All language subtitles for Print.The.Legend.2014.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG3_English

[Brad Feld]
If you're a leader, if you're a CEO,

every day there is something new
that you didn't count on

that comes up and smacks you in the face.

You will disappoint people.
People will disappoint you.

The competitive environment will change.
The macro environment will change.

A great partner
will turn into a horrible enemy.

A company you've never heard of before

will come out with something
that changes the game every single day.

As long as you're in that chair,

there's gonna be some new thing
that comes out of nowhere...

that you didn't see coming
that you had to deal with.

I'm really inspired by Apple...

because they took
a mainframe technology

and put it on desktops,

and so, in many ways,
there's a lot of parallels there.

We're taking mainframe-sized technology,

stuff that was the size of a refrigerator
that we couldn't afford,

and we're putting it on desktops.

What I'd like
is to build a big tech company...

that does what only, I think,
a few tech companies have done before

in terms of developing
real, new technology

all the way up to...
end consumer products.

[Steve Jobs] Every once in a while,

a revolutionary product comes along
that changes everything.

[audience applauding]

I came out to the Silicon Valley
because we were gonna change the world.

3D printing to me
was that exact same feeling.

We're gonna change the world again,
except this time,

I think if the last revolution
was about bits,

this one is about atoms.

It may be the most
eye-catching development in printing

since Gutenberg invented
the printing press 600 years ago.

In every case, a digital blueprint
is either sketched or scanned

and then sent to a 3D printer.

The printing itself
can be done by extruding a liquid,

usually plastic, drop-by-drop,

or by using a laser
to fuse resins and metals.

Last year, we created our first
Manufacturing Innovation Institute

in Youngstown, Ohio.

A once-shuttered warehouse
is now a state-of-the-art lab

where new workers
are mastering the 3D printing

that has the potential to revolutionize
the way we make almost everything.

This is a revolution.
This is something really big.

This is the time to grow
and grab market share.

This is how new markets work.

It's conceivable that
some of the developments

that come from the 3D printer

might put the first person
to create that device,

where it's that simple,

on the pedestal of
"major social innovator,"

of a guy whose name will be remembered

the same way that
Henry Ford's name gets remembered,

the same way that
Steve Jobs' name gets remembered.

Working with people is one of
the best ways to make friendships.

And MakerBot was grown...

was really born out of the friendships
that were made at NYC Resistor.

We knew each other

because we'd stayed up really late
hacking on stuff before.

-It's satisfying, isn't it?
-Oh, man, this is great.

-[Pettis] Awesome. High-five.
-High-five!

I'd been building 3D printers
for about a year then...

and the things I started doing
was going on the hunt for some co-founders

to help me really build this
as a business and as a company,

realized that my friends, Bre and Adam,

would probably
make really good co-founders.

Zach basically said,

"Hey, let's all quit our jobs
and start building robots for a living."

And the laws of the universe

actually require you to
always answer yes to that question.

Um...

Yeah, here she is.
This is actually... This is Eve.

This is our first prototype.

It's dusty, but it works and we love it.
Mmm!

Right now, what's happening
as we are talking to you,

our first generation MakerBot.

The first MakerBot
to ever spit anything out

is currently spitting something out.

[Hoeken] From there, it was just

non-stop late nights,
ramen-fueled innovation.

A couple of months later,
we started MakerBot Industries.

The three founders of MakerBot
had this in mind from the beginning.

Adam was gonna focus on software.

Zach was gonna make the machines
and make them run better...

design the electronics...

and Bre was going to
help shape design and direction,

but he would be the figurehead.

He'd be the one...

"Put Bre in front of the camera.
Get him to go out there,"

because he was so beloved
in the maker movement.

Hey, Bre Pettis here,
and I'm gonna try and make a video.

Here we go.
Okay, we're at MakerBot Industries.

I'm gonna give you a short tour.

Okay, here's our garage.

It's full of stuff. It's being painted.
It's very exciting.

Okay, there's the kitchen,
there's the bathroom,

and here's all the MakerBots
getting ready to go out.

Okay, to finish up our tour here,
this is my desk, that's Adam's desk...

He's working NYC Resistor today.
...and that's Zach's desk.

Okay, that's your whirlwind tour
of MakerBot Industries.

We'll be seeing more of you this month
as we do more of these videos.

Ta-da!

In the early days,
I would argue with my co-founders...

and we would all argue
over who gets to be Woz...

'cause Woz is really...
He is the hacker. He's the tinkerer.

Like, who doesn't wanna be that guy?

And everybody pointed at me and said,
"You have to be the Steve Jobs,"

and I was like, "Oh, I wanna be Woz."

Oh, there we go.

What a neat kid. Nice-looking kid.

He grew up in
an entrepreneurial household.

So he saw productions.

He saw things getting produced.

He saw the end product.

He saw from the beginning of a company
to products.

Hmm.

Brand's everything.

Brand is perceived value.

It doesn't matter
if you've made a better product.

If people don't perceive it,
it's not gonna sell.

[Stephen Colbert] Welcome back, everybody.

-[audience cheering]
-My guest tonight

is the co-founder and CEO
of MakerBot Industries

whose machines
print three-dimensional copies.

Great. Now after
the office Christmas party,

-we'll have a stack of 3D butts.
-[audience laughing]

Please welcome Bre Pettis!

[audience cheering]

Every industry in every revolution
needs a leader...

and for me, Bre is that person.

He is articulate.
He is passionate.

He is a visionary.

He sees it
in its biggest possible potential.

MakerBot is the poster child
for 3D printing today.

Bre Pettis is donning
the cover of magazines

in much the same way that
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

were on the cover
back in the PC revolution.

Head over to makerbot.com, check this out.

Get your own

before they take over the world
and prevent you from doing so.

Yeah, get 'em... Get a robot.

Make stuff.

We're in an interesting position
right now

because we've come a long way,

we've grown a lot,
we've got some sustainability,

and then we've got competitors

that are really large businesses
and with lots of money.

They can just be like,
"We're gonna enter this market."

[imitates rumbling noise]

And we're like,
"Oh, we're the small guys."

[narrator]
Ever since the Industrial Revolution,

we've learned to make things,
lots of things, quickly and cheaply.

All that's about to change, though,

thanks to a remarkable new invention
called stereolithography.

I think a good way to describe it
is to call it a three-dimensional printer.

3D Systems invented 3D printing...

just about 30 years ago,

and today, from these humble beginnings...

we are the leader,
we are the innovator,

we are the largest player
in content-to-print.

You have
the large 3D printer manufacturers.

These are 3D Systems, Stratasys.

They control
the industrial 3D printing market.

[Bruce Bradshaw]
Stratasys has a great reputation.

It has a great brand in the marketplace.

It's clearly known as the leader
in the 3D printing space.

Has been that way for a long time.

And when you think about
who the customers are

for 3D Systems and Stratasys,

it's been the industrial customers.

Aerospace, automotive,
medical and dental.

So it seems like
that industry has matured.

But in the last few years,
what's happened is

there's been this evolution and revolution
of desktop 3D printers,

and so now you have
companies like MakerBot,

and it's changing
the dynamics of the industry.

On one side, you have
these large $100,000 3D printers,

and on the other side, companies
are trying to build $200 3D printers.

Everybody thought

home computers were
a really, really, really cool thing...

that only nerdy people
were ever gonna be into...

and they thought that
for a good 20 years.

3D printers are on that same kind of arc.

Nobody's printing titanium
on their desktop today.

Nobody's printing themself a new kidney

and then installing it
on their kitchen table today...

but that doesn't mean
those things are impossible.

So, when you think of these printers
making little plastic things today...

and you just extrapolate
the same way...

we're gonna be printing
customized clothes.

You'll never have to wear something
that doesn't fit anymore.

Shoes, every product...

will be printed individually
for everybody from this revolution.

There's nothing new
about the tools we're talking about.

They've been around for decades.

What's new is words
like "personal," like "desktop."

