife are, like, we're both like six feet tall. So our daughter is like really, really big. You need a big car

And now, even though it's a seven-seater We just keep the last row Down, so it's really only a four-seater With a bunch of storage, that's all it is Nice She's gonna be taller than me in like a year I bet Yeah, dude, she's a giant

She's like, she's in like 99 point something Percentau for her height It's pretty crazy When she was born, how long was she? She was Why are you putting me on the spot? two 2070 super's back to back She's like 23 inches long

I think she was I think she was 21 inches long Okay And she weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces Oh dang Right now she's like 30 Like 38 or 39 inches long or something like that Oh Yeah she's pretty tall

Yeah She's as tall as her three year old cousins. Jesus. Yeah. So does that mean that you're going to put her in sports when she gets older? I'm teaching her baseball right now, but she's not really interested. Yeah, my brother was a tall one.

He's six foot three. I'm five foot three. Sure. Ivan, you want to go ahead and move on and ask your questions, my friend? Do I? Do you? Yes. Mary, what we do here is we go through and we do a deep dive into the guest here.

So we're going to ask you some questions and try to act surprised. So, you know, earlier you mentioned that you had this really interesting, quote unquote, weird interview process because there was so many people. And, yeah, like one of the things we do at NZXT is we do this, like, we do this, like, we. not only an interview process, but before the whole quarantine hit, we had started this onboarding thing where we were going to do presentations from different departments to new hires so people could like learn about the community team, social media team, you know, the operations team, the PR team, et cetera. Yep.

And I only got to do that one time because they literally told me, I think January 1st, like, hey, you know, starting this year, we're going to do these presentations for new hire, so please put something together. And here's the first group, and it was you. You were part of that group. Yes. Are you looking for feedback? Yeah, my question.

I just wanted to set up the questions of other, so the listeners would know what the heck I'm talking about. But yeah, like what was your thought about the community and social media presentation? That was great. You know, I've never, just my first company. where community is such a big deal, right? And yeah, it was really cool about like, it was really cool learning of all like kind of the thresholds, right? Like, oh, like this, you know, you join Discord, you become like NZXT fan

and then you can become a super fan and whatnot. You kind of get these prizes along the way, right? Like I thought that was a really cool way of getting folks to be engaged. Yeah, I mean, like in terms of. like other brands, I really don't see anyone really reaching out to their community like we do. And in a way, I kind of see us like, you know, the Wenney's equivalent of, you know, the PC gaming industry, right? Like Wendy's with the Twitter. Arcades are square, like they're patties.

Yeah, yeah. So speaking of joining the Discord server, I noticed this morning that you were not a member of this Discord server. And when asked about it, you said that you were in the server, but you decided to quit right away because you didn't like the rules. Can you explain why you did not like the rule? It's because I can't curse and I curse a lot. Is that why your last name is a naughty word? Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

So let me tell you a quick story. So for the viewers, for the listeners, I am Vietnamese. That is where my last name originated from. So I went to a primarily Caucasian elementary school, and these kids would come up to me and say, your last name's a bad word, right? And I was so confused Because I was like

I never hear anyone say like Dang it, right? You know? Like they say other words They are way worse, right? You were born to say bad words? Yeah, I mean actually So what's really great now is

You know, when people ask me to spell my last name I'm just like, I don't mean say D-A-N-G I'm just like, dang it like dang and dang it. So, and then they get it, right? And it's also a way for me to correct them because one thing that, you know, with going to school and whatnot, people will see your last name,

question that's really how you pronounce it and then pronounce it incorrectly by changing a vowel because they think that's like the Asian way of saying it. And it's like, no, it's just dang. Yeah. So, so, yeah, like I'll get, got like dong. I'm like, there's no O in there or like, gang or with an E. I'm like, there's just no. Yeah. I've had boom before. I was like, what? No.

So Fong on the team for a bit and his name was spelled F-A-N-G and I always see it. And like I had to do this like weird like gymnastics in my brain. Like it's not fang, it's fong. So that's probably why, right? It's like different different languages pronounce that A like way differently. Yeah, for sure. Speaking of names, a name that was brought up earlier is the name Long, your boss. And Dennis asked you what it was like working with him. But I was wondering, has Long ever gotten short with you? Yeah. Yeah, you know, I wasn't doing things fast enough.

And he was, you know, we just got on a call and he said, okay, you need to do this and this. And yeah, so it's fine. I can handle criticism, so yeah, I don't mind that. And yeah, I was definitely going slow. So are you keeping in Oakland now? No. I don't even know what that means. So you want to what that means.

