Making Money from
Open-Source Hardware
David A. Mellis
Reboot11 – 26 June 2009 – Copenhagen

Introductions

Me
Arduino
Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
MIT Media Lab

Open-Source Hardware
Provision of the digital artifacts necessary to produce,
understand, and modify a piece of hardware.

Arduino
Open-source electronics prototyping platform.
Hardware Software Community

Value Chain

“I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or
process anything.... I don't want to sell anything
bought or processed, or buy anything sold or
processed, or process anything sold, bought, or
processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or
processed.”
—John Cusack, Say Anything

ArduinoTM

Advantages Disadvantages
Small capital investment Small profit margin
Few expenses No barrier to competition
Limited risk Have to protect the name
Flexibility
Visibility

Arduino

Open-Source Software

Manufacturers

Distributors

Bundlers

ARDX Experimentation Kit
From .:Oomlout:.

Business Models

Selling Kits
Photo by Zach ‘Hoeken’ Smith

Open Source Hardware Reserve Bank

Selling Commercial Products
http://www.flickr.com/photos/avenafatua/2561017754/

Consulting

Don’t people rip you off ?

Contributions

Implications

There’s real money here.

The people who invest (risk) money
are the ones who make money.

Open-source keeps you honest.

Questions

Is there anything new here?

Does it need to be open-source?

Is it wrong to make money from this?

How much will people do themselves?

Thank you.