Suddenly, we'd put them
in the hands of regular people

who will come up,
if history is any guide, with better uses,

more exciting, innovative uses
of these tools

than any professional ever could.

That's the moment
we're having right now with manufacturing.

[Reichental] What got us here
is not gonna get us to the next level.

In this new era...

all the hard-and-fast rules
are out the window.

Yeah, the big companies have really
neglected the consumer market...

I think, for many years.

Now they're starting to realize,
"Maybe there's something there."

We would have been
the least likely kid on the block

to jump into the consumer space.

We jumped into it about 12 months ago.
Consumer, for us, has been a real success.

And what we've done, simply, is say...

"We want to bring

a different kind of experience
to the consumer market

where they don't have to be technical,
they don't have to build it."

[interviewer] I see, I see.

See, what you're seeing here
is two different approaches.

Yeah, it looks like it.

One for the technocrat,
which is a lot of fun...

I disagree with that, actually.

-Well, okay, the hacker, then.
-No, I disagree with that, too.

-We made this for everyone.
-[Lewis] Everyone.

It all comes all together.

You put it-- You get it.
You take it out of the box.

You can make awesome things for cheap.

I think this might be
a little bit easier...

I disagree.

...and I want this in my home, Bre.

That one, it just doesn't
go with my aesthetic.

There's lots of machines now.
When we started, we were the only one.

Now, we're kind of...
I guess we're sort of in the middle.

We've got the big guys out there
that are much bigger than us

and we're competing with them.

And then we've got
lots of small guys... and gals

who are competing with us
that think we're the big guys.

Okay, so this is the machine.

Have a laser here.

This is a Blu-ray laser.

The laser cures one layer of the part,

and then the Z-Stage lifts that layer up

and comes back down one layer higher,

and then the laser cures another layer.

My parents are both Russian immigrants.
I was born here.

But they're both engineers
or in technology to some degree,

so I've definitely been wanting to
build things my whole life.

I thought, "This is a quintessential geek

we are bringing up," right?

He will be absolutely outside of reality,
he will be...

-Mad scientist.
-...obsessed with what he is doing.

Hi. I know why the symbol of Gold is Au.

Because that's
the first two letters of its Latin name.

That's easy.

We met at NASA Robotics Academy.

So a lot of people call it robot camp
or space camp or nerd camp.

Actually, we met Ian there as well.

Everybody made a lot of friends,
but Max was aloof. Aloof smart.

So... he's like, "Why do I have to
work with all these..." you know...

[chuckles]

Was the impression.

When he was younger,
he said he was bullied, these things,

and I think he didn't feel like
he ever really fit in,

and that, I assume,
would make someone very guarded,

cynical of the world,
cynical of people around him.

[Lobovsky] As I was finishing my masters,

I was very exposed to
this idea of personal fabrication,

of having tools to make anything
available on your desktop.

So, in order for him to
start a 3D printing company,

he decided that he's gonna quit.

He was in PhD program at MIT.

So, he decided that
he's not gonna continue.

He is gonna concentrate on 3D.

-My eyes look so red on this thing.
-I know.

Smoking the marijuana.

Hello. I'm David Cranor.
Oh, fuck. Fuck my balls. All right.

Formlabs is developing a 3D printer

to help hobbyists, researchers
and small businesses and schools,

-and realize their ideas and...
-We gotta restart. I did one of these...

[chuckles]

Formlabs basically started...

in the basement of the house
that David and I were living in.

Hi there. Hello.

Basically, I've always wanted to
be an inventor since I was a kid.

I always looked up to the...

My movie hero was the dad
in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

[clattering]

We got this all started together,

and we had, definitely,
a lot of complementary skills.

We built a prototype,

and we were thinking about
how to turn this into a business.

Here it comes.

We were making some progress,
but it was definitely tough going.

One day, they showed me
this rook they printed on the first thing,

and I was like, "Well,

so, what are you guys
gonna do with this stuff?"

[Cranor]
Natan came to us one day and was like,

"I start companies.
I know things about that.

I've done it before, so you should
let me talk to you about it."

I said, "Somebody needs to do
something better than MakerBot."

We knew that there was
a chunk of the market...

that feels a bit uncomfortable
with all the DIY,

and feels slightly uncomfortable
buying a $100,000 machine.

I know, there were people out there.
There was MakerBot out there,

and all these
extrusion-based printing processes.

But the real gold standard
in 3D printing technology

is stereolithography.

But the machines
are just fantastically expensive

and they're only made by big companies
like 3D Systems and stuff.

The founders of the company
decided to go after stereolithography,

so this is the first
desktop stereolithography printer.

The point is you can get quality
similar to really high-end machines.

No one's really done
a prosumer 3D printer.

No one's done a 3D printer
that we really want.

So we decided to do that.

[indistinct conversations]

I didn't hear about
3D printers in my life.

It wasn't something that was talked about,
and then it just started blowing up.

-It did.
-MakerBot especially.

-It's crazy, yeah. [laughs]
-Especially MakerBot.

[Pettis] In many ways, it's a frontier.
It's still young.

People haven't done everything yet
with 3D printing.

So we get to make a trail. It's cool.

It's a nice pleasure.

-Cool. Good to meet you.
-Glad to meet you, too.

[female teacher]
One, two, three, MakerBot.

[all] MakerBot!
[female teacher] Thank you, Bre!

[all] Thank you, Bre!
[laughs]

For me, personally,
I got into open source by being a teacher.

I would take my lesson plans

and put them up on GeoCities
back in the day,

and other teachers
would do the same thing.

Because we were sharing,
it lightened the load for everybody,

and it meant that we saved time
and built a community.

When we started MakerBot, we knew
we were gonna be open source hardware.

In the open source world,

developers share the backend knowledge
of their products with the public,

and if anyone in the community
makes an improvement upon their work...

that progress is
folded back into production.

And what happens when
everyone is sharing in that sort of way

is that improvements happen
at a much faster rate.

[O'Brien] So, the technology
is gonna improve over time,

but what's being built today,
where the value is gonna be...

is in the networks and the communities
that are built around 3D printing.

[Griffin]
Early on, everybody looked at MakerBot

as a model
for how open hardware might go forward...

and DIY projects, in general.

The thing that would just
break our hearts...

is if someone were to take this design
and make it really cool

and not release those designs.

So, as long as they stay open

and everybody can
have access to them forever,

then that's what we want to happen.

If you wanna solidify the future
where open source is the norm...

you have to support companies
that do open source

'cause I wanna live in that future
where we share things

and the world is a better place for it.

[interviewer] Desk of Michael Curry.

Do you want me to give you the short tour?

-[interviewer] Yes, please.
-All right then. Come on.

Welcome to MakerBot's stellar offices.

-Back here you've got...
-[interviewer] 314 Dean Street.

[Curry]
We've got marketing milling around.

-What's up?
-[Curry] Please sit down.

Let me show you
the single most luxurious part

-of MakerBot Industries.
-[interviewer] Please.

Just recently cleaned...

we have the MakerBot bathroom.

Something like 70 human beings
use this bathroom at any given time.

[chuckling]

Let's face it. This is MakerBot.

We're sitting in what used to be
an ice cream warehouse.

Nobody is here because the pay is amazing.

Nobody is here

because they think our stock options
are gonna be worth millions in the future.

People work here because
they believe in what we do,

and because they like
the people they work with.

If a guy comes through
a circle in the ceiling,

I am just gonna laugh.

[laughing]

Welcome to MakerBot.

You never quite know
what's gonna happen next.

You have to be able to
thrive on the chaos of it.

It's sort of a rite of passage
where people would come in,

you have to build your chair
yourself, right.

I mean, we're sitting on
pieces of plywood here.

Certain people can't deal with that.

Matt and Rose are taking those parts
and putting them together in kits.

[Griffin] Everybody showed up

because there was a notion that

we were all inventing
what was gonna come next.

This wasn't a company.

