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00:00:01
TSW* S1E1 - Jake Juracka of Northwestern University's Garage
73 Plays5 months ago
In this episode, I'm thrilled to have Jake Juracka, the talented Senior Associate Director at The Garage at Northwestern University and my former student at DePaul. Jake has a rich background in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, especially among young innovators. His journey from working on technical projects to shaping the future of student entrepreneurs at Northwestern is truly inspiring.
Jake’s role at The Garage involves mentoring students, organizing impactful events, and driving initiatives that cultivate a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. In our conversation, we dive deep into his experiences, the challenges he’s faced, and the strategies he employs to guide budding entrepreneurs. We also explore the innovative programs at The Garage and how they are making a significant impact on the entrepreneurial landscape.
Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, an educator, or simply interested in the world of innovation, this episode is packed with insights and practical advice. Join us as we explore the dynamic world of entrepreneurship with Jake Juracka.
Tune in to gain valuable perspectives and be inspired by Jake’s journey and his dedication to nurturing the next generation of innovators.
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Transcript
Introduction and Initial Discussion
00:00:00
Jake
her name and it kind of you know wiggles to show that there's something being recorded on your side I'm not seeing that on my side you know because I saw a little blip there when you just started talking but mine is just a constant flat line so I'm not sure if there's something do you see that too yep
00:00:04
margalus
Yeah.
00:00:12
margalus
Okay. I, I am seeing, yeah, I'm seeing the the wave. It's very small, but it is there. So yes, that's right.
00:00:20
Jake
and it's there for me as well okay so might just be a visual glitch on my part or
00:00:24
margalus
Yeah. I will find out after this,
00:00:27
Jake
I mean, the sound is coming to you, so it would stand to reason that it's also being recorded as well, but...
00:00:31
margalus
That's right. yeah All right, and we have started recording as well.
00:00:36
Jake
and Absolutely, yeah.
00:00:37
margalus
So there it gets a good way in.
Meet Jake Jaraka
00:00:41
margalus
All right, hey, so wow, season one, episode one of This Should Work. We have Jake Jaraka with us. Jake, I've known for, how long have I known you for now, Jake? Eight years, something like that?
00:00:58
Jake
Yeah, you were my very first professor freshman year at DePaul University. Yeah, that was 2016.
00:01:03
margalus
Wow. I don't know whether I should apologize for that or be honored, but maybe I'll do both. so Jake is currently the technology manager at Northwestern's Garage, which is an innovation space at at north Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois. Jake can tell you a little bit more about that before that.
Role and Mission at The Garage
00:01:25
margalus
Jake and I actually worked together at DePaul University, where I ran the idea realization labs and hired Jake some amount of years ago was an excellent employee and students, and I'm very excited to see Jake to see you at Northwestern right now.
00:01:41
margalus
and and thriving so Why don't we you know, I can kind of gave the nickel tour of what you're doing. But could you uh, how about could could you describe your role and and the garage's primary mission and and goals and things like things like that for for the folks who are listening
00:01:59
Jake
Absolutely, yeah. So the garage is the student entrepreneurship center for Northwestern University. Essentially, we provide free resources of all kinds to students in any stage of startup development, whether they're, you know, looking to start something creative and trying to find some ideas or whether they're coming to us with a dedicated business venture in mind and want to you know be supported in that in several concrete ways.
00:02:24
margalus
Thanks.
00:02:28
Jake
The garage is extracurricular. We're not under or related to any particular section of campus, which means that we are open to any students of any background. And that allows a wide range of creative ventures from, obviously the most the most obvious and most evident startups in this day and age, which is digital goods and services, apps and business to business stuff, but also consumer goods, medical innovations, food products, the full gambit. And it's great to see the incredible range of creativity that comes from our students developing in our space.
00:03:06
margalus
You know, I'm gonna I'm going to touch on in a little bit, Jake, some of the programming that you all do to to support those endeavors. I know there's a fund that's set aside for student groups. I know that the folks who who who direct the garage, you know, have a a book out that I've actually read about you know how to had to successfully support students, startups, and and all that's interesting. But I'll get to that in a second. And I know you you know you weren't you weren't at the garage when at at its inception, but I was wondering if you could talk a little bit, if you know any anything about what motivated the the establishment
00:03:45
margalus
of the garage at Northwestern, especially it being, but as you said, not necessarily affiliated with directly affiliated with academics and and kind of its its its its current mission and goals.
00:03:57
Jake
Absolutely. Yeah. So the garage was founded in 2015 by Melissa Kaufman. So Melissa, through her dealings with Northwestern University, saw that there was a, there was a community of students who were, you know, entrepreneurs who were starting their own companies who were, you know, getting creative, going out there taking risks, but the university itself had no dedicated infrastructure or programming to support that at the time, the only
00:04:17
margalus
Hmm.
00:04:26
Jake
you know entrepreneurship or business-oriented entity on campus was Invo, the Innovations and New Ventures office. This office was in charge of monetizing and helping faculty to turn their university research or university IP into you know viable business strategies. And you know while this did offer an outlet for university research that was looking to be monetized, there's a strong proponent of students who were you know working on their own stuff, their own creative invent yeah their own creative innovations that were separate from you know university research. So that was the impetus for developing the garage. Melissa put in the bid for getting this entire space all 11,000 square feet that was previously earmarked for individual office space and had that developed from the ground up to be a student focused entrepreneurship center.
00:05:23
margalus
You know, some of some some things are sounding similar, ringing a bell. Some things might be a little bit different. And this is where we perhaps diverge a little bit from the script. But I was wondering if you could tell me, I mean, what similarities, having worked at the the ID Realization Labs at DePaul University, which you know I founded and and then ran for a number of years, what What similarities and and what differences as well do you see from the space, if if any, in either category?
Comparison: The Garage vs DePaul's IRL
00:05:54
margalus
And yeah, let's just talk about that.
00:05:58
Jake
Of course yeah so to provide some background I worked at J's IRL space the idea realization lab from man it was the end of my freshman year all the way through to well past the graduation point, technically, and so this space, the IRL provided a
00:06:07
margalus
All right.
00:06:18
Jake
You know, open format maker space, you know, for any students, staff or alumni and faculty at DePaul for any creative purpose. A lot of similarities can be seen between the IRL and at least my portion of the garage which encompasses the maker space, just because a lot of my all of my knowledge for that matter on makerspace management, utilizing and maintaining equipment, and training students on how to use it, I learned from my time at the IRL. So in that regard, the setup, layout, and general ethos of my makerspace here within the garage is you know very familiar to anyone who's seen the IRL.
00:07:03
Jake
Another similarity would probably be the the wide array array of students who come to use this space. I would imagine that a lot of university makerspaces, especially ones that house advanced equipment like 3D printers and CNC machines, would predominantly be available for engineering students, students who have a background in utilizing and you know designing for this kind of equipment. But because, as I said earlier, the garage is extracurricular, quite a lot of our students and in fact some of the most emphatic and heavy users of this space, specifically the makerspace resources, are students who have no prior experience with it. That's something that I'm very proud to foster here is
00:07:46
Jake
you know, this space just like the IRL is equally accessible to a four-year engineering student as it is to a journalism student who hasn't seen a 3D printer before. So that
Resources and Challenges at The Garage
00:07:58
Jake
that kind of engagement that covers the whole wide range of student the student body here is something that's definitely very familiar from my time at the IRL. Let's see some differences would be that the IRL has the benefit of being open and available for any student, faculty or alumni on campus for any purpose, and they have the square footage to support that I know that, you know, my time at the IRL saw
00:08:26
Jake
engagement from hundreds of students throughout the course of the year. The makerspace here is around 2,000 square feet and then encompasses the workshop space as well as the VR area and photo and video production studio. So definitely quite a bit smaller in terms of square footage than what the IRL had to had to work with. And because of that, the the scope of our space is definitely much more focused on student entrepreneurship. So students are welcome to come and explore and make use of the space. But the general focus is to provide them help with developing, for instance, physical prototypes for products they hope to develop. Developing merchandising in the form of embroidered t-shirts and hats and other types of branded merchandise to help support their team and their business. Access to media printing services that allow them to work on things like stickers and handouts and business cards.
