►
From YouTube: Tom Lauwers - BirdBrain Technologies LLC
Description
Tom Lauwers, Founder & Chief Roboticist of BirdBrain Technologies LCC talks about how the Maker Movement has made Pittsburgh the ideal city for businesses focusing on hardware.
A
Hi
I'm
Tom,
Lauer's
and
I'm,
the
chief
roboticist
and
founder
of
birdbrain
technologies,
which
is
a
company
that
is
actually
in
the
business
of
making
more
makers,
and
we
do
that
by
making
and
commercializing
educational
robots
and
electronics
developed
at
carnegie
mellon
that
empower
kids
to
learn
coding,
engineering,
design,
electronics
and
computer
science.
So
I've
come
here
to
tell
you
that
it's
a
great
time
to
start
a
maker
business
in
Pittsburgh,
and
this
is
actually
true
in
Tulsa
or
San,
Francisco
or
anywhere
else
in
some
ways.
But
it's
specifically
true
in
Pittsburgh
in
other
ways.
A
So
let
me
tell
you
first
about
the
things
that
have
generally
made
maker
style
businesses
easier
to
start
lately.
So
businesses
have
always
made
things.
The
difference
is
that
it
no
longer
takes
a
million
dollars
to
bring
a
product
to
market.
So
in
the
last
five
to
ten
years,
it's
now
possible
for
a
tiny
startup
to
design
and
manufacture
a
product
that
reaches
thousands
or
millions
of
people's
and
here's.
Some
of
the
reasons
why
the
design
tools
themselves
computer-aided
design.
A
That
kind
of
software
has
gotten
much
easier
to
use
it's
possible
for
people,
maybe
who
don't
have
an
engineering
or
computer
science
background
to
learn
this
necessary
skills
to
design
a
product
through
tutorials
online
or
by
connecting
up
with
communities
online
and
in-person
communities
of
experts
who
have
been
there
and
who
freely
answer
questions
about
any
technical
question?
It's
much
easier
to
prototype
a
product,
it's
cheaper
to
create
and
manufacture
mechanical
things
with
3d
printing.
It's
also
much
cheaper
to
create
and
like
an
electronic
gadget,
you
know
circuit
board
or
something
like
that.
A
The
rise,
basically,
all
almost
all
companies
now
use
contractors
when
they're
manufacturing
at
scale,
even
Apple,
you
know,
uses
Foxconn
and
they
don't
own
their
own
manufacturing
facilities.
So
the
rise
of
these
contractors
means
that
anyone
can
go
and
find
a
manufacturer
either
overseas,
or
here
and
say,
I
want
you
to
make
this
specific
thing
with
these
specifications
and
get
advice
back
from
them
regarding
whether
it's
manufacturable
or
not
it's
the
same
thing
is
true
with
order
fulfillment.
A
So
if
you
have
a
product
and
you
to
ship
it
instead
of
shipping
them
out
of
your
basement,
you
can
contract
that
to
either
a
local
warehouse
or
national
companies
like
Amazon
or
ship
wire.
At
the
same
time,
it's
easier
to
fund
a
hardware
product
crowdsourcing
platforms
like
Kickstarter
IndieGoGo,
have
made
it
possible
for
anyone
to
present
an
idea
and
a
prototype
and
get
funding
for
an
inventory
for
that.
A
Well
in
advance
of
actually
shipping
the
product,
which
is
a
very
problematic
thing,
I
mean
even
if
you're
making
a
thousand
of
something
that
may
still
cost
thirty
thousand
dollars,
and
so
without
without
that
kind
of
crowdsourcing
crowd-sourced
funding,
you
may
have
to
find
funding
from
from
basically
other
locations.
Investors
and
things
like
that
and
I
think
actually
what's
most
important
here
is
that
many
consumers
want
to
help
you
many
consumers
crave
and
thirst
for
customization
of
products.
You
know
not.
Everybody
wants
the
exact
same
gadget
anymore.
A
People
want
a
wide
range
of
different
options,
and
that
means
that
there's
a
much
broader
opportunity
for
people
to
create
and
make
niche
products-
and
this
is
true
both
with
electronics
and
gadgets,
but
also
with
other
types
of
crafts
and
making
Etsy-
is
a
good
example
of
a
marketplace
where
people
sell
those
so
the
things
that
they
make.
So
what
makes
Pittsburgh
special
well
there's
a
number
of
resources
that
I've
relied
on
when
starting
my
company,
specifically
a
network
of
existing
entrepreneurs.
Who've
been
there.
A
Another
component
is
easy:
access
to
maker
style
spaces,
so
tech,
shop
and
hack,
Pittsburgh,
being
here
in
Pittsburgh,
really
really
helps
in
terms
of
allowing
people
to
have
access
relatively
low-cost
access
to
both
hardware
and
also
software,
because
sometimes
the
CAD
packages
that
you
use
costs
you
know
license,
may
cost
$5,000.
It
may
be
prohibitive.
A
A
So
in
conclusion,
there
are
still
a
few
things
that
that
could
be
improved.
So
one
of
the
things
that
that
may
be
difficult
is
finding
partners,
especially
on
the
business
side,
so
people
who
are
more
business
oriented
to
help.
You
start
your
company
and
focus
not
necessarily
on
the
product
and
making
the
product
but
on
how
to
market
it,
how
to
sell
it,
how
to
approach
the
right
channels
and
whether
you
need
investment
or
not
help
basically
to
help
you
make
those
decisions,
low
cost
access
again
to
to
legal,
to
accounting.
A
Everything
that's
in
kind
of
the
nuts
and
bolts
of
just
forming
a
company
accessing
space,
that's
appropriate
for
a
hardware.
Startup
kind
of
at
the
next
stage,
so
tech
shop,
hack,
picks
hack
Pittsburgh,
are
great
places
to
design
your
prototypes,
but
we
need
incubators
that
are
maybe
focused
a
little
bit
on
hardware,
so
they
may
have
shared
resources
that
are
we're
focused
like
3d
printers
like
software
licenses
Hardware
and
things
take
space.
A
So
sometimes
it's
helpful
to
have
like
an
initial
inventory
or
a
stock
that
you
store
on
site,
so
you
want
a
place
that
is
cheap
but
large,
which
fortunately,
in
Pittsburgh
there
are
many
places
that
are
both
cheap
and
large,
so
place
like
this
could
be
could
be
found,
and
then
lastly,
there's
there's
the
problem
of
staying
here.
So
how
do
we
scale
up?
A
How
do
we
scale
up?
Companies
that
are
that
are
scaling,
and
how
do
we
keep
them
in
Pittsburgh?
I?
Think
Pittsburgh
is
wonderful,
it's
doing
a
great
job
at
generating
companies.
The
problem
kind
of
the
sort
of
a
national
problem
is
that
when
you
get
to
a
stage
where
you're
looking
for
venture
capital
oftentimes,
the
venture
capitalists
will
say.
Okay
now
you
have
to
move
within
30
minutes
of
where
I
live.
In
order
to
reach
your
next
series,
so
this
is
this-
is
a
systemic
problem
and
I
don't
know
how
to
solve
it.
A
But
there
is
a
real
question
of
how
do
we
scale
a
company
here
and
maybe
we
need
to
rely
on
other
ways
of
scaling
a
company,
besides
venture
capital,
that
could
still
work
so
yeah
but
in.
In
conclusion,
it
is
absolutely
a
wonderful
time
to
start
a
business
here
in
Pittsburgh
around
making
and
creating
things.