Bre Pettis

“Customized jewelry is one of my targets with Bold Machines.”

“You learn so much by having customers and figuring out what they want and keeping them satisfied.”

“If you want to be a person who buys stuff at the dollar store, you can be that person. If you want to make really cool stuff on your desktop and be the manufacturer, that is a lifestyle.”

“Most people don't feel empowered to make CAD models. The MakerBot Digitizer solves that problem.”

“I've watched with amazement as Local Motors has pioneered a co-creation and micro-manufacturing model that has democratized the development and production of complex machines, effectively transforming consumer choice from supply-driven to demand-driven.”

“Before I started MakerBot, I was creating cool stuff and sharing it with the Internet. That's how I knew all the folks at BoingBoing, at Engadget and Gizmodo.”

“We wanted people to 3-D-print anything, not just more 3-D printers.”

“One of my psychoses is that I feel like I can do anything. Actually, I believe anybody can do and make anything, even things that don't exist. The making isn't the hard part; it's having faith. If you do only reasonable things, you'll never start your own business.”

“We're on the brink of the next industrial revolution. Instead of buying things, you can make them on a printer. When you have a 3D printer, you can iterate more - what used to take months, now takes hours.”

“You can go from creating the design on your iPad to making the object on your MakerBot.”

“That's the beauty of living in New York City is that a good chunk of the media is here and willing to drink with you.”

“My father was a ham radio geek, and I remember the glow of the vacuum tubes from a Hammarlund receiver that became a hand-me-down to me.”

“The people who are getting 3-D printers at home are pioneers, kind of like the people who bought Apple IIs in 1981. Adults are usually the last people to get it. The kids are like, 'Get out of my way, I want at this thing.' They immediately start getting creative.”

“Our intention is that people use MakerBots to have a positive impact on the world.”

“We started MakerBot in 2009 and made a conscious decision to educate people with the possibilities they could do with 3D printing and share with people what is possible.”

“While at The Evergreen State College, I met Doranne Crable, and she was so dynamic and adventurous that I decided on the spot to take whatever she taught.”

“When we looked out at the world and saw what 3D scanners could do, we wanted to make something that could make really high quality models that you could create on your MakerBot.”

“My personal mission has always been to empower people to be creative. But the Holy Grail of a tinkerer is to make something that makes something.”

“We raised $10 million in 2011. Our rule was, we wouldn't accept money from anybody we didn't want to have dinner with.”

“My parents had a software company making children's software for the Apple II+, Commodore 64 and Acorn computers. They hired these teenagers to program the software, and these guys were true hackers, trying to get more colors and sound and animation out of those computers.”