You should add wrong with that means because that's, Long only has one sticker on his computer, and you would think it's like an NZT sticker, but he only has one sticker on his laptop, and it literally says, keep it Oakland. I have no idea what it means. But like he he rocks that that sticker and that phrase on his laptop. So I think you should ask your boss what that means. I'll pink him right now. I'm like, hey long, are you keeping to Oakland and see what he says. While you do that,

my next question for you is regarding this whole Vivian thing, I know, never really thought about it. You guys are, I guess, a little similar, especially when it comes with the dogs. You know, I feel like the Subaru is the official car of NZXT, then the Shiba Inu is definitely the official dog. So what makes Shiba Inu's such great dogs? I never said they were great. Don't say you really feel. But no, basically, my boyfriend

and I got a Shiva because I wanted a dog that can you know that's really outgoing outdoorsy okay maybe not outgoing but just really outdoorsy and high energy and he wanted a cat and I was like I don't want a cat exact opposite

so I was like we're going to get a dog that's like a cat and that was a Shiva right and so yeah my dog I've had him since March of 2019. He was definitely the worst and the best decision I made in

2019. Yeah, when I got him at eight weeks and I was like, you know, and then you, they can't do anything, right? Because they haven't gotten all their shots yet. And it takes another two months for that for them to get all their shots

and be ready for the outdoors. Right. So I was really bored. Like this dog was not that entertaining to me. He was really cute, but in terms of like just being stuck at home and like trying to nurture this dog and like keep him alive, I was like, man, this really sucks. But then when he did get sick, um, when he got sick, I thought I was a failure, right? I was like, oh my God. Like, why is this dog throwing up? I'm so confused. Oh, no. Like, what do I do?

And then like, I was like, I'm going to take him to the vet. right and my boy just like chill out like he's okay you know and I'm just like no we got to take him to the vet okay so I spent a lot of money for no reason at the vet that's not a very good financial decision but yeah I mean I have pet insurance so so it wasn't too bad but but yeah like there's a lot of like panicking moments and I think there's just one day where I just broke down crying because I was just like, I can't keep this talk you alive, right? It's not going to hit his one year mark, right? So I guess the answer is that Shiba Innu's are not so great. I mean, yeah, my Shiba is, I'm quite lucky with my Shiba, honestly. He's gotten better as he

gotten older. He is really affectionate, which is quite rare. He always wants to sleep with us. And if he feels like it's too hot, then he'll just leave the bed. But yeah, he does what he wants. And he wants to sleep in between my boyfriend and I and curl up into a ball, right? We sleep on a full-sized bed, so not a lot of room. But, you know, it's pretty cute to have him there anyways. He can, he's really athletic. And he's a quick learner.

So during our puppy training sessions, like I thought I was the best trainer in my room. Like honestly, I was like, oh my gosh, my dog is listening to me. He's not like, you know, he wasn't marking anything at that time. So like, you know, he wasn't like peeing on the ground, peeing on the cones or anything. He wasn't making myself look like a fool, right? I was like, yes. And he was always the demo dog, which I was. so proud of.

But yeah, but yeah, he's just, but he's, you know, he's really smart. And sometimes that's a, that can be a con,

right? Like he, I tell him to do something. He's like, I don't have to do that. Right? He's like, no,

I'm good. And he just walks away. I'm like, what? Man, I don't like these dogs anymore. But he's very cute. I mean,

he can walk for hours, for miles. Like, Like every Sunday we go on at least a six-mile walk. Wow. Shiba's from what you here are like very smart and very energetic. So if you don't keep them occupied, they just start like destroying everything. Yep, he destroyed four pairs of my shoes.

Yeah, yeah. He takes my, we have a front yard that he can just go out, run out of. And what he does, he takes my like, my clothing and he'll just drag it with him outside. I'm just like, why? Has you ever chewed with your keyboards? What about my keyboards? No way, no. He cannot reach them.

So, yeah, you're really into keyboards. How many keyboards do you own? Let's see. There you go. Five, six, six, six, six, eight. This is what I actually asked you on, just to talk about keyboards all day. I have eight right now.

What? She has one keyboard for each finger. I have a lot more coming soon. Yeah. What do you do with all these keyboards? They're mainly just on display, but I do swap out my keyboards quite often. You know, depending on what I'm doing. So when I'm working, I typically need at least a 10,

10 keyless or sometimes a full size if I really need to just punch in actuals and not do anything formula driven. But yeah, I need a 10 key list at least because I use the function keys in Excel quite often. And then when I'm playing games, I typically drop down to a 60 or 65 percent keyboard just because it's smaller, your hands are closer to each other and whatnot. And yeah, sometimes I just, you know, just swap it out because I'm having board with the current, I'm bored with the current keyboard, so I just want to type on something new. And how much money have you spent on all your keyboards combined? Think like $4,000.

What? I think it's like $400 or something like that. $4,000, Jesus. No, a budget keyboard is actually going to... $400 will get you a budget custom keyboard in this kind of hobby. I paid like $150 for my GMMK. I don't know how you get up to $400. I can't imagine how that works.

Like, what? Yeah, the board I have right now that I'm using currently is $300 just for the case. And then for the switches, it varies between 50 cents per switch to $1.20. And then key caps are, the key caps that I buy are typically $100 for the set. So right there, that's like around 40, 80%, that's probably like going to hit you $460. So what you're saying is Dennis's keyboard is trash. That's what I'm hearing to, yeah. No.

It's a starting keyboard. Everyone has to start somewhere. Speaking of starting somewhere, now that you're in the Discord server, will you start checking out our keyboards channel? I think that was the first thing I did when I joined. Cool. And then I opt out because I was like, I can't curse in this channel. Just post pictures of your keyboards.

