When I became CEO of MakerBot just one hundred days ago, it was not just a new chapter for the company but a new chapter in my own life. I’ve been lucky enough to live in some great cities in Europe and Asia and travel the world for business, but I always wanted to come and live in the United States.
Already this is a dream fulfilled. As I look out the window of my office at MakerBot headquarters, I can see the Statue of Liberty standing in New York Harbor. At the end of the workday, I take the subway home to my apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The trains are filled with energy and carry an abundance of stories: An elderly woman dancing to her music, some guy sleeping in the most uncomfortable way imaginable, another couple making out obscenely. The smell of iron and the noise of chaos are somehow orchestrated into one enormous, unique experience.
These first 100 days at MakerBot have also been my first 100 days of calling America home, and the Listening Tour has been a trip of discovery. For trips to see customers and partners along the Northeast Corridor — Stanley Black & Decker, Staples, the University of Maryland —I start at Penn Station at dawn. I look up at the big board, waiting to find out where my train awaits me. The board is amazingly primitive but oddly charming. Less so when the conductor says, “We regret to inform you that we have stopped due to a train delay at the station ahead.” How come the birthplace of 3D printing — the most important technology of the 21st century —can’t figure out rail management? Japan prides itself on its shinkansen trains, which averaged a 36-second delay in 2012 between Tokyo and Osaka. Thirty-six seconds! But that thought fades as I take in the sheer beauty of nature along the ride and the variety of people traveling with me.
Boston…arrival. It all started around here not too long ago. The Rome of the Roman Empire, the Jerusalem of Judea, and the Babylon of Mesopotamia… Boston is for here (only its age has one digit fewer than the other cities). The “New” in New England resonates all around: the buildings, the narrow streets… As if in London (“but then again no” – “Your Song” with that English accent missing).
I can go on and on; alas, I need to put away Henry James and return to my business mind. But to all you folks out there reading, I want you to know that despite its challenges (and there are many), the United States remains the greatest nation ever built. A nation that has defined the free world as we know it, a nation that has helped liberate many from the horrors of evil, a nation that my ancestors and I personally owe a lot.
I look forward to exploring further — Illinois, Texas, California — and returning again to Brooklyn. I admire the vastness of it all.The Vastness of It All
When I became CEO of MakerBot just one hundred days ago, it was not just a new chapter for the company but a new chapter in my own life. I’ve been lucky enough to live in some great cities in Europe and Asia and travel the world for business, but I always wanted to come and live in the United States.
Already this is a dream fulfilled. As I look out the window of my office at MakerBot headquarters, I can see the Statue of Liberty standing in New York Harbor. At the end of the workday, I take the subway home to my apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The trains are filled with energy and carry an abundance of stories: An elderly woman dancing to her music, some guy sleeping in the most uncomfortable way imaginable, another couple making out obscenely. The smell of iron and the noise of chaos are somehow orchestrated into one enormous, unique experience.
These first 100 days at MakerBot have also been my first 100 days of calling America home, and the Listening Tour has been a trip of discovery. For trips to see customers and partners along the Northeast Corridor — Stanley Black & Decker, Staples, the University of Maryland —I start at Penn Station at dawn. I look up at the big board, waiting to find out where my train awaits me. The board is amazingly primitive but oddly charming. Less so when the conductor says, “We regret to inform you that we have stopped due to a train delay at the station ahead.” How come the birthplace of 3D printing — the most important technology of the 21st century —can’t figure out rail management? Japan prides itself on its shinkansen trains, which averaged a 36-second delay in 2012 between Tokyo and Osaka. Thirty-six seconds! But that thought fades as I take in the sheer beauty of nature along the ride and the variety of people traveling with me.
Boston…arrival. It all started around here not too long ago. The Rome of the Roman Empire, the Jerusalem of Judea, and the Babylon of Mesopotamia… Boston is for here (only its age has one digit fewer than the other cities). The “New” in New England resonates all around: the buildings, the narrow streets… As if in London (“but then again no” – “Your Song” with that English accent missing).
I can go on and on; alas, I need to put away Henry James and return to my business mind. But to all you folks out there reading, I want you to know that despite its challenges (and there are many), the United States remains the greatest nation ever built. A nation that has defined the free world as we know it, a nation that has helped liberate many from the horrors of evil, a nation that my ancestors and I personally owe a lot.
I look forward to exploring further — Illinois, Texas, California — and returning again to Brooklyn. I admire the vastness of it all.