News Detail

Wright '90 Creates "Delightful Moments" with Glowforge

At Seattle-based startup Glowforge, founder Tony Wright ’90 goes by the title “Head of Product,” but “Head of Delightful Moments” may be more fitting.
“To me, the first most important thing is to make something people are so delighted with that they share it,” Wright said.

A veteran of the startup world, Wright’s latest project is a desktop 3D laser printer, designed to allow artists and amateurs alike to print designs on wood, fabric, acrylic and more.

“Much of my thinking is around how I can reduce the time and clicks between users and that delightful moment,” Wright said. “So when you open up the software, if you’re a digital artist, can you take artwork and make it into another material? And if you’re not, can you personalize a download and hit print in a matter of seconds?”

Wright defines design as “making something that speaks to someone else,” a process that relies more often on user expectations. But that’s not the case with Glowforge, Wright said.

“We have this new thing that most humans aren’t used to,” Wright said. “They’ve never had a device that could print objects out of wood and acrylic. What is the software piece that could make this happen? One of the biggest challenges is that we don’t have anyone’s coattails to ride.”

Rather than seeing invention as a weakness, Wright and the Glowforge team are allowing the product’s newness to be a strength, recruiting a community of users who are willing to share their feedback as the software develops.

“The old model used to be, you design this monolithic, beautiful thing, ship it to the world, and hope people like it,” Wright said. “The new model is constant iteration, getting to the point where you ship to a customer as early as possible, and say to one customer, ‘Here is a new feature. Can you use it and tell me what you think?’”

The response to Glowforge has been historic — $27.9 million worth of sales in a 30-day period in the fall of 2015, setting a record for the largest 30-day crowdfunder in history, according to the website GeekWire.

Looks like customers have responded well to this iteration. 
Back
St. Andrew’s Episcopal School is a private, coeducational college preparatory day school for students in preschool (Age 2) through grade 12, located in Potomac, Maryland.