00:09:20
Jake
and access to the camera equipment and video production studio for the purposes of developing professional headshots product demos and testimonials filming commercials, all that kind of stuff. So I would say that it's you know, it's contrasted to the IRL in that the IRL was a blank slate that any student could come in to fill with whatever creative aspect they wanted to work on. Whereas the garage is definitely much more focused on student entrepreneurship.
00:09:51
margalus
Right. Yeah, and I imagine there are a lot of advantages to that. And those constraints when it comes to, you know, giving students kind of the, the pathway towards taking a concept that they they want to bring into real know into the real world. and and really scaling it. you know I think that the labs at DePaul, I can't speak to them now, but at least when we were there were, I mean, certainly a student could have taken a product idea that they had and scaled it, but it certainly didn't, the spaces themselves didn't have the capacity to to guide students through that process because they were they were more intended for earlier in the creative process than than later on down the line.
00:10:37
margalus
So there have to be a lot of advantage to that I assume I wonder what kinds of you know I've got a question in here about initial challenges but I don't think initial challenges are. Are are quite appropriate for for you know where you're at with the garage but I wonder if you could talk a little bit about. Just challenges in general that you face running your corner of of the garage, you know students coming in like you said with a wide array of backgrounds and things like that. what What challenges do you see with with working with them or onboarding them or helping them through the process and how do you how do you address those challenges?
00:11:18
Jake
Absolutely yeah so let's see for the past two and a half years now I've been at the garage since December of 2021 or was that twenty no yeah 2021. I've been you know in charge of the maker space and you know that, and as I said, encompasses the prototyping lab and the video production studio. I inherited the space in its nearly complete state from my predecessor who did a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of
00:11:53
Jake
outlining the the overall layout of the space and equipping it with some of the heavier and larger pieces of equipment. So during the past two years, it's been a, you know, my work has entailed mostly refinement and evolution of the current setup. So that means, you know, seeing how students are currently engaging with the resources, what gets most heavily used, what is being you know ignored or what is you know no longer required by the student population, and allowing that to inform things like onboarding new equipment, reorganizing the space to you know prioritize these forms of engagement that I feel are more important andser and overall deserving, more deserving of the square footage that we have here.
00:12:20
margalus
Thank
00:12:39
Jake
and And also, you know, kind of taking a look forward and seeing how, you know, a new piece of equipment or technology might, you know, be utilized by students.
00:12:45
margalus
you.
00:12:52
Jake
So I'd say, I guess i guess the biggest challenge that I'm facing currently is you know where that new frontier exists where you know always staying up to date on new types of technologies that can you you know work in a maker space like this for instance the embroidery machine which was definitely a new and big addition to this space about let's see eight or nine months into my time here so researching these types of equipment deciding beforehand in the form of
00:13:09
margalus
Mm
00:13:22
Jake
you know, poll, you know, sending out polls to our most dedicated students about how interested they may be in having access to something like an industrial scale embroidery machine, and ultimately making that decision on, you know, because it's a big ticket item, it's a large purchase, and understanding that, you know, with that comes the risk that you can spend thousands of dollars on something, but
00:13:35
margalus
hmm.
00:13:46
Jake
you know working on the assumption that students will actively engage in that resource. And yeah that's kind of the the main issue. I mean, the main struggle of managing a space like this is trying to know as much beforehand about how students will engage with the resources here so that when you buy a big ticket item like that, you know that it's gonna be a worthwhile purchase and that you can see the gains in terms of student engagement there.
00:14:12
margalus
Yeah, I should. I'll give you a plug. I have no interest. I have no vested interest in in in promoting this. i just to This is when it comes to what I'm looking forward to right now. I've been playing with technology called Meshtastic. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's a somewhat local area mesh network that you can pass data through using like node-based systems.
00:14:37
Jake
Yeah, I have heard of this does this use is Laura that's like that's that's one of
00:14:41
margalus
That's right. Yeah, it uses LoRa on the 915 megahertz band. And you can have up to 70 people in any one channel is what they call them on it. And you can pass data through nodes to get to other nodes. It's actually pretty fun. I think it's probably very early and pretty geeky right now. But that's where a lot of that stuff usually starts.
00:14:59
Jake
Yeah,
00:15:00
margalus
you know
00:15:02
Jake
yeah absolutely. Somewhat related to that is there's a student startup that just joined the tinkerer program here that's working to develop a, you know, a low energy usage. like Bluetooth and kind of radio frequency enabled tracking bracelet. It's designed for parents to keep track of their kids in places like amusement parks or, you know, kind of these dedicated spaces. And we were discussing the possibility of, you know, of them researching Meshtastic and Laura to develop in a space like that.
00:15:31
margalus
Yep. Yeah, that'd be a perfect use of the the technology, actually. So you mentioned what's getting used and what isn't, and also things that you're looking forward to. We had some offline discussions about at least one thing that you are really enjoying right now, and i won't I won't give that away if you if if you know what I'm talking about. what's yeah You know what I'm really interested in? What isn't getting used, and and and why do you think that is? And then tell me where you think, what are you looking forward to?
00:16:05
Jake
That's a really great question. I think, yeah, see the, yeah, cause like nothing, nothing ever works exactly as you plan it to. And you can, you know, you can build it, but, you know, the students won't come if there's no,
00:16:15
margalus
Right.
00:16:23
Jake
You know, incentive for them to do so. So I think I'd say one of the one of the avenues of my exploration in this maker space that I i still think there's hope for it, but it will require some more augmentation and more dedicated programming to promote it is, you know, I noticed that a lot of students were working on physical prototypes of objects that would ultimately be injection molded on a large scale when they were ready to, you know, reach that level of manufacturing.
Student Projects and Program Support
00:16:56
Jake
So let's see the previous summer I onboarded a small scale injection molding machine. So basically a
00:17:02
margalus
Oh.
00:17:03
Jake
just a small you know eight cubic inch shot size injection molding. with It's got a big wheel that you spin to press down the hot plastic into a mold.
00:17:10
margalus
Yeah.
00:17:14
Jake
And you know I'd say mainly due to a failure in understanding all that goes into injection molding in terms of the designing of the molds, the all of the specific manufacturing
00:17:21
margalus
Thanks.
00:17:31
Jake
you know, guidelines that go into it, you know, determining your draft angles and your overall volume and, you know, helping to, you know, having to reduce the internal volume of certain parts to avoid the, you know, expansion or contraction of plastic. And the actual fabrication of these molds know, the maker space has not yet met the need of that type of development in order to make the acquisition of an injection molder useful. I think the the most activity it's gotten thus far is a student who already had a small aluminum injection mold made was able to bring it in and, you know, make a small batch of parts using that existing mold. But when it comes to tooling and developing that tooling, we were hoping to
00:18:20
Jake
Initially, work with our resin 3D printing, because I had seen many articles discussing the fact that resin 3D printing, especially using rigid 10K resin from Formlabs, was a viable solution, in at least in the short term, for developing you know prototype injection molds. But after many attempts to make that work, we found that it was definitely not as good as a solid piece of metal that's being developed there. So to combat this and to, you know, you know help engage, promote engagement in all aspects of this space, because I know that, you know, if we can overcome those hurdles of developing tooling for this kind of machine, it can be more heavily utilized.