Yeah, for sure, I can. Should. Just do one a day. One a day. But I only have eight. I'm only good for eight photos. Do a different angles. Just do how we do on Instagram.

So another thing that I found out about you is you have a hobby that our former intern also like to partake in, which is rock climbing. How do you get into that? How often do you do it? Yeah. So rock climbing. So I played sports. whole life and then gosh you guys are gonna so like this chat is gonna go insane um so growing up I played competitive ping pong I used to travel for it I played in a bunch of tournaments

a year I had a whole rating and whatnot and then when I got into high school I started playing tennis for the team and I also swam and I also did a bit of soccer Not for a long though, because fall seasons typically when ping pong is really hot during that time. So I couldn't do both. And then, yeah, in college I got to play collegiate tennis and swimming. And that's probably when ping pong died down for me just because our college didn't have a competitive ping pong team. Can we please spam some ping pongs in the chat, please, for marriage? that's amazing.

Competitive ping pong, like from what I've seen is really, looks like really hard. It's fun. It's really fast-paced. I mean, the greatest thing about ping pong over tennis is like you don't have to chase the ball as long, you know? Like if you hit the tennis ball, it goes over the, you know, goes over the fence. You're like, dang it, right? And like our fence is this little barrier that's like, you know, your hip height. So you just jump over it.

But with like tennis, you have to like locate the door, get out of the door, and then locate your ball. Right. So it's funny that you say ping pong and bring up tennis because I'm actually looking into a sport that apparently is like a hybrid of those two. and it's like the fastest growing sport in the United States right now. What is it? Have you ever heard of pickleball? Oh, yes, definitely. Yeah.

Yeah. I was talking about. Look at pickleball is like literally a combination of ping pong and tennis, right? Would you agree, Mary? Kind of? Kind of, I guess. Well, at least that's what, like, from my understanding when I see it, It's just like a really short and quick, fast-paced type of tennis, right?

Yeah, yep. So, yeah, I've been thinking of setting up a pickleball court at my house. I think after this conversation, I think I will. You might just do that. Nice. Yeah, so. No, I have not. But I used to play badminton.

Another fast-paced game. It's pretty fun. Same thing. Yes, rackets sports are the same. same thing. So how did that lead into rock climbing? Yeah, so, you know, was played sports my entire life. And then I was watching, so this is a real story here.

I was watching American Ninja Warrior. And to participate or to at least do well in American Ninja Warrior, you have to climb. So, yeah, just joined a gym. I just was like, okay, I'm going to climb. not really had the attention to join American Ninja Warrior, but wanted to like understand. Like I've always had a weak upper body. So and I was, I think I was a week at the time.

And, you know, I was hiking a lot. But yet, I was pretty much it. But in terms of like, I couldn't do a pull-up yet. And then when I started rock climbing, it was developing muscles where, you know, I wasn't using while I was weightlifting. So, you know, shortly, I think like a month in I started to do pull-ups.

And yeah, so never gone to American Ninja Warrior but lost a ton of weight. So that means I can eat anything I want now. That's the path I chose, right? Like, do you want to join American Ninja Warrior and, like, you know, not eat that great of food that the world has to offer you? Or do you just eat anything you want? And I was like, yes, I'm going to choose that fat. right um so so yeah but now i'm in this now i'm stuck right i have to keep climbing because i'm

still like whatever i ever um have you ever worked out with long because his biceps are as big as my thighs no i've never worked out with long no he has the biggest arms right no i'm a to long you said that you know it's funny um i tell him all the time i tell him all the room to compare. I really want to see who has the bigger arms. I think he's probably Jerome. I feel like Jerome might have bigger arms, but long

is more defined like a bodybuilder. I can see Long like oiling up and like posing. Yeah, so when I met Long so I, you know, on his LinkedIn photo, I was like, okay, yeah, like this is

what I should be expecting to see, right? Meat long. I met long and I was like, you look nothing like your photo. So his photo on LinkedIn when he was a bodybuilder or when he was lifting weights, not a bodybuilder, when he was lifting weights quite often.

And then now he actually cut back down. He's no longer lifting too much weight. And so he's actually much skinnier now. But yeah, I tell him all the time, I was like, change your photo. Like, you don't look like that anymore. It's false advertime. His neck is much thinner now.

It's not as thick. You've got a thin baby neck now. Is that what you're saying? You're pretty fit. So who would win a fight? You or Vivian? I don't know. Does Vivian work out?

I'm not sure. A lot of you have to ask that question. Oof. No. Vivian's working out right now, I think. I used to participate. in kickboxing, but maybe Vimeon will win anyways. I would pay to watch that fight.

I could definitely just, you know, climb up a wall and avoid her, though. We should do it as when we get back to the office, we should just make like a fighting ring with all the Subaru's parked around in a circle and then you didn't get me in the middle, just going at it. with your with your with your with your two like in our choir and barking well shebas are really

talkative whenever my Shiba gets with another Shiba they just talk the entire time they look like they're arguing but they're actually just having a conversation so our Shivas if they got if we got them together we'll probably just chat

I I think you know you are definitely really fit, but I would have to put my money on Vivian in a fight just because her brother is named after a Mortal Kombat character. I'd just be scared that her brother would come in and, like, defend her on her or something, if you heard her. Yeah, my brother wouldn't do that for me.

