Makerbot Venture Capital Funding - EEVblog #198

Dave gets out of the lab for some fresh air, and a think about what the Makerbot $10M venture capital funding might mean.

[EEVblog]

@raysolomon That's what I use for the normal blog, but in this case I was a fair bit away from the mic, so used the wireless lapel mic this time.

[EEVblog]

@Bracerjack I'm using my new Audio-Technica PRO-88 wireless mic. Still got noise from the mic being inside my shirt (wind on the outside caused a problem)

[ntesla]

You nailed it Dave... Stratasys... yep. That's some good forecasting you did there.

[ForViewingOnly]

Holy crap, I'd never even heard of Makerbot until I watched this... now I'm pretty excited by this 3D printing lark!

[EEVblog]

@KarriKoivusalo There is a nice looking commercial 3D printer for US$3500 or US$2700 see pp3dp DOT com which is almost the same price as the MakerBot fully assembled. If Makerbot are not careful they will find themselves in a very crowded market. I think I might try and get one of these for review...

[EEVblog]

@GeorgeGraves Yeah, that's certainly possible, and probably likely. You generally don't just raise cash like that to do nothing with it, or spend it on buying current stock etc.

[EEVblog]

That's a huge wad of instant cash for a company like Makerbot, would have probably taken them 10 years of current sales to get that much cash in the bank.

[thearhi]

There's already a PRC made RepRap derivative out there. It's called UP! printer. It not a kit, limited to 1.7mm filament and is not open source but is a complete product that works fairly nice. So the PRC movement already started :) a year ago

[Minifig]

Look at Dave go with his posh artsy outdoor shots!

[GeorgeGraves]

Interesting perspective Dave. The only thing I would add is that MakerBot may have a trick up their sleeve that requires 10 mil to go forward?

[johnfranks]

@EEVblog fyi, deadcats are available for lavaliers. i think it sounded great! nice balance between dialog & background.
-jc

[AntiProtonBoy]

I would love to see the expression on people's faces as they pass by.

[BenjaminMaggi]

I think you're right on the money Dave, everyone remembers what happened to HeathKit?

[davidvro]

I believe that he is really testing the toys out for his kid.

[FyberOptic]

I don't know, Dave. Back then, most people didn't really understand what they would ever need a computer in their homes for. Home computer kits and the like were in a bit of a niche for hobbyists. It took decades for computers to truly catch on with the masses. At this point, maybe we just don't get what average consumers would need their own 3D printers for. The market could develop over time, like it did with home computers, as people see what they can do with it. So who really knows!

[samgreenaum]

Couple of things...

In the beginning of the home computer revolution, lots of people bought their computers as kits. Sinclair went on to sell millions of Spectrums and ZX81s, (and then fuck up a bit with the electric go-kart meant to drive on the road, that would probably get you killed), that started off as kits. Of course Apple did too.

But yep, it was mass-production, in a way you couldn't do with kits, that made them really profitable. They were already cheap to make. So definitely yep. Maybe people will still assemble their own 3D printers, it's different from computers, you don't need 16-layer circuit boards or a silicon foundry to make a 3D printer. But most people will go with the quality, price, and convenience of just buying one. Self-makers will start to look like people making their own microwave oven.

Second, I remember the early 2D inkjet printers (colour!) in the late 1980s. They cost around 500 late-80s English pounds. They were pretty crap, and we were amazed by them. Now you can buy an inkjet for 30 quid with your Cornflakes. Admittedly the profit's all made in charging ludicrous amounts for a box of ink, but I bet they're not making a loss on the printers themselves, they've got much simpler inside. Everything moulded in one piece, and ordinary motors instead of expensive steppers (Actually Sinclair made a printer with just one, ordinary little toy-style motor, but).

There's already one set of chancers who sell 3D printer filament cartridges for far too much money, with a DRM chip inside. Hopefully that won't take off. Hopefully it wouldn't take off for 2D printers either, but it has.

So yer probably right, Dave.

[arthurspilling]

I like how you've been pointing out the differences between open hardware and open source software lately. Like your speculation that open hardware projects are likely to die when they become bigger and more successful whereas with open source software this doesn't happen (Firefox, Linux, Eclipse IDE, etc.)

[pikuorguk]

@ControlCardPin Wait till this blog gets VC funding - all the board meetings will be held in this manner.

[CampKohler]

Will you be able to use the Makerbot to build the next generation Makerbot?

[CorbyStarletCj]

Haha 3-5 years we will be printing our own chips at home :)