Uncle’s Games, Redmond Town Center. 
Professionally I have two hats, first is my job as the creative director at an internet developer, who does a lot of work for the medical industry. I’ve done a lot of eLearning development and have done some cool things teaching doctors how to use imaging technologies. I started doing graphic design on the Mac when I was 12 and basically haven’t stopped since then.
My other professional job (and the far more interesting one) is that I started a company a few years ago that designs and sells high-end poker playing cards for collectors and magicians around the world. I’ve gotten to explore a lot of cool design work, have done crazy packaging, have learned far more about the postal system then I ever wanted to know and explore all kinds of techniques to create rare and limited collectible items. The Glowforge is going to be instrumental is producing fine custom boxes and engraved items. (feel free to check http://encarded.com if curious)
Personally I am married and have 2 great kids. I live in the sunshine of southwest Florida and greatly enjoy the outdoors, beaches and fresh air. I collect things like pens, knives, Oakley sunglasses and playing cards and will probably be using the Glowforge to customize some of my special collected items.
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My wife and I live and work in the twin cities area. I work as an analyst and my wife teaches ESL. We’ve got 2 kids ages 1 and 3. Like most folks here, I enjoy making things in my spare time. Since getting a 3D printer, my desk has been littered with my plastic designs and I look forward to cluttering it with a wider variety of materials thanks to Glowforge!
My wife is tired of hearing me say “I could print one of those.” So now she will hear me say “I can cut or engrave one of those”.
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Professionally: I was in retail management, law firm management, and owned and ran a sporting goods company. That’s just the highlights. I am now retired with lots of time on my hands…and am so busy with my retirement life that I have less “free” time now than I had when I was working!
Personally: I have been with my partner (a man, we are not married) for about 7 years. We have 1 dog, and 4 cats (2 inside, and 2 feral). We travel and otherwise enjoy life.
And…he couldn’t give 2 figs or even .001 of a fig about the GF!
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Professionally: I am currently a product manager for a very large cloud provider, responsible for product strategy and direction for our infrastructure services. In the past I’ve been a pre-sales engineer, run highly secure e-mail systems for the US Government, and done just about every system administration task under the sun.
Personally: Husband and father of twin almost-3-year-olds. Hobbies are anything high tech, and making things in general. I’ve been getting into woodworking and have build a 3d printer so the laser cutter is the next logical step for a new toy. I live in the DC suburbs. Looking forwards to having my kids design and build things with me!
I’m an opera singer (http://www.genevievebaglio.com/#!media/c1yi7) who dabbles in sales as a day job. But, I’d much rather be a woodworker/home builder/sustainability consultant.
So, I’ve been spending my time creating my own sustainable designs in furniture and through personal home renovation. We plan to start building our own home next year in the Western Washington area, which should be really fun and give me an outlet for my love of sustainable design. I hope to use my GF to start a small business designing and producing home goods and wood based art that I design in Sketchup.
@Tony - I also keep bees 
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Hey’all, @Tony
Professionally, I am in the final bit of the process of starting my first small business, a “brick and mortar” art studio/graphic design/sign shop. Before this I was doing freelance design (web graphics, motion graphics, video editing, product photography). I worked in a sign shop doing everything from photoshop mockups to Flexi wide format printing, from layout and font-identification to finished vinyl installation, from hand-painted indoor museum signage to hanging billboard fronts in mid-winter at high elevation with a highway to one side and a thousand-foot cliff below… and weeding LOTS of vinyl. Before that I was the Art&Media Dept. (and) Compliance Officer for an MMJ company in colorado.
Personally I love snowboarding, dirt-biking, jeeps, camping, turntableism, micro-brews, and street art. I attended CU Boulder and after a while they gave me a BA in Fine Art. From 2007-2014 I lived in a solar-powered, off-grid, remote mountain home at 9,240’ of elevation. I now live at an elevation of 69’ above sea-level with my girlfriend who is working towards her PhD in Immunology (and who encouraged me to buy the glowforge after she saw me getting excited about it), her two cats, and my eleven-and-a-half year-old dog.
Mac over PC. Beer over wine. Dogs over Cats. Chevy over Ford. Oven over Microwave. Sweet over Spicy. X-Games over Olympics. Coke over Pepsi. Stick-shift over Automatic.
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Wow there are a lot of posts on this, but as my username says, I am Ryan.
I am 24 live in NJ and work full time at IEEE. I am also going to school for my MBA. I love making things, and when I saw the Tested video about GF, I knew I had to have one. It was either this or a 3d printer, and to me, 3d printing is not QUITE where I want it. I’m not really an early adopter, but I guess this makes me one!
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Jim
Was Director of advanced technology Nortel. Now I design and build radio controlled jets. The GF will be an awesome addition to my shop. The ability to hand draw on a material then simply cut it will increase my productivity ten fold. When finished prototyping it will be used to manufacture jet kits which have around 90 plus laser cut parts.
Was Director of advanced technology Nortel. Now I design and build radio controlled jets. The GF will be an awesome addition to my shop. The ability to hand draw on a material then simply cut it will increase my productivity ten fold. When finished prototyping it will be used to manufacture jet kits which have around 90 plus laser cut parts.
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Professionally, I’m the founder and CEO of a 3D printing business and a Youtuber.
