Zach Kaplan
Inventables
Chicago, IL USA
"Today, if you want to build something, the barriers to try are very low. Anything you want to learn is a Google search away, or a YouTube search away. You can do anything you want. You just have to go do it."
Career Roadmap
Zach's work combines: Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Building Things
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Mechanical Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
When he was a kid, he always loved building things; his favorite toys were Legos and Tinker Toys.
2.
Inspired by amusement parks, he built a model roller coaster out of steel.
3.
He always wanted to go into mechanical engineering, but when he applied to college, he got into the school but not the program.
4.
He found a way around that: he just started taking every class that the freshman engineering students were taking.
5.
In one of the classes, his final project outperformed the other students' to an almost ludicrous extent.
6.
Finally, the engineering department gave in and let him into the mechanical engineering major.
7.
After school, he opened up the engineering directory and just started cold calling people; they'd give him interviews and show him what they were working on.
8.
He realized most engineers had trouble finding affordable materials and he saw an opportunity; started Inventables, "the hardware store for designers."