Brooklyn-based entrepreneur Bre Pettis is a pioneer of the so-called “Maker” movement and a leading New York City startup entrepreneur. His company, MakerBot Industries, manufactures 3-D printers, like the Replicator 2 desktop device. Instead of using printing ink or toner on flat sheets of paper, 3-D printers produce layers of material to create 3-D models. The 3-D printing revolution promises to bring manufacturing out of the factory and into the home, where users can create everything from jewelry to shoes to toys to pieces of art, among other products.
(MORE: How the ‘Maker’ Movement Plans to Transform the U.S. Economy)
MakerBot’s Replicator 2 uses a renewable bioplastic “build product” called Polylactic acid (PLA) that comes in the form of filament on a spool, and is fed through the printer. MakerBot has raised $10 million in venture capital funding, according to CrunchBase. “We’re building a whole new industry in Brooklyn,” Pettis told TIME last fall, adding that his growing company recently hired 35 people, and plans to add more workers soon.