Makerbot

Foundry Group has now been around for over seven years and I’ve been working with my partners for 14 years. We’ve started to develop some traditions. One of my favorites is exit gifts. When a company has an exit that generates a return for us, we give a gift to the partner who served on the board. These gifts are generally tuned to what the partner loves such as musical stuff for Ryan and Jason, bike stuff for Seth, and art for me. They are modest, but very thoughtful and something the partner wouldn’t have just gone out and done for himself. They are often self referential, such as the Makerbot sculpture of me created by an artist and printed on a Makerbot after Stratasys acquired MakerBot. ...

Whenever one of my partners has a significant exit the other partners gives him a gift. These take the form of super creative, often self-referential things that the partner on the receiving end would never buy for himself but the other partners knows he would love. Last week I got a bust of myself printed on a Makerbot. It was made by Cosmo Wenman , who my partners found at CES last year. This is totally in the show, don’t tell category, so take a look at the 55 second “making of video.” ...

Yesterday Amy and I contributed $10,000 to the MakerBot Academy campaign which is on a mission to put a MakerBot 3D printer in every school in the United States. We did it via a contribution on Donors Choose , one of our favorite non-profit contribution sites. We specifically finished out the funding for five MakerBots for the following teachers in their classrooms: Mr. Hendry – Yorba Linda High School, Yorba Linda, CA Mrs. Bragdon – Brownsboro Elementary School, Brownsboro, TX Mr. Eiland – Woodlawn High School, Baton Rouge, LA Mr. Condon – Decorah High School, Decorah, IA Mr. Colling – Coronado High School, Scottsdale, AZ Amy and I are planning to give a lot more to this campaign, but we decided to do something tangible right now by finishing off several of the campaigns on Donors Choose. ...

I get demos every day. Multiple times a day. I don’t want to see a powerpoint deck – I want to play with something. I don’t want to hear a description of what you do – I want to see a demo. I don’t want you to tell me your background, where you went to school, or where your grew up. I want to see what you are working on. ...

Defrag and Blur are only two weeks away, and if you’re not yet registered to come, you should find a way. Why? 1. Makerbot will be there with the Replicator 2 in hand. And is there anything cooler than 3D printing right now? 2. The agenda is absolutely incredible — Kevin Kelly, Jeff Ma, Rachel Happe, Paul Kedrosky, Bre Pettis, Andrew Tschesnok. 3. The networking will be intimate and awesome, as usual. ...

MakerBot is hiring a lot of folks but they have a two specific needs that are unique. If you fit the description, or know someone who does, please reach out to me or apply. 1. Software Engineer with a focus in Computational Geometry and Image Processing (https://makerbot.applicantstack.com/x/detail/a2m4ro97dz39 ) 2. Manufacturing Engineer to be a strong leader for our manufacturing teams (https://makerbot.applicantstack.com/x/detail/a2m4ro9s06i3 ) The jobs are in Brooklyn, home of all things MakerBot.

We constantly hear about “product market fit.” But my post yesterday about The Power of Passion When Starting Your Company was about “founder market fit.” And I’ve come to believe that – especially among first time entrepreneurs – founder market fit is much more important than product market fit at the inception of the company. I stumbled on the phrase a few times over the past year and it’s been rolling around in my head a lot since. The first time was on Chris Dixon’s blog Founder / market fit which led me to a guest post by David Lee of SV Angel on More Thoughts on What Makes Great Entrepreneurs Great . ...

I believe that science fiction is reality catching up to the future. Others say that science fact is the science fiction of the past. Regardless, the gap between science fact and science fiction is fascinating to me, especially as it applies to computers. My partners and I spend time at CES each year along with a bunch of the founders from different companies we’ve invested in due to our human computer interaction theme. In addition to a great way to start the year together, it gives us a chance to observe how the broad technology industry, especially on the consumer electronics side, is trying to catch up to the future. ...

Every year my partners at Foundry Group and I go to CES. We aren’t boondoggle guys – our expeditions together are limited to a quarterly offsite, often at Jason’s house (10 minutes from our office), and one trip a year with spouses and significant others somewhere. So CES has been a nice tradition for us where we get to travel together for a few days, hang out in nerd and gadget heaven, and spend time with a bunch of entrepreneurs we work with who are here. ...

Bwahahahaha – I know what it is, but I can’t tell you. But you can now play a text adventure game, created by Andrew Plotkin , which will give you hints. Remember Adventure ? You really shouldn’t have wandered away from your tour guide. The gleam of glass in a deserted room caught your eye for just a moment… but with that mob of chattering tourists out of sight, the MakerBot facility doesn’t seem quite as friendly as it did a moment ago. ...