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As a freshman in college, SparkFun founder and CEO Nathan Seidle set a goal: to hold a patent by the time he was 30. He founded his company in 2003, while still an undergraduate studying electrical engineering. He’s grown it to employ more than 150, generate just over $30 million in revenue annually and offer more than 2,300 products to help its customers build a prototype or create a project.
SparkFun’s online retail store sells kits, components and widgets, and provides resources to make the world of electronics more accessible to the average person. The company’s efforts to “Share Ingenuity” through its products have enabled SparkFun users to create an amazing array of projects and products. Examples range from devices to track bird migration to interactive artworks to the “blender defender,” a motion-sensor-based device to scare cats off the kitchen counter, and a completely new type of electronic instrument developed by a busker and professional beatjazz musician Onyx Ashanti that he plays on the streets of Berlin.
By the time Seidl founded his company as a junior in college, he had a change of heart. His goal of having a patent fell by the wayside and his view on business shifted completely. As SparkFun grew to be a leader in the world of DIY electronics, Seidle and his organization became leaders in the world of open source technology.
As he explained in a talk at TEDxBoulder in August 2012, regardless of patents, “If your idea can be sold, it will be. There are no local markets. It’s just as easy to sell something in Colorado as it is in South Africa.”
That, combined with the tremendous cost and time required to get a patent, led him to embrace open source hardware when he started SparkFun. Here are the reasons why he loves the open source approach:
- It encourages people to share and learn from one another.
- A marketplace with more open source is better for the user, promoting lower prices, more features and better quality.
- It makes companies focus on what they do best, making for a more competitive, more fit industry.
- It forces innovation, and does not allow a company to rest on its laurels or sit still.
The SparkFun team believes an open market is a healthy market, and the company open-sources all of its product designs. This open source approach encourages innovation and creativity, and helps to empower people to build whatever project they dream up. Seidl himself, an electrical engineer at heart, continues to build, hack, and design many of the companies’ products.
SparkFun employees share the same wide variety of interests that its customers do – education, engineering, prototyping, and creating, along with rock climbing, art, writing, and more. The one thing that they all have in common is a love for electronics, and they have created an open culture and community that revolves around sharing that passion.
In 2011, the company created a Department of Education focused on creating products and curriculum to help educators bring electronics into the classrooms. That part of the business offers a wide variety of classes and online tutorials to educate those interested in embedded electronics. In 2013, the SparkFun team embarked on a national tour of schools, libraries and hackerspaces in 30 states across the country, teaching electronics to kids of all abilities and ages. “Education is a huge priority for us and we are excited what the future holds in this realm,” notes SparkFun team member Chris McGrady.
Another priority continues to be meeting the needs of the larger DIY community. “We are constantly looking for new products and technology to help our customers create their projects,” said McGrady. SparkFun is heavily involved in the Maker movement, and was a sponsor for last fall’s NoCo Mini Maker Faire in Loveland, and is a sponsor for the Mini Maker Faire in Denver this spring.
The company openly embraces its geeky culture, and works to spread the word about the things they love, including electronics, open source, education, geeks, dogs, and beer.
