Santa Claus Needs Maker Micro Factories

A conversation with Tim Keller of Inventopia in Davis, CA

Podcast Video Transcription

You can imagine how it is at the North Pole at this time of year. The elves are overworked and they are late. Getting all the materials needed to the North Pole is very difficult with supply chain issues. And then Santa Claus has to distribute everything within 24 hours all over the world. Plus, you know, lots of toys and treats on the way or the same old toys and treats we've had for years. And there's not much innovation in Santa's workshop.

Santa, if you're listening, I'd love for you to consider investing in micro maker factories, places like the one we see in this episode.

This one is called Inventopia and is located in Davis, California, near one of the largest research universities in the world. Inventopia's Santa Claus is Tim Keller. And it has entrepreneurs instead of elves working to bring new product ideas to life. Sure, like your elves, they work long hours, but they're happy to prototype and produce new things, often using new processes. Tim knows how to stay away and only help them if they ask for it.

So Santa, you really should talk to Tim Keller, like I did in this episode. Tim doesn't know anything about this larger plan but I think you can see the possibilities. If you follow Tim's lead, you'll forget about the unique setup you have at the North Pole. You would build Santatopia, not one but many and have them all over the world. You wouldn't just have new toys and treats to meet the changing demands of children around the world. But you would be creating new toymakers and mobilizing all kinds of technical and creative talent around the world. Think about it, Santa Claus. Santatopia, a network of maker micro-factories for future Christmases.

I'd love to introduce you to Tim. I think you would like it.

Dale: Welcome to Make Cast.

I'm Dale Dougherty from Make Magazine and I'm talking to Tim Keller. Tim is from Inventopia in Davis. Welcome.

Tim: Nice to be here. .

Dale: I visited Inventopia a few weeks ago. You had a Makeathon there, which we'll talk about. You are in Davis. You are located near the University of California at Davis, and you have what you called a micro-factory. Explain what Inventopia is, how you came up with the idea and how it started.

Tim: Yeah, so Inventopia is something that, like all good inventions, you think you've invented something, then start looking around, you realize other people have. We're a lot like TechShop. We are very much like a makerspace, but we are for startups. And so I call it a micro-factory because that would set it apart because makerspaces tend to be like STEM education, arts and crafts, DIY. We are focused on entrepreneurship. UC Davis is a research university. Unlike most colleges, it specifically receives money to do research, which is then supposed to be translated into products and other things that help society. There's about a billion dollars worth of research going on here.