[printing sound]

I started Adafruit Industries

back in my college dorm room at MIT

and now I've grown the company to 25 people

and we're here in downtown Manhatten.

My name is Limor Fried and I am founder

and lead engineer of Adafruit Industries.

My passion is teaching people electronics

and showing them just how fun engineering can be.

[printing sound]

We design all sorts of electronic kits here

from DIY cell phone chargers to solar power systems

to bright and beautiful LED displays.

All kinds of projects so that

people can learn a bit of electronics

and see how much fun it is to build stuff on their own.

One of the really interesting things about

the way we do business here at Adafruit

is that not only do I design and manufacture electronics

but then I give away the recipe of how it's done.

And I do this because I think it's really important

for people to not only understand how we make stuff

but how they can make stuff themselves at home.

We do almost everything here at Adafruit

from designing the schematic and laying out the circuitboard

to placing these little teeny components

on the circuitboard and assembling them here,

to making kits, to writing the software

and the tutorials.

Everything necessary from beginning to end

to learn about electronics.

Here at Adafruit we have one of the

largest collections of electronics tutorials.

We have hundreds of tutorials online

available for free.

I give away all this information so that

people can learn, share and

build their own businesses from it.

We have 800 products in store

and we ship hundreds of orders a day

all around the globe.

[printing sound]

We recently came up with a badging system

and the idea here is that we want to reward kids

for learning modern technological skills.

So teachers, parents and educators

can give a kid a badge when

they learn something like 3D printing

or building a robot.

We've been getting letters and photos

from around the world, from kids and their parents

showing off the cool projects they built

with Adafruit products and our tutorial system

and then the badge that they earn

once they've completed.

[printing sound]

I also do a weekly live Internet video show

once a week on Saturday nights where hundreds of people

show up and ask me the engineer

any kinds of electronics engineering questions

and I answer them live on the Internet.

[printing sound]

A lot of people find us because of our great tutorials

but what we're really known for is our great prices

our fast shipping and our excellent customer support.

I've found that the more we help people by

teaching them and showing them

how to be creative on their own

the more they rewarded us by being great customers

and also being part of our fun community.

Thanks for watching.

I can't wait to see what you build up next.

Now, time for me to get back to work

here at Adafruit.

[printing sound]

[printer head return sound]