Maker Industrial Revolution Stack
Combine cheap components, desktop fabrication, and open communities to build products
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 96%
The stack combines three mutually reinforcing inputs. First, smartphone-scale manufacturing makes sensors, processors, cameras, radios, batteries, and other sophisticated components inexpensive and widely available. Second, desktop fabrication tools such as 3D printers, CNC machines, and laser cutters let individuals turn digital designs into physical prototypes. Third, open-source communities allow participants with different skills to share designs, answer questions, and build on previous work instead of repeatedly recreating basic kits in isolation. Together these layers move physical innovation toward the collaborative economics of software. A hobby project can attract contributors, evolve into advanced shared technology, demonstrate demand through kits, and eventually justify a company that handles manufacturing, integration, reliability, and support.
Origin
Anderson saw these forces converge around 2007, when Arduino, desktop fabrication, modern sensors, maker institutions, and smartphone component economics became available to ordinary builders.
Core principles
- 01Cheap components make advanced capabilities accessible
- 02Desktop tools turn digital designs into physical objects
- 03Open communities let builders improve one another's work
- 04Product companies can emerge after communities prove the technology
How to run it
- 1
Assemble the enabling components
Choose affordable processors, sensors, radios, cameras, batteries, and actuators that supply the core capability. Favor components supported by accessible documentation.
Pro tip Look for parts produced at scale for adjacent industries such as smartphones.
Watch out Cheap components do not eliminate integration or reliability risks.
- 2
Fabricate an initial form
Use desktop fabrication or modular kits to create the minimum physical structure needed for testing. Keep the first version inexpensive and replaceable.
Pro tip Design digitally so revisions can be shared and reproduced.
Watch out Do not optimize industrial design before proving the mechanism.
- 3
Open the learning process
Publish questions, designs, code, and test results so specialists from different disciplines can participate. Make beginner questions acceptable.
Pro tip Document failures because they prevent repeated dead ends.
Watch out A community cannot build on work that remains opaque.
- 4
Build cumulatively
Reuse and improve existing modules rather than restarting from first principles. Integrate contributions from software, hardware, and domain experts.
Pro tip Define interfaces between modules so contributors can work independently.
Watch out Uncoordinated contributions can create incompatible components.
- 5
Test demand through repeatability
Offer reproducible kits or small batches and observe whether demand persists beyond enthusiasts. Track assembly burden, defects, and support needs.
Pro tip Treat sellouts as a signal to investigate, not automatic proof of scale.
Watch out Manual fulfillment can overwhelm the creator before the model is ready.
- 6
Productize the community output
Create a company when manufacturing, integration, certification, or support becomes the main bottleneck. Preserve the open layer where it remains strategically useful.
Pro tip Let the company solve repeatability while the community keeps advancing the technology.
Watch out Do not capture community work without respecting its licenses and contributors.
In the wild
Anderson combined Lego Mindstorms sensors and software with a radio-controlled airplane, then created DIY Drones to ask questions publicly. Hardware, software, and aviation contributors improved the technology over several years. The resulting community systems eventually needed a company to turn them into reliable products.
→ A family experiment developed into an open drone ecosystem and 3D Robotics.
Students combine inexpensive model cars with lidar, computer vision, neural networks, and cloud software. Because the vehicles are small, teams can test genuine autonomous-driving technology without putting people at risk or purchasing full-size cars.
→ Advanced autonomy becomes accessible as a low-cost learning and experimentation platform.
Common mistakes
Rebuilding alone
Isolated tinkering repeats established work and misses the cumulative advantage of shared designs and multidisciplinary contributors.
Assuming cheap parts mean an easy product
Components may be inexpensive while integration, manufacturing, quality control, and support remain difficult.
Forming the company too early
Commercial infrastructure can distract from proving the technology, community, and repeatable demand.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for experimental hardware, robotics, sensors, and other products built from modular components and shared knowledge.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for safety-critical or capital-intensive products that cannot be prototyped, tested, or shared responsibly.
From the transcript
“And then you have open source communities. You combine them and now you've got the germs of an industrial revolution.”
“We weren't building on other people's work because we didn't have an internet back then.”
“And it was our jobs to create a company to turn them into a product.”
From the episode
Chris Anderson: Don’t Confuse Valuation With Tech Adaptation
Chris Anderson