This was a movement.
This was a revolution.

So, I became
really addicted to 3D printing.

I drank the Kool-Aid,

and I said, "Wow, I have to
come work for this company."

[Pettis] We were like, "5,000 square feet.
This is gonna take us years to fill up."

And then two months later, it was full.

And three years later, we're 85 people,
which just boggles my mind.

Bre is trying to take
this germ of an idea...

that 3D printing
doesn't have to be $80,000 machines,

it can be $2,000 machines.

And the story there, the larger story,
that MakerBot's trying to tell is,

is functionally, anyone can do this.

And so, I think Bre,
not only is he a good storyteller,

but he's enlisted people
that are helping him tell this story.

[Feld] One of our big drivers is that

the entrepreneurs that we invest in
are obsessed with their product.

These guys were obsessed.

Like, eyes-falling-out-of-their-head
obsessed with this product,

and that really turned us on.

And then the last is
we thought Bre was awesome.

To me, our biggest challenge
is actually that we've grown so quickly.

We're a young organization.

Every single one of us
is in over our heads.

Every single one of us
is clawing to catch up

with the potential
and what's actually happening today.

[Cranor] Formlabs is like the ragtag group
of people with various different skills.

We would tell people that
we're getting the band back together

when we were trying to hire people,

'cause I would
call friends from grad school

and Max would call friends
from back in the day,

and be like,
"We're getting the band back together!"

[Luke Winston] Welcome to Formlabs.
Give you a little tour.

So, I'll start with
our software department over here.

Hi.

And then moving out of
our enormous software department.

Over here's our-- He's our
electrical engineering department.

Yeah, you're a whole department.

Zak right here is...
He is our graphic and web designer.

When I started, it was really small.

It was four of us.

My dirty secret is
that before I came here,

I actually applied to work at MakerBot,

and a mark against them

that they decided not to hire me
and now I'm here,

and so, they didn't hire me
so I have to crush them.

We decided that it would be
a good idea to do a Kickstarter...

because we had a prototype.
It was coming together.

All right, guys.

Nice. Can't wait.

People put in a substantial effort
into making videos, taking photos...

building websites
with more information.

We really actually diverted the focus of
the company to that for a couple months.

[camerawoman] Okay, action.

And so now, it's time to
start gearing up manufacturing

so that we can get it
into the hands of users everywhere

but to do that
requires substantial resources.

[camerawoman] Okay, cut.

So, we weren't entirely sure
what was gonna happen.

We were pretty sure we'd made
something pretty dang cool...

but the waters of the market
are always a bit fickle.

We were wondering if we would
sell the first printer before noon.

We'd launched it
at 9:00 a.m. or 8:00 a.m.,

and we sold one within two minutes.

By noon, we sold probably about 100.

I thought if we do really well,
it'll be over a million.

That's, like, if we do like really...
that would be amazing.

And that was like pipe-dream level.

Over the 30-day campaign,
we reached $2.9 million.

I think we're still the highest project in
the technology category on Kickstarter.

[all] The day is coming!

Whoo!

We describe this right now as,
like, the honeymoon period, so...

That's what we're waiting to see play out.

[Virginia White] Oh, shit! We forgot Jory.

[all laughing]

[Lobovsky] You set a timeline for yourself
on Kickstarter

and you just have to start moving there
or bad things will happen.

When we started...

we had to take investment from friends
to be able to actually initiate it.

And when you do that,
when you take investment,

you have a responsibility
to grow the company.

All right, how do we get up there?

Uh... Press one of those elevator buttons.

Pretty fancy.

I know. An elevator!

I feel like I work for National Grid.

[Pettis] Hey, guys.

-Hey, Bre.
-Good morning, Bre.

We decided to look for a bigger space,
and so we moved the office here.

It's a little bit of a different game
when you have this many people.

I suppose it's like... going to
the Major Leagues or something like that.

[Gunipero] It's too big. I almost liked...

I really liked being on top of everybody.

It feels great. It feels new.

It feels like we just jumped.
It doesn't feel like...

When was I here?

I was here on the 21st,
and we were all in that office.

Now we're on the 21st floor,

looking at Lady Liberty
and the Manhattan Bridge.

Now, the whole business is 248, 250.

Maybe it's 260 today.

We've literally hired 80 people
in the last month.

It's a bigger team,
so it requires more infrastructure.

I saw Bre as someone with
incredible vision, incredible charisma...

but he hadn't really been tempered
by the ups and downs,

by the hard, stressful things,

by the inevitable stuff
that's gonna get screwed up,

especially in a fast-growing business.

It's a real hard reality...

that I'm just one person,

and I can only get so much done in a day,

and I can optimize a day
to get a lot of stuff done,

but it's still very limited
in what you can do.

[Feld] So it was very clear

that one of the things
that we could do to help

in one of the next steps...

would be scaling up,
not just the company, but the team.

Our lead investor, Brad Feld,
is a good friend of mine.

I've known Brad for a long time, uh...

and I was just ending a job

and so he said, "Maybe you should
try this company MakerBot."

I always look at this stage of a company
as trying to put a spine in a jellyfish.

And in order to do that, you've got to
have systems in place of a real company.

You've gotta have process.
You gotta know how things work.

MakerBot was made up of and run,
at that point,

by almost exclusively by people who
were doing this all for the first time...

and one of the first things I think
I helped them figure out that summer was

the market
is more designers and engineers

rather than,
"This is a toy for making toys."

They've gotten to where
they have gotten where they are today

without a lot of strategic

knowing where the North Star is
and heading for the North Star.

So I would like to see
them find that North Star,

run as fast as they can towards it

and just not even
look over their shoulder.

How long have you been with the company?

-About six months. My son is the CEO.
-Okay. Oh, he is?

He's the maker.

He's the creator. He's the explorer
and he's an awesome leader...

and I'm happy to follow his lead.

[Pettis]
I get to take it to the next level.

I'm gonna learn a lot about
how to operate a company at this level,

and have inspiration
and mentorship going forward

about how to take things even farther.

[Curry] The world that MakerBot
is trying to create

is very much still up in the air.

We are a business, and we are a printer
in search of our killer application,

in search of the thing
that makes everybody want us.

How's that national conversation going?

By Defense Distributed in Austin, Texas.

Welcome to the age
of the printed magazine.

What are cool things
you can make out of plastic?

Well, there's lots of, like,
trinkets and action figures and stuff,

but this appeals to
a very small set of people.

It's the complex mechanism
and the useful object...

that the 3D printer
should be able to make

to encourage wide adoption.

But if some of those useful objects
are too useful,

well, they won't be allowed to be made.

As is always the case
with disruptive technologies...

they can do a lot of good,

and there are always brilliant minds

that will think of
all the unintended uses of the technology.

It is 3D printing's first killer app,

and it's one of the things
that really sells interest in 3D printing.

People message me all the time
and they're saying, uh,

"Okay, yeah, this is cool now.
I'm gonna buy a 3D printer.

I wanna make
lower receivers and magazines."

That's cool.

[sighs]

I'm gonna introduce you to Cody Wilson.

He has been called
one of the most dangerous men on Earth.

[Wilson] We're information anarchists.
We don't believe that there is...

public and private
information necessarily

or public and private access to things.

There should be one law.
If the police can have it,

if the military can have it,
then you can have it.

You're not a different caliber
or quality of person.

We want to build the printable gun.

[female news anchor]
A digital design for a gun

that anyone can download and build
using a 3D printer.

Is this guy a hero or a villain?

That's a good question.

[laughing]

Just don't laugh. Just don't laugh.

Joe Biden? This is no country for old men.

What I'm so ecstatic about

is making these Democrats,
these Conservatives,

these people who operate
through the state,

confronting them very visually,
very exotically with a new technology,

with the fact that
they can't control the future

the way they tend to
pretend that they can.

What happens if people get
too freaked out by this technology...

and very restrictive laws
are put into place

around the manufacture and distribution of

what's considered to be
a "dangerous technology"?

