MakerBot + Pinterest = $250 Million in Sales | Hacker News Reader

MakerBot + Pinterest = $250 Million in Sales

wired.com

48 pointsliam_17 comments

ProvoCraft seems to be operating on a razor & blades model, and aggressively suing anyone who tries to provide another source for getting 'blades'.

http://www.scrapbookupdate.com/2010/04/07/provo-craft-sues-m... http://www.scrapbookupdate.com/2011/03/11/provo-craft-sues-s...

MakerBot, on the other hand, publishes the plans for their hardware so anyone can build it, and maintains thingiverse.com so anyone can design anything they want to print.

I understand why the editor wants to draw a connection, but there are some significant differences in the two businesses' philosophies.

So what would really kick things open is an open-source Cricut device. There has to be a way to make a cheaper rotary cutter. I've seen the Cricut in stores and it's crazy what they're charging for pattern cartridges.

They exist. This one is "Open" in that you can cut images you design in vector software like Adobe Illustrator, but has its own drawbacks. Mostly horrible software interfaces that act as intermediaries.

http://www.graphteccorp.com/craftrobo/

I love that Make The Cut responded to the lawsuit by partnering with a cutter that doesn't require silly proprietary cartridges (http://knkzing.make-the-cut.com/), however KNK Zing is advertised as "open source" when it doesn't appear to actually be open source in any way: http://knkusa.com/?shopp_product=knk-zing

I've noticed this trend among non-programmers of using "open source" incorrectly to describe anything that's not completely locked down.

My wife has a Cricket Cutter ( which she uses for making cards.

I've built a RepRap.

My wife has no interest in it. The output isn't artistic enough. It's not that great.

Now, if someone could bring a computer-guided milling machine for $400, backed by a range of expensive woods / plastic consumables...

Agreed. The consumer models just aren't quite at the inflection point yet. I've been watching the Roland IModela but it's just not at the right price yet thought it's slowly getting there. http://technabob.com/blog/2011/10/10/imodela-3d-milling-mach...

You left off the difficulty multiplier, namely: "which can be operated and maintained by a typical consumer."

Unfortunately it can't be operated by the nerd who built it.

The software is a disaster, there are a few dozen builds of the libraries required to operate it, and only certain combinations work.

I've tried around 20 combinations so far and not one prints correctly in automatic mode.

When I have the time (and desire) it's something that I'll solve (I'm a software engineer after all, the community is mainly tech/mech engineers).

This article is a great example of how to get press for your startup.

Dear reporter - My company is just like x in y way. Care to write a story about us?

so what does this have to do with pintrest? is it just the pictures of cakes?

The Pinterest connection is that it is serving a largely female audience with interest in crafting and recycling content. Basically, if MakerBot and Pinterest joined forces, this would be the likely result.

There's a big gap in people sharing digital goods and wanting the trinket on demand, and another gap to getting the 3D content widespread enough. Those are big gaps.

Totally agree. Lack of easy, but robust 3D authoring tools are the biggest gate on wider spread 3D printing, IMO.

I _really_ don't get the Pinterest connection. This is more like MakerBot & Etsy joining forces.

The connection, as I see it, is that Pinterest user's primarily interact with the service by "repinning" other content. Only 10% actually add new content from other sites, and would wager a minuscule portion upload new photos from their desktop.

Cricut users express their creativity by cutting out content that was already flowing through the system and expressing their creativity in arranging the cut-outs, much the same way people create Boards on Pinterest.

Generously: Nothing at all, they just wanted to grab hits.

Less so: They figured that any products which primarily target women must be fundamentally similar.

My mom has one of these for scrapbooking. I've always wanted to sneak it out of the house and hack it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com