00:18:46
margalus
Yeah.
00:18:54
margalus
Okay.
00:19:02
Jake
So we've onboarded now a Carvera CNC machine that is capable of machining metal and we bought a few blocks of aluminum along with that. So I'm hoping to over the summer or you know by shepherding a particular student group that's working in hardware you know towards this kind of technology and kind of crowdsource that research onto the you know onto the students who would most actively be using it.
00:19:13
margalus
Okay.
00:19:25
margalus
Yeah.
00:19:28
Jake
I'm hoping to develop a framework that will allow them to to use our injection molder.
00:19:33
margalus
Right. Okay. Wow. Yeah, it's it's often the things that are the further on down the line in the production process that are the hardest to get to onboard, particularly undergrad students on. because of the amount of mental leaps that you need to take from initial conception all the way into making your own mold. I wonder, you know, I wanna go back to when we were discussing some of the differences between a derealization lab but and a space like the garage, because there is a balance that you have to strike between creative freedom
00:20:01
Jake
Absolutely.
00:20:18
margalus
And commercial objectives, meaning that that when you are trying to commercialize something, you you need you often need to make creative compromises, you need to make creative, you know you have to exist in that tension a little bit more. And i was wondering how you encourage if at all students to kind of move into that that commercialization process and and and and like from the creative process to the commercialization process.
00:20:54
Jake
Absolutely, yeah. So you know the the the core idea of the garage is to provide this safety net, of as it were, to you know help students to who wouldn't otherwise feel confident in taking a creative risk in developing a business idea of theirs and providing them with free and ample resources and, in many cases, access to undiluted funding to help promote that business idea. So yeah know with regards to the you know the early phase stuff, when you know when students come in with a pie in the sky idea for something they want to develop, the main goal of the garage is to make it so that they can take those risks, you know start developing a project, and not have to worry so much about the commercialization aspect of it.
00:21:48
Jake
i think the You know, one of our key strategic approaches of the garage and something that you'll hear me and my colleagues repeat often is that our goal is to, you know, building students before companies we want to yeah Our main goal here is to encourage students to take those you know entrepreneurship risks, take those big leaps that you know they wouldn't otherwise feel confident to do so if it was their own capital or somebody else's direct capital on the line.
00:22:13
margalus
Great.
00:22:22
Jake
and yeah First and foremost, it's developing those you know creative tendencies, those those strategies in students. And we found that that's often been most beneficial to students, even if their current startup, the current venture they're working on in the garage doesn't pan out. In fact, you know, about 90% of student startups that begin in this space don't continue past the graduation of all students involved.
00:22:45
margalus
Mm.
00:22:51
Jake
But even with that metric in mind, the the actual, you know, success obtained by our students can be quantified in a lot of different ways. you know Those that want to continue in entrepreneurship can jump into there you know their next idea, their next business venture with a much more grounded idea of you know what actually goes into creating a startup. And they can help it helps them to avoid a lot of the pitfalls that first-time founders will fall into.
00:23:22
margalus
All right.
00:23:23
Jake
So on that side, You know, we definitely encourage on more creative freedom rather than commercial objectives here at the garage. But for those student teams that are, you know, barreling towards commercial success, we often provide them with resources such as office hours where they can talk with outside experts in the community to provide specific legal advice to, you know, whatever stage in the business they're on. On the development side, the garage harbors a direct connection with mHub, which is a manufacturing space here in Chicago. And I've had it many times where students who are working on prototyping in this space, once they're actually ready to start commercializing it, you know for instance, they've gone through all of their prototyping and testing using our 3D printers here in the space, and they're ready to move on to large scale injection molding.
00:24:18
Jake
you know, helping shepherd them towards more industrial outlets like m hub to, you know, really work on the, you know, to allow that space to play to its strengths, which is the commercialization and large scale production of of goods.
00:24:18
margalus
Mm hmm.
00:24:34
margalus
heart Yeah, hard tech is what they call it, right.
00:24:36
Jake
Mm hmm. Yeah.
00:24:38
margalus
I want to go back to you mentioned, you know, that it's more about students learning process and you give them resources so that they're taking. It doesn't feel like as much of a risk because it's not their own resources, let's say.
00:24:52
Jake
Thank
00:24:53
margalus
And I wonder if, you know, i but knowing that the garage, you also, I think, if if i'm still if I'm correct, my knowledge is up to date, there is kind of like a process where it's like a beginning middle end.
00:24:57
Jake
you.
00:25:05
margalus
So you go through one cohort and that's like your beginning cohort and you become familiarized with the entrepreneurial process. And then some students graduate from that cohort into into another and so on. and And I'm wondering, at any point in that process, you know what is like what it's a story that you can remember or a project that you can think of that that that speaks to the success that you're looking for with the space? And and what also, I guess, how how do you, if if you know, measure success? like What are the key performance indicators that say that the the program is working?
00:25:48
Jake
Absolutely. Yeah. So to start on the first part of that regarding a specific you know student story that I think perfectly exemplifies the trajectory that we hope that students take through the garage. First off, there is no direct trajectory. Students can move fluidly between any of our programs and we have resources that can meet them at any level in their entrepreneurship journey, whether they're just getting started on an idea or they don't even have an idea yet and they're looking for inspiration. all the way on to you know these students are you know have been working on this project for years either in our programs or before even coming here and they're looking to get to the next stage of development the you know whether that's a mass mass manufacturing run or you know in some cases even getting acquired the garage is meant to
00:26:38
margalus
No.
00:26:40
Jake
you know We have programs to meet them at all levels. And generally, the framework is that we have at the very beginning, we think of our programs like a funnel, that we have the wide opening that is meant to capture as many students as possible from a wide range of backgrounds and entrepreneurial experience. And that funnel steadily narrows down towards the are much more dedicated programs that offer that specific guidance and feedback for students who are further along in their entrepreneurship journey. So that opening of the funnel is called the tinkerer program and it's named as such because students who are just tinkering with an idea, whether it's
00:27:15
Jake
you know, like I said, whether it's in the early stages or even before the early stages of just developing an idea for what they want to accomplish. And that moves down towards the residency program. The residency program is for student teams that are beyond the idea stage, they've decided exactly what they want to accomplish as a business. And they're looking to engage much more heavily with the resources of the garage to make that a reality. The tinkerer program is open to any student, and there is no there is no application. It is certain is simply just a signup, and that's meant to limit the lower the barrier to entry to nothing. If a student is interested at all in the garage, they can sign up for that program and immediately begin accessing the resources that we have made available to them.
00:27:58
Jake
And yeah the the ideal circumstances where a student will join the tinkerer program and you know kind of develop the loose framework for the idea they hope to accomplish. And with that, they can apply and then be accepted to the residency program. where they're given 24 seven access to the space and a lot of other dedicated resources like a direct mentor and you know the opportunity to see guest speaker events on a weekly basis to help you know support their entrepreneurship journey.
Success Stories: SteadyScript
00:28:25
Jake
And the residency program is designed to shepherd them through all levels of their development from still in the early stages to all the way on to you know graduating out of the space, moving on to mass manufacturing or getting acquired.