She's an tagging in like a Marvel character or something. All right. My last question for you here is, So before I asked it, I'm going to kind of set this up. So Dennis and I, or Dennis actually the day told me, he's like, hey, man, I just wanted you know, I got out of debt and I feel really good about it. I'm dead free finally. And I'm glad. Congrats.

You know, that's an awesome feeling. What's your credit score? And his credit score was higher than mine. And I thought mine was really high. So I was going to ask you, you can get it. You asked me for mine. No, no, you don't have to tell us. But some opinions on our credit scores and then some financial advice for us of what to spend money on.

Like what should we be buying right now? Cool. I don't provide investing. Right? Like that's mainly just because like my portfolio is based on, you know, basically I'm really risky with my portfolio just because I'm young. $8,000 in keyboards is not risky, young lady. Well, yeah. No, I could always go more, right?

You know, I'm surprised with the keyboards. They don't lose value. So if I need, I've sold some keyboards and I made more or broke even. Yeah. But anyways, yeah, so credit. I guess something to invest in. Maybe how about some general financial advice for the listener? You know, we have a lot of young listeners here who might be.

Oh, yeah, there's definitely one myth I want to debunk. I feel like this myth is just setting up, you know, setting up credit users really poorly. So the myth is you need to carry a little bit of your balance. over so that you can get charged interest so that it can help out your credit. That is totally incorrect. So what you need to do instead is like, yes, if you can, pay off your debt, right? Pay off your credit cards to fully, right? Don't incur any interest in it. But what you need to do, so let's say you so in June, you spend $1,000 of credit, right? And then instead of

paying that thousand within the same month of June, what you want is that you actually want it to have it posted, right? So once in July, when it's like, okay, you spent a thousand in June, you need to pay that thousand or pay this minimum in, you know, your monthly, whatever, you're in July, right? Like, so you pay it all off. So that's when you pay it all off. But don't pay it off before it's been recorded. Because those, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, thousand will actually hit at the end of the month or whatever the end of the cycle will actually hit your three credit um like trans union um whatever um yeah we'll actually like give them the report like yeah you spend a thousand um during this month of credit um and then after that's been

done like once when it gets posted that's when you pay off the debt um but yeah don't don't carry a balance if you don't have to because then you're just paying interest for no reason, right? You're just giving money. But yeah, but yeah, that's definitely a myth that I wanted to, you know, address because, you know, folks, I get this question a lot from folks who are trying to build their credit and whatnot. And it's like, oh, yeah, like, I heard that you're supposed to carry, you're supposed to get charged interest. I'm like, no, like, don't. Like, that's what they want you to think, right? That's what the man wants you to think, right? Yeah, like, if you're, because credit card interest can range from like 16 to you know 25 um yeah like no that's just free money you know um

so yeah um that's definitely one thing to do you know if you can't pay off your debt try to do as quickly as you can um take advantage if your employer is matching right the 401k matching um you know take advantage of that. Yeah, like my last company, they didn't offer matching and I actually had some debt outstanding. So this is kind of bad financial advice, but it's because I knew I was going to get through it. I was going to be fine.

So, like, instead of participating in their 401K because they weren't offering matching, I was like, why would I put in money now with no benefits, right? When I could just take the money now, and just pay off my debt as fast as possible, right? So that's what I did. And yeah. And then recently I just inquired a new debt because I got a new car.

But yeah. Should you buy a car? Oh. I drive way more. I drive too much. So with climbing, let's see yearly I drive about 18,000 miles a year. So I would, what ends up happening is like if I did lease a car, I think their maximum per year is 15,000.

I would definitely have not made it, right? And then what happens that at the end the year, sorry, at the end the lease, you end up paying a little bit more, right? Because you incurred additional miles. So I personally buy all my cars. I only have one at the moment. This is my second car I've ever bought. My first car was a 2012 corolla that I abused, right? And yes, now I have a Ravre 4 that I'm currently financing.

When are you going to trade that in for a Subaru? Why did not choose a Subaru? Because Suez have no hybrid options. You're not Vivian. No, actually, yeah. My Subaru is not a hybrid, but it's one of these, like, energy efficient type of things. I don't know exactly how it works, but it gets really good. It has a green button on it, so it means it's good.

It gets a really good gas mileage. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was actually looking at the Outback Turbo versus the Raff4 hybrid, when I was shopping. And, yeah, I mean, I just chose a hybrid just because it was around the same pricing, and it just gets better mileage. That's pretty much it. I guess you're not like Vivian then after all.

No, but not. But the thing is, like, my boyfriend already has a WRRX. So it's not like I don't have a Subaru around me. And that's all that matters. Yep. All right. Someone incurs all the Subaru costs, right, and not me. That wraps up all the questions I had on my list.

Dennis, do you want to start going through the community questions? I do. I do. So, unfortunately, we can't do this one, but Vivian does want to compare voices one day because we can't just add her into the recording software. But I feel like you and Vivian really need to have a call. And maybe we can set something up on. on Slack where we just at everyone, hey, we found Vivian's twin hop in this Slack call.

