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This is rather unexpected and surprising to me. I wonder what it was about the business model that just didn't work? When they opened the Chandler location her
by cr0sh 9y ago
This is rather unexpected and surprising to me. I wonder what it was about the business model that just didn't work?
When they opened the Chandler location here in the Phoenix area, I quickly signed up for a year's membership, but that turned out to be a mistake. I certainly didn't get my money's worth, but the mistake was on my end, not theirs: They were located in the east valley (where it seems all the cool kids are), and I live in the west valley; it was a good 100 mile drive round-trip for me to go there. I hardly ever went as a result, and the membership was wasted.
The space itself was amazing otherwise; had it been closer to my home I am sure I would have used it more often than I did for the tools I didn't otherwise have at home (like the laser cutters, for instance). I was always impressed how they had workshops for just about everything you needed to take an idea from a concept (CAD/design) to finished prototype.
There more more than a few startups that got their start at TechShop; one of the more famous examples was Square (they prototyped the original swipe reader thru TechShop).
I am now wondering what, if anything, this says (or what effects it will have) about other maker and hackerspaces. We don't really have very many in the Valley. For myself, I'll just continue doing what I've always done, and work from home or over at my friend's shop.