#027 - Rapid prototyping - a platform and its essential tools, with Finbarr Watterson of Fictiv, USA
Finbarr Watterson, Hardware Community Evangelist at Fictiv, explains how the company uses a distributed manufacturing model to provide rapid 3D printing and CNC machining services for hardware prototyping. He details Fictiv's origin story, where founders Nate and Dave Evans bootstrapped the business by fulfilling orders from their kitchen before raising seed and Series A funding. The discussion covers the strategic advantage of iterating in the US before scaling to mass manufacturing in China, using Lockitron as a case study for avoiding early inventory mistakes.