Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Launch Pad – Open Desk”.
Morning, um we’ve traveled over from london just over the weekend gone as you can probably tell, and we’re really privileged to be here in macon. So thank you. I’M josh, i’m a designer at opendesk, a platform for local making. So, let’s talk you through it, yeah we’ll get it going.
This is uh another recurrence of the same. There we go so while this store may seem like little more than an inconspicuous child’s play toy, it actually represents something, far more significant, a shift in the way that we design, manufacture and consume products. The edi store was designed by london-based designer and open desk, co-founder johnny steiner a little over two years ago and through opendesk. It has reached users in over 100 countries like any other products on opendesk. This little stool actually exists as a digital file which can be downloaded anywhere in the world and made locally to a customer by digital manufacturing tools. We ship files not objects. Now this light bulb moment happened when our co-founders, whilst working in an architecture firm, were asked to replicate the furniture in a development agency’s london office with their new york one.
So that’s where the idea came from really could we create an online platform that challenged conventional mass-produced distribution to then become a local economic reality, and we’ve already been building on this idea and we’re currently hosting designs from some 20 designers, with a network of 400 makers Allowing us to distribute manufacturing to 32 countries. Our aim is to introduce a marketplace by fall 2015.. Our network of 20 designers will soon increase to 300 and continue to grow, open desk promises, designers, global distribution of their name and product under their own terms, and fees via the creative commons licensing system makers can realize underutilized capacity and play a far more prominent role. In transactions with customers in their local community, customers will have access to an extensive library of products designed around the world which can be made locally to them. So customers will receive high quality products which can be tailored to them whilst they directly contribute to their local economy. So consumers will soon face a choice. Choose between products which designed by an elite group of designers, manufactured where land and labor is cheapest and shipped large distances or choose open desk. Where customers are invited to engage in a pioneering social experience where they play an integral role in how and where their product is made? Now, whilst the development of the platform has been going on behind the scenes, we’ve been focusing our business model on the workspace on workspace furniture.
Now, in the uk, that’s valued at just over a billion dollars, but the real attractive starting point with workspace furniture was our ability to send makers larger orders in terms of value and quantity. In turn, we could also evaluate the quality coming out of a more select pool of makers, and in addition to that, we could reference how each and every maker works in slightly different ways that data is directly ported across to the platform to make it far more Relevant for when we do release it later this year. Importantly, though this is working in 2014, we generated turnover of 400 000 300 000 of those paid directly to designers and local makers. We’Ve also worked with fantastic brands and big name organizations such as cano and greenpeace, but our commitment remains the platform and delivering delivering that platform and building a marketplace that truly challenges. Traditional mass-produced distribution methods, considering our platform isn’t even live yet the community we have is staggering. In a single day, we have over 180 countries visit our website.
On top of that, our network of designers and local makers has continually grown to now represent over a thousand times, yeah, sorry josh. So, as jack was saying, um this little stool, like so many products on opendesk, has already reached a staggering audience, and the studio section shown here on our website has for community sorry for community-led. Curation of future products is now approaching.
Some 20 000 likes our most popular product. The leandesk has been downloaded and built some 12 000 times across the globe, demonstrating the viability of digitally distributed hardware with 500 000 visits to our website in 2014. We are on track to double that number. In 2015., our sales are on track for 2 million this year, not taking into account sales from the platform, but the platform release will happen. This fall and with it the possibilities of unlocking a third industrial revolution. That’S just it. It doesn’t stop with cnc machining digital fabrication. Technologies are threatening supply chains by becoming more and more accessible in terms of price and required operative skill. These new technologies can be introduced to our platform.
On top of that, a whole new host of designers and local makers. All feeding our vision designed everywhere made here. Thank you all right. Thank you, jack.
Thank you. Josh questions from our judges. Anything that’s going to help! You give some peace of mind on this particular product, yeah, so um, particularly the area that you’re you’re targeting furniture. It seems to me that a critical part of actual design is manufacturing, quality right and so the designers will actually have a lot of concern around what level of quality is being insured to the end customer.
How do you ensure that comfort level between designer and who’s? Actually, manufacturing that product uh, we actually pre-empted that question, because it’s a typical one, really, the network of makers that we have are professional businesses. So in essence, their delivery of a product has to meet a very high standard of quality. Also they’re a much smaller group of people, normally five or six employees typically, so the quality coming out of those is has a reputational uh aspect to it with a design element when us, when a file is sent to us, we evaluate that file so josh and His team will run through what works and what doesn’t work, and then we verify that by prototyping as well. So there is a quality control earlier on in the process before the product is onboarded fully to the platform where we then ship that to local makers yeah.