Personally, I’m a maker of things…All kinds of things. I’ve built myself a mini makerspace in my garage complete with 3d printers, a cnc router I built, a plotter/vinyl cutter, even button makers. The 2 things I still need for my makerspace are an injection molding machine and a laser cutter (which is why I was one of the first people to order a glowforge).
Vacuum Former would likely also be good in your personal shop.
There are some people who have used the 3D printer extruder as their injection mold. Could look into that if you have a spare couple of parts from your own printer repairs.
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I work at a seafood factory…for 38 years now…that’s my profession I guess…personally…I drink…lol play video games,digital photography, build computers,and am dieing to get my hands on my “Glowforge”…the plansI have for that are too many to speak…cannot wait.
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Tony – first off, great that you are reaching to find out exactly who your REAL customer is! Interesting that none of the 72 so far have the same background….
Industrial designer/entrepreneur, launched our own 100% crowd-funded product brand with my son 2 years ago: onehundred.co. Have been a ‘maker’ forever – first for Apple, HP, Dell, GM, P&G, eventually for 3 companies I have launched. I can see a Glowforge Pro paying for itself in less then 6 months with product prototypes, ‘sketching’ in 3D, packaging + packaging inserts, custom boxes …not to mention selling cutter time to the area maker community.
Son is a skateboard artist/photographer, wife is a professional chef/seamstress – we’re really going to put or Glowforge to work!
Professionally: Product Manager for a software company in the metro Detroit area.
Personally: My hobby seems to be collecting hobbies… scuba diver, backyard pond creator/maintainer, garage full of tools, pinball machine, home theater and who knows what I’ve put on the back-burner to get to again in the future. 
Saw the Glowforge and was intrigued then my uncle said he’d go halfsies with me, so an order was born. Hoping to use it to produce some supplemental income, produce unique gifts and just play.
I just read through the topic here and boy do I feel out of place…
Professionally: I’m a Cop. I’ll only expound on that to say that I’m in the Forensics part of it as much as I can be.
Personally: Maker, tinkerer, husband, father of twin boys @ 15 months (their teacher don’t know what they have coming). I’m mostly a homebody. I watch a lot of movies and read, etc. But I graduated from University with a BFA in Sculpture. I’ve done many things in my life, but nothing too spectacular, yet. I have some ideas and I’m hoping the GF is going to really get things going for me. So, thanks @dan , I’m really looking forward to this machine.
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Hi Tony, Hi to everybody,
PROFESSIONALLY: I have worked in Accessible IT for 13+ years from Teaching online courses to doing Webinars, podcasts, and face to face presentations among other things on how to make Information Technologies Accessible for people with disabilities. This has taken me to study many courses one of them is Corel Draw.
Almost 3 years ago I have to quit my job because my son had a terrible accident. He had a Traumatic brain injury. It has been a long way but his slowly recovering.
I purchased your GF because I consider that we can offer laser services in my city and my son can work in the business. I don’t know anything about laser cutting or engraving, but I’m eager to learn. If someone knows of an online course related to the topics that can help me to learn about it, I’ll really appreciate your help
PERSONALLY: I’m in Mexico. I’ve been married for 37 years. I love all kind of technology and I’m always looking for the new things and trends; that’s how I knew about the GF. What I enjoy most, is playing with all the diferent features that they have, (with the years I learned to take notes before changing the settings to avoid headaches later) I’m excited with the idea of using the GF to create games and educational material for my grandsons…
I’m really excited waiting for my item
I consider that your idea of having this forum is great. It can be really helpful for us after getting our GF! Thanks
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Professionally, I used to do R&D on membrane-based separation systems, anaerobic digestion and most recently nano-materials, all at the lab or pilot-plant scale, aside from one stint in Hong Kong doing startup on a hazardous waste treatment facility there. I’m retired now and spend most of my time in my home shop with old domestic manual and new Tormach CNC machine tools, a fairly recently acquired 3D printer (Zortrax), and in the not too distant future, a GlowForge.
In my professional life, I made a lot of prototypes and gadgets to support the research and to build test systems. That started as a hobby about 15 years ago and developed into a significant part of my work responsibilities. In retirement, I am getting back into building working model IC engines and doing a little outside work to help pay for the shop toys. I see the GlowForge as a way to expand my tool set and am actually not too sure what it will be used for. At the least, I see it as a tool to cut acrylic for model display cabinets and as a way to engrave name plates for the models. I’m sure that lots of other uses will crop up, though.
Professionally I am a physician, to be specific, a general practitioner.
Personally I’ve been married for 5 years, just had our first child 3 months ago, a baby girl. I love tinkering and building. Dabbled in microcontrollers (Arduino), web programming, and wood working. I have 4 3D printers and an epilog laser. Time is what I don’t have too much of so I’m trying to get gadgets that will make me more efficient. Hence I ordered a GF. I’m also waiting on a Carvey from inventables.
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Professionally: I’ve work at the Anchor Brewing Company (oldest craft brewery in America) for the past eight years helping to produce this beer for all to enjoy:
Personally: I am a huge gamer/nerd and budding maker. Got myself a 3D printer a year or two ago, and saw the Glowforge as a nice way to add laser cutting to my repertoire. I don’t have a workshop space so a cutter made for in home use was hard to pass up.
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