be a meykr
MEYKR /ˈmeɪkər/ n. : Someone who changes what exists
↓about
Chris Anderson
By day, I lead dozens of people who coordinate more than two hundred others across our initiatives — and millions of dollars of investment a year — to plan and deliver connected products for some very large brands. In this site’s terms, that’s a team of teams, near a full tribe.
On nights and weekends, I meyk my own products — for the fun of it, with my family and friends.
projects
Meyking the next generation.
It starts close to home — literally in the home, with my daughter. Small, real, and shipped where people can use them.
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hardware · in the making
Thing Button
A physical Wi-Fi button for building a habit. Press it when you do the thing. Every press is recorded with the time it happened, and the habit shows up as a shape you can see.
- ESP32 · Supabase · Astro
- two buttons built so far
thingbutton.com ↗
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software · shipped
2picsto1
Upload two photos and AI makes a brand-new one inspired by both — and every dollar it makes goes to the cause you pick. My daughter is the founder; I did the plumbing. With AI it took a few weekends and under 20 hours of real work, video and launch included — the kind of build that used to take weeks.
- Astro · Vercel · Stripe · Anthropic API
- a few weekends, under 20 hours of work
2picsto1.com ↗
before this
What I’ve helped meyk.
A small part of some very big things, and a bigger part of some small ones. From the outer ring in: a building takes a tribe of tribes, a factory takes a tribe, a gadget takes a team.
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construction · webcor
Places
An airport terminal, a transit center, a convention center, a campus, a hotel. I was a small part of each — mostly the planning systems that let many trades build at once.
- SFO · Transbay · Moscone
- UC Merced · Four Seasons LA
- featured on Webcor’s Instagram, 2019
see it →
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heavy equipment · terex
Machines
Aerial lifts, track loaders, haul trucks, excavators. Early on, as a Deming consultant, I got to study the plants that build them — and the people making those plants better.
- Genie · ASV · Terex Trucks
- Redmond · Grand Rapids · Motherwell · Germany
see it →
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start-up years · bootstrapped hardware
Small things, small teams
My start-up years, mostly bootstrapped: an iPad case, then camera gear, built with small teams. Some made money. Some flopped.
- Deohako · Makerlaunch, 2012
- Tooga FloCam · Indiegogo, 2013
- Tooga Gear · Kickstarter, 2013–14
see it →
philosophy
Lead at every scale.
There is a paradox at the heart of meyking at scale. To meyk bigger things, we have to collaborate with other people — and collaboration is a craft of its own: building trust, shaping process, and helping different kinds of meykrs do their best work together.
But it depends on mutual respect. A leader of meykrs has to stay close enough to the craft to understand the work — the tools, the tradeoffs, the friction, and the people doing it. So I honor both crafts: making things, and helping other meykrs make more together.
- 01 Meykr 1 person
- 02 Team 2–12 people
- 03 Team of teams (Tribe) 13–250 people
- 04 Tribe of tribes 250+ people