Tear down the Walls

When we moved into this building back in 2004, Amplifier was mostly a fulfillment company. Touring visitors saw racks, pallets, shelves and inventory. Lots and lots of inventory.

By 2011, Amplifier had evolved from moving things to making them. By producing and personalizing merchandise inhouse, we helped our clients to more efficiently monetize their online communities. When it came time to expand to 60,000 sq/ft , we wanted to highlight this business evolution. So we chose to move almost EVERYTHING. Mountains of inventory were moved “offstage.”  Printing and pick/pack now hold the center stage. Visitors step into much more of Amplifier’s kinetic energy.  They grasp instantly just how much work Amplifier does under a single roof.

And we’ve not even begun rolling out the cool stuff yet.

Check out Amplifier locations over the years:

The Gaines Ranch Apartments – 1999 (Concept phase)
Post West Avenues Apartments -2000
Gibson Street Building. 2001 (Since Demolished)
Guerrero Produce Warehouse 2002-2003 (Now Condos)
Interchange Blvd – 2004-Today

I’m most excited about the new layout.   We will achieve:

• Vastly greater storage density thanks to entirely awesome new racks.
• More efficient layout to cut pick-path length
• Cleaner, clearer look by pushing storage “around the corner”
• Big emphasis on the manufacturing centers
• New office space
• Showers/Locker Room (Finally we can see who will REALLY bike to work)
• Multiplayer gaming projected on 50 foot walls?

We’re thrilled.  Next time you’re in Austin, come on by for a tour.

1305 E. 6th Street, one of our old Amplifier Warehouses has since become Urban Condos

Years ago Joel Bush and I started a company we called Copernica.  It seemed like a good name at the time.  While the Industrial Era empowered channels, the Internet offered theoretically-infinite capacity.  Whither the gatekeepers’ in such a network?

The Internet shifted power towards those whose content attracted audiences, so invoking Ptolemy’s decline and heliocentricity’s rise seemed obvious.  Power to the light, not the fiber optic cable!

But 9 out of 10 did not know just who Nicholas Copernicus was or what his work really signified.  Instead of bringing clarity, the name Copernica brought confusion.

Not acceptable.

So we changed our name to Amplifier®.  After pivoting our business, rebranding was the best decision we’ve ever made.  The name Amplifier reinforced the noded Internet while blending signal into the metaphorical mix.  In one sense, the Internet amplifies everything. It enables like-minded people to concentrate their passions into self-reinforcing feedback loops.  The name Amplifier embodied this once-in-a-century trend while powerfully reasserting our fundamental premise – namely, that Creators who attracted Audiences controlled the future.

There are dozens of others,  including:

• “INSPECTED BY: Your Mom”
• “INSPECTED BY: Former Venture Capitalist”
• “INSPECTED BY: You”

Rooster Teeth fans can now get their own personalized shirts thanks to the magic of Amplifier integrated direct-to-garment personalization.  Rooster Teeth has set the bar for audience engagement with their entirely original community platform.  Fans logged in automatically see their own Rooster Teeth community name embedded in the Grifball Custom Shirt.  They can use this name or change it to their GamerTag, XBOX Live ID, Playstation ID or whatever they want.

Amplifier produces the personalized shirt and ships it out with any other stocked merch in the order.  It’s a win, win, win.