Heart

It’s every kid’s worst nightmare, but in the Captain Planet analogy, my ring would be heart. That is my role here at Gamer Ammo, Inc.

I have very humble beginnings. When I was a kid, my dad was an electrician and my mom stayed at home. I didn’t grow up wondering if we’d have food, but we didn’t really have much beyond the necessities. My parents owned a small 10-acre farm with horses, goats, chickens, and cats. Lots of barn cats.

It sounds like we didn’t have much but, I’m telling you, I won the genetic lottery. I couldn’t have asked for better parents. Growing up, I was able to watch my mom start with her associates degree, become a special education teacher, then obtain her doctorates in EMR from Western Michigan University. I watched my dad go from low man on the union totem pole to becoming a top-level engineer at a Kellogg’s factory in town. I was able to watch the American Dream unfold right in front of my eyes. That is a gift that I cherish.

Showing us how to love people was the other big favor that my parents did for my brother and me. My dad wasn’t the most social of guys; we didn’t ever go out and “chill” with his friends. Instead, he would get done with a ten- to twelve- hour work day, pick us up, and then we’d go put a roof on for a neighbor. We’d fix the wiring in someone’s house, build horse stalls for a friend, help someone frame a house, or any number of things. We never got paid for it. We just did it because my parents cared about those people.

I’m Shookum and I’m the heart of the Gamer Ammo team.

My biological name is Caleb Tyler Gothberg — thanks mom. I graduated form Pennfield High School in 2008. I never finished college at Western Michigan University; life got in the way. September 20th, 2010, my daughter, Annabelle, was born. I took a job selling Kirby Sweepers earlier in 2010 because I couldn’t support a family with the roofing income that I had.

I quickly realized that compassion was an asset in the marketplace. This, on top of many other skills, allowed me to thrive in a sales environment. I quickly rose through the ranks and earned many awards and promotions. I worked 16-hour days for a little over 5 years. As my daughter started to get older, I realized I couldn’t maintain such a pace. I went through a few jobs such as dealing craps at a local casino, working at a comic shop, Facebook marketing, building trades, and a few others.

Then the fire nation attacked

I met xcesiv in late 2017. If you didn’t read his article, do that here. Gamer Ammo was in its infancy. I could tell just from looking at what they already had that this could impact the world; Gamer Ammo was real, and it had the potential to actually change things.

Thus, we have where I am today. If you want the complete origin story, you’ll have to read the xcesiv piece.

So what do I actually do here at Gamer Ammo Inc?

I’m heart. I am the COO in charge of daily operations. I make sure that everything is on track. I keep track of design, technology, marketing, and the management of our team. I work side-by-side with our CEO to make sure that Gamer Ammo, Inc. stays on course.

This is where heart comes in. I have to make sure that everything we do is for the gamer. I make sure that our point of origin always starts there. I have been very blessed to work with this team that also shares that same goal, so it’s not that hard. The biggest reason we need heart is because of how gifted the rest of the team is.

Iolair (whose story you can read here) and xcesiv are able to do some amazing things. They are capable of making things that are technologically and functionally out of this world. The only problem is that sometimes they want to make it so powerful that we would basically be giving gamers a front end loader to plant a garden. My job is to make sure that the utility belt we are making for gamers is equipped as they actually need it to be. We want it to be seamless for them so they forget they are wearing one. This means that sometimes I have to use my voice to say “that’s cool, but I don’t think we need that here.”

My job is to make sure that when a gamer hops on the website, they know how to navigate it. That when they use our app, it’s completely intuitive. When they post content, they won’t need an instruction manual.

I bring perspective. Because I’m not nearly as tech savvy as the rest of the group, it allows me to see things from the eyes of our gamers. When we make decisions, I have the perspective to know how our end user will perceive it.

Our goal here at Gamer Ammo isn’t to be all things to all people. It’s to make the perfect tool for one individual person. We want clutchat to be perfect for a single gamer. We give massive weight to the individual. Once we can do that, then we expand to two gamers, then four, then 100, then thousands. This all starts with making things perfect for you as an individual.

This is important to us because we feel that you have value. Not you as a gamer, not you as an Overwatch player, or a GTA V player, or as a MOBA gamer, but you as an individual gamer. No one else in the world games like you do. We think that is important. That is a single, unique perspective that we value over everything else. We don’t place the value on the groups, but rather on the individual.

This is the thing that separates us. This is what our core values are based on. You are the most important person in our organization. Without you, we fail. Without you, we cannot change the world for the better. You mean everything to us.

This is what I do. This is the reason why I joined Gamer Ammo.

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