Every time I travel to a city, I wrack my brain to try to remember who lives there so I can reach out to visit. And I’m terrible at it. So I found a new solution. Step 1: Download your whole calendar. I used Google Takeout. Step 2: In ChatGPT with o3, upload the file with this prompt. ...
Dan Shapiro
CEO of Glowforge, creator of Robot Turtles, proud dad
(Yes, the day job is still Glowforge and lasers, and I still love it!) I’ve signed on as a research fellow at Wharton’s Generative AI Lab with the incredible Drs Ethan and Lilach Mollick. I’m working with them to share some of the the lessons we’ve learned building generative AI tools at ...
Last week, I attended an unconference called ORD Camp. At the event, attendees create sessions together around their passions and expertise. Everyone is a “speaker”; there’s no hierarchy of VIPs and attendees. Participants this year included astronauts, public school teachers, ...
Six years ago, I wrote a story about how someone might have died because I procrastinated dealing with my inbox. Â In short, I signed up two decades and change ago as a marrow donor. 1% of people are ever matched. Â I was matched. And I missed my chance to save the life of another human being ...
In Chapter 16 of my book I talk a lot about angel investing. First up: “Angel investor” is a stupid and meaningless term, right up there with “stock market investor” or “bank account holder”. It means someone did something, once. It means nothing more. Angel ...
In my new book “Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook“, I got to retell some amazing stories from CEOs of companies large and small. One of them was from Elissa Shevinsky, CEO and founder of Glimpse. There’s a few details that the story left out, though, and I wanted to touch ...
I’m working on something new. I can’t wait to tell you what it is.  Unfortunately we’re not ready to tip our hand quite yet, so I have to be a little coy. The company is called Glowforge. We’re making a real, tangible thing – a piece of hardware – powered by a giant stack ...
I’ve been asked by a lot of folks for advice with their Kickstarter campaigns. I’ve thought long and hard about it. I worked hard on the Robot Turtles campaign, but fundamentally thought of it as a fun diversion. I had no idea it was going to turn into the blockbuster that it did! ...
I was shocked to hear this from the head of Microsoft Ventures, Rahul Sood: While I’m a huge advocate for #diversity & women entrepreneurs, having a startup weekend just for women is kinda #pointless. — Rahul Sood (@rahulsood) September 11, 2014 He went on to apologize, sort of but ...
Five years ago (!!!) I gave an Ignite talk on cheap RC airplanes.  In one of my prouder geek moments Mark Frauenfelder, a maker-hero of mine, posted it to Boingboing.   And that was that. Until today, when I had the amazing opportunity to be a guest on an episode of the Gweek podcast with ...