Dan Shapiro's Blog

I’m working on something new. I can’t wait to tell you what it is.  Unfortunately we’re not ready to tip our hand quite yet, so I have to be a little coy. The company is called Glowforge. We’re making a real, tangible thing – a piece of hardware – powered by a giant stack of…

I’ve been asked by a lot of folks for advice with their Kickstarter campaigns. I’ve thought long and hard about it. I worked hard on the Robot Turtles campaign, but fundamentally thought of it as a fun diversion. I had no idea it was going to turn into the blockbuster that it did! Since then,…

I was shocked to hear this from the head of Microsoft Ventures, Rahul Sood: While I’m a huge advocate for #diversity & women entrepreneurs, having a startup weekend just for women is kinda #pointless. — Rahul Sood (@rahulsood) September 11, 2014 He went on to apologize, sort of but not really, complain about being taken…

Five years ago (!!!) I gave an Ignite talk on cheap RC airplanes.  In one of my prouder geek moments Mark Frauenfelder, a maker-hero of mine, posted it to Boingboing.   And that was that. Until today, when I had the amazing opportunity to be a guest on an episode of the Gweek podcast with Mark and my…

I’m told Amazon writes the press release for a product before beginning development. I don’t know exactly how the process works, but this has been sloshing around in my head mixed in with a bunch of other tidbits. Like the trick of running ads that lead to a signup page before you build anything to…

First things first: the last of the Robot Turtles Kickstarter production run is still available on Amazon for $34.95 plus $9.95 US shipping, with international shipping available. If you order today, Dec 19, you should get it in time for Christmas!   In early September, I launched a Kickstarter campaign for Robot Turtles – a board…

Robot Turtles has been an amazing ride.  From a goofy idea in the shower, to some clipart, to a print on demand game for my family… to a $250,000 wild ride that doesn’t seem to be done yet!  As of this writing I’ve just crossed the halfway point (12 days down, 11 to go) and…

Would you believe that I got so excited about the project that I forgot to post it to my own blog?! I launched a game on Kickstarter called  Robot Turtles.  You can see the video on the right hand side of my blog, or view it here on Kickstarter.  I’m humbled and amazed by the…

Those of you who caught my talk at Ignite 21 already know that I’m a thoughtful coffee convert, going from 1-2 cups per week to 2-3 cups per day when I discovered that I was a fast caffeine metabolizer by having my DNA sequenced, leading me to buy a bunch of bluetooth peripherals and breathe…