Wellington based online company Ponoko has taken the Kiwi love of DIY global.
It is the first company in the world to allow users to design and then manufacturer their product ideas online, and it is making an impact in the United States.
More than 10,000 products have been made using Ponoko.
Ponoko co-founder Derek Elley says it is “the ability for you to create a product digitally and push a button and get it manufactured instantly, and so the power of creating digital into real is quite unique.”
Ponoko is an online company which allows anyone to create a product digitally, get it made and then sell it through the website.
It launched two years ago, made a profit just over a year later and has been profiled by the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Seventy percent of Ponoko's business comes from North America.
Demand is so high the company has opened an office in San Francisco.
“The idea you can actually export your physical product digitally without having to pay the shipping costs, that's a very attractive thing,” says Mr Elley.
Ponoko's motto is design it, make it, sell it.
Along with wood you can use fabric or coloured plastics for your creation.
The machine which creates it all is a $40,000 dollar digital fabricator, or laser cutter.
“When we started it was silent a lot,” says Mr Elley.
“Today it's running from seven or eight in the morning to midnight six days a week.”
The final product is designed and manufactured within an hour, ready to be packaged and sold to the world.
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