Dan Shapiro
Dan Shapiro is the co-founder and CEO of Glowforge and founder of Robot Turtles, and serves as Senior Research Fellow at The Wharton School. He previously founded Ontela, which was acquired, and has held leadership roles at Google, Microsoft, RealNetworks, and Photobucket.com. His expertise includes entrepreneurship and innovation.
Seattle’s history of hardware heartbreak: Big raises, high hopes, hard landings
Seattle’s consumer-hardware ambitions are once again colliding with economic reality. The struggles of Glowforge and Rad Power Bikes echo a long regional history of big raises, high hopes, and hard landings — shaped by the pandemic, VC, and the unforgiving nature of building real products. GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook recorded this conversation for the purpose of providing the audio to an AI tool that turned the conversation into a written column that was edited and reviewed before publication. Check it out here. Related Stories: Glowforge hits restart: After restructuring, co-founders acquire key assets of laser engraver startup…
week of may 12: Dan Shapiro - Glowforge
We're talking entrepreneurship, production facilities, and acquisitions with the founder and CEO of Glowforge - Dan Shapiro. As we break down the top stories of the week, he also shares how he came up with the idea of a 3D laser printer, how the tariffs are going to impact his business, and what he got wrong about Rover. Top Stories: 1. Glowforge makes production changes Amid tariff turmoil, Glowforge turns to Seattle for new production factory — with help from AI (Geekwire) 2. Tutta Bella expands Kroger deal Tutta Bella ramps up production after landing major Kroger deal (PSBJ) 3…
Special COVID-19 Episode: Dan Shapiro
Back again, Dan Shapiro, CEO of Glowforge, discusses the Ear Savers they’ve been creating to help contribute during the COVID-19 crisis. With their “Two Million Essential Ears Initiative,” Glowforge is striving to provide one million free Ear Savers to anyone wearing a mask to keep us safe. He talks about how he’s shown up as a leader during this time, being grateful for Glowforge's open culture and why he ultimately decided to turn down the PPP money. Dan also shares an awesome new online learning platform for kids and some fun games to try during the stay-at-home order! See omnystudio.com/listener…
Sandi Lin on how Skilljar raised $16.5M with her car breaking down on Sand Hill Road
Skilljar raised $16M last year after tripling from $1M to $3M ARR. Hear how CEO Sandi Lin got bay area VCs competing for her attention during her Series A after barely getting any replies to her seed round.
Dan Shapiro
Four-time Founder, CEO and investor, Dan Shapiro, shares the ups and downs of his entrepreneurial journey thus far. Though he humbly attributes much of his success to privilege, Dan has worked hard, taken risks and followed an unconventional career path that has led him to become a board game inventor, author and record holder for the most backed 30-day crowdfunding campaign. Today, Dan is focused on building Glowforge, the iconic 3D laser printer company founded in 2014. The idea originated while he was creating Robot Turtles, the board game that teaches programming to kids. Now, his company is nearing 100…
Organizations
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The Wharton School Senior Research Fellow 2025–present · current
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Glowforge Executive Officer, Director, Promoter 2016–present, Co-founder and CEO 2014–present · current
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Robot Turtles Founder 2013–present · current
Education
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Harvey Mudd College B.S., Engineering · 1993–1997
