3D printers have exploded in popularity with promises of reinventing everything from manufacturing to entrepreneurship. While 3D printing has a few detractors and people who point out that it won’t live up to the hype, I believe 3D printing will actually do more than reinvent the way we design and build things. Ultimately, I believe it will dramatically improve lives in 3rd world countries by empowering everyone to improve their own lives.
The New England Society of Information and Technology (NESIT) in Meriden, CT, was robbed and vandalized on March 1st. All computers and monitors used in our community programs were destroyed. Extensive damage was done to our classroom and project areas. A massive clean-up effort has been under way for the past week and we continue […]
This afternoon, more than sixty hardware hackers, makers, movers, and shakers defied the drizzle to gather under a large tent at Autodesk’s SXSW Create pavillion for the official SXSW Hardware Startup Meetup. Organized and hosted by Ryan Brown and Bartley Gillan, the main event was a panel discussion and open Q&A with SF Hardware Startup Meetup organizer Nick Pinkston and the founders of four active hardware startups representing some 1.75M in pledged crowdfunding dollars among them.
It’s been three weeks since we launched the Scout pre-order site to the world. Scout is a hassle-free, do-it-yourself home security system. You can check it out here: www.scoutalarm.com. As we mentioned in our last post, we “rolled our own” crowdfunding site. Following in the footsteps of Lockitron, and having forked their Self Starter project, we made the decision to forgo Kickstarter. If you haven’t read Part I of this post, you can check it out here.
Scout is currently ahead of pace to hit our campaign goal. We’ve learned a lot in the last two weeks and wanted to build on the first post. Once the press hits start to dry up, you have to get creative. (Read: Hustle like crazy.) Some of the things we’ve learned, we wish we would have learned BEFORE the campaign started. Our hope is that this post better prepares the next startup to follow in our path.
Recently, we unveiled our Scout pre-order site to the world. Scout is a hassle-free, do-it-yourself home security system. You can check it out at www.scoutalarm.com. We took a gamble with the Scout project and “rolled our own” crowdfunding site. Similar to Lockitron, Scout would not be allowed on Kickstarter since our products haven’t been produced yet, so we had to forgo that avenue for fundraising and strike out on our own. Luckily, Lockitron made our path a little easier by open sourcing its project.
The Scout project is, thus far, not wildly oversubscribed like Lockitron, but we’re doing well for being two weeks in. What we’ve realized in the process is that there’s not a lot of information available on what it takes to roll your own crowdfunding site. We’re one of only a handful of companies that has taken a shot at it, so we want to pass along what we’re learning as we go. Hopefully, this post will make it a little easier for the next company that follows behind us.
There are less than two weeks left in GoFundMe’s “make-a-thon” contest so you better get busy. The deadline to enter is March 1. The crowd-sourced funding company is offering a total of $10,000 for the “best maker projects” submitted on the site.
Dave Vondle and Jerry O’Leary are making the world’s thinnest watch. I’ve enjoyed watching this project unfold from day 1. Actually, I’ve been watching this project unfold well before that. Dave was my summer intern in 2004. Working with smart, talented interns is always a joy, but every once in a while someone comes along who is truly gifted. I learned so much more from Dave that summer than he learned from me, and I continue to learn from. Dave moved on to IDEO after college, and was one of the people behind IDEO Labs. It was there that Dave honed his skills as a talented maker who skillfully combines engineering, design, and aesthetic to make some great new devices like this watch.
