Yep he thought he would be able to be a big part of the convention scene there and it would help the business, have to pay little to no taxes and have a fallback to work at Microsoft, Valve or Nintendo.
And that right there is one of my favorite things about Phil, that he is SO damn confident into believing that he can JUST stroll into a place like Microsoft, Valve, Nintendo, or even Boeing and go "I know more about this than you guys, dood." *Snort*
TMI, I personally know people that work in tech and it's a pretty hard industry to break into - no shit, Sherlock - which is why most people go into tech as contractors with companies like Accenture, Randstad, etc...after college. Unless you know the hiring manager or was part of the same alumni of that hiring manager and the senior manager, good fucking luck getting in as a FTE. Unless your alumni is Stanford, Duke, UC Berkeley, University of Washington, Yale, Brown, Harvard, or any top school with an elite engineering program OR business program, you're not getting in as an FTE. Your best bet is going in as a contractor, dealing with the bullshit, making friends with the FTE's, etc...and eventually becoming "too valuable" to them to where they don't have a choice BUT to bring you in as a FTE once an opening comes available.
However, Phil doesn't want to start on the bottom, because he's too "valuable" as a person, dood. Phil wants the C-Suite position, with the open office with the bay window view of Puget Sound, left the fuck alone, everything done via e-mail, and get paid stupid amounts of money because he has a C-Suite title, all while treating people like shit because he's Phil and you don't disrespect the king, dood.
Phil thinks if you're in the same area as successful people, you too will be successful, dood. That's not how it works, but what the fuck do I know?