00:28:39
Jake
I think a great example of a student team that has gone through that exact trajectory and is now have now just graduated out of the garage is SteadyScript. So SteadyScript started about two and a half years ago by two students who had joined the tinkerer program because they wanted to
00:28:51
margalus
Yeah.
00:29:00
Jake
see if their fledgling idea for a business had legs and could be supported by the garage's programs. This was started by Izzy Mokotov and Alexis Chan, who Izzy, her grandfather had Parkinson's, and which limited their tradition of handwritten letters back and forth to each other. So that emotional need to find a a way to allow her grandfather to continue writing was the impetus for developing this device which is a pen which uses a magnet at the tip of the pen that stabilizes it against a magnetic backed writing surface.
00:29:36
margalus
Mm.
00:29:38
Jake
You know at the core a very simple idea but you know they saw a need for it from You know, Izzy herself as well as people that she spoke to who are in similar situations, and they joined up with the garage and the tinkerer program made themselves known to the staff here and started talking to me in the maker space about the possibility of 3D printing and initial prototype. helped them out with that, allowed them to kind of develop a small, you know, a light framework for what they would hope to accomplish as a business. And that allowed them to join our summer jumpstart program, which is essentially designed to be a ramp up into residency. So students can spend full time here over the summer, they're paid a stipend to allow them to work here on their business full time. And that culminates in a pitch competition at the end of the summer.
00:30:26
Jake
that provides undilutive funding to a number of student winners. And it's just a great way to you know kind of jumpstart students into the next year of development development as part of the residency program. So both Izzy and Alexis excelled through the jumpstart program. They ended up winning our summer jumpstart competition and won $5,000 to you know start developing and start hiring interns to you know work on this project full time. And I will work on this project you know here at the garage as a residency program.
00:30:57
Jake
There were still full-time students.
00:30:59
margalus
Mm hmm.
00:31:01
Jake
But then from that point forward, they joined the residency program. They were some of the most heavy users of the space when it comes to developing 3D printed prototypes using our maker space, utilizing our camera equipment to bring in members of the Parkinson's community and film them using the device and helping to
00:31:18
margalus
Sure.
00:31:19
Jake
you know, grow that business, grow the community that they've developed around it. And finally, culminating now with the them winning second place in our VentureCat competition. VentureCat is a yearly pitch competition held at Northwestern for any Northwestern students who are working on businesses. And SteadyScrip won the second place prize, which was $50,000. which allowed them to immediately instead of a few months from now pull the pull the trigger on their manufacturing push which is now allowing to get 5,000 injection molded units of their 3D printed prototype developed and shipped to customers who are on their waitlist. So I think that SteadyScrib is a great example of
00:32:02
Jake
you know, the perfect execution of our goals as the garage to take a student team who is from the very get-go, just has a great idea and has the the will to pursue it.
00:32:02
margalus
Yeah.
00:32:18
Jake
And at every step in the way, giving them that extra push, that extra step up to allow them to smoothly ramp up into mass scale production and hopefully commercial success.
Importance of Physical Space
00:32:29
margalus
so So I want i want to kind of touch on that real quick. that that's a So that's a physical product. You'd mentioned earlier on you know a lot of the products that students are working on in the space are are digital as well. And so folks might think that, you know yeah, if you're making a physical product, a physical space is necessary, perhaps. But if you're making a digital one, do you really need to have a center? Do you really need to have a place?
00:33:00
margalus
And you know I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about you know the dynamics within the center.
00:33:05
Jake
Mm hmm.
00:33:07
margalus
Is a space important, like an actual place important for an innovation program? And what role does it play, the the actual place itself in the broader community? Because, of course, you have other programming that's that's entirely non-physical, right? yeah The funding that you provide, the mentorship, all of those things could probably be done, I don't know, let's say, over Zoom, for for argument's sake. Although that already sounds terrible to me. But but they could, I suppose.
00:33:40
margalus
So what's what's the what's the role of of the center and the broader community? And yeah just speak a little bit of that on that to me.
00:33:51
Jake
Of course, yeah, I'll start off I'll start right off by saying that I believe having worked here for two and a half years and seeing the incredible gains that students have made in their development of their you know businesses and products as well as their professional relationships with their peers as well as you know outside members of the community. I think that a physical space is absolutely necessary regardless of the the type or the scope of your business venture. Obviously, as you said, you know physical products requiring a physical manufacturing space, that just makes sense. And digital goods, you can technically do it over Zoom, but I think the the perfect example of you know what is lost in that type of
00:34:34
Jake
you know programming can be seen in how the garage operated through COVID. I think that gives us a a wonderful case study on why the garage requires a physical space to harbor this community of engagement.
00:34:43
margalus
Mm.
00:34:49
Jake
you So I joined this team in December of 2021. So it was kind of on the slow climb out of the COVID slump. So i can only work I can only speak anecdotally about the experience that my co-workers who had been here longer than I had during that time. But I think one thing we pride ourselves at here at the garage, and it sounds cliched, but it's true, is the community we grow is one of the most valuable resources that a student can have here in a space. I think that
00:35:22
Jake
developing those connections with their peers in a space like this is something that can't be recreated in purely a you know digital or virtual sense. you know You can provide someone with the funding, you can provide someone with a mentor and you know career development skills, all that kind of stuff.
00:35:34
margalus
you
00:35:42
Jake
But at the end of the day, when you're a student here in the residency area and you see other students here with you every day working on different projects, you start to become more engaged with the the broader community of entrepreneurship on campus. The director of this space, Mike, often says that the goal of the garage is to manufacture serendipity. And I think that's a perfect way to describe that you know, a lot of students teams that we've seen here have either been completely formed or wholly changed by a serendipitous conversation between two students working on different things here in the space.
00:36:20
margalus
Right.
00:36:24
Jake
That type of cross collaboration and communication is something that only a physical space can have.
00:36:26
margalus
All right.
00:36:30
Jake
And something that we strive to promote here in the space something that we've worked hard to kind of reestablish after the slum of COVID has, you know, kind of dropped all of that off the, you know, the garage went fully remote for, I think, almost a year. And through that, we were able to keep our more dedicated students engaged with you know weekly Zoom meetings and things like that. But in terms of new student engagement and
Setting Up and Adapting Innovation Centers
00:36:58
Jake
students meeting each other and finding out that they have a similar idea on how to solve a certain problem and working on that together, that type of type of serendipity almost completely dropped out.
00:37:12
margalus
Yeah, I think that we
00:37:16
margalus
You know, at DePaul, we had a similar experience, right? I think we were fortunate in that we had some centralizing projects that we had been working on. And so that kept, you know, some of the more core community and employees engaged. But there's, yeah, certainly something to be said for, the the random atomized collisions that can happen in real space. and And I wonder, you know, what is over your past two and a half years there, you know, one of the things that when we started the the labs at DePaul that we focused on
00:38:00
margalus
This is going to sound silly at first, is that everything's on wheels. And everything was on wheels because that community that makes up that physical space, it changes over time as well. And you the space needs to evolve to meet meet their needs. And that was like a strategy that we implemented. I wonder what what kind of strategies, it can it doesn't have to be wheels. right It doesn't have to be casters.
00:38:25
Jake
Thank
00:38:26
margalus
but But what other kinds of strategies do you do do you employ to to sustain that community that you're talking about in in that space?
00:38:31
Jake
you.
00:38:37
Jake
Yeah, exactly. I think we're we're definitely on the same page there, and that probably speaks to how formative my experience at the IRL was towards, you know, adding my experience to this place. But I literally have written here is, you know, be ready to change to meet student needs.