If i just add to that um, it’s our job to make sure that we communicate the expected standards to makers through a sort of. If you like, a maker package where we, where we clearly outline the expected finish quality. So, there’s really there’s really no variance for the end product makers can get to the end product as they wish. As long as it looks as we’ve specified, i just want to kind of build on that question.
Um like how do you sort of handle capacity and scale like what, if somebody orders a thousand shares or ten thousand shares of a local maker like a local five-person, six-person shop, won’t be able to create those with the quality you desire right, yeah, yeah, quite and Um there is a filtering system on our. There will be on our platform that differentiates makers who can who are in a garage who can handle desks of five orders or a big, much more professional business that can handle 50 60 100 desks. So if a customer clicks 50 desks, then they don’t get shown in the maker. They can do fine and just kind of a follow-up. How about sort of mass customization? If i want to have something, that’s particularly unique on top of a design, do you guys allow that, like a shapeways kind of does for 3d editing, yeah yeah we’re actually doing that already in-house at the moment, we’re releasing some uh some kind of new embedded embedded Platforms into the website that allow you to change and customize really freely at the moment, you can change up to 10 10 mil you know, you’re acquiring the design, yeah and there’s also we’d want to introduce. You know we’re introducing social links between designer maker and customer.
So, in fact the customer could can link directly to designer or or maker, according to a creative commons, license to to reach that that customization. So if there was a closed source license on it, they would try and get in contact with a maker for their own to see if they could come to an agreement for their own personalized piece, um yeah, so um. The the concept of the local sourcing sounds rather lovely but uh. If i’m a business and i’ve got to get 100 shares or 500 shares.
How does the cost of those products that i’m buying through this service compared to uh standard office supplies or ikea or flatback? Typically, there’s a about a 50 saving actually due to the fact that the logistics of mass producing a mass production and distribution is just not negated completely. It’S not there anymore, so there’s a massive kind of cut in that business model. That typically, is with larger companies. Such as officesupplies.com kind of thing um there are it’s a does.
You know there are. There are designs so this there it’s a designer brand, so comparing ourselves to ikea, for example, isn’t it isn’t the right fit? We kind of sit in that middle spectrum, where you’re not getting a 5 000 pound desk but you’re getting a thousand pound disc, but it’s substantially more than ikea and you’re paying for much more. The local, economical, uh, economical benefits, in addition to the design of furniture and locally made, so there’s lots of variables that add on to that as an attractive buying point uh.
Is there a sort of limit to the actual complexity of products being made? I mean one shot, might have a cnc router or something, but if you want to do anything more than that, you need like all this post processing stuff and that’s a very rare thing versus just having a chat, bot or something. How do you guys deal with that? Are you locked into a certain level of complexity, yeah yeah at the moment, essentially we’re focusing very much on on cnc routing as our main method of manufacturing. So the level of complexity is somewhat dictated by that at this point, as we mentioned, though, once we’ve really nailed down cnc routing and fully explored it uh and you know um fully understand it.
We will then we can then choose 3d printing laser cutting as there’s the ability for us to introduce all those to the platform yeah. Actually, it’s worth adding as well. We have a sister website called fab hub, which is just it happened before open desk, which is a directory of makers spread across all different technologies, laser cutting 3d printing, so we’ve already got a really strong bedrock of a directory. There.
That’S already connected 50 000 visits. A month to that particular fad pub website, and then we own that so that’s we’re ready kind of the foundations are set for us to introduce those new technologies as a customer um as a customer who is responsible if something goes wrong. Yeah – and this will be your last question um, so the liability lies with the maker and that is very set out in the expectations. Naturally, though, as a customer as my job as header marketing to make sure the customer experience is managed excellently, and you know you you call, you would call us if you had a problem, you wouldn’t call the maker. So it’s our responsibility to make sure quality and the delivery is, is excellent.
The warranty issues are down to the maker and that’s very and they’re agreed to that when they sign up to the platform, it’s very clear but with the but we’ll hand hold that whole process through you know from start to beginning start to end. You take the credit card on your platform, yes yeah, so yeah, there’s a responsibility on that aspect that i’m really conscious of and managing a solid user experience through the whole touch points yeah, okay, guys! Thank you. This is opendesk.
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