via Entrepeneur where you'll find the article.
Some fun bits on our synth mistress ladyada from the article:
"Fave quote: 'We are what we celebrate.' --entrepreneur and inventor Dean Kamen
Words of wisdom: 'Be the change. If you want to live in a world that looks a certain way, don't wait around for someone else to do it.' --business partner Phil Torrone
Required reading: Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson
Entrepreneurial idol: Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media, publisher of countless maker-friendly magazines and books
Biggest motivator: Feedback that Adafruit is inspiring the next generation of engineers
Design inspiration: New York City"
"She liked to put skills she learned in class to the test by building functional objects like MP3 players, synthesizers and light toys from scratch, using custom-ordered parts. This was before YouTube and the iPhone, so she posted DIY instructions for the projects on her personal website. Soon she was bombarded with requests to sell pre-assembled kits. "At first I was like, 'No dude, I'm really busy, leave me alone,'" she says. But after a few months, her fans wore her down.
With $10,000 her parents had allocated for her tuition, Fried bought a bulk quantity of parts and began assembling and selling her kits, making about $10 on each unit. In the beginning, running the company consisted of shipping a couple of packages a day from the 24-hour post office next door to her dorm. As orders increased, she hired friends; before she knew it, she was designing a new project every week around newfangled components like gyrometric sensors, solar panels and thermal printers."
"Last year New York City-based Adafruit did a booming $10 million trade in sales of DIY open-source electronic hardware kits..."
Be sure to see Entrepenuer.com for the full article. It's a good one. Photography by David Johnson
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