Email from Dan Rasure March 5, 2018

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Dan sent the following email:

Wow, I can’t say anything more than Wow. The first two weeks have been pretty amazing at TheShop. I know many of you haven’t come in to see us yet and I would encourage you to make the trip in soon and bring a friend. We are still cleaning machines, replacing parts, and getting spaces ready for new equipment. We have been rolling out classes slowly and will be rolling out more classes (including STEAM and vacation classes) in the coming weeks.

Many of you have asked what TheShop means to me. To me TheShop is a launching pad for your ideas, our job is to provide a stable and sustainable launch pad. We can’t be flashy because the model doesn’t support flash and nobody is going to pay us millions of dollars with the expectations we will be able to launch a large IPO. TheShop is a simple model of good running machines, quality making space, support for member growth, exciting classes you will want to take, and well trained staff and instructors.

We hosted what hopefully with be the first of many events on the 3rd floor of TheShop. We had over 200 people in attendance and it was great to meet so many makers. If you weren’t able to attend please stop by TheShop and say hello. We have already had several members submit ideas and proposals for improvements, new machines, or new spaces to the shop. We are looking into the ideas and figuring out if we can turn them into a sustainable part of The Shop.

The Shop has a significant amount of space for events in the main shop and gallery. We are offering up to 6 months free membership packages for company employees if your company purchases an event from us in the next 30 days. Please have your company contact us and we will be happy to arrange an event at TheShop or your facility. We are also making our event spaces available to meetup groups and nonprofits. Send us an email at info@theshop.build

As many of you are already aware TechShop announced they filed for bankruptcy on Monday night. I am extremely grateful the TechShop board entertained our first offer and ultimately accepted it. While I was extremely upset when the original MOU was canceled, we didn’t stop working to make a deal happen, we got very close and I am shocked at how close we got to a deal to not get it done for the remaining shops. Regardless we will be working to buy the remaining shops out of Bankruptcy.

The cease and desist Tech Shop sent finally arrived in the mail on Monday 2/27/18. TechShop did not deliver a Cease and Desist to me prior to filing their lawsuit regarding the corporate name we had presented in every offer ever given to them by us. They accepted the name and published it on their own website, social media pages, and press releases when the original MOU was signed. It is frustrating they filed a lawsuit against me while we were still working to get a deal done, almost as frustrating as charging my credit card without authorization to keep their email server running. It was more frustrating to hear Makernexus (directly from Eric Hess) held a board meeting after he reached out to Jim Newton and Dan Woods and were told TechShop planned to let the trustee sort everything out. At some point after the board meeting James Pistorino (MakerNexus VP at the time) reached an agreement with TechShop Inc to sue myself and TechShop 2.0 LLC. I’m not sure why MakerNexus even felt they needed to have a board meeting regarding what TechShop Inc was doing in regards to us. When I heard this I couldn’t help to think about the hoops I had to jump through to make sure the employees of TechShop didn’t get their health insurance paid when TechShop decided to pay themselves instead of their obligations to their employees including health insurance. Regardless our goal from day one has been to get shops open and we are going to continue to work to get shops open whether that be through direct ownership or partnering with other groups who truly care about the community.

It is my firm opinion TechShop did not fail because makerspaces are a bad business model, but instead because of a corporate leadership team who didn’t understand how to keep employees and overspent on the things that didn’t matter instead of the shops. TechShop did many good things over the years as well and we will push everyday to make sure Makers have a solid place to call their shop.

If you haven’t joined TheShop.build yet, please do so at https://theshop.build/Membership-Options We are honoring previously taken SBU’s for everyone who joins before March 21ST. If you are interested in a shop we haven’t announced yet, please join and you can cancel at the payment screen. If you do pay and we don’t open your shop we will refund any payments.

I would like to close with lets move forward together by doing the right things to keep the good things moving forward. Thank you for your support.

Dan