Source: Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers
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“No one’s ever going to give you permission to quit your job.” –Fiber Artist Windy Chien
Venture capital firm Root Ventures (@rootvc) launched a $76 million fund this week that it will use to invest in engineering-based startups. Make: Executive Editor Mike Senese (@msenese) headed down to the group’s Mission District headquarters in San Francisco to talk with Root co-founder Avidan Ross (@AvidanRoss) about maker pros, seed funding, and the notoriously difficult world of hardware entrepreneurship — and to see an espresso machine Ross had hacked in the office.
“We need to be very careful not to celebrate entrepreneurship at the expense of what truly makes a maker,” Ross said. “There are tremendous opportunities for makers to become entrepreneurs but it should be done for reasons that are rational business decisions, and we shouldn’t then make anybody who is a celebrated maker feel less successful if they are building something that is truly just heart-and-soul-maker, and not necessarily a perfectly viable business.
Root has long seen investment potential in maker pros. Back in 2015, the firm launched a $30 million fund focused on entrepreneurs from the maker movement. And over the years, the firm has invested in a who’s who of maker ventures, from Particle (@particle) and Shaper (@shapertools) to Skycatch (@skycatch) and Plethora (@plethora).
A new Motherboard documentary looks at Rich Benoit, an auto enthusiast and YouTuber who’s carved out a name for himself salvaging derelict Teslas (@Tesla) and using his maker savvy to
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