And we can decide once and for all with the vote if Vivian and Mary do sound the same. So Vivian, I'll put that on you to set that up. Just let us know when you're ready and then we'll do it. Just throw her a task on this. Dang, with all these listeners here. The pencil wants to know who is your favorite admin on the server? admin I'm not sure if you would know that if you left the server as you joined it

but if you haven't answered it cool didn't we just hire someone that came from this this discord she could be my favorite I don't know would it just be you do I just pick one of you guys then who do you like more Dennis or Ivan who do I like more

I think I like Dennis more Because when I love to my financials, I don't think we charge anything under Dennis's name But we'd have charged stuff under Ivy I've seen Ivitz name off the other before That's true I haven't be spending money I save the company money

All right Vibe wants to know What is your favorite spice? Spice Yeah spice Your favorite spice I'm a big fan of paprika myself I don't about you guys

spice salt I'm like white pepper because it's it's spicier than the black one just more favorite favorite spice my favorite sauce is just fish sauce

my favorite spice does syracia count I think Not really. It's more of a sauce. Then I would say tahine. Did that count? I think that works, right?

Yeah. Spice is just a powder form, right? I'm not actually sure. Someone wrote up the definition of like, like the actual definition of spice. Because I don't know that. Either day my wife made some fresh cucumber water and then put some tahine on the room.

Oh, dang. She was glass. I mean, that was awesome. They hit the spot with no AC, right? Yeah, no AC and it's 100 degrees. Yeah. Yeah, it's got really hot, dude. It's the worst.

It's like 95. I hate it. Dang. I like, yeah, I've been trying to go on walks every day because, like, I'm not a very active person to begin with, but now that I'm, like, home all the time, I'm, like, wayless active, so I go on the multiple walks a day. And yesterday I walked out.

All right, trying to go out for my walk, right? Didn't even check the weather. because I don't do that, right? I'm not an old man. I don't check the weather. I go outside and see what it's like. Sunglasses on, right? Come my hat on.

Walk out. Two seconds. Immediately turn around and I might forget this. Not doing it. Not doing it. Way too hot. Okay. Next question is from Pog.

How does it feel like working for a big company like NZXT? I don't think NZXT is very big. Yeah, I don't think we're going to be honest. Yeah, we're definitely. We're definitely. We're big on TV. Definitely. run pretty lean, especially with the revenue that we're generating, honestly.

Yeah, I don't think we're a big team. I think we need to grow. We definitely need to grow. There's just some team set. So anyone who is a data scientist or, you know, we actually have a position open. It doesn't matter where you are at. Veroon is hiring someone that has like two years of experience. Do you really think there are scientists listening to this?

podcast right now. If you know SQL, let me know, right? Let me try to get that. I don't know we do this, but do we do like employee referral programs, but yeah, let me know. You do. I don't know. I mean, you guys, but if you have two years

of experience in SQL, let me know. So, so yeah, we, our team needs to grow, our company needs to grow. There are just folks that have their hands in everything, and we really need to get folks to be kind of focus in some stuff, right? Because you're getting to this point where you're kind of stretched thin and you don't

know, like someone's like, hey, this is high priority. But to you, maybe it's not high priority because you have some other stuff. Right. So, yeah, like, yeah, I definitely think the company can definitely use more heads. I think we're also hiring Cam engineer too, I believe, or an engineer, I'm assuming is for can. At least I don't know what else we're working on that would require software. maybe crack and stuff, I don't know.

But yeah, n60.com slash careers. Check it out. We have a lot of positions available all over the world because we have, you know, marketing teams everywhere as well and stuff like that. So check it out. Next is from Ellen. If NZXT made another keyboard collab

because we used to, we had to collab with with Duckie for context, what would you want the setup to be? Get me a really nice 75%. that has spacers. So what I mean by spacers is, like, I want the arrow keys to be, to kind of be separate, right? Like, I don't want it to have all a continuous line of keys, like the key cron or most 75% that are readily available. But yeah, like, in a high profile case, I'm not too big on the low profile. I know they're better when it comes to

RGB lighting, but high profile really helps the sound. So, yeah, it just makes it a little bit more thawkier instead of a ping. All right.

I understood maybe half of that. I bought my GMMK. I'm like, I'm pretty basic and I'm a boomer. So I literally bought a full keyboard because the week before I haven't had me doing Instagram analytics and the only way to do it, to be honest, is just staring at the app and

hitting on the 10 key. So I just, yeah, I opted to buy the full keyboard. But I kind of want to buy like one without a 10 key now. Yeah. So I could fit it on my desk better. But I hate swapping things out, right?

Like I'm really lazy. Once things are on my desk, I don't want to take them off. So I think I'm going to stay with what I got. But I don't know. I feel like there's a lot. what's left with the 10 key? Why do people want to get rid the 10 key so bad?

Oh, people love the 10 key. I think the 10 key is the easiest layout for people to, typically the first layout that people move off to from a full size. Right? You're just chopping off the numpad,

basically, right? And a lot of people don't use that because they're not in spreadsheets or they don't need to punch in numbers. Yeah, but, you know, for FPS gaming, A lot of people are getting into the 60 and 65% because they don't need function keys, right? So the folks who are playing games that requires function keys are typically the ones that are going to be using either a 10 key list or a full-size board.

