Back in 2013 I co-founded a company called Matterform with Drew Cox. The company launched the world’s first affordable 3D Scanner for consumers.

Originally, we planned on designing a 3D printer, but decided the market was already too saturated.  Once people had purchased their printers though, they had no clue what to print.  What was really needed was an affordable 3D scanner, not one that cost $5000+. With a consumer home use scanner, people could replicate objects they already owned, download patterns for toys, repair broken parts, etc.   I had faith in the vision, and quit my job to concentrate full time on the design and appearance of the scanner, as well as its electronics. Later on I also wrote most of the php code that ran the website.  Within a few months, we had the prototype of the Matterform 3D Scanner, with a resolution close to machines costing tens of thousands.  We ultimately priced our unit at only $579.

My friend Jeremy Thompson did me a favour and put together a video in only a few days, and we launched on a crowdfunding site. People were understandably excited – we did half a million dollars in sales in the first 35 days, at that time the largest for any non US campaign. When the Scanner was in it’s final stages of mass production, I felt the time was right to move on from the company to focus on other projects.  Sales calls, financial paperwork, etc. can be best left to those that enjoy it and do it well.