00:38:53
margalus
Right.
00:38:53
Jake
I think part of what makes the garage so successful over the many years that it's been in operation is that we have rarely ever stuck to something simply because that's what we've been doing for a little while. We're always ready to completely upend what we've been doing for the past several years if we feel like that can provide a better experience for students. You know, this space was developed in 2015. We, you know, we had it specced out to be a
00:39:26
Jake
you know collaborative space that you know students could come in and study for classes in the common area or you know work in dedicated meeting rooms near the back for the residency teams. And we had two classrooms here as well that you know allowed for faculty to you know reserve time and teach their own classes here in our classroom. Great way to promote student engagement and having them come to the space for class and stay for the all of the great entrepreneurship resources. But to that point, the the way the garage is currently being utilized on a day-to-day basis is probably very different than how it was originally designed. First and foremost is we no longer have two classrooms, we have one classroom. One of the classrooms was about two or three years into the garage's life lifetime, transitioned and changed into the maker space. When the space initially began, there was no
00:40:22
Jake
there was no maker space, there was no prototyping lab, there was no video production program. And because of that, there were no resources like 3D printing, like sticker production, like merchandising and embroidery. And I think, yeah and also no resources like camera equipment to you know help students you know promote and develop content. But we found out, you know the garage staff saw early on that students were you know really gearing to try to find this type of resource on campus. So we decided that, you know, removing one of our classrooms and replacing it with a fully fledged maker space was the right move. And that, you know, that type of ethos, that idea that, you know, just because we had a class just because we built it as a classroom doesn't mean it needs to stay that way has kind of helped the garage.
00:41:09
Jake
you know stay on its feet as it were and always meet the need for students. Somewhat related too is that all of the furniture in the garage is designed to be lightweight and movable and it moves often. We have obviously the classroom, one of the reasons it's
00:41:20
margalus
Yeah.
00:41:24
Jake
you know, very attractive to faculty who look who wish
Key Technologies and Tech Developments
00:41:28
Jake
to conduct class here is that nothing is set in stone. They can, you know, have bench seating if they want to. They can do table in the round for a class discussion. They can move all the tables and chairs off to the side and have a completely open space. And we've had that, you know, we've seen that that's friendly to a variety of classes that come here from you know, acting classes who just want a big open space to play around in to drone building classes because we were the only place on campus that was happy with them flying drones inside the building.
00:41:57
margalus
Yeah.
00:41:57
Jake
So always always being able to change and meet the need for students is very important to the garage.
00:42:02
margalus
Yeah. what are you using for What are you using for sticker production? Selfish question. I need to support this.
00:42:11
Jake
Absolutely yeah so right now it's a bit of a two step process I had researched looking into like dedicated sticker printers that could do, you know, high quality vinyl production.
00:42:22
Jake
And that may be something we onboard in the future but essentially now we utilize a cricket machine. you know cricke is
00:42:27
margalus
Okay. So you're printing and then doing a kiss cut.
00:42:29
Jake
exactly yep but it's and it's i think the the one thing that's helped us out with that is finding the right type of paper to print on and a high quality printer to print with so we have nice kind of glossy semi waterproof paper that we can easily print out student graphics and designs and cut them out right away i wish it's
00:42:30
margalus
Yeah. Okay.
00:42:37
margalus
Right.
00:42:48
margalus
Right. Okay. That's I thought maybe you'd found some a magic thing that made the sticker process easier. It sounds like you are. Yeah, running into the same thing. I did find I did find total side side note sidetrack. Somewhat recently, a tool that makes the the the silk screening process a little bit easier. I don't know if you've run into x tool, but they have
00:43:15
Jake
Oh, the laser silk screen, yeah.
00:43:16
margalus
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it removes the the photo emulsive process, which maybe makes it a little bit less dirty. And certainly, certainly there are drawbacks. But if you're short on space, or you're short on a couple other resources, and you've got a laser cutter around that, that seems to be the trick.
00:43:38
Jake
I think and we might loop back to this later on the question about what I would do if if starting from scratch in a space like this, but one of the limiting factors of the makerspace here is its lack of plumbing and its lack of air ventilation.
00:43:51
margalus
Right, right.
00:43:52
Jake
so you know a lot of times students will come in asking like do we have screen printing and it's unfortunately I can't really have anything that's wet in the shop like paint or inks because we don't have any we don't have a sink or plumbing to help support cleaning that but yeah I have seen the x tool in their development of silk screen stuff I think
00:44:03
margalus
Right.
00:44:11
Jake
If somehow later on down the line we can figure out how to get a plumbing system into this space, that'd be a great great way to add to the merchandising capabilities. Right now at least we have embroidery, we have vinyl heat transfer, and we have sublimation printing.
00:44:26
margalus
Right, right sublimation also a nice easy way to get around some of those those constraints.
00:44:30
Jake
Exactly, that's why I chose sublimation.
00:44:32
Jake
However, the the caveat of having working only with polyester is kind of limiting sometimes when students bring in cotton shirts and stuff that they want to put their logos on.
00:44:32
margalus
Right.
00:44:40
margalus
Right, right, right, right. So I'm going to shift gears kind of here, really not shifting gears too much though. And I want to talk about, you know, people who are establishing centers like yours, you know, in academic institutions, you know, and I guess we could couch this within the context of that's what I'm doing here at Washington and Lee, by the way, you know, my predecessor had moved to a different institution for
00:45:06
Jake
Thank
00:45:10
margalus
and two and a half years and so the but Before I came in and so my position was unfilled for almost three years and that gave me kind of like a blank slate and We're currently in the process of you know establishing re-establishing in some instances You know the the the center ourselves
00:45:12
Jake
you.
00:45:32
margalus
So I guess you can consider this advice advice to anyone or advice to me even on on how you know what are best practices, what are models that that they might look to, whether it's models that you follow if internally or models from other external places as well. you know What would you tell folks who are getting started in in this space?
00:45:58
Jake
Yeah, I think, you know, just thinking about some of the ways that we feel limited in the garage is, I'd say the most obvious thing and and probably some of the most difficult aspect to account for when developing space from scratch is square footage. I mean, a creative space like this will naturally, you know, just expand to fill all the space that you have available for it. So however much square footage you think is required for a space, you'll always in a few years time be wanting
00:46:21
margalus
Right.
Maintaining Equipment and Safety
00:46:29
Jake
more.
00:46:29
margalus
Yeah.
00:46:30
Jake
So I think you know developing it developing a space so that you're not locked into a specific use for a specific section of the space.
00:46:37
margalus
Yeah.
00:46:44
Jake
yeah Because a lot of times you know that need for more space can come obviously from expansion, but that's not always possible. I think you know kind of metabolism is a more more worthwhile approach, knowing that you know in your set square footage in your environment, there are going to be certain things that require more space than you originally allotted for them. And that can come at the expense of spaces that maybe are taking up a little too much space.
00:47:07
margalus
Right.
00:47:12
margalus
Yeah.
00:47:13
Jake
And you know keeping that in mind and developing kind of an open floor plan so that you can expand certain areas when needed and contract other areas when needed, I think that can help help in the long run to
00:47:28
Jake
promote the longevity of a space like this.
00:47:31
margalus
Yeah, i'll I'll tell you one thing that that I miss, and of course this goes to huh how much, what can take up a lot of space in the center like these that we're just we're talking about is I miss having a substantial wood shop.
00:47:50
Jake
I was going to say the exact same thing.
