Hey Friend,<br>
<br>
I just launched a robotics company with some friends and I'm sending this email to you to tell you about it!<br>
<br>
<a href="http://makerbot.com/" target="_blank">MakerBot Industries</a> is our company and we make robots that make things. I took our prototype to SXSW and had a great time
making things with our flagship robot, the MakerBot CupCake CNC. Makerbots are robots that
make things and Makerbot Industries designs and sells kits to make
MakerBots. Me and my friends Zach Hoeken Smith and Adam Mayer have
started this company to bring rapid prototyping and 3D Printing to the
masses. <br>
<br>
<p><span><span><img src="http://www.brepettis.com/storage/3357412299_e7ce04c98c.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1237494691765" alt=""></span></span> <br></p>
<p>Illustration by our Designer <a href="http://jamesprovost.com/" target="_blank">James Provost</a></p>
To celebrate the birth of our MakerBot, we've been printed out shot
glasses and dodecahedrons by the score. (a dodecahedron is a 12 sided
geometric shape used as a 12 sided die in Dungeons and Dragons) As if
that wasn't enough, we modified the dodecahedron to make it into a shot
glass too. We are excited to build more things, but we're even more
excited to see what folks come up with. I can't wait to see the first
action figure that someone designs and makes on a MakerBot.<br>
<br>
<p><span><span><img src="http://www.brepettis.com/storage/3361508175_142a09b9fe.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1237494519587" alt=""></span></span> <br>
</p>
<p>A dodecahedron printed by the CupCake CNC MakerBot - Photo by <a href="http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive/545" target="_blank">RStevens</a></p>
<p><a title="Superstars and The MakerBot by bre pettis, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bre/3360152941/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3656/3360152941_cfe34a6bee.jpg" alt="Superstars and The MakerBot" height="375" width="500"></a></p>
<p>Superstars of The Internet gather as the Makerbot makes things.</p>
<p>We're obsessed with our robots being open source. You will be able
to download all the schematics and designs. You don't even have to wait
until they are finalized since just keep our latest revisions up on our digital design site, <a href="http://thingiverse.co/" target="_blank">Thingiverse.com</a>.</p>
<p>Our goal is to make it cheap and easy for anyone to fabricate digitally designed 3D
objects. MakerBot Operators can make their own and their friends
designs become physically real. It turns out that making a MakerBot
isn't very hard and with a little bit of soldering experience, anyone
can make thier own MakerBot.</p>
<p><a title="Jonathan Coulton and Makerbot by bre pettis, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bre/3364200826/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3623/3364200826_7a4c364bdb.jpg" alt="Jonathan Coulton and Makerbot" height="500" width="375"></a></p>
<p>MakerBot opened for Jonathon Coulton at the Squarespace party at SXSW.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://store.makerbot.com/featured-products/cupcake-cnc-presale.html" target="_blank">CupCake </a><span><a href="http://store.makerbot.com/featured-products/cupcake-cnc-presale.html" target="_blank">CNC</a> </span>is
our flagship robot because it's inexpensive and can make things about
the same size as a rubics cube, but in the MakerBot store you can buy
all of the parts modularly to make other kinds of robots of your own
design.</p>
<p><span><span><img src="http://www.brepettis.com/storage/3361493999_b1174a2ecd.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1237495026197" alt=""></span></span><br></p>
<p>Photo by <a href="http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive/1985" target="_blank">RStevens</a></p>
<p>We have also designed an optional frosting extruder. Here I am
having fun getting the frosting extruder working and ready to frost cupcakes. We can control it now
with joystick style controls and will have it drawing pictures on
cupcakes soon.</p>
<p>We made our robot to have a smaller than printer footprint on your
desk. In the future that we envision, everyone will have one and if you
make up a new amazing design for a fork, you can upload it to the
thingiverse and share it with the world. Right now our first robot is
like the Model T Ford. It's modular, easy to customize, and fun to work
on. Being able to use a MakerBot to make anything you can imagine
is too awesome for it to avoid becoming mainstream. Who doesn't want a
MakerBot to make whatever they can imagine?</p>
<p>We start shipping
robots next month and we've already presold a good bunch of them. As
you can tell, I'm pretty excited about this. If you can blog about this
or mention it on your facebook away message, that would be great. If
you know any media people who like to write about these kinds of
things, send them my way. We want to make a splash!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Bre Pettis</p>
<p><a href="http://makerbot.com/" target="_blank">http://makerbot.com</a></p>
I
am sending this to you because you're on my list of people I know. If
for some reason you don't want to get updates like this, just drop me a
note and I'll take you off the list, no fuss no muss.