Circuit Youth Makerspace Opened Last Saturday!
On Saturday, December 3rd, 2016, Circuit Youth joined the maker movement and gave its first presentation in front of 45 people.
I was inspired to write this after the dynamic energy I felt from my team and my audience Saturday night. What was really exciting about the opening was the festive atmosphere we accented with the lights, the kinds of people that came very excited about and supportive of our idea, and the fact that we were pinching ourselves that this was happening! It felt like I was dreaming as I had envisioned this moment for three months and it was now real, we had now manifested what was in our heads! Most startups don’t even make it to the stage where they’ve opened, and we did it by only raising a lot of money to make it happen through crowdfunding, donations, and sponsorships.
The previous few days I and my friends and partners Brendan, Nicole, Ferananda, and Jeff, had all been working hard to set up our new space while also rehearsing for the presentation especially on Friday and Saturday. Brendan, Nicole, and Ferananda received a visit from Channel 10 News from Medford at our new makerspace Saturday morning just a few hours before I arrived and they got a webcam interview shared on Facebook which just received over 1000 views over the weekend as well as an article written about us. The more we practiced, the more nervous we got.
At 6 PM, guests started coming in and we were signing interested clients up to our database. The anticipation and excitement were high, people beaming with smiles on their faces. It had been a dream come true for Brendan and Nicole, who had thought up the idea of the Circuit Youth right after their favorite video game store closed up and then worked on the idea for a couple years. It was also a dream come true for me to finally have a place where I could just work on my craft. Brendan and Nicole did a fantastic job presenting their idea and Ferananda did really well at explaining how Circuit Youth was going to benefit the community as part of the rising maker movement in the Rogue Valley, and I was happy I did a great job at presenting my role in Circuit Youth.
We were happy to see everyone care about us presenting and then having to wait 30 minutes before the presentation to mingle. The finger foods we and Nicole’s friends had prepared were well-received by the audience.
Nevertheless, we didn’t worry about being imperfect, as we kept focusing on what was most important: We got the presentation done, and done well.
We already have technologies such as our 3D printer, a raspberry pie (miniature game console system), and a virtual reality system coming this week and we’re going to have a table built this week.
We’re feeling excited, nervous, and energized for the beginning of our startup. While we’re not expecting too many customers the first week (really, what startup does?), we are going to have an event program for the whole month of December and many programs for the months to come.
