[dorkbotpdx-blabber] Techshop impressions

[Paul Stoffregen]

I was pretty impressed with the Techshop presentation last night, after 
making the long trek out to Hillsboro.  For the benefit of everyone who 
couldn't make it, here's what I remember.

As Thomas mentioned (during the meeting), the location will be in the NW 
industrial area, not way out in Hillsboro (and certainly not at the 
McMenamin's they used to host the meeting).  It was said to be close to 
a brewery.  The one mentioned (Pyramid) is actually in Seattle.  It 
could perhaps be the Portland Brewing Company, at 2730 NW 31st?  The 
specific address wasn't given and I didn't take notes on the other 
references that placed it within several blocks.  But it's definitely 
going to be in NW and not far outside of Portland proper.

They mentioned creating a "heat map" of all the zip codes people entered 
when joined their announcement list.  Apparently a large portion were 
clustered in the North Portland area, and also some in the Beaverton & 
Hillsboro tech area.  31 locations were considered, and the distribution 
of zip codes weighed heavily on their decision for the NW location.

July 4 was mentioned as their goal to open.

They have definitely selected the building.  Specific details mentioned 
were 15000 square feet (which is double the space at Menlo Park) and 22 
foot high ceiling.

Hours of operation aren't known yet.  The original (and only currently 
open one) in Menlo Park (SF bay area) is open 9am to midnight.  Their 
ultimate goal is to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  However, it 
costs money to stay open longer.  They require at least one paid staff 
person to be present at all times.  So longer hours require more paid 
members.

The Menlo Park location currently has 350 members.  They have a cap at 
500 members per location.  It sounded like they would definitely go to 
longer hours if they had all 500 memberships sold.

Membership is $100 per month, or $1100 per year.  They also give 
lifetime membership as a perk to people who lend them money to use as 
the capital to open a new location.  That's $25k, repaid at 10% APR over 
10 years.

While 9 locations are opening this year, their goal is to eventually 
open hundreds of them worldwide.  Jim briefly made mention of input 
(perhaps a deeper relationship?) with the founder or someone from Kinkos.

Each location is forming as its own LLC.  The exact business 
relationship wasn't clear to me, but the stated purpose was to make each 
one fairly independent financially.

I had gone there expecting to feel like a customer hearing a pitch from 
a for-profit company.  They definitely are for-profit, and that was 
mentioned.  But Jim seemed very genuinely interested in community 
building.  That came through in many little mentions.  More on community 
building later.

Jim (the founder and CEO) and Denney (who's opening the Portland 
location), and pretty much all of them are makers/builders.  They both 
were involved in the robot battle scene (Jim's "2nd car" was a battle 
bot that cost more than his car and could tow a truck), Jim worked for 
the Myth Busters show (which I've never seen... no TV), and lots of 
other projects no sane person would ever devote so much time to if not 
for the sheer love of building crazy stuff.

There was talk about the machines.  The main point is they are 
"standardizing" on all brand new "core machines" for all Techshop 
locations.  When he started at Menlo Park less than 2 years ago, they 
got all used stuff as cheap as they could.  But as they intend to have 
lots of locations, they are aiming to have the "core" stuff be the same 
at all locations.  Brief mention of negotiating bulk purchasing of the 
machines was made.  Each location is probably going to add some other 
stuff that is in demand in that region.  In San Diego, for example, a 
number of people want to craft surf boards.  Numerous times it was 
mentioned their goal is to have a broad range of machines and tools that 
most individuals would need to work on most types of projects.  They're 
trying not to focus on any one particular type of thing.

Questions about scheduling and reserving of time on machines.  While 
they have a sign up process, it turns out in Menlo Park there is only 
one machine that's in more demand than the available time, which is the 
laser cutter.  They are working on acquiring a second one.  A few times 
it was mentioned they have Bridgeport 4 milling machines (2 are actually 
Bridgeport-like copies), so there's pretty much always a machine 
available.  For the high-demand laser cutter, sign-up times are 
currently 3 days to 2 weeks, which stuck with me as a data point of wait 
times we could expect.

Numerous machines were mentioned.  There is a "3D printer", which uses 
strong ABS plastic, not the brittle resin normally used in stereo 
lithography.  Lathes, milling machines, sheet metal fabrication, the 
laser cutter, industrial sewing machines, lots of other stuff.  There is 
a lot of info on the website, so I'm not going to cover this.

Breakage and wear-and-tear were asked about pretty much as the 2nd line 
of questions after the location.  Tools wear out and people break stuff 
sometimes, and they are building that into the costs they pay for.  Jim 
did mention that it's perfectly fine, for example, to bring you own end 
mill bit in if you're working on a project and need a really sharp, 
perfect condition cutter.  Jim told a story about a woman who mistook 
micrometers for C-clamps.  They will try to replace stuff as it wears, 
but can't have everything in perfect shape.

