{"id":46818,"date":"2015-01-22T22:56:22","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T05:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ponoko.com\/blog\/?p=46818"},"modified":"2018-03-11T21:07:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T04:07:46","slug":"annual-letter-from-ponoko-founder-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ponoko.com\/blog\/ponoko\/annual-letter-from-ponoko-founder-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from Ponoko Founder \/ CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy 2015 to you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Full Printed<\/a> from nueveojos<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hi, I\u2019m Derek Elley, a founder and the CEO of Ponoko (since Jan 2013).<\/p>\n

Thanks big for being on our journey to lay some foundations of the 3rd industrial revolution together.<\/p>\n

We believe in distributed digital mass production.<\/p>\n

That is, consumers will continue to increase the number of products they download and make at home. Kinda like a \u2018digital Ikea\u2019 experience to start, followed by a ‘Star Trek Replicator\u2019 down the track. And businesses will continue to increase their supply of digital products, simply because it\u2019s more profitable to do so.<\/p>\n

During 2014, we continued to obsess over delivering you the fastest way to make your custom products & build your creative businesses, using our online laser cutting & 3D printing services \u2026 made & shipped as fast as same day, no minimum order size, endless free instant quotes, on-demand production, all backed by our 100% re-make guarantee (and our new customer delight policy, whereby we reward you for giving us the opportunity to make good).<\/p>\n

We LOVE playing our small part in your creative and business explorations. Thank you (!) for another great year in 2014 …<\/p>\n

2014 – PEOPLE USING PONOKO<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Makers \/ Designers.<\/p>\n

* ETSY Sellers.<\/p>\n

* Kickstarter Entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

* Creative Agencies.<\/p>\n

* Brands & Businesses.<\/p>\n

2014 – YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

* 70,000+ new product ideas submitted to Ponoko.<\/p>\n

* 400,000+ custom products now made by Ponoko.<\/p>\n

* $370,000+ Kickstarter campaigns using Ponoko.<\/p>\n

* $1,720,000+ revenues earned from products you made using Ponoko and sold on marketplaces (like ETSY & Kickstarter), your websites, your stalls, your retailers, and our website.<\/p>\n

2014 – IMPROVEMENTS WE MADE FOR YOU<\/strong><\/p>\n

We added the following major features (and many more behind the scenes or smaller features):<\/p>\n

* Up to 55% off making costs for volume orders.<\/p>\n

* Up to 55% off making costs for loyal customers.<\/p>\n

* 100% off shipping costs for all orders over $100.<\/p>\n

* Average of 20% off shipping costs with our new USPS service.<\/p>\n

* 100% faster making time for our premium service (from 1 day to same day).<\/p>\n

* 33% faster making time for our standard service (from 12 to 8 calendar days).<\/p>\n

* 14% more materials, including our first $2,500 material design challenge.<\/p>\n

* UX – Making your first product is easier with our new homepage and welcome experience.<\/p>\n

* UX – Uploading your designs is easier with our new design trouble shooting experience.<\/p>\n

* UX – Getting an instant online quote is easier after we cut away the noise.<\/p>\n

* UX – Checking out is easier after we cut away lots more noise.<\/p>\n

* New customer delight policy – in addition to our 100% re-make guarantee, we also reward you for giving us the opportunity to make good.<\/p>\n

2014 – BIGGEST SURPRISE<\/strong><\/p>\n

* We A\/B tested many many things. While most progressed to a product upgrade, there was one notable test that did not.<\/p>\n

* Our hypothesis was: \u201cCustomers get frustrated when our automated design file checker rejects their design files, making it difficult to make things.”<\/p>\n

* So we ran an A\/B test to dis\/prove this \u2026 A = no change (the file checker continued, meaning 30% of designs are rejected) … B = change (no file checker at all, meaning 100% of designs are accepted).<\/p>\n

* The winner? Draw (hence we retained A).<\/p>\n

* We really thought your behaviour would vote for B by a long stretch, but you did not – this really surprised us, and shows the power of A\/B testing.<\/p>\n

2015 – OUR PLAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

We believe in distributed digital mass production, a disruptor of the current centralised analog mass production model.<\/p>\n

Hence, in 2007 we launched the world\u2019s first website for designers to make and sell downloadable product designs (open\/paid\/free) to consumers.<\/p>\n

Building upon this heritage, we have 2 major projects this year \u2026<\/p>\n

1) Improve Our Online Laser Cutting Service<\/strong><\/p>\n

For makers \/ designers, ETSY sellers, Kickstarter entrepreneurs, creative agencies plus brands & businesses, we\u2019ll announce the following upgrades to our current service:<\/p>\n

* AutoCAD DXF designs – get instant online quotes for laser cutting.<\/p>\n

* Metal cutting – get instant online quotes using PDF designs.<\/p>\n

* Rewards – for referring others.<\/p>\n

* Pricing – new options.<\/p>\n

* Materials & samples – more.<\/p>\n

* Shipping – lower costs & faster.<\/p>\n

* UX – a shopping cart so you can easily combine designs into a single shipment, and you don’t need to upload your designs repetitively to order repetitively.<\/p>\n

* Loyalty – more for being a repeat customer.<\/p>\n

* And lots more.<\/p>\n

2) Launch Our New Home 3D Printing Service <\/strong><\/p>\n

For creative brands and businesses, we\u2019ll announce a new initiative to make it simple for you to sell your products to consumers more profitably than ever before (via home 3D printers).<\/p>\n

We believe the time is ripe for us to unveil the \u2018future of making’ idea we\u2019ve been sitting on for almost 8 years when we dreamed up Ponoko.<\/p>\n

Please hit us up if you\u2019d like to find out more about our new home 3D printing service.<\/a><\/p>\n

2015 – BEST WISHES TO YOU<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, if you have any questions, concerns or merry-ness to share with me or our team, please feel free to email me [ derek – at – ponoko – dot – com ] or leave a comment below \u2026<\/p>\n

Thanks again.<\/p>\n

Derek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy 2015 to you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Full Printed from nueveojos on Vimeo.<\/p>\n

Hi, I\u2019m Derek Elley, a founder and the CEO of Ponoko (since Jan 2013).<\/p>\n

Thanks big for being on our journey to lay some foundations of the 3rd industrial revolution together.<\/p>\n

We believe in distributed digital mass production.<\/p>\n

That is, consumers will continue to increase the number of products they download and make at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ponoko"],"yoast_head":"\nLetter from Ponoko Founder \/ CEO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ponoko.com\/blog\/ponoko\/annual-letter-from-ponoko-founder-ceo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letter from Ponoko Founder \/ CEO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Happy 2015 to you. Full Printed from nueveojos on Vimeo. 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