00:47:50
margalus
And yeah,
00:47:53
margalus
I mean, there's so much that you don't realize that you're at the whims of Amazon and Walmart and every other place until you are incapable of reducing a piece of wood down to what you need it to be reduced down to so that you could build
00:48:13
Jake
Thank
00:48:13
margalus
Furniture so that you can build anything really that's the kind of technology It's it's not so silly right like the technology I miss is a wood shop and a sewing machine That's the stuff that you need If you're really going to encourage that kind of you know self-sufficiency That a space can have
00:48:23
Jake
you.
00:48:35
margalus
And I suppose this is an interesting maybe kind of segue, although I think when people talk about technology, they think of not table saws. but But maybe you know if you could talk a little bit, Jake, about what what are some of the essential resources, technologies that support the garage, and and what kind of technology has has changed or affected the way you operate. I'm thinking of, I mean, you with your game background, VR right is has got to be in there somewhere, but but other things as well.
00:49:11
Jake
Absolutely yeah I think one of the one of the things about the garage and specifically my role here that makes it feel every day like a dream that I get to actually come here and do this is that you know part of my job here is just to stay up to date on all you know all types of technology that may or may not be used for entrepreneurship in our space. So that means, of course, onboarding new makerspace equipment like new and more capable CNC machines and 3D printers, which I'm sure I'll loop back to in the in the next little segment here.
00:49:46
margalus
enough.
00:49:49
Jake
But also as you as you talked about VR and by extension there, lots of other more unique pieces of technology that we make available here for students to provide I guess it's for so for certain students it's inspiration and the opportunity for development on these platforms but for the vast majority of other students it's I would say that the garage's acquisition of new and exciting technology like, for instance, the Apple Vision Pro or some new VR stuff, we had researched getting the that humane AI pin, ultimately decided against it, I think for good reason.
00:50:29
margalus
Yeah.
00:50:31
Jake
But the the the impetus for that, the inspiration for that is for the garage at least to
00:50:32
margalus
yeah Yeah.
00:50:39
margalus
Right.
00:50:42
Jake
provide that concrete access to new technology for students, but also to cement ourselves in the consciousness of the student body as the place where the cool stuff is. I mean, there's that's such a nebulous term, but
00:50:53
margalus
Right.
00:50:57
Jake
It's something that if you can find the way find a way to maintain that and develop that within the consciousness of the students who are going to be utilizing the space, that's something that can pay back itself many times over.
00:51:06
margalus
Right.
00:51:09
Jake
I mean, the so many times there's you know students who will come into the space, you know, urged on by a friend of theirs and saying like,
00:51:10
margalus
Right.
00:51:19
Jake
you know, hey, I've heard that this space has some really cool technology and equipment. I would love to see if I can, you know, develop my app for Vision Pro, or if I can, you know, utilize a 3D printer to mass produce this this little eclectic thing that I've been developing, and I think there might be a market for.
00:51:30
margalus
Right.
00:51:38
Jake
And so sometimes, you know,
00:51:39
margalus
Right.
00:51:41
Jake
The Apple Vision Pro, I think, is the is a perfect example of this. It's a distillation of you know onboarding technology for many purposes. The actual hardware itself, I don't know if you have a chance to try it before. but
00:51:53
margalus
i have i have i have i'm I'm waiting for version two to come out if it ever comes out.
00:52:00
Jake
I think i think that's my that's my recommendation as well to anybody who tries it out here and is thinking about getting it, because it is very much a version one hardware. it is It does a lot of things really well, but is limited in a lot of ways. And you'd think that on its face, you know they cost about $3,500 each, which is a pretty big ticket item here. And you know we've we've seen a few students you know actively engage with it in terms of development, where they've ported their app that they've been working on into Vision Pro, either for just the sheer novelty of it or because they want to you know engage with the new technology in some kind of way.
00:52:38
margalus
Right.
00:52:39
Jake
But even just looking at those direct uses of the technology, in my opinion, I don't think it's you know fully recouped its cost, but in terms of engagement in the space, bringing people in because they hear we have some cool stuff. And then while they're here, finding inspiration and access to other materials and equipment, as a promotional tool, that kind of thing is great.
00:52:55
margalus
Right.
00:53:01
Jake
And, you know, that's kind of the the balance that we have to tread here, you know, that I have to tread as the technology manager here is that, you know, a lot of stuff is just no brainer, like, of course, I'm going to upgrade the 3D printers, you know, as new technology becomes available, just because that's heavily used, we know it's going to get engagement, that kind of stuff.
00:53:02
margalus
Yeah.
00:53:18
Jake
But sometimes you just have to take big swings and decide like, hey, you know having a Vision Pro here, having an injection molder here, regardless of whether they are actively being utilized, which I hope they are and will be in you know some way in the future, it's you kind of got to treat these kinds of technology resources as promotional items as much as they are you know active resources.
00:53:42
margalus
Yeah, so I think this is probably so two things, because I have been on the fence about getting a Vision Pro or a couple. One thing that I'm hesitant about, and I love to hear this is another side kind of bar here.
00:53:58
Jake
Mhm.
00:53:59
margalus
I would be incredibly hesitant to put a thing on my face that other people are also wearing in a shared community space because it seems like it might be dirty. That's number one. I wonder how you deal with that. Number two, I got to give you us a second to talk about the bamboo printers because I know that that's what you're you're champing at the bit to do.
00:54:21
Jake
Absolutely yeah so to touch on the first bit about cleanliness in, you know, an environment that has wearable equipment. I think, I think first and foremost.
00:54:29
margalus
yeah
00:54:33
Jake
kind of understanding where to where to put your effort, as it were, because you can obviously, you know, fully sanitize the headset between never use and all that kind of stuff. But sometimes, and in my opinion, I think the way that the Vision Pro is utilized in and know in a lot In a lot of ways, it's the way that Apple has kind of you know put walls up on the way the Vision Pro can be utilized. I'd say that it definitely doesn't get it' it's not as much of a cleanliness crisis as, for instance, the the the Valve Index is, just because the way you're engaging with it is you're seated, and it's obviously touching your face, but you're mainly just there
00:55:17
Jake
you know consuming content, reaching out, interacting with stuff, whereas with you know more dedicated and gaming-focused VR headsets, you're moving around, you're sweating, there's that kind of stuff.
00:55:27
margalus
Yeah.
00:55:28
Jake
But I think with in with both sides of that spectrum there, basically it's just generally two things is if somebody's gonna spend prolonged use in there, we have disposable covers that are available, basically like a, they
00:55:43
margalus
Oh.
00:55:44
Jake
they're basically like a sticker that, you know, sticks to the facial interface on the headset.
00:55:47
margalus
Oh,
00:55:50
Jake
And that way, you know, that's what's making contact with your head. And then when the headsets off, you can just peel that off and throw it away.
00:55:56
Jake
The, and then that mixed with, you know, technically, it says that the like the fabric interfaces on these types of devices are machine washable. I haven't taken them up on that yet. But What we have done is, you know, use disinfecting wipes or, you know, an ample use of, you know, isopropyl alcohol or something and just to clean out those headsets, headset face cushions, and then just let them dry.
00:56:13
margalus
Yeah.
Advancements in 3D Printing
00:56:23
margalus
So the other the second thing I mentioned, the the bamboo printers, B-A-M-B-U.
00:56:25
Jake
Yep.
00:56:28
margalus
I first learned about them from you.
00:56:28
Jake
B-A-M-B-U, yep.
00:56:30
margalus
Do you want to tell folks what they are?
00:56:33
Jake
Absolutely, yeah. So, I guess to provide some background for anybody who hasn't been,
00:56:34
margalus
Huh.