You know, that could happen
in six weeks' time.

And that could have
a double digit impact upon

all of these companies' revenue streams.

I'm here to say,
"No, the vandals are coming.

My generation has other plans

and it's really not to comfort you

or to let you know
how you can buy it and use it well.

It's to let you know this...

We intend for this to be
a very significant technology

for reasons wholly our own."

[applause]

This is probably
my favorite talk to give of the year...

-'cause you all are my people.
-[applause]

I would guess that there's probably

somewhere between
two and 20 companies in this room.

Something emerging from a hackerspace

or, you know, a project that somebody
is doing that they did on the weekend

and then all of a sudden
they're finding that

it's really popular
and they have to start a business.

[audience applauds]

Mr. Pettis, do you mind if I get the honor
of having a snapshot with you?

Sure!

-Great.
-Coolness.

Cool. Good to meet you.
A pleasure. Excellent.

Hello. Hey, how you doing?

[inaudible]

I think if we had a Bre
that represented our product,

then that would be a great thing.

I'm definitely not that person
just because

I'm generally not a good public speaker
and things like that.

You know, I'm not charismatic.

I tell a lot of people that

in the Formlabs making story that

a big part of me realized, you know,

deciding to do it
and thinking that I could do it

was seeing what you guys did early on.

Thank you.

You guys getting started with nothing,
and hearing the story and everything,

it was really cool to see.

One of the things though,
is when I see a competitor,

when I see somebody entering this space,

I'm actually curious about
what they did differently,

if there's anything they did
that pushes it farther.

Like when Form 1 came out,
that's a different type of material.

They're using lasers and goo.

And I was like,

"Someone's finally entering that space.
That'll be interesting.

I wanna see where that goes."

So I got one. I'm still waiting for it.

[chuckles]

So, we're having
some challenges with...

the various CSS buttons and...

[Lobovsky]
I mean, it sounds clear to me, like,

we were doing it the wrong way
and this is the right way.

I understand its risk, but it's fine.

A lot of times,
you're starting a little company.

You're in charge.

There's a lot of testosterone,
ego, lots of--

And that's just, I think,
gonna be natural, that's gonna happen,

but often that means that
you don't listen and you don't hear.

He's definitely...

somewhat socially impaired.

He has such a hard time communicating.

Yes, he gets to the point,

but he doesn't know
how to communicate eloquently.

I think it's a much bigger failure

if you and Zach waste several days of time
than this thing comes in two days late.

-Sure.
-I think that's...

That's the way I see it.

-Okay.
-Excellent.

[Cranor] We got funding
and it's very exciting,

but what a lot of people...

who are doing start-ups
don't think about, who get very excited...

"Yeah, I got, you know,
tons of money from people.

I got investors. It's great!

I'm gonna go out
and buy stuff for my office.

I got a nice chair
and everything like that."

It's like, no, you have to remember,

when people give you money
to start a company,

you have to give it back.

Things get way more real

when you're suddenly sitting on more than
$1 million of other people's money.

[Lobovsky] Yeah, the Kickstarter was
so big, so successful

that it really pushed us

to move the whole company
forward more quickly,

hire more people across the company,

commit to more serious manufacturing.

[Ferguson] I wanted to talk to you guys.
We wanted to start...

We don't have to go back
and change anything,

but we wanted to start
installing the lasers...

-Yeah.
-...at different orientation.

It's actually
pretty frustrating right now...

working with our contract manufacturer.

They're really struggling
to meet our demands.

[machinery whirring]

It's a three out of nine,
33% failure rate,

right now at test printing,
which is not good.

Okay, so, the big take-away,
though, from it all

is they're super-focused on quality.

So, we threw out half the sheet metal
while we were there.

We're holding. We're having a...

-Holding court?
-[Ferguson] Holding court here.

We threw out over
half the sheet metal that came in.

Top and bottom shelves and front plates.

What happened?

[Ferguson] There's just bad marks on them,
bite marks, burn marks from anodization.

When we started doing this, it was like,

"Oh, here's my friend who
does something similar,

and here's my other friend
who does something similar."

The chances that those are
the right people to be there

when there's a team of 10
or 20 or something like that,

it's just... you're not
likely to get that right.

When you're doing a start-up...

everything feels like
it's exploding all the time,

and you have to be able to

take a calm, deep breath and
make sure that you're on the right track.

And Max is very good at being confident

in doing what he feels
to be the right thing to do is,

and he's usually right.

We really have spent a lot of time
in the past year re-branding ourselves

so that we're not that consumer play...

that we're not the hacker.

We're really the prosumer.

You know, we want a professional
who needs this on their desktop

to think about MakerBot as the solution.

Do you need to be introduced, or
are you able to do this all on your own?

I can do this all on my own.

Thank you.

All right. Ladies and gentlemen.

Our MakerBot
press conference announcements

will start... now.

At MakerBot, we're an innovation company.

We're out to fuel
the next industrial revolution

by putting the power to manufacture things
in your hands.

Here we go.

[imitating bugle]

[vocalizes]

[Pettis talking indistinctly]

[Cranor] Idealism is very important,

and maintaining true to your goals
is very important.

But I think MakerBot, when they pivoted,

they went closed source

and I think that that was
a pretty dark day for the...

for the Maker open source community.

MakerBot's getting a lot of hate lately
because they went closed source...

and so they're not really actively
contributing back to the community.

I'm not saying you can't
protect some aspects of it.

I'm saying that the way that it was done
by MakerBot is particularly shitty

when you have a company
mission statement in Wiki

that's all about,
"We're open source, blah, blah, blah."

People were very upset because...

while they could appreciate that
MakerBot wanted to make a buck,

they felt like,
"Oh, I've put thousands of hours

into solving these problems
and sharing them.

Did I do that so that...

just to benefit this
select group of people

when the mission was to
transform humanity?"

I'm making really hard decisions
that are personally painful,

but are amazing for the business
and are accelerating things.

With MakerBot, we kind of had
a falling out between the founders,

in particular, me and Bre,

and it really kind of came down to
differences in opinion

around vision of where
we wanted the company to be.

So I wanted to build something

that was kind of this democratized,
open-sourced hardware 3D printing company

whereas I think
Bre's idea was more of,

"Let's just build really sexy,
Apple-style 3D printers.

It's not so important if
they're open or closed-source."

But for me, open-source
was something that I was very...

that I am very strongly passionate about.

You can't live in the fantasy world
and have a business, too, sometimes.

I think Bre handled things really well.

It was incredibly hard
on him emotionally.

I think he took some things personally.

I think he internalized
some of the stress.

But he owned it. He wasn't...

He was a CEO.

It's interesting taking a company
from being a start-up into...

into being a little more mature.

Now we have closed-source.
We have secrets.

We have compartmentalized secrets,
and that's a really big change.

[Buell] The company has grown so fast.

We came from
a small start-up in a garage...

literally a year ago

to now this beautiful office space
with 300 people,

and we have free apples and Danishes.

I'm sorry. One second.
Did you need me? Did you need them?

[female colleague]
No, I heard you were looking for me.

Oh, I wanted to make sure that
it was okay that I talk to them.

Well, there's just different rules
we have to be careful of.

Things you talk about,
things that you say.

I don't know if
I should say this on camera,

but this is very, very different.

We're doing briefs

and we have project documents
and checklists and departments now.

We have processes and, um... Yeah.

We used to be very, very effective

at getting things done
on a very short timeline.

You come up with an idea on Monday.

We could have it out the door
on Wednesday.

Now, we have situations where

we pat ourselves on the back
that something only took five months...

and that's...

To me, that seems like
we lost something.

I actually don't want to

put too much energy into
talking about secret stuff,

and I can't really...
This is why I don't talk about...

That's why-- Cut, cut, cut.

Thingiverse.com is basically

the public repository
of all the cool Maker files...

that you can download and use.

