Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot Announces New Book “Getting Started with MakerBot”

BROOKLYN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot®, has a new book out that is all about 3D printing on a MakerBot 3D Desktop Printer. Getting Started with MakerBot (O’Reilly; December 26, 2012, $15.99), is focused on the personal manufacturing movement and being part of the next industrial revolution. Bre Pettis will be introducing and signing copies of his book on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, at 6:00 p.m., at the MakerBot Store in New York City at 298 Mulberry Street.

“3D printing is moving into the mainstream”

This hands-on Getting Started with MakerBot book illustrates how 3D printing works and shows how to make a wide variety of physical objects with the amazing MakerBot® Replicator™ 2 Desktop 3D Printer. Learn tips and techniques for printing useful 3D objects right away, and see lots of examples of how 3D printing can be useful in the real world. The book also delves into the more than 35,000 3D designs available on MakerBot’s website Thingiverse.com.

“You can say our CEO wrote the book on 3D printing,” noted Jenny Lawton, chief of strategy for MakerBot.

“3D printing is moving into the mainstream,” said Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot, and author of Getting Started with MakerBot. “Just as desktop printing evolved 30 years ago, today we envision 3D desktop printers on every desk in every office, business and even in the home. The ability to manufacture on-demand, innovate and iterate new and existing products is definitely leading the next industrial revolution.”

The first step in 3D printing is designing 3D objects in a program such as SketchUp, Blender, SolidWorks, Autodesk 123D, OpenSCAD, and other tools. Thingiverse.com also provides more than 35,000 3-dimensional designs all ready for downloading and printing. Thingiverse’s items are so popular that they have been downloaded close to 10 million times!

Getting Started with MakerBot is part of the Make: Project book series and is co-authored by Bre Pettis, Anna Kaziunas France and Jay Shergill and is printed in conjunction with O’Reilly and Make: Magazine.com.

Bre Pettis has led MakerBot as CEO since its beginning in 2009, but has a long history of making things and inspiring others to make things. Prior to co-founding MakerBot, Pettis co-founded the Brooklyn hacker collective NYC Resistor, where MakerBot technology was first concocted, tested, and proven. He was instrumental in building the first prototypes of MakerBot’s 3D printers, and has become known worldwide as a leading evangelist for personal manufacturing.

In 2006, Bre started the popular “Weekend Projects” video podcast for Make:Magazine, where he taught millions of viewers to make things from pinhole cameras to bicycles to hovercrafts. He also introduced the blog at the popular online handcrafts marketplace, Etsy. Prior to both endeavors, Bre was an art teacher in the Seattle Public Schools system.

Bre is passionate about setting the standards in desktop 3D printing and providing the tools for individuals and organizations to create the world around them. He has spoken publicly about empowering students to solve the problems of the future, and worked behind the scenes to bring professional-quality reliable 3D printing technology into the hands of average consumers.

In 2012, Bre was honored with the Disruptive Innovation Award from the Tribeca Film Festival, for "creating an entire ecosystem for desktop 3D printing." He has been a highly sought-after speaker and interview subject, gracing the cover of numerous magazines (most recently WIRED), and been a guest on The Colbert Report, and many more.

Founded in 2009, Brooklyn-based MakerBot® (www.makerbot.com) has grown to be a global leader in desktop 3D printing. Named one of the Top 20 Startups in New York City, MakerBot had a 21.6 percent market share in 2011, and currently estimates that it now has a 25 percent market share of the 3D printer market. There are more than 15,000 MakerBot Desktop 3D Printers in use by engineers, designers, researchers, and people who just like to make things. The MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer has been named Popular Mechanics “Overall Winner” for best 3D printer and was honored as one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2012. In addition, MakerBot was named “Best Emerging Tech” at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, won Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award, the Popular Science Product of the Year, and recently was awarded the Fast Company 2012 Innovation by Design Award. The company has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, the Economist, Wired, The Colbert Report, Last Call with Carson Daly, Fast Company, Engadget, Make: Magazine, Rolling Stone, Time.com, IEEE Spectrum, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, Vogue Italia and many others.

For more information on MakerBot Industries, visit www.makerbot.com; for more information on the book Getting Started with MakerBot, visit http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920026723.do.