00:56:36
margalus
Oh, and and tell me why I should get one of those instead of like a Prusa MK4, let's say, for instance.
00:56:44
Jake
i can I can talk at length about that. And not to say that Prusa is, you know, not a worthwhile investment. I absolutely have nothing but the highest respect for Prusa and the the openness that they're treating their community with. and you know all that But, so, rewinding all the way back, for anybody who hasn't been working with 3D printers, you know, since the beginning, and I haven't, I've been working with 3D printers since 2016, the very first time I saw or even engaged with a 3D printer was at DePaul's ID realization lab.
00:57:17
margalus
Hmm.
00:57:18
Jake
I saw it my freshman year. the technology has been, in my eyes, you know about the same in terms of the general idea of how FDM 3D printers work, just moving around a tool head on a gantry and placing plastic layer by layer to build your part up. And there have been incremental small improvements in terms of reliability and maybe marginal improvements in speed. However, you know those are just on the order of like,
00:57:48
Jake
you know, five or 10% faster, just, you know, through the through the generations.
00:57:51
margalus
Right.
00:57:54
Jake
And what's always been tough is the, the user experience of it, the 3D printers have always been, and I think will always be a tinkerer machine, it's something that you, you know, at you know the more you engage with it, the more you have a deep understanding of how the machine works, the more you can appreciate and get out of it. But I think that Bamboo Labs with their their new set of machines has fundamentally changed the way a 3D printer can be seen and interacted with by somebody at any level of technical experience. and because And the way it does that is by bringing an incredible amount of you know tinkerer level
00:58:39
Jake
you know, an incredible amount of, you know, specific things that 3D printers have had on the hobbyist level for a while and bringing it to a commercial aspect and also wrapping all of that in a user experience that is pretty incredible to use having seen where it's come from.
00:58:47
margalus
Right.
00:58:55
Jake
So all that beating around the bush to get to it is that 3D, the bamboo printers are fast. They are some of the fastest consumer 3D printer machines I've ever seen. And not only are they fast, they're reliable, they're repeatable, and they produce some of the highest part quality of any FDM 3D printer I've personally witnessed, and all of that with the smallest amount of maintenance and calibration and upkeep required.
00:59:24
margalus
Okay.
00:59:26
Jake
And the way that they do that is by,
00:59:26
margalus
Yeah.
00:59:29
Jake
bringing a lot of really cool tech like resonance compensation. I don't know if you've seen like clipper, is it called, is the kind of hobbyist version of it.
00:59:34
margalus
Yep.
00:59:37
margalus
Yep.
00:59:40
Jake
And that allows the machine to move so incredibly fast while accounting for the the vibrations the machine itself makes.
00:59:43
margalus
Yep.
00:59:47
Jake
And that's one part of it. this But even if these printers didn't print as fast as they did, I think the user interface, you know for me, The having these types of machines in a space populated primarily by students who don't have, you know, a long years long experience with 3D printers, that's where the the noticeable gains and improvements and engagement can come from.
01:00:06
margalus
Mm
01:00:11
Jake
And this is where it'll come back to Prusa. Prusa is exceptional. They're a wonderful company. They make a really outstanding product and they promote a community of people who are really interested in 3D printing and help support that. If you're making a 3D printer available to somebody who just wants to walk up to it and print something, the the bamboo experience is far greater.
01:00:32
margalus
hmm.
01:00:33
Jake
it's they have Each of the printers comes with its own built-in camera that allows you to connect to it remotely to send parts without having to fiddle with a thumb drive or SD card.
01:00:43
margalus
Mm hmm.
01:00:45
Jake
you can There's an advanced queuing system so that you can you know queue up parts one after the other.
01:00:49
margalus
Hmm.
01:00:51
Jake
you can monitor prints remotely. And you know you can easily see as a you know as I'm managing the space, I can walk over and just look on the screen of the printer and it'll show me exactly what's printing and yeah with a little image of that 3D model there. And that just makes it so much better in a management standpoint than a Prusa, which is a you know as soon as the part begins printing All you know at that point is how much time it has left.
01:01:21
Jake
there's You don't have that wealth of information about you know what this part is.
01:01:22
margalus
Right.
01:01:27
Jake
you know what the intended design is that you can evaluate what it might you know whether it might be failing or not. And then so many other myriad things that, as far as I'm aware, only bamboo does. One of the things that just just blew my mind the other day, and you might love this too, is imagine you're printing four parts all together on the build platform.
01:01:44
margalus
Yeah.
01:01:47
margalus
Yeah.
01:01:47
Jake
And one of those parts you know breaks off from its foundations. It starts making spaghetti.
01:01:52
margalus
Right.
01:01:52
Jake
you know What do you do with a Prusa at that point? You have to evaluate, well, are these three other parts far enough along that I can just let it keep going and knowing that it's just going to produce nothing but spaghetti that's going to you know mess up everything?
01:02:03
margalus
Right.
01:02:04
Jake
Or do I stop it and start over? With Bamboo, yeah i can I can go to that touchscreen and look at a top-down view of the build platform, and I can click, that object has failed. Stop printing that object.
01:02:16
margalus
Oh, wow.
01:02:16
Jake
And it will actively cut that object out of each layer G code and just focus on the three that are currently working.
01:02:23
margalus
Yeah.
01:02:24
Jake
Not to say that failures are common on this thing because the the calibration of this thing goes through is incredible. It has a LiDAR sensor right you know right on the head of the printer.
01:02:32
margalus
Yeah.
01:02:34
Jake
Bed adhesion has been just excellent across the board, even on the smallest, most difficult parts. So I think what Bamboo does is they produce a remarkably efficient product
01:02:39
margalus
Okay.
01:02:46
Jake
that, you know, they're not as open to, you know, they're not open source like Prusa is. So you're not gonna be able to, you know, get, you're not gonna be able to print your own replacement parts if you ever need them for this kind of thing.
01:02:53
margalus
Yeah.
01:02:59
Jake
You're not gonna have that kind of community. But for what it is, it is a very reliable and infinitely better first time printers experience than a Prusa would be.
01:03:11
margalus
Right. I will note that whether we're talking about Extool or Bamboo or anything else in between, neither of us, or at least to my knowledge, Jake, are getting paid to endorse any of these products.
01:03:22
Jake
Nope.
01:03:23
margalus
These are solely reviews based on our our own opinions, so nobody worry.
01:03:27
Jake
Yep. And that should show anybody who's listening, our enthusiasm with this type of ecosystem technology is self-evident and self-sustaining.
01:03:34
margalus
That's right.
01:03:40
margalus
That's right.
01:03:40
Jake
If a tool or a company is worth mentioning, it's something that is you know has proven itself to be worth mentioning.
01:03:45
margalus
Yeah. That's right. so So switching gears maybe one last one last time here, we're we're kind of getting to to the closing.
Lessons Learned
01:03:58
margalus
you know Jake, what are what are some of the most valuable lessons that you've learned as you've been working in the Innovation Center in in the garage? and, and I, you know, I, I guess this is kind of a, so that's one part question, uh, things you've learned. And then I'm wondering if you could speak to challenges and future trends.
01:04:19
margalus
So kind of combining a couple questions here, challenges and future trends that you anticipate, will, will impact innovation centers going forward.
01:04:21
Jake
Mm hmm.
01:04:29
Jake
Yeah, absolutely. So I think one of the biggest things that I've learned since starting at this role here is, and, you know, this is kind of when taking into account the the many you know kind of turns that my career has taken since graduating from DePaul. So I started my professional development at the IRL working in a creative space that would allowed me to take my curiosity and enthusiasm with technology and help other students and other creative people to understand how to use this technology and how to you know
01:05:08
Jake
incorporated into their own workflows.
