January 2022 Update

What a year we’ve got ahead of us

2022! Three weeks into the new year, and there’s already so much to tell you about. We’re wrapping up our planning process, which means my brain is full of the amazing things we’re going to be working on delivering to you over the course of the year.

And I’m so proud of everything we’ve done to get there. Did you know:

  • Over 100,000 people like you are printing on Glowforge printers?
  • Public schools in all 50 US states are using Glowforge printers to teach kids the wonder of creation?
  • There are now hundreds of local craft stores that carry Proofgrade materials?

And the year is just getting started!

On to the news - we’ve got some really amazing stuff this month!

  • We teamed up with Exploding Kittens to create something totally new
  • What you and Neil Patrick Harris have in common
  • Wired UK, ZDNet, and more recommend Glowforge
  • We’ve added a 20% Proofgrade materials discount for Premium members
  • Switching from “Problems & Support” to “Community Support”

FREE GIVEAWAY of just 10 Glowforge-printable NFTs, co-created with Exploding Kittens!

I love playing games with my family. And one of my friends makes an amazing game called Exploding Kittens.

A few months back, he let me in on a little secret: Exploding Kittens was getting ready to relaunch a game called Happy Salmon. He shared an early copy of the game with me, and I played it with my extended family. Everyone, ages 5-50, was immediately hooked (ha!).

But there’s one terrible thing about getting early access to a game: it’s a secret, so you can’t tell anyone how great it is yet.

Today though, that changes. Happy Salmon just launched, and now I can finally gush about how much fun it is to play.

Now, I know you didn’t come to this forum to hear my latest thoughts about board games. So here’s why I’m telling you anyway:

I loved Happy Salmon so much that I decided to team up with the designers to create something completely new to celebrate its launch.

They’re running a contest where YOU can win one of only ten of these incredible Happy Salmon animated, fish-jumping card boxes. It’s AMAAAAZING! The fish jump when you turn the key!

But here’s the really wild part.

Instead of giving away the pattern, or the box, Exploding Kittens is giving away the first-ever limited edition printable NFT. (Ten of them, actually).

You can enter the sweepstakes to win one by clicking here:

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If you’re one of the 10 lucky winners, you’ll be able to print the exclusive Happy Salmon game box we designed. That’s the only way to get one! And once the NFT is used to print one, that NFT is “spent” and can’t be printed again - so there will only ever be 10.

Personally, I’m curious to see how NFTs evolve to better support artists, creators, and fans. I’m also concerned about some of the drawbacks of modern NFT technology. That’s why for every 1 pound of carbon emitted in the creation of the NFTs, we’ll use carbon offsets to remove 10 pounds from the atmosphere.

I hope you get a chance to try the game, and I really hope you are lucky enough to win the prize! Good luck - and win or lose, you can do some high fiving, fist bumping, Happy Salmon game playing here.

Neil Patrick Harris loves his Glowforge, and will not let Jimmy Kimmel mispronounce it

This one caught me by surprise: Neil Patrick Harris used his Glowforge to make his Christmas presents this year!

When he told Jimmy Kimmel about it, my phone blew up with texts from friends. It was very confusing for a few minutes, since I didn’t know what they were talking about.

Also, Jimmy Kimmel messed up our name, and Neil was having none of it.

Watch Neil set Jimmy straight on Glowforge here:

Neil Patrick Harris on Holiday Stress, Buying Gifts for His Twins & Friendship with Elton John

Wired UK, ZDNet, and more recommend Glowforge

You and Neil are in excellent company! Wired Magazine UK named Glowforge one of their top gifts of 2021. And then ZDNet gave Glowforge a great review, along with Overclock3D.

Launching in a new country has been full of surprises (I knew customs was a hassle, but, wow), but the best by far has been the upswell of enthusiasm in the British creator community. Seeing their projects and early success stories has been wonderful. And they’re just getting started.

Premium members now get 20% off Proofgrade

We’re always looking for ways to add even more value to our Premium membership, and this is a big one!

Your unique Premium member discount code will be emailed each month with your subscriber update. Enter the code at checkout and we’ll apply a 20% discount to all regularly-priced Proofgrade materials! Note that it can’t be sold or traded, and it doesn’t stack with sales prices.

Switching from “Problems & Support” to “Community Support”

Our incredible customer success team is working to level up - providing faster support, shorter wait times, and fast and accurate information. Recently, we reviewed our data, and determined that 80% of the time, forum posts only get solved when they move to email! That’s because 80% of the posts require personal information in order to resolve that we can’t handle in the public area.

The team has found that this makes it harder for them to serve you well: tickets wind up open in two places, take time to close twice, and the extra back-and-forth between the forum and email stretch out the time to resolve your question.

As a result, we’re going to switch “Problems & Support” to “Community Support”. We’ll no longer regularly monitor the section for questions. We’ll update the forum documentation so this is clear. And we continue to welcome your questions and support requests - just email us at support@glowforge.com

February and beyond

As we close out January, we’re finalizing our big strategic plans for the company’s year ahead. Which technologies do we research? Which software do we build? What designs are we creating? How do we prioritize the thousand and one incredible opportunities to make your Glowforge experience better?

Things change pretty quickly when you’re a startup, so we try to under-promise and over-deliver. If I told you today that in June we’ll be releasing a popcorn setting for your Glowforge (we’re definitely not, but the way), so much could change between now and then. 6 months is a long time in startup land.

But here are a few promises I can make:

  • Your Glowforge will keep getting better. A year from now, it will be faster, smarter, more capable, and even easier to use. And it’ll all happen without you having to change a thing.
  • We’ll do more to support your creativity than ever before. We’re expanding our catalog to make it easy for your to both buy and sell designs that print beautifully at the touch of a button. We’ll be celebrating and promoting creators from this community. And of course, we’re always here at support@glowforge.com if you need anything.

We’ve got big plans this year. I know you do too. Let me know in the comments what you’re tackling in 2022.

I can’t wait to see what you create next.

– dan

PS: You can discuss this month’s update in the forum here!

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