They offer classes in 2 forms.  Well, it sounds like right now they've 
only just started the "advanced" classes, and have mostly done "basic 
checkout" classes.  Both types are extra cost, not included in the 
membership fee.  Jim mentioned about half their revenue comes from the 
classes, and they've had a lot more demand for them than they'd 
originally expected.  $30 and 1 hour were mentioned for the basic 
checkout, and that was on a per-machine basis (or perhaps per area, it 
wasn't perfectly clear to me).  He mentioned $50 for other classes, but 
I was left with the impression that was still new and in development and 
not firm pricing.

There was a guy (who name I don't recall) videotaping the presentation, 
and he spoke briefly about video-based instruction.  Apparently there is 
some internal debate on whether video is part of their education program 
(and thus paid for with class fees), or should be freely available and 
more of a promotion and public service.  The video guy was clearly 
wanting to publish free videos, but I was left with a strong impression 
someone else (probably not Jim) saw the video as a profit center and way 
to expand the education program.  Jim mentioned that video will never be 
a substitute for actual hands-on instruction.  I was left with the 
impression that the "classes" consisted of a good portion of time you 
actually operating the machine while the instructor watches over.

Jim also expressed some desire, though no actual plans and perhaps 
liability obstacles to reaching out to high schools.  He definitely 
feels it's a shame all shop programs have vanished from education, and 
he seemed to care deeply about the long-term prospects of enabling 
future generations to develop the interest and skills to make stuff.  
Liability was mentioned.  A current policy of not allowing anyone under 
18 inside was also mentioned.

There were several questions about how they handle liability.  Most of 
this was near the beginning, so I'm not covering this in chronological 
order....  In a nutshell, they have insurance (some specific details 
were referred to as "the secret sause" or confidential business info), 
they require everyone to sign a waiver, they require you to take a basic 
operation and safety class before using a particular type of machine, 
and they try to foster a community mindful safety.

Quite a lot of talk was about community building.  There is a central 
meeting room in Menlo Park with coffee, popcorn machine, tables, chairs, 
etc, which serves as a place to hang out and talk about projects.  Jim 
mentioned how interesting it is the just be there and talk with people, 
most of whom don't really spend a lot of time around anyone else who can 
understand what we're building (friends, family, etc).  I got the sense 
he really valued a central meeting/social space and intended to have all 
new Techshops with a layout designed this way.

Jim told a story about a disagreement with his former partner (who he 
bought out and is no longer involved in Techshop).  This guy wanted to 
hire a guy for the tool crib.  Jim felt that really defeats the 
community aspect of the place and wants everyone to be responsible for 
the tools.  He also mentioned that 3 months of that salary would pay for 
the tools to be replaced anyway.  Jim feels pretty strongly about 
trusting people who are members to take care of the shop and act 
responsibly.  So far in Menlo Park it's worked out very well.

The other community aspect he mentioned was that the funding for each 
location is coming from the community, in those $25k loans from 
members.  I had expected they'd taken in some huge venture capital to do 
all this expansion.  It wasn't really asked or mentioned if they had 
taken outside investment, but what they did say is it's pretty much 
loans from the community getting this thing started in each location and 
ultimately those membership fees are going to keep it going.

Aside from the membership fees and class fees, 2 other sources of 
revenue were mentioned.  A retail store was mentioned, where they will 
sell raw materials.  He said the prices will be normal retail.  The main 
idea is you can get a block of metal or piece of pipe without having to 
leave the site, and late at night after other places have closed.

They will also have some space to rent.  There will be storage areas for 
projects, ranging from small enough for a small collection of personal 
tools to storing a Burning Man art car (yes, he did mention someone 
storing their Burning Man project).  In Menlo Park, they had one extra 
small room, which they rented for $1000/month.  Since then, they've had 
a couple dozen requests for such rooms to be rented as a private work 
area.  They're planning to build several in all new locations.

The other detail of Menlo Park was an anecdote about how they've 
"trashed" the building in some ways, their lease specifically says they 
can because the building is going to be demolished after they are done 
(I think I heard in 2 years, but not sure).  Jim mentioned someone who 
know who as a M1 tank they might roll though the building when after 
they're out of it....


There were a LOT of questions and details.  I'm sure I've missed some stuff.

Overall, I was pretty impressed.  In particular, I'd expected a more 
corporate style organization, but while they most definitely are a 
private, for-profit company, I got a very strong sense Jim and Denney 
really do have their hearts in this and aren't just in it to make a buck.


-Paul