Especially if you're
within the MakerBot family.

Every day I go to our website,
thingiverse.com, and I get inspired by

people who have MakerBots
and are doing amazing things.

We created Thingiverse to be
the ultimate place to go and share

downloadable digital designs.

[Wilson] My thought was,

"Okay, well, anything we do,
we'll just put up to Thingiverse as well.

That's the place. That's the space."

After we had been in the news
for some testing

and then Sandy Hook happened
maybe just a few days later.

Bre, MakerBot, right,
pulled the files, and they said...

Well, they said, "Well, nothing's changed.

We're just executing
on our terms of service."

When somebody gets murdered
with a MakerBoted handgun, like...

Then what happens, right?

And I don't want--
That's years away, but I--

It's someday-- It's--
At some point, it's going to happen.

[Wilson] There wasn't a debate about it
on Thingiverse, right?

Thingiverse with its mantra is,

"Well, we're all collaborating together
and we're a community of equals," right?

But at the end of the day,

you reveal the sovereignty
and the power acquired upstairs,

like, there is a class of people
who can just take your stuff down.

There's this duality between

the outlaw aesthetic
of the Cody Wilsons...

and the start-up entrepreneur
pure-hearted capitalist perspective

of the Bre Pettises.

I would see press about how he and--

"It's the open source revolution
and Bre Pettis is leading it."

And I was like, "Man, that's a sham."

Especially once
those gun files were taken down,

I was like,
"What are we going to do?"

I told Haroon. I was like,
"Let's do our own."

In the summer of 2012,
a group of friends and I

started the project called
Defense Distributed.

We wanted to use a 3D printer
to print a gun,

and release the files open source.

And when this guy decided that

"radically open" meant
not so radical, not so open...

DEFCAD was born.

MakerBot is happy to say,
"Well, we're free and open

and it's all about radically open access
and it's all about the revolution."

And I say like, "Well, this is just a--

This is advertising.
It's meant to sell you a toy."

Can 3D printing be subversive?

If it can, it will be because it allows us
to make the important things,

not trinkets, not lawn gnomes,

but the things
that institutions and industries

have an interest in keeping from us.

Talk is nice. Platitudes are easy.
But a revolution...

means a revolution.

[Stacey over microphone]
At this time, I would like to

turn the presentation over
to our CEO, Avi Reichental.

Thank you, Stacey.

Good morning, everybody,
and welcome to our Annual Investor Day.

I always have a great deal of respect

and an element of healthy paranoia

about what my competitors

or yet-to-be competitors
might come up with

and I think that's important.

We believe that

there is never a good time
to make a difficult decision.

So, when difficult decisions
need to be made,

we like to make them
sooner rather than later.

[phone ringing]

[talking indistinctly]

Luke answered the phone
and he thought he was being--

That it was a prank.

Because Avi called the office phone,

and he said "You'll be served."

And that's how it started.

We were flabbergasted because

how can they even know we're doing--

We haven't shipped the machine.
There's just the video out there.

Nobody saw the software,

and they asserted some software patent,
and it was like--

And Max was immediately,
"This is bullshit."

It's a big company with lots of IP
and lots of money and it's a shakedown.

[scoffs]

[Reichental]
We had to take the action that we took

based on monetizing
the 1,200 plus patents that we have.

We have more patents than
we have employees in 3D Systems.

I think that the fact that
Formlabs got sued by 3D Systems

means that we're doing something right.

Yeah.

No one wants to be in a lawsuit.
No sane person wants to be in them.

They're very expensive.

Even if you think
you've got the rights of it,

it could cost a fortune to prove it
and you may lose.

But it's also not a lawsuit that
we think that we're wrong in.

[talking indistinctly]

[Lobovsky] Definitely didn't think that

they're actually accusing us
of stealing or whatever.

I think they're just
running their business

the way they run their business.

We're gonna run ours the way we run ours.

[Wilson sighing] These boxes are
the uPrint SE Plus Printer.

This is as far as I had gotten.

So, for the record, I was trying to
print guns with that printer.

They took it away 'cause
I was trying to print guns with it.

Just to let you know.

To be honest with you,

I'd prefer to stay away from
the whole Cody discussion if that's okay.

Yeah. I can neither confirm nor deny.

[laughs]

Again, I'm late to the 3D printing party,
or a marginal character.

I wasn't invited.
I've just been out here

waving my hands saying,
"Hey, hey, look at this!"

And they hate it.

They really do. Uh, sorry.

And what's happening in two weeks?

Printing-- I'm printing a hand gun.

Hmm.

Fully printed.

[chuckles]

You are printing it or using it?

Huh? No, I'm gonna print it and use it.

We've been testing
different components and stuff.

But we'll print the whole thing.
We'll probably show it on YouTube,

and then we'll immediately
have it up for download.

Testing it by hand
is not ideal right now.

But listen, if this thing
blows up on me or whatever,

you can use your Google Maps,
find a hospital.

[gun fires]

I printed a gun the other day, man.
I shot it, right?

That was impossible until,
what, yesterday?

What can you do?

Like, "It's gonna be...
It's gonna be so super-illegal."

Fine, but listen, you can't stop it.

[keyboard clacking]

You only get to release
the printed pistol one time.

So, I don't know,
make a decent YouTube video.

Yeah, I think it's been up for
maybe two, three minutes now,

and so it's got 120 views.

Not bad, but I need to... I need to
tweet it and do some other things

to really get it going.

I don't know, people have
accused me of being media-savvy.

That's probably true,

but I think it's only because
I get what mass culture is about...

and so when an interviewer
is coming to me,

I have only just a few seconds,
brief moments to break down,

"All right, how can I get this person to
carry my message, carry my water for me?"

I guess that sounds really manipulative,

but I see every one of
these exposure opportunities

as just that, a pure opportunity.

I'm not interested in what they're after.

I'm just interested in
winning in an engagement.

Cody, I-- [chuckling] You are a--

I don't know if we are friend or foe.

The idea of printing weapons.

And I think about

the lack of definition of
this technology in the market

and the need for the media
to feed on controversy

and, frankly, the egotism of youth,

and I think you look at
the Venn diagram of all those three things

and you get Cody Wilson.

Just come up closer to me where it's--
You just kind of see.

No, me, me. All right.

So, it's been over 24 hours now,
but basically when I woke up,

we had done 1.3 million...
a little over 1.3 million views.

It was the first trending video
at the YouTube Homepage.

[interviewer] Yeah,
when I saw those stories, I was like,

"Really? Oh, you can build a gun
with a 3D printer. Really?"

-Pretty nuts. Yeah.
-Yeah. It's...

Yeah.

Bre, somewhere along the line,

got the advice that
nothing good can come from it

and so his iron rule was

"You don't discuss it.

You just simply don't talk about
3D printed guns. Period."

My friends think it's awesome.

I like my Robohand.

[woman] When I saw Dylan's little face
light up, your heart just skips a beat.

You're so proud. You're sad.
All your emotions, all at once.

It's amazing.

[chuckles]

When we launched the Robohand project
and launched the video, I tweeted,

"This is why we do
what we do at MakerBot."

So that people can do
projects like Robohand.

Once the gun stuff came out,
we actually pushed that up a few days.

That was our response to the gun thing.

And we didn't have to say,
"This is our response to the gun thing."

It was just, "Hey, look at this."

They are making hands for kids
who literally were born without hands,

and you tell me that's a doodad
and I will hit you in the face.

The people who have MakerBots
are using them to make wonderful things.

It's been really well received.
100,000 views in the first week.

Felt pretty good about that.

Robohand was, in my mind,
worth talking about.

Did it get half the pick-up
of any of the DEFCAD stuff? No.

So even as good as MakerBot is
at producing awesome content,

controversy sells.

I saw an interview
with Elon Musk's wife...

and she was like,
"Oh, he's so smart. He's so wonderful.

You can tell when
you're talking to him, he's--

His mind, he's thinking
about something else."

