[MUSIC] So in this video, we are speaking to Mark Hatch, who's the co-founder and CEO of TechShop, which is a maker-space which provides multiple categories of tools. To allow you to make things. He talked about some of the examples that he has seen at his locations, and he has several locations in the US, and they're looking at global expansion as well. And he talked about two interesting examples which are things that you and me could think about making and developing a successful business around. And I think the main point he makes is that the availability and access to these tools is new, or rather, it has come back. We had access to tools, The Industrial Revolution sort of made us lose access and the big firms took control of production. And he's talking about a trend where that control on production is coming back to us because of the kind of tools, 3D printing being one. And he shared two interesting case studies of entrepreneurs who've been able to launch very successful businesses, very fast starting out with almost no skills in that product category. So, join us as we speak to Mark. >> My name's Mark Hatch. I'm the CEO and Co-founder of TechShop. Well we called The Industrial Revolution a revolution and what happened during that revolution is that the average person lost access to the tools and means of producing things themselves. And over a period it was relatively short, 30 to 40 years we moved from an agrarian economies to a Industrial economy and so they call that a revolution. We're now moving into an era where those tools are now coming back. So now, makers, anybody can have access to the same tools of the industrial revolution that historically only large institutions and organizations could afford. And what that means is we move from an era where maybe there are a few million institutions who can afford these tools and can afford to innovate. To where tens of millions and one hundreds of millions and eventually, billions of people will be able to innovate themselves. That is truly revolutionary. And we're going to move the capacity, the ability to innovate up to orders of magnitude just by putting more people at it. So that is absolutely a revolution. World Economic Forum calls it the fourth industrial revolution. I don't think its a fourth industrial revolution. I think it's a creative revolution, or a maker revolution because it has an impact on education, it has an impact on, of course, manufacturing and economics. But it has an individual impact and will actually help create and sustain tighter social bonds within a local community. So I like it to call it either a creative revolution or a maker revolution. TechShop is a very large maker space, it's 20,000 square feet and has every tool you need to make everything on the planet. It's really targeted at any kind of hobbyist who wants to get something done. Any kind of artist. And importantly, any kind of inventor. So we have all the tools that you need to make anything. Many of the smaller spaces will have something electronic, we'll have 3D printers which are fine and they help you pick up some of the skills. But our objective is to have these in every major city and to become an economic engine for that city, for individuals and creatives. We have currently eight locations in the US, three in the Bay Area, Phoenix, Austin, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and DC. We just opened Paris with Laurent Moulin, our French partner. Abu Dhabi And we're about to open Tokyo. the objective is to put a TechShop in every major city on the planet. I think at least 500 probably 1000 maybe 2000. I used to work at Kinko's, we had 800 locations in the US just to do paper and copies. I can't imagine having less than 800 TechShops to do physical objects with 3D printing and laser cutting and so forth. So, that's our objective. We'll see whether or not we get there. [SOUND] You can make anything there, and so we have a lot of people that do crafty projects and art projects or they're doing something for their church or synagogue or something. Then we have others who are really watching businesses and I think those are very inspiring. So I've got here one example. So this is an iPad case made out of bamboo and book binding. And Patrick Buckley came in to one of our location and asked our dream consultants, what we call them what classes do I need to take to learn how to use the tools to launch my iPad case company. And he took about 3 classes, it took him about a week and a half to get through the classes. He learned inventor, the design software, and launched his company. 90 days after he came through our door and I ask what classes do I need to take, he had already sold a million dollars in product. He sold $4 million in the first year, 10 million in the second, we believe 35 to $40 million in the third year. The president of the United States carries one of these. I've had the opportunity to meet president Obama and he showed off his case. He's actually pretty proud of it. So the theme here is that access to the tools, access to knowledge, access to the computers and so forth. Enable you to launch companies at speeds that we've never seen before. Three months, he had a million dollars in sales. He didn't have the knowledge that he needed when he walked in the door, so that's one example. One of my other favorite ones is Square. The little white dongle that goes on the end of your phone that does payment processing. James McKelvey is the cofounder there. He came in and took the injection molding class, he took the CNC milling class, took an Arduino class, some basic electronics, built the original prototypes for Square and eventually raised 10 million dollars on their series A. They just went public at $6 billion. His background by the way, he's a professional glass blower. He's got a beautiful glass studio in Saint Louis it's probably 15,000 square feet, he got three glory holes. As a glass blower, fundamentally changed the point of sale terminal business in the United States and around the world. And he gave it to anybody who had a checking account, not people who were qualified in the old way. It was just if you had a checking account and smartphone, you could now take American Express Discover Cards. That is so revolutionary, in fact, that the estimates are it created 30,000 jobs in August of 2012 alone by increasing the velocity of the money supply. So again, we live in an era where somebody can come in, pick up the skills that they need to be able to disrupt a major industry in a very short period of time. It is a revolution, it's very exciting. [SOUND] Absolutely, so at our locations we have like, in San Francisco well teach 200 to 250 classes on a monthly basis. So we don't assume that you know how to use the tools when you come through the door. Now they're mostly introductory classes, basically just to get you safe on a machine, or comfortable with what it is that you're working on, and then it's self-paced, and you kind of learn yourself. But the software is one of the real keys, and the design software in particular, one of our partners is Autodesk, and they've got some fabulous software, kind of introductory level. I like Tinkercad or Fusion 360 is their online software program. But you can get good enough after maybe 20, 30 hours of work to be able to actually produce things. That is new to the world, you never been able to be a millwright after thirty hours of training. You had to go through years of training to get any good at it. But now we've added software and the computer. The computer takes over and does the cutting. And you can become a in a very short period of time. And we think we're going to be short 200,000 CC operators in the next 10 or 15 years. And these are good paying jobs. These are 60, 70, $80,000 a year job being either an operator or a programmer. And you can take that training in a fairly short period of time and become fast out on it. It's critical, I believe, to learn 3D modeling, today. So, I liken this skill to, like in 1985, most people didn't know how to type. Excel didn't even exist. I think it was 1-2-3, Lotus 1-2-3, right? And only a few people actually spent the time in those early days, learning how to use the computer and manipulate things and so forth. Yet, we spool forward another 20 years and everyone's doing it. Kids are doing it at eight, nine, ten years old. They're expected to do this. It's in order to operate in a modern economy, you've got to be able to use. A word processor, PowerPoint, and Excel spreadsheet. In 20 years, you're going to need to be able to manipulate things in three dimensions because 3D printers and CNC machines are going to be ubiquitous. And if you want to create a project and you want to do a craft of some kind, you're going to want to use these tools to be able to make it happen. So, it's well worth your time. I think you're setting yourself up for success in the future by being one of the early adapters in learning how to use these tools. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [SOUND]
