Thimble started with a vision that “making is for everyone.” We searched around for ways to fulfill that vision and had ideas abound, including an online portfolio, version control for hardware projects, an electronic components search engine, and all sorts of other ideas. We decided on a simple promise – “Learn & Build Electronics w/ Monthly Delivered Kits.” Oscar and Dave launched Thimble with that promise on Kickstarter to overwhelming and unanticipated success, raising $296k.
In the beginning..
We laid out a series of kits from the beginning, starting with our WiFi Robot, followed by the LED cube, and many others. Based on our customer feedback two years into running the business, we moved from one-off kits to kits that build off of one another, allowing customers to build larger projects. We upped our game on learning content, even tying our content to curriculum standards like NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards). Our first project in this series was the Weather Station, divided into a series of 4 kits. That was followed by our Robot Series, and our Music Series.
As we started down the road of building out these series of kits, our customers began wanting to buy these series as a “course,” outside of a subscription. We’ve known from the start that we’re an education-based company, so the terminology made sense – and now we’re embracing it!
What does this mean?
For our customers, this is just more options. The major change is, of course, the terminology – but we’ll continue to send you monthly kits with interesting projects and excellent learning content. Now these individual kits will be categorized into courses. And, you can buy them without a subscription.
Introducing Thimble Courses!
Our Creator Set is our beginner-level course, TH-101, Introduction to Computer Science and Engineering.
The Weather Station series is TH-201: Climate, Science, and Technology.
The Robotics Kit series is TH-202: Robotics and Mechatronics.
TH-203 is Music, Acoustics, Engineering, and Programming
TH-204 is Agricultural Engineering and Technology
With additional courses and advanced TH-300 and TH-400-level courses coming soon.
We’ll be announcing the individual projects in these courses as they are released, so as not to ruin the surprise for our customers. Stay tuned!