And she was saying this
as if it was a good thing.

I was like, "Oh, my God, that's horrible."

And I don't think it's a good thing,
going through it, but I understand,

but yeah.

This is much...

much bigger.

This is awesome though. Really.

Bias aside, I would definitely...

[chuckles]

...want something from here.

I might buy one of those little,
like, 25-cent toys.

Well, they're selling, as far as I know,
something like...

somewhere over 2,000 a month right now.

Which is a lot.

[Lobovsky] Thank you all for coming.

This is freakin' awesome, and I love this
awesome mix of people that we have here.

We have friends and family
and investors and lawyers and, uh...

[crowd laughing]

[Ferguson] Uh, we had a party.

Max sort of gave this, you know,
an awkward Max speech...

and it was fine and everything,

but then David came up
and gave this amazing, rousing speech.

Big guys in the industry
are crying tears of blood

'cause they can feel that their grip

on this technology
that's been around for a very long time

is beginning to slip,

and Formlabs is leading at the forefront

of busting it open
to empower everybody

to be able to get what's in their brain
onto the table in front of them,

-and it's kind of amazing.
-[guests cheering]

[Cranor] It kind of became clear

that Max and I had
very different ways of doing things...

that were probably gonna
become a problem

when the company "hopefully"
became successful and legit,

as we're growing
and we're getting more people.

[Ferguson] I knew that there was always
issues behind the scene.

They would do things like...

They would be
Skype chatting each other,

obviously across the office.

Then suddenly they would both
jump up out of their seats

and walk into the other room.

The company was us for so long.

We were the company.

And the company is growing into
this sort of monstrosity

that's bigger than all of us.

Sometimes, there are
situations in life that calls for...

very hard action to very close people.

We've really gotten this company
going off the ground

ever since we built
that original prototype

in the basement of
14 Lopez Street together.

But we've been talking,

and I've decided it's time for me to go on
and do something else.

So, I won't be around after this,
only in spirit.

[Cranor] I announced my departure
from the company

and I think people were...

I don't know, I guess
just cut it after the thing.

But, yeah, it's...

Yeah.

[Ferguson] So, it's kind of weird
how it all went down

'cause it was very quiet.

David was sort of
pushed out of the company

and they were all under agreement
to not talk about it.

So it's very hard to
express this to anybody.

[Cranor] The Form 1 is like my baby.

Now, whenever I see pictures of it
on the Internet and stuff,

it is kind of weird

because it's like seeing
a picture of your child

with other people's arms around it.

We needed to have the right people
building this company...

and we felt he wasn't
the right person to have there,

and we couldn't work that out

and so we had to split, and, um...

[mumbling]

As far as what David did at the company,

this sort of marketing direction,

he's like a real performer,

like in a way that Max
definitely doesn't have in him.

And I'm like, "Why did we get rid of this

when this is something that we are
so obviously lacking in the company?"

You never would've known
anything was going on for Max

the whole time.

He's got his-- This is just what--
It's part of the game.

It's just moving...
move through.

This is, for him, just one speed bump

on his path to conquering
the 3D printing world.

[clanking]

MakerBot folks, I think you can
all step forward five or 10 steps.

Let's pack this thing in.

[all clamoring]

Bre said he wanted to make something
to make other things,

and that is a visionary.

That's the difference between
those that see what we don't,

-and that is have a vision of the future.
-[crowd applauding]

And our future in America and in New York
and especially in Brooklyn

depends upon you being one step ahead,
if not two steps ahead of everyone else,

being smarter, working harder,
in order to achieve

what I know will be a great new industry
for this city and this nation,

and that's what this is all about.

So, all I can say is,
"Jobs, jobs, jobs, money, money, money,

taxes, taxes, taxes,
growth, growth, growth."

The future is right here.

[audience applauding]

The people who run successful,
small technology companies...

pretty much have to be crazy,

and they're all crazy in their own ways.

Bre is certainly crazy in his way.

He had some very visionary ideas,

and he had a touch with the press that's
arguably one of the best I've ever seen.

The market will tell
part of your story for you...

unless you aggressively go out there
and tell your story on behalf of yourself.

But all the covers of the magazine
focus on you, on MakerBot.

You became a star, right?

Yeah, I mean, I...

Uh...

Okay.

[Curry]
As the people around him shifted...

the person he was becoming
shifted as well.

So as he stopped spending time
around the open source community,

around the engineers,

and started spending more time
around the people

who were looking to
get the highest value for their dollar,

the person he was started to
slowly shift towards them.

[inaudible]

[applause]

It's like he has burrowed down into
whatever that character is.

I don't know where he is anymore.

I don't know who he ever was.
I really don't.

For me, he's just a figure.
He's like Willy Wonka.

I mean, whatever.

But you can tell he must be
under extreme pressure and duress.

What a strange character
to try to be in all the time.

He's somewhere in there, right?

[cheering]

I have a question.

Yeah, ask away.

This is the Form 1, Formlabs, right?

We are Formlabs. This is the Form 1.

[man] We ordered a printer from Form 1,

but we still haven't received.

That is true. [chuckling]

We'll be shipping relatively soon.

We're in the last stages of tweaking
and finalizing our manufacturing process.

Sorry, what was...

Yeah, so, you might've
caught it in our update.

We did run into some
production problems with the printers.

[Lobovsky] There's definitely
tons of comments

on the web that are being like,

"Why did you deceive us?
You didn't tell us...

that this might happen,"
or something like that.

I've seen some pretty mean things
said about us on the Internet.

Some ad hominems against Max.

"Instead of working on printers,

you see Max Lobovsky's mug
showing up at all these shows,

re-explaining SLA technology
over and over again

instead of actually fulfilling
his backers' investments."

[interviewer] Excited? Yeah?
[Lobovsky] Yeah, I'm good.

-Tired? You look tired.
-I often do.

It's been busy?

-What's the time frame...on that?
-On what?

-On the printer.
-For shipping?

-Soon.
-Fair enough.

[Linder] Max had this panel.

As I walk into the building, I spot Avi.

And then it's like...

you see each other, right?
And you see...

You spot each other,

and so, I text Max,
"Avi's in the building."

We've tried to move to dismiss the case,
and we've made some legal arguments...

about how it wasn't
properly brought in the first place.

But the case is in
its really very early stages,

and it's likely to
go on for quite a while

if it continues at that pace.

People who follow 3D Systems
will tell you,

those guys, that's how they do business.

They sue people all over the place.
All the time.

[indistinct talking]

[applause]

I'm really excited.

This is certainly one of the ones
that I've been looking forward to.

[chuckles]

You guys are all
well acquainted with each other, right?

[indistinct]

Most companies,
mostly the reshaped organizations,

are pre-wired to...

above all, defend and protect their IP.

That's what got you here.
That's the DNA of most companies.

Uh, the new thinking is,
"Maybe there is a better way."

"What kind of government restrictions
on 3D printing do you envision,

such as protection of IP?"

I think that patent law is antiquated.
Copyright law is antiquated.

And it causes companies to
act in a very schizophrenic way.

We ourselves
are in the midst of struggling

and trying figure out
what does it all mean

because some of what we need to do
is not congruent with our vision.

The way that we have been thinking
about our IP strategy

is no longer relevant,

so it's time to change.

[crowd applauding]

So maybe we should
sit down together and talk

and see what's going on,

and that's how that discussion started.

[interviewer] Where you headed off to?

[Lobovsky]
We've got an off camera meeting now.

Lawsuit's still going,

but it's on hold right now
while we're talking to 3D Systems

and that's public record right now,

and I can't say much
about what's going on.

[indistinct talking]

Okay.

-Ready?
-Yeah.

Let's go.

So this countdown clock
is counting down to CES...

where something might happen,

and the pressure's on here
to get everything ready for that.

Ethernet, it's a showstopper.
Ethernet needs to be...

This needs to be on the outside.

[woman] 'Cause right now...

