Makerbot, one of the most recognizable names in the 3D printing industry, has had a really tough year.
First, there was a bout of layoffs announced back in April, along with the closure of their brick and mortar stores. Following that, there was a class action suit filed from the shareholders in response to the smart extruder design.
In a blog post today by Makerbot CEO Jonathan Jaglom, it was announced that the company would be reducing staff by 20% again. Citing a failure to meet ambitious goals over the last “few quarters,” several changes were outlined. There have been two new placements: Kavita Vora as Chief of People, and Nadav Goshen as President.
The immediate changes listed in the blog post were:
- Reorganizing our teams and reducing our staff by 20% globally
- Changing our leadership team to focus on our people and the MakerBot 3D Ecosystem
- Moving our R&D teams from Industry City in Brooklyn to our corporate headquarters at MetroTech in Downtown Brooklyn. This will bring our teams closer together, ensuring more collaboration and easier communication. The MakerBot Factory will remain in Industry City in Brooklyn.
- Setting a defined product development plan that is centered around building connected products within our ecosystem
- Working with a contract manufacturer to produce 4th generation products to save on costs and focus our teams at our factory in Brooklyn on our current generation of MakerBot 3D printers
In the blog post, Jaglom talks about the future direction of the company.
Nadav and his teams are focused on building out our world-class ecosystem and supporting our community better than we ever have. He will ensure that strategy around our product offering, ecosystem, and brand are in full alignment.
This statement makes us wonder what future changes we’ll be seeing in services owned by MakerBot such as Thingiverse.com, the popular 3D model repository.
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