Happy New Year! 2017 equated to some great progress here at Thimble. Join us as we reminisce on one of the most influential years in Thimble history thus far, as well as some of our biggest accomplishments to date!
We’re Growing!
The Thimble team designed, manufactured, and shipped thousands of projects to our growing list of customers, allowing us to grow from two to SEVEN full-time employees in the past year! We’re grateful for each and every one of our loyal customers who have stuck by us and enabled us to hire such a hardworking team to keep things running smoothly here at Thimble.
New Office Space
Our team is also transitioning into a new office as we speak. In this new space, we will be able to fully manufacture our DIY electronics kits directly from our own warehouse, making it even easier for our subscribers to receive their monthly shipments from us in a timely manner!
Making Educational Strides
We’re excited to bring our kits into classrooms and after-school programs! In 2017 alone, we secured a vendor contract with Erie 1 BOCES, established our first long-term partnership with Amherst Middle School in Western New York, and partnered with National Grid to get our kits into classrooms in the Buffalo-Niagara region. Through National Grid, we brought programming into their summer workshops to highlight the importance of electrical grid infrastructure and solar, chemical, and wind electrical power generation. We also continued our relationship teaching kids at the Boys & Girls Clubs.
Another partnership we formalized this year was with the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership (ISEP) through the University at Buffalo, whose mission is to transform how science is taught in the Buffalo Public Schools. We also started attending Buffalo Public Schools’ Saturday Academy to teach and get feedback on our product from students and the community.
If you’d like to learn more about getting our DIY electronics kits into your school or after-school program, please email us at team@thimble.io.
First Place Winners
We WON the “Innovative World” category when we pitched the idea of Thimble kits at the 2017 SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event in Dallas, TX! Chief Technology Officer at Amazon (and Thimble customer!), Werner Vogels, was thrilled to hear that our kits aren’t just for kids.
Other Big Wins
We were semi-finalists in 43North’s $5 million startup competition. Our team is confident that we’ll be on stage as winners in 2018!
Thimble also took 2nd place in the 2017 UPS X-Port Challenge, where companies pitch their product in a competition to earn shipping credits. These credits will help us become even more efficient when it comes to shipping our Thimble kits to our customers!
A Boost in Funding
Thimble was accepted into Telluride Venture Accelerator, a program that assists startup companies in Telluride, CO. We completed our fundraising round thanks to the amazing, supportive network of people there. We were also accepted to a similar program in New York City, called FutureWorks NYC.
Other Events We Attended in 2017
David Brenner, our Chief Technology Officer, moderated two panels at the first annual New York State Maker Summit in Albany, NY. This event was a truly inspiring conference covering all aspect of making within NYS, including manufacturing, education, maker spaces, community, workforce development, etc.
We also attended Rochester Mini Maker Faire in Rochester, NY, Maker Faire NYC in New York City, and the Shell Eco-Marathon in Detroit, MI. Our team had a blast meeting some new faces and delighting them with our kits!
Meet the Interns
We were fortunate to work with a group of amazing and talented interns this year. Many of them played an integral role in designing and developing the tutorials for some of our DIY electronics projects!
Final Thoughts
Looking back on an awesome year, we couldn’t be more grateful for our each and every person who helped us get to where we are today, especially our amazing subscribers and all-star team. Thank you for helping us turn our mission of making electronics accessible, inspiring, and fun into reality!
A new year is upon us, and we are most definitely ready for new beginnings here at Thimble. Stick with us in 2018 for more of what brought you here, as well as some new, positive changes that we can’t wait to share…
Happy Building!
-The Thimble Team