Glowforge has undergone a restructuring through an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, a state-level process that’s an alternative to bankruptcy.
Shapiro said he and co-founder Mark Gosselin, the startup’s CTO, negotiated with the entity that was assigned Glowforge’s assets — which was otherwise ready to liquidate the company — to acquire the trademark and brand, the hardware platform, software, and rights to manufacture more machines in Seattle.
He said the company makes enough money out of the gate to support a team of about 20 former Glowforge employees, and that he and Gosselin plan to “get back to basics,” improving hardware and software and serving customers.
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Thanks for this. I’m sure there will be wild speculation about the implication for users.
Share this post on Facebook and I’ll get my popcorn.
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Ooh, the return of Snapmarks for those of you who have been missing them 
Fingers crossed!
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I agree that Snapmarks has value.
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“The cost of being a growth-first company is massive, and not always obvious,”
It seemed pretty obvious to me1 and lots of other people here that their focus wasn’t on making the best product anymore — they were trying to maximize ARR for investors and potential exit strategies. While this in itself might not stop them from innovating and keeping a competitive edge, I think it’s safe to say that it did in this case.
I still love my Glowforge Pro but I feel like the craft machines have put a damper on my excitement for Glowforge as a tech leader in the laser space. From my comfortable armchair the craft machines seemed like a major misstep: designed to be as cheap as possible at the expense of reliability, rushed to production seemingly without proper testing, and now presumably a support albatross.
They’ll never tell us any numbers but the number of unhappy craft machine owners sure seems concerning from the outside.
I’m sure it has been a difficult set of decisions behind the scenes, I’m not without sympathy and certainly can’t say I’d have made any better decisions if I were in their shoes. It’s just disappointing to hear all this and I hope Dan and crew come out ahead and that our machines keep working.
1 I’ve been ringing this bell for years now. Ever since subscriptions and their implications, Glowforge’s priorities simply were not aligned with making the best laser machines or user experience anymore. They would rush to release new features without proper documentation (or any documentation at all in many cases), discoverability in the ui is very low, and they absolutely didn’t respond to user feedback as a general rule. These are not good signs, it all pointed to a company that was under a great deal of pressure to grow at all costs; angling for short term wins instead of playing a longer, more sustainable game. This is one of the reasons why many founders don’t stay with their companies for too long, the skill set for creating a company is different from maintaining company long term.
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I am not really sure whether I should be elated or terrified at this. At least it is good to know I will still be able to use my machine for a bit longer.
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Wow! Here’s hoping that they take glowforge further into the future. What a ride… fingers crossed.
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I love your optimism!
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So, many, questions. The good takeaway is that it looks like the whole thing is not being shutered just yet.
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I’ll be happy if they just focus in keeping the servers running.
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Servers are running. 
I apologize for being scarce the last while (and very overdue on an update). As you can see, it’s been a rollercoaster. I’m excited for what comes next!
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Snapmark is a great feature. I’m happy to see it deployed to more machines!
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I very much hope this transition goes well. I’m rooting for you and Mark and your team.
The latest announcement is so exciting in its timeliness: a bunch of us GF owners been talking about how much we wish you’d take another shot at Snapmarks, aka print-and-cut, given the $46M eufyMake UV printer campaign this summer. I see so many familiar names from Glowforge forums in the UV printing groups now.
I’m curious about the retail partners. Will Michaels still sell Aura and PG materials in stores?
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There’s a detailed and rather positive take over on Reddit
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I hope our machines continue to be able to function and this new take is successful for @dan and his partner.
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As one of those who bought a craft machine and was unhappy, I have to say that they offered me the full price of my craft machine towards a performance HD. I was very appreciative of their effort to make the craft users feel supported and to help us upgrade.
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I’m also rooting for you. Also hoping moving forward you’ll think of a way to untether our machines in case the worst comes to pass. I’d hate to think of losing everything after all these years. Hoping for the best Dan.
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THAT was it. After someone accused me a shilling for GF, I knew there was another big thing that was never satisfactorily delivered. Source code to keep the machines from bricking in case of corporate collapse and bankruptcy.
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It was promised if Glowforge was not going to provide online service. They are still providing service and the source code continues to change.
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They did provide a download at one point - but that was WAY earlier code. I believe that @deleted’s group declared they couldn’t do anything with it…
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