And in the keyboard community, a 10 key list is the most popular layout. That's a shame. Oh, by the way, I got that Keep It Oakland thing. from Long. He's like, if you're really asking, keep it Oakland is just a local brand that revolves around love and service for the Oakland community. That's a very long answer. The way you said it too, if you're really asking, he's already fed up with the question.

If you're seriously asking, this is what it is. You should change your Slack status to keep it Oakland. Yeah. Just for long, right? Yeah, just for long. Okay, Pog wants to know, if you could get Pucci to go somewhere with you, where would you take him? Take him up on the mountain with me. I'm going to Yosemite at the end of this month.

So send me a Pucci, man. Yeah, you can get like day permits. I saw me this morning that they opened up and I was actually, I told my wife, huh? We should really go. I feel like we need to get out of this house. Yeah. I feel like travels and explode once things start opening up again. But from what I'm from hearing, this is going to be like another huge wave coming soon, right?

So I'm kind of like in that mode where I got to hunker down again, I think. Yeah. I'm trying to get sick. Definitely. No one's trying to get sick. Luca wants to know what social media do you prefer? Instagram. Yeah.

That's it. A real big bang of Zinga. I like Zinga a lot. I'm trying to revive it right now. It's like trying to revive MySpace. Some folks wanted, like some of my friends wanted to go back to MySpace because you can, you know, put your own music there, right? And then, like, when you get on their page and music plays and stuff. That was the most annoying part of it, though.

Yeah, right? You just, like, want to mute that. as soon as possible. What's really annoying is when you like a song, but the title is incorrect, right? It's like some kind of like, I don't know, it was just something else, right? And you're just like, I cannot find the song. Shazam was not available during those times. So you had no idea what you were listening to. So you were forced to coming back to this page and hoping that they don't update it. Right. Let's see here. I'm trying to find questions that we haven't already answered. Rat King wants to know, do you find that the positive culture for NCXT allows the finance department to have a bit more freedom to make decisions for the company?

Oh, definitely. Yep, definitely. We do a lot of our decision making. It's like sometimes, yeah, we can save money, but will it make our users happy? Will it make our customers happy? Or will it even make our team members happy? If the answer is no, we're not going to do it. right um yeah community is actually a big topic uh whenever we make decisions all right um let me see here

i lost the page i'll be a second okay um pencil what's your favorite pc brand after nzxte it's a trick question like microsoft that's pretty cool like Microsoft um well um well can it be like components sure that goes into the PC okay I'm going to say Intel because I'm from Portland, Oregon

and that's where is that so my dad used to work for Intel so I grew up basically you know with all the other Intel kids How could you be from Portland Oregon and you don't drive a Subaru You know

Subarus are not cheap in Portland because they will never give a discount because they know they can just sell it. Okay, I'm, you know, I'm trying to get the best deal, man. Yeah, like I told that to Dennis one time that everyone in Portland drives a Subaru. He doesn't believe me, but it's true, right? They definitely do.

They all drive one. Yeah. It's so weird to me. They're like one city just drives one type of car. Like, I don't, it doesn't make sense to me. My wife wants to live to Portland. She loves it up there. Oh, really?

Yeah. It's pricey's heck up there, though. Definitely not pricier than in LA. Yeah, it's not too bad. Depending where you live, right? Yeah, but there's no sales tax. That was actually one thing that was pretty hard for me to get used to when I moved to. Actually, you know how when you go to a restaurant here and sometimes you get the total amount, including tax on your

receipt, your bill. And then you, so my mistake was I would tip on top of the total amount, right? And then I was like, China, I'm like tipping on like tax. So now I like really try to make sure that I'm like, okay, I'm trying to like not include tax when I tip. Because just drives. It's a very financial analyst thing to do. I just, I just tip a flower. Yeah, they went. Yeah, when they you the three numbers, right? Like, if you went 15, 20, 25, yeah. I just look at the tax and if they do a decent job, I double it and if you do a really good job, I triple it. And that's the tip. Well, then you also get like, so where I live, you get hit with tax and then you also get hit with this wildness number, like, yeah, basically your, it's like, wildness. It's like,

wellness for the employees. Shouldn't the employer pay wellness for their employees? I shouldn't have to front that money. Yeah. All right. Two more questions. One from Cram Dealer. Do you plan on staying at NZXT for the rest of your career?

The rest of my career? This is a lot too long, man. I don't know. That'll be like 40 years with the company. if I'm like getting to retirement age is at 65 right like that's way too long see if I'm going to be in the podcast in 20 years but definitely I do plan on staying you know for at least three years um all right guys call it right now hashtag or exclamation point remind me three years is mary still at the company let's see what happens and what my position is by that time right ooh who

do you think you'll you'll get up to for sure taking long's job right not within three years i don't think i mean you know game of thrones is a thing right i'm sure you can make it happen right i'll probably be you know mangerial role by that time all right last question is from vibe do you play games and if so which games do you play yeah um currently i am playing final fantasy 14 online And I am also playing auto chess on Dota 2. Really? Not TFT. No.