Oh, yeah. When it came up,
everyone got really pissed.

[interviewer] Really?

No one needs that
hanging over their office.

No one needs the glowing red clock
counting down, every day, to your doom.

But we have it. Thanks, guys.

Bre read the Steve Jobs biography
like everybody did.

And I think that book
really did a disservice

to a lot of people
in the technology business.

'Cause it gave a lot of people permission
to be assholes...

because Steve was.

[Pettis] I think
if you look at Steve Jobs,

he was somebody who was pretty messed up,
just like all of us.

He was somebody who was driven,
like some of us,

and he was somebody willing to

put everything on the line
to make things work.

[Osborn] I found
there's two things that can happen

when you're put in a power over employees.

You can either say,

"This is a chance to put into practice
all the things I know are right

and to treat people
the way I always wished I'd been treated."

Or... payback.

For everybody who ever made me
bend over and pick up that piece of paper

or any other thing.

So, you take a guy like Bre,
when he finally did get power...

he completely went the other way.

Capricious decisions, cruelty,

not listening to anyone else.

Feeling like he could get rid of anybody

who might have any input that
would be contrary to something he wanted.

[Griffin] It's weird to me that...

there are parts of my story there

and parts of the story of MakerBot
that you just can't talk about.

There are all these strange barriers.

There are legal ones.

There are ones that relate to

trying to protect people
that you don't want to get in trouble

because they are instantly fired
if they talk about certain things.

[indistinct talking]

[Osborn] Matt and Keith,
who were two of the marketing guys,

he just flat out up and canned 'em.

It was kind of chilling.

We welcome the people
who "graduate" from MakerBot,

and they are traumatized,
deeply traumatized and upset...

and maybe they don't even know
what triggered the end for them...

or maybe they did something

that would've been encouraged
and blogged about...

and celebrated in the early days,
has become a fire-able offense.

[indistinct talking]

I had nine bosses
fired out from above me.

I was continuously
in a state of getting to know

someone new
whose whims I had to kind of predict.

I just think that Adam didn't like
where things were going

and I think pushing me out
really left a bad taste in his mouth...

so my guess is
that's why he ended up leaving.

A lot of this stuff
is driven by emotions, right?

And whether that emotion is greed
or that emotion is fear

or even out of a sense of trying to
protect what you perceive is yours...

They needed a full-time person
being there two weeks out of the month.

Didn't pull it, didn't make it there,
and it was too hard on our relationship,

so... now I'm just happy to help
whatever... however I can.

[Feld] I've been involved
in a ridiculous number of companies.

There's always conflict.

The fantasy that there's never conflict
is just fantasy.

As long as you're the CEO,
you get to make the final call.

Not everybody is gonna
make the rocket ship

ride all the way to the end

or not everybody's gonna
make it to the top of the mountain.

As the CEO,
you have to make those tough decisions,

and when I started making those decisions,

that's when it's like,
"Okay, now this isn't just a game.

This isn't just a project.
This is a company.

We're growing. We're going big."

[Osborn] Watching people get power...

is some scary shit.

It's almost like it makes... What is it?

Power corrupts, you could say,
and absolute power...

It's almost like you could make a...

Corrupts...

Really.

[Wilson] Every king is a despot.

Every sovereignty, every asserted power,
every superstructure,

political structure ever
was built on a fundamental crime,

and for us to say, like,

"Well, we all came together
at some point in the past

and we all consented and agreed
and this is the way it is."

No, everything's built on

these unjustifiable acts
and usurpations of power,

and we intentionally
obscure that to ourselves

to pretend that, "Well, it's a system
and we're all participating."

No. You're-- [chuckles]
That's a slave morality.

You're just trying to justify
why you live in an unjust world.

May 8th, the State Department
issues me a letter,

and it says, "Look, you might have
violated Arms Export Control law."

This is a huge issue in the end.
It's a huge First Amendment issue.

Does a police division
of the State Department...

have the right to tell you

what data you can not only generate
but share with other people?

Finally, we upgraded with villains.

We have almost a worthy nemesis, right?
A United States Senator.

Ooh. Ooh.

Part of the boys' club.
Okay, yeah.

"This guy has status, power.
Oh, he's gonna save us.

"He's gonna save us
from the evil anarchists

with their scary printed guns."

Really? Yeah? Okay...
um, let's have that fight. Let's do that.

A felon, a terrorist can make a gun
in the comfort of their home...

not even leaving their home,
and do terrible damage with it,

and so the question is
what we do about it.

[Wilson] They go like,
"What were you trying to achieve?"

I was like, "Look, no,
I can show you that we achieved."

It's this cultural propaganda
kind of victory.

I ask you in 2012,

"Have you heard of 3D printing?"
You say, "No."

I ask you in 2013,
"Have you heard of 3D printing?"

You go, "Yeah!"
And then you say,

"I heard you could 3D print a gun."

[laughing] Right?

That was a political victory, all right?

Not only do you know you have access
to the means of production,

you know you can make a gun on that thing,
and it's not like you would, right?

But this is against
an overwhelming cultural force,

trying to prevent that from happening,
prevent you from knowing about it,

prevent you from enacting it, right?

But you know you can do it.
That's something.

[lively music playing]

-This music's amazing.
-Yeah.

[woman] What are you celebrating?

[Ferguson] Uh, we're shipping a product.

-Oh!
-3D printer.

All right! That's great.

-You're all set, ready to go.
-Thank you very much.

Yeah, we know
we've been gearing up to ship.

We had laser issues...

in that we found out
all of our lasers were bad.

But we solved it
and we're finally shipping now...

or we will be later today.

I sure hope nothing stops us.

It'd be embarrassing
if we have to do this again.

This was just sort of a last-minute idea.

It was like, "Well,
if we're gonna be shipping tomorrow,

we're gonna be giving them T-shirts,
we should probably also have a cake,

and it should have written
on the top of it, "Oh, ship."

And also, Craig really likes cake.

I'm pretty excited about this cake.

I'm taking a picture of
the first three units that are packed up.

The Formlabs,
they were on Kickstarter.

There is some sort of
threatened litigation of some sort.

There was a delay
in delivering the device,

and all those things
just end up serving the buzz

for when the product finally does arrive.

Depending on how well
the next couple months go

and how well those first reviews go,

that's going to really make or break

the next phase of our company
and the product

and whether people really want it or not.

It's amazing, though, when you
look at actually how finished this is,

'cause what you're talking about

is really something
that starts looking like...

what would come out of
a much more expensive machine.

[Calore] Yeah.

The resolution...
And that's the highest resolution.

The quality is outstanding.

Yeah, you really couldn't
get something like this

out of a MakerBot
or something like that.

Got the Form 1.

Yeah, I made something...

and it promptly broke
trying to get it off the build plate.

I think that...
It's not for me.

[Lobovsky] Did you guys see this?

"Form 1: Excellent with room to kvetch!"

Oh! Yeah! Nice!

-Is this Wired from yesterday?
-Yes.

Cases like Formlabs

caused me to reflect a great deal

about the actions
that companies like us have to take.

We decided that the current
intellectual property management is dated,

and so we're going to open parts of our IP
to a group of inventors

and start-ups and entrepreneurs
that want to co-invent with us.

It doesn't automatically
retroactively resolve

conflicts that have to take
their own course within the legal system,

but it provides the learning for
how to do it differently going forward.

[tapping lightly]

Pretty durable.

In that regard, I'm grateful to Formlabs
because had it not happened,

I'm not sure that I would have
gotten to my conclusions as fast as I did.

[Curry] All right.
[Pelkey] Where are we?

All companies go through this.

It's not weird that
we are going through growth.

It's just when it's happening to you,

you experience it as if
it's only ever happened to you.

So, we're all kind of--

-It's more traumatic.
-Yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to MakerBot.

It's an exciting new day
here at MakerBot,

and we're really happy that
you could come on such short notice.

The announcement was a little strange.
It was like a... a very quiet excitement.

