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New MakerBot CEO Explains Layoffs and the Company's New Vision
merbs sends an update on MakerBot, one of the most well known names in the 3D-printing industry. After its acquisition by Stratasys in 2013, defective parts plagued the company's printers in 2014. MakerBot co-founder and CEO Bre Pettis stepped down, and the company laid off 20% of its employees. The new CEO, Jonathan Jaglom, is now talking about how they're rebuilding MakerBot, and where we can expect it to go in the future. "The 39-year-old, Swiss-born Jaglom says that his priorities since taking over have been to dedicate more attention to customer support, to address the remaining fallout from the extruder problem, and to reorient the company to target its Replicators to the professional and educational markets."
Jaglom also envisions a sort of "iTunes for 3D printing," where people can easily buy designs online and print them out at home. He says, "I'll be sitting at home. Maybe something broke; maybe my glasses. Maybe I want to reprint it and I'll go to Oakley, Ray Ban, whatever, Philippe Starck in this case, download the file, pay $3.49 for it, and print it at home. And then you will have to go to your Kinko's or your Fab Labs, your local 3D printing, if you want it in metal or plastics you can't have at home."
Jaglom also envisions a sort of "iTunes for 3D printing," where people can easily buy designs online and print them out at home. He says, "I'll be sitting at home. Maybe something broke; maybe my glasses. Maybe I want to reprint it and I'll go to Oakley, Ray Ban, whatever, Philippe Starck in this case, download the file, pay $3.49 for it, and print it at home. And then you will have to go to your Kinko's or your Fab Labs, your local 3D printing, if you want it in metal or plastics you can't have at home."
Philippe Starck
$3.49
Probably not.
From Oakley, Ray Ban or Philippe Starck? Sure you mean $349.
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
we started calling our $3,000 Makerbot the Breakerbot, after it stopped working a few months after purchasing it and Makerbot support failed to return our calls or emails...for the support plan we paid for.
to their credit, and much to our surprise, they finally responded to our requests about 6 months later and promptly fixed it. maybe it was the new CEO.
their thingiverse.com site is pretty cool. and their software is mostly stable/usable.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
download the file, pay $3.49 for it, and print it at home
Umm, no, nice try - I don't pay the original manufacturer to fix their own defective merchandise for them. I would expect them to host files like that entirely for free, the same way PC hardware makers currently let you download drivers.
Of course, I don't actually expect them to do so; but that matters not at all, since countless other sources will.
"I'll go to Oakley, Ray Ban, whatever, Philippe Starck in this case, download the file, pay $3.49 for it"
If you think you will get anything from a popular name brand for $3.49 you are out of your mind. 99% of the cost of these brands is for the name its self; the materials cost practically nothing.
stealing ideas from the community and patenting them? IMO that's more damaging than their crappy extruder and other quality problems, and is something they need to publicly address.
Can't they just use an existing Makerbot to make a new Makerbot?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
"... defective parts plagued the company's printers in 2014."
When I was a motorcycle enthusiast I marveled at the enthusiastic reviews of the new models. Amazing new technology, better materials, better handling and safety, etc. But amongst all the praise for the new model, there was usually a comment like "They finally fixed the xyz problem that plagued last year's model." Various design, material and safety problems sometimes went years without any warning to buyers although the reviewers knew about them.
Never believe advertising or reviews that are paid for by advertisers. Don't put too much faith in Consumer Reports or Amazon reviews either. Join the maker community for somewhat honest advice in that area.
...omphaloskepsis often...
Jaglom also envisions a sort of "iTunes for 3D printing," where people can easily buy designs online and print them out at home. He says, "I'll be sitting at home. Maybe something broke; maybe my glasses. Maybe I want to reprint it and I'll go to Oakley, Ray Ban, whatever, Philippe Starck in this case, download the file, pay $3.49 for it, and print it at home. And then you will have to go to your Kinko's or your Fab Labs, your local 3D printing, if you want it in metal or plastics you can't have at home."
This vision is already being implemented by some on-line 3D printing services, and they've already thought further ahead and included DELIVERY!
"I'll be sitting at home. Maybe something broke; maybe my glasses. Maybe I want to reprint it and I'll go to Oakley, Ray Ban, whatever, Philippe Starck in this case, download the file, pay $3.49 for it, and print it at home"
Why don't you charge for Linux updates while you are at it.
Please keep the thinverse website up, open and free, out of the hands of these greedy pigs.
I'm not paying 3.99 for 1's and 0's, fuck that.