So I played auto chess before TFT came out. And then I started, you know, I played TFT. And then I also played, you know, Dota's underlords, right? That was, yeah. But auto chess has my heart. Okay, okay. I was going to say I tried to play both of those games

and I did not enjoy either of them TFT or Outer Chess or the what's the one? Underlord. Underlord. Yeah. Some of that. Yeah.

And it's like I I played each of them. I won one game each. And I was like, okay, cool. I won. It didn't feel good. It was like, okay, cool. I won. I didn't really know what I was doing and it wasn't very satisfying so I just I just quit.

I was like all right we know like I give it a good try took me like 20 games to win one game I don't feel like you really learned much. What kind of style of games do you like playing? I play a lot of shooters. I'm a little bit of shooters. I grew up like playing Doom and like Battlefield and CS 1.6 stuff like that. So that's kind of where my foundation is. But I also really love playing fighting games as well.

so. Oh, no. Which ones? I, too many. I pretty much buy every single one, but I don't play very many of them. So, like, I put a lot of time to Street Fighter. I think I have, like, three hours, 300 hours into that, which really isn't a whole lot, considering, like,

how much time people actually put into it. Yeah. Like, MK11, obviously, Grand Blue. I played, like, three hours of Tekken and, like, this game's super hard, so I didn't. Do you play in tournaments, too? I do. I used to go to Evo every year. I don't, I don't play.

place very high, but I'm what you would call a gatekeeper. So basically when you go to a fighting game tournament that set up brackets, right? And like you know, like however many, you know, what do you call like a, I don't know. So anyway, I'm playing brackets. And

I usually don't get past the first like round, right? But I will prevent other people from from progressing. Yeah. If that makes sense. Okay. So again around Robin of like four people, you're kind of a person that's, that, um, like, since you want to, like,

typically one person advanced, right? Is that how it is? So, so, uh, the way that finding game brackets work are double elimination. So for example, if it's like, uh, it's like a 64 person bracket, right? Um, it'll go from the full 64 people to, I believe 32 then to 16 and then from 16 to 8, right? So kind of like, you know, halves everybody down. So, so I will never get past the. initial 64 person bracket, but I'll beat some people up and maybe get close to getting through it. And to me, that's good enough, right? Like, as long as I can gatekeep the newbies, I'm totally cool with that. So that's kind of where I stand. I'm not really the kind of person who, like, wants to be like the best at anything. I just like playing a lot of things. So

as soon, like, I like being competent, but not like being like super pro. It's kind of like, how I live my entire life. I'm not great at anything. I'm good at a lot of things. Yeah. That's how it's how it is. Do you have a custom fight stick? Not a custom one, but I have a Horry fighting edge. I did have a custom one. Yeah, I thought you did. Well, I do.

I just don't use it anymore. It's also stuck in the office. He has a custom fight stick with cherry switches on it. Yeah, it's cherry reds in it. It feels very, very weird. But it was, I think who was it? Nicole, our old people ops person broke it. Oh, no.

because we were having like a fight, we were having like a game night in the office. And she was like smacking the heck out of the heavy kick button. And it sticks really bad now. So I don't know if she broke it or what. But I think getting all. Disassemble and see what's going on. Because you can always replace the switches.

Yeah, yeah. It shouldn't be that hard. It just didn't have a chance to really get into there. But I think to get all the buttons in there. And it's only eight buttons. So it was the switches with the little button tops on it, whatever you call it. I think it was about like 70 bucks to get that done, which is like a huge, huge markup on it. But like when I get my sticks modded, I'll go to like an event and just have like the people who set up booths there to do it for me.

One because, you know, because I'm lazy, but also because, you know, you kind of supporting the community in that way. So yeah. I think I think next one I do. I have a bunch of my box whites for when I built my keyboard. So I think I'm going to just have them throw those in there and see what they can do. Nice. Yeah. Games are great.

I like video games. Ivan, what are you playing right now? It's talking about me. You already know what it is? Wait, what are you playing? Super Mega Baseball 3. I have never heard about it. Wow.

You should listen to two podcasts ago. We go into a lot of detail with Andy, the Andy episode. You should definitely listen to the Andy episode. Andy, these episodes are always great. It's just a really fun arcade-style baseball game, but that's also a little realistic at the same time. Surprisingly deep, right? Yeah.

Besides that, I like to play a lot of platformer games. You know, like my favorite game of all time is Super Mario Brothers 3. I'm an old guy. I also like playing like Tetris. A lot of single player games. Star Wars pinball on the Switch. Star Wars pinball. I'm really excited for Last of Us Part 2.

I've been waiting for that game for a long time now. Are you going to play it on PS4 or wait until PS5 drops? PS4. I mean, I have a PS4 right now. for right now. I actually played last of us, the first one on a PS3. So yeah, I'll just,

because I really want to play the game, I've been waiting for a really long time. I'm not going to wait for another system to drop before I play the game, you know? We might as well just play it as soon as possible. Plus, if I don't play it, then my boyfriend plays it, then it'll just spoil, right?