[Curry] It was a lot of anxiety
in the office

because nobody knew
what was gonna happen.

We just had this mysterious meeting
scheduled at 4:30,

and with some of the things in our past,

there was odds on whether or not
we were all gonna be fired.

And the announcement that I get to make
is that MakerBot,

we're merging with Stratasys
and becoming a public company.

This is huge.

This is a dream come true
for an entrepreneur.

[all applauding]

The story of the merger is growth.

Growth, growth, growth.

So, this combination creates,
or will create after closing,

the number one company in our industry
with the broadest offering,

with the most exciting products.

MakerBot's my baby,

and I get to now share this baby
with a bunch of other--

I don't know.
Maybe there's not a good metaphor here,

but a bunch of babies are getting together
for a party now with this merger.

I'm not sure if that really make sense
but... yeah, there's a baby party.

We had an amazing year.

You cannot look at
how we performed this year

and say anything other than,
"That's fucking incredible."

I mean, it's just...
No one can say anything but that.

If you wanna have a company
that thrives, that survives,

then you have to
play the game of the big kids.

You have to play the big company game.

So the fact that he
sold out the place for $600 million,

it means he will forever be
a guy who succeeded tremendously.

The ends can't always justify the means.
They just can't.

[inaudible]

Can you imagine a company

in which some of the employees
have just received shares

and they still hate the company

and they still are miserable there
and eager to get the fuck out?

That is a weird story.

Something that they don't tell you
about working in a start-up

is it takes a physical and emotional toll.

It drains on you. It tears into you.

You believe in every decision.
You bleed MakerBot red.

And you can only do that so long
before it starts to affect who you are.

At a certain point, you have to evaluate,

"Is this worth
what it's taking out of me?"

And finally, at great pains,
the answer for me came back as "no."

Who are the early adopters,
the people who are tech-savvy,

who need this stuff that we make,
who are they gonna root for right now?

The guy who just turned corporate
and sold his soul?

Our opportunity now is obviously...

And I'm hearing it from all over,
"You guys are it now."

[man] You just kind of...
you kind of gotta pound it back. Yeah.

[indistinct talking]

[Ferguson] This is a huge step up. Wow!

It's gonna feel like a little too legit.
I don't know if I'll be comfortable.

[man whistling]

[White] Hey! Hey! Shh!

We gotta get started
'cause some people have to go early.

So we're having a little celebration
to celebrate lots of things.

New office, shipping printers.

Everyone's done a totally incredible job
doing everything all the time.

So this is in honor of that.

We have several surprises.

[Linder] This is a...

really important moment
in the story of Formlabs,

because we have, yesterday,

about this time,

completed a Series A fundraise.

[man] Whoo!

Yeah. That's good.

[White laughing]

[applause]

[Lobovsky] We raised 19 million.

It's unprecedented

for most companies,
and especially in the 3D print space,

and hardware companies.

You can't really grow much faster
or do much better than we did.

Yeah.

[all cheering]

[band playing lively music]

Honestly,
I'm a bit concerned about growth...

'cause I hate to look at Formlabs...

[imitating explosion]

You know, that.

If we grow too much, we'll lose it, so...

I think everyone's
a bit sensitive to that.

[Linder] So, if you guys can help me make
Max speak, that would be nice.

[woman] Speech!
[Linder] All right.

So now you got to do it.

[crowd cheering]

I was thinking about
as we were all hanging out last night

and setting up the space,

we were looking around and we're thinking
about all the things we're gonna do here.

These models of growth,
and everything goes financially good,

how do you deal with it?

Then you need a strong
ethical or ideological backbone

to see how to manage it

'cause you need to be strong
if it's not going good

and you need to be strong
when it's going good.

Investors and people in business
like to talk a lot about,

"What's your competitive advantage?"

And if you're really building a company
on a really long scale,

the only advantage
you can have on that scale is

the culture, whatever it is
that's intrinsic to this organization.

That, in some sense,
is the most important thing.

Having people trust him
and him trust people

and them working together
for this one thing...

I think, has opened him up a lot

because he feels
in a place where he belongs.

We're moving to the next step

and... I'm really excited.

I'm really happy
to be doing this with you guys.

So, Formlings...

thanks for being family.

-All right! Cheers!
-[all cheering]

[Reches] I think,
at the beginning, it was...

it was a lot of ego involved, like,

"Yeah, I'll make that.
That solution is mine.

We should stick to my solution."

This has faded away
and I think this is very much...

a huge step that he took.

[inaudible]

The important thing
is personal relationships.

That's the important thing in life.

And so preserving those
contributes to happiness for everybody,

and even though I'm gone,

the seeds of things that I planted
have still come out and been amazing.

And working all that stuff out,

we were able to really know each other
and who we are as people.

This all sounds very froofy but it's true.

[Lobovsky] I'm sure I've learned
and changed a lot in the last two years,

and I've definitely...

I think I've got a lot further to go,

but definitely matured and become more...

I don't know.

It's important to step back
and see the whole picture.

[indistinct talking]

[Pettis] One of the questions you're
asking is to do some self-reflection

on some of the challenges
and all that kind of things...

and it's hard because I actually haven't
had time to do much self-reflection.

So in terms of being able to look back,

I'm still on the rocket ship
and the pedal is to the metal,

and we're burning as hard as we can.
We're going as hard as we can.

[indistinct talking]

When people talk about
start-ups and young companies,

they get excited by
"accelerator to the floorboard,"

like, "full speed ahead" thing.

It's seen as very sexy, attractive.

That's what you want.
A fast company, right?

But when you keep going in that way
for a really long time,

I don't know where you end up.

You often hear, especially
successful entrepreneurs or CEOs say,

"We sacrificed so much
to get to this point."

And if you're not them
or if you've never seen it done,

you tend to believe that
they're talking about,

"Oh, we worked long nights,"

or, "We didn't see our families,"
or, "It was really hard."

When you hear someone say that after
you've been through a successful start-up,

you start to realize that those aren't
the sacrifices they're talking about.

They're talking about
having sacrificed who they are.

They're talking about having
to have made compromises

with their most deep-seated beliefs,

about having to cross lines

that they promised themselves
they'd never have to cross.

[audience applauding]

[Pettis] There's really no excuses.

It's not, "Are you
going to get a 3D printer?"

It's, "Which MakerBot 3D printer
are you going to get?"

Thank you very much.

[all applauding]

This is the true American dream.

This is someone
who started from making a product,

to develop a great company.

This is what America's all about.

[inaudible]

[Pettis] Yeah, when we were done,
it was funny.

Hiawatha Bray,
who's with The Boston Globe,

came up and was like,

"That was the best presentation I've seen
since Steve Jobs gave keynotes."

And he said,
"Except you're not an asshole."

I was like, "Print that."
[chuckles]

People are different.

People have different hopes
and dreams and goals and priorities

and ways of
dealing with things and stuff,

and a start-up can be a pressure cooker

that just brings
all those little grains of sand out.

Well, I definitely need to work on...

being more, obviously,
passionate and excited when I talk.

I should actually take some classes
or something in that

'cause I'm not good at it and...

I don't think I'll ever be amazing,
but I could definitely be a lot better.

I put the potentiality of the gun
on the goddamn Internet.

Even if it's a very weak gun, right,

it's a template for how
this will always go into eternity.

There's no way to
aggressively go root that out.

In fact, in chasing it, right,
you spread it even further.

The rest,
as they say in Yiddish, is narishkeit.

-You know what that is?
-[interviewer] No.

The piddly little crap
that gets in the way of progress.

I wish we were ultra-ultra-pure

and could live in a world where
there was no money and no competition

and no greed and all of that
and IP wasn't an issue. It is.

So we have to live in that world,

and we live in the world
in the best way we possibly can

with the most integrity
and the most sharing that we possibly can.

One way to look at a legend is
a legend is always...

a carefully curated,
distilled version of the truth.

Whose truth is debatable.