The "We're Solvent! Honest!" messaging is all about vitality, see! We're letting people know that "we're here and present," and in no way have we had had to get rid of most of our office space and work out of our cars. "We're alive," we're telling the world, and not having to sell our blood to pay our mortgages this month.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
MakerBot signed a deal with the devil by getting bought out by Stratasys. We loved the replicator at work so much we bought a Z18. Biggest piece of shit I've ever seen. The specialized filament spools were designed to lock people in to Makerbot consumables, but the designers couldn't even get that right and failed to take gravity into account, rendereding their feed mechanism unusable. The heated build chamber is only useful for ABS, but the damn thing only prints PLA. Also the machine is largely made of unrepairable parts for a user. Oh yeah, it's slower than the replicator, and to add insult to injury at the end of the day we never got one goddamn completed print out of the thing.
MakerBot, you used to stand for openness and were the poster child for the maker movement in my mind. Not any more, the sell outs.
The problem with cloning brands with 3D printers is that eventually cloning name brands will piss off the Powers that Be enough to start doing something about it. It could be an ACTA-like treaty, or stitched into the TPP treaty that regulates (or outright bans) 3D printers [1]. With the fact that there are trade embargos with not enforcing treaties, they tend to have more weight than laws, or even constitutions. WIPO and the DMCA come to mind here, as even the most reluctant governments now respect copyrights.
How about creating brands that are just for the 3D printing realm? For example, if it is eyeglass frames, have something that is well made enough that can do well on almost all 3D printers out there, looks exceptionally good. Charge a few bucks each for a wide variety of designs, and one might be able to make some decent cash.
[1]: Yes, a ban on 3D printers may sound laughable... but it would be as simple as regulating items used for filament, just to make the pricess so difficult that only the most dedicated would do this.
What are 4 words that make you run from a sales pitch.
"I got mine"
Stratasys was a pre-existing player in commercial 3D printing who totally missed the consumer 3D printing bandwagon and then had to buy MakerBot to get into the market. Since that acquisition they appear to have totally fluffed it. That usually means it is run by MBAs.
The logical conclusion is that they just need to wait for someone to start a MakerBot 2.0 and then they can acquire and destroy the future a second time. Maybe the MakerBot founder's non-competes are running out soon?
"As CEO, my vision is that the only way this company can work is if I'm grossly overcompensated while all the other employees learn to make due with less. I will run the company into the ground for the next two years and then leave, taking a 'severance bonus' of 2 years salary and stock options, all the while laying off employees with a promise not to contest their unemployment claims if they sign a waiver promising not to sue us." Is that about right?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
After seeing the excellent Netflix documentary entitled Print the Legend, I can't say I'm surprised about the downfall of Makerbot. Bre is a major tool, he let his success get to his head in the worst way.
Print The Legend
http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/80005444
We went from these being open source tools for 'makers' to little boxes that you put coins into and they spit out DRM'd content? It even sounds like they've given up on the consumer hardware and now just want to sell files. There's about a million other startups and existing companies that could do the same thing with no clear disadvantage now that they've said "Meh..." to the printing hardware.
X
iTunes is a horrible, bug-ridden, overly complicated piece-of-shit that isn't allowed into our company. Are you sure you want to be comparing your product to iTunes...?
I don't respond to AC's.
A certain 2 letter company that is known for 2d printers, has a 3d printer coming out that's gonna make almost every other 3d printer obsolete. They have a machine that prints strong parts fast with high resolution in color. And by fast, I mean faster than FDM.
Oh and they also solved some of the big problems with sintering type 3d printing like LS sintering. They also removed some pretty big maintenance headaches and appear to have made a machine that doesn't require a trained professional to operate. it also shares some of it's key parts with other 2d printers they already mass produce.
If they decide they want the consumer 3d printer market, they can easily dominate it. Of course they could easily mess things up if they charge $$$ for ink and require you to only use their powder. They are also collaborating with microsoft on a new 3d printing file format that "allows DRM," which is a bit scary.
Just like Yahoo.
There already is an iTunes for 3D. It's called Shapeways.com
Every time I read a 3D printer article, it always sounds like a solution desperately seeking a problem. For only slightly more money than just buying the thing at the store, you can print a tacky looking knockoff at home out of inferior materials.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Thingiverse was a nice site but I'll be honest I could never get past it having Makerbot stink on it.
Just imagine what disgusting they'll have to do to the (electronic) hardware and the software just because OMFG THE PIRATES GOING TO STEAL OUR DESIGNZ!!!
Hacker culture?
I'll pass.
Patent stealing scum with bad hardware and abysmal support... i don't think makerbot will survive the next to years.
And then all makerbot owners have those very expensive machines that constantly break and no spare parts available.
Stratasys sucks. It's pure and simple. I don't know if it's possible for Makerbot to "fork" .. that way a lame duck makerbot can exist with Stratasys and the Original Makerbot move on to do better things.
Laying off employees shows the CEO is punishing the rank and file and not taking any responsibility.