When I, then I start playing it. And I don't want that. All right. Can I go ahead and wrap it up here, folks? We have our community Roundup, which I don't have pulled up because I am never prepared for anything. Okay, so number one, setup of the week goes to Lucas. Congratulations on your really cool looking setup. I actually noticed that he posted this set up twice, but with different lighting and the one with the better lighting one.

So pro tip folks, get good lighting for your setup photos. get those gamer lights going and you'll you'll probably win a wallpaper of the week we have not announced yet so congratulations to Kili 3417

I looked at it earlier today so congrats to them for the really awesome one paper I think I actually have it pulled up somewhere on one of these things here we go this one right here

I'm throwing the chat and it'll definitely be the podcast right for this week because it fits perfectly with the way that we do our our podcast art for Spotify and SoundCloud. So that's really, really cool.

Congratulations to him or them. Me out here assuming things for that. Where is the thing? I just close it again. And we do have a new topic of the month channel, which is art. So go ahead and talk about your art there, post your art. I know people have been asking for an art channel for a while. So make good use of it.

Obviously, if it's popular enough, we'll keep a lot. around just like the keyboard channel you know we want to make sure that you guys get what you want in the server but you got to show us that you need it right um also a quick little kind of a well i don't say quick but it's kind of a i would say it's a big announcement right um so we have officially sunsetted tiggy bot um i know people have been talking about that and and that and asking about that basically long story short we just wanted a bot that we could have consistent work on and uh you know as much as we love tigy he's a very busy person and works a lot and we didn't want to, you know, basically ask too much of him, right, Ivan?

I think it's kind of like what the ultimate, like kind of reasoning behind that was. If you want to speak a little bit more on that. Yeah, you know, it was just we wanted to put in another, another body here that we can keep building on. Yep. And, you know, so as always, guys, give all your love to TIGI. You know, he did an amazing job for the community and, you know, we still love him and hold them in super high regard, you know, so, you know, no sort of feelings whatsoever.

I have seen stuff in the general chat. So, you know, let's keep it positive, guys. You know, Tiki's still here. You know, we still talk to him. He's a great dude. He's a homie. Look forward to the NZXT bot, which I think you might have to rename because I think, I think it also, like, when people try to tag it, some weird things happen.

So, you know, if you guys are having any issues with the bot, in terms of tagging or anything like that or have any suggestions for features, you know, feel free to let one of the admins or the mods know, and we'll, we'll collect that. See, I thought, I thought, a Pucci bot, but I don't know if he wanted to name a Pucci bot, but I like Pucci bot. Who is the new dev? You'll meet him soon. I think he's on vacation right now,

so he's not really active at the moment, but he's a good dude. Also, the charity shirt is still on sale, so if you guys want to get your shirt to support COVID-19, please do so. I even put the wrong link in the Trello.

But I got the right one on Discord. If you do. So pick up this exclusive shirt, please and thank you. All the proceeds go towards direct relief, which directly supports COVID. It's still the thing, guys, right? COVID hasn't gone away. And, you know, it's, it didn't, you know, there's a lot happening in the world. But, you know, we want to make sure that we still still taking care of that because there's still people who are getting sick, right? And people who are impacted in other ways. So, you know, that's one of the things that we're doing to kind of support that, as well as the folding at home is still going on.

And the gamers at home as well on Instagram, which is, kind of a way for us to kind of check in with you guys and have you guys submit some cool stuff from home and get featured on our Instagram page. So, you know, go through our story and check it out. We have a lot of highlights on the Instagram as well. You can go through a lot of photos. I think this one is HTO check. So show us your hydration. Make sure you get hydrated out there. Also, the GameSpot giveaway ends on Sunday. I even also typed the wrong thing. GameSpot. I got the right one on Discord, though.

That's what really matters. It's all it matters, right? So it's not hosted through NZC. It's hosted through the GameSpot. We just provided the computer. They're doing their, what is it, their game for all charity drive this month. So that's what we're supporting and helping them out with.

So again, super cool stuff. And as always, guys, we are hiring nzicc.com slash careers. See if there's anything that you feel like you're qualified for or strikes your fancy. If you have any questions, you know, feel free, feel free to ask. Don't ask too much. We're busy people, but, you know, we'll get to you as quickly as we can. Mary, do you have any questions for us or for the community before we end?

Anything you want to know? Any burning? What's your guys' favorite keyboard layout to the community? Oh, drop it in chat, guys. Drop it in chat. What's your favorite keyboard? Way out? We'll give Mary the ability to chill in chat if she wants and discuss keyboards or in the keyboard channel.

That works too. So with that. I have work. I have another call right after this. I'm going to do that. Never mind. Okay. So it's going to end as quickly then.

Thank you for joining us, Mary, on the podcast. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for joining. It was a lot of fun. And thank you to everyone who tuned in. Remember to tune in next week at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, the official NZXT Discord server,

and follow at NZXT on all relevant social media. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. And also, don't forget, if you could be so kind, please leave us a positive review, if you like what you hear, and even if you don't. Thank you very much, guys. We'll see you next time. All right. Have a good one, everyone.

Bye. Thanks, Mary. Bye. Thanks, Mary.