01:05:09
margalus
Hmm. Hmm.
01:05:11
Jake
That was something that I definitely took for granted during my time at DePaul because that was my first real experience with that kind of thing in a you know working environment.
01:05:20
margalus
Mm
01:05:22
Jake
After leaving DePaul, I continued working with Jay to create COVID face shields in the early days of the pandemic, which led to some contract 3D printing work with other entrepreneurial spaces like 1871 where I got to do a similar thing, which was help people who help people utilize certain technologies for their creative endeavors. And then I made the jump to industry. I worked at a industrial 3D printing startup called Fast Radius and worked my way up to the quality head of the quality team there where my responsibilities were
01:05:46
margalus
-hmm.
01:05:58
Jake
you know, on its face, somewhat similar was, you know, making technology available to other people. But the what was lost there was that specific connection with the people utilizing the technology. This was a manufacturing space through and through. So there was no back and forth with a client about, you know, I had no recourse to say like, you know, hey, this part you've sent to us to 3d print is, you know, if you change this little aspect of the design, it would work so much better and you know be able to pass our quality inspection with much higher degree.
01:06:32
Jake
We were so heavily siloed there that it was you know all I would get was just the engineering drawings from our client and interpret it as such and you know make them my make my quality assessment.
01:06:39
margalus
Right.
01:06:44
Jake
there was no So I feel like that's that's where that was my first taste of what I felt like I was missing and didn't know that I had missed was a direct connection with the people I am providing the services to.
01:06:57
margalus
Mmm. Mmm.
01:06:59
Jake
And so when Jay reached out with this wonderful opportunity at the garage looking for somebody doing exactly that, I am, you know, every day happy that I jumped on that and made it my my predominant focus here because you know seeing students in this space who are bursting with creativity and looking for a way to make that a reality, that's something that is fundamentally the most important thing for me at this job, is making this technology available for students who wouldn't otherwise have access to it and providing the framework to allow them to succeed on their designs.
01:07:39
Jake
That's something that I learned early on. And that's something that, you know, working in a entrepreneurship space, there's always the question of like, well, what am I working on? what What's my next big product that's going to change the world? And my answer to that is, you know, I found that my engagement with this space, my the most important thing for me is less you know giving me the opportunity to, you know,
01:08:03
margalus
you.
01:08:03
Jake
capture that lightning in the bottle and you know make a billion dollars on it, it's more creating an environment that allows so many other people to explore their creative creative aspects of their ideas and make that a reality. So my biggest learning is that you know much more important than going going out at it by myself and you know developing the next world changing device or gizmo or gadget is creating an environment or having a role that allows me to you know be a helpful guiding force in a lot of other creative engagement.
01:08:44
margalus
That's awesome. Jake, it's it's been really enjoyable for me to watch watch you kind of grow into grow professionally into into your roles. And you know I got to say, you you've got to be proud of yourself. I certainly am proud of the things that you've been doing. And I can only see more more wonderful things to to come. is there Is there anything that we didn't touch on that you want to do briefly talk about? Is there anything that you wanted to plug that you're working on? You know, this is your time.
01:09:22
Jake
Uh, let's see, I think, well, I think this can kind of help to kind of put a nice little bow on everything is, you know, where the, where I expect to see, you know, the, the future of the garage go and, you know, at large, what, uh, kind of trends are that I see on the horizon for innovation centers, you know, across the nation.
01:09:36
margalus
Yeah. Yeah.
01:09:44
margalus
Yeah.
01:09:46
Jake
And I think, you know Firstly, my time here at the garage is you know two and a half years so far and I feel like I'm just getting started in terms of you know, really digging in deep here and making this the best possible resource for student entrepreneurs on campus. I think, you know, I hope that I'm going to have the opportunity to continue to grow and expand the capability of this space, whether that's by, you know, expanding our square footage into the rest of the building that we currently occupy or, you know, with any luck.
01:10:23
Jake
being granted the opportunity to have a building of our own or a new space that is larger or better equipped for this kind of entrepreneurship sometime later on down the line. But I'm really excited for everything that's on the horizon for the garage, and I can't wait to go there with my team and help meet that.
Future Trends and Balancing AI
01:10:41
Jake
As far as you know trends that I feel like are going to impact the future of innovation centers, I think that you know as I think as student entrepreneurship is generally been over the past several years, tending further and further towards digital goods and services.
01:10:59
Jake
Like a great example of that is our first place winner of VentureCat this year, TurboLearn AI is not only a digital tool, but one using utilizing AI and large language models specifically.
01:10:59
margalus
Right.
01:11:12
Jake
I think that you know no matter how this whole you know AI thing goes, whether it's going to just continue to grow and grow and expand, whether it's going to plateau and you know you know find its you know rut, as it were, what it's useful at, what it's not useful at, or whether it's going to backpedal and diminish in future years based on you know consumer preference. I think it's going to play a large role in the development of these creative entrepreneurship centers, whether in something that we have to actively
01:11:44
margalus
Yeah.
01:11:49
Jake
you know actively learn more about as a center whether we want to, you know, for instance as the garage or as an entrepreneurship center develop our own AI platform that's going to, you know, be helpful for student entrepreneurs, whether we need to find some way, hopefully not but some way in the future to compete directly with these kinds of things say you have a say somebody develops an AI that is your, you know, entrepreneurship guide, the you know yourre your small business development guru, how does a space like this that is meant to provide that kind of direct and personal feedback on your business venture going to compete with something that can just operate in any web browser? I think that you know working hard to
01:12:32
Jake
dig deep on the stuff that the garage is already doing that AI cannot you know touch, which is that this physical space, that direct connection with students, while also you know playing to AI's strengths to develop programs and practices that utilize this new tech to you know provide some specific resource for students. I think that those that's going to be something that the garage and you know pretty much every incubator or startup space for that matter is going to have to be prepared for.
01:13:01
margalus
Yeah, love it. Great way to end. Good bow, as you said, to put on it. And and I totally agree. and Both with where AI will be going and and with the need to balance that with some physical space that we know it can't can't replicate or replace. Jake, this has been absolutely wonderful. It was great to catch up with you. And a great way to kick off the season one, as we're calling it, I suppose, of, uh, of this should work.
01:13:38
margalus
and, uh, if anything else you want to plug or, uh, or whatnot, do it, do it now.
01:13:43
Jake
It
01:13:45
margalus
otherwise that was a, that was a great way to end too.
01:13:48
Jake
All right, well, I guess the the last thing I'll plug is just the you know the garage itself is always happy to share our findings and our you know specific experience with entrepreneurship spaces with other entities that are trying to do the same thing. Many times we'll host tours for you know universities who are local or university members who are flying in from anywhere else to come see the space. We're not a closed book here. We like to share our notes. We think that the rising tide raises all ships. So if you're starting an entrepreneurial space of your own or any kind of you know student creative space, reach out to us at the garage.
01:14:16
margalus
Mm hmm.
01:14:24
Jake
I think you know i I'm speaking for myself, but I can also speak for my team, is that we're always happy to you know talk with, support, and engage with other people looking to do this in other places and other campuses. and all over the country or around the world. And you know we think that you know we think that the garage is pretty special, and we think that we have some some great things to share.
01:14:49
margalus
Right on. All right, Jake Jareca, thank you so much.
01:14:53
Jake
Thanks, Jay.