Nick Pinkston
Manufacturing Entrepreneur and
Activist for the Future
Manufacturing Entrepreneur
Current: Founder/CEO, Volition (in stealth)
Previously, Founder/CEO of:
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Plethora (Operating since 2013)
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CloudFab (Acquired by VistaTek 2012)
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HackPittsburgh (Operating since 2009)
Activist for the Future
I see my core mission to help build a future that empowers everyone to achieve their dreams. I know this sounds corny, but isn't this what it's all about? :-)
Core Themes
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The Future of Tools
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Empowerment Economics
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Pragmatic Politics
Projects
Giving hardware engineers superpowers of creation
Pittsburgh's first hackerspace, serving the local maker community since 2009.
The full-auto factory of the future with design feedback inside your CAD tools.
San Francisco's biggest meetup for hardware startups with
over 8.7K members.
3D printing marketplace and first manufacturing-as-a-service API. (acquired)
Coming soon...
Ask me :-)
Thoughts
Media
Plethora Featured in
Modern Machine Shop
March 2018
Plethora was featured as the cover story in Modern Machine Shop - the main magazine for the metalworking industry. Read the article here.
White House "Maker to
Manufacturer" Event
June 2016
The Obama Whitehouse OSTP invited me to give a talk "Self-Training Jobs & Interfaces That Teach" about my take on the future of automation and the manufacturing workforce. Here's the deck.
The "Future of Tools" Talk at Reinvent's What's Now: New York
June 2019
My "Future of Tools" talk is about the future of hardware engineering and manufacturing. You can watch it here. and find the deck here.