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Adventure on the Edge of Time: Richmond's Hayden Mater on Building Watches for Real Life #022
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Richmond entrepreneur Hayden Mater sits down with us to unpack the ethos behind Mater Made — a watch brand built for real life, not glass cases. Hayden Mater is a serial entrepreneur, father and husband, and an explorer making timepieces that inspire curiosity, endurance, and a life well-lived.
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In this episode of Vera House we trace Hayden's arc from commodity trading and early door-to-door hustles to field-testing prototypes in harsh environments.
By day, Hayden is a department head at an international commodity trading firm, where he focuses on market strategy and operational leadership. But beyond the desk, he’s a modern renaissance man — a designer, athlete, and storyteller who believes business is a sport and life is meant to be explored.
What began as a fascination with functional design evolved into Mater Made, a brand that merges innovation, exploration, and well-roundedness — three principles that define both his watches and his worldview. Each Mater Made watch is more than a product; it’s a companion built for environments that test the limits of body and mind.
From the middle of the desert, to the middle of the ocean, and even to the racetrack and beyond — Hayden has taken Mater Made around the world to prove one thing: time is only valuable when you’re truly living it.
In this episode, Hayden lays out why he chose spec over status — movement choices that matter, materials where they count, and pricing designed to over-deliver. We dig into the idea of entrepreneurship as a sport (train the mind and body, compete daily), how to handle a launch that doesn’t sell out, and why documenting the adventure is part of the product and the journey. If you care about design that earns its keep — rugged × refined—this one’s for you.
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This podcast is produced by Vera House — a creative club and premium media studio based in Richmond, Virginia. Our studio exists to champion local brands, creative expression, rva culture, and produce high-impact content for founders, makers, and modern businesses.
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