Zach Kaplan

Zach Kaplan

Founder & CEO


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.

Videos

By Roadtrip Nation

Zach Kaplan

Milestones

My road in life has been direct.
When he was a kid, he always loved building things; his favorite toys were Legos and Tinker Toys.
Inspired by amusement parks, he built a model roller coaster out of steel.
He always wanted to go into mechanical engineering, but when he applied to college, he got into the school but not the program.
He found a way around that: he just started taking every class that the freshman engineering students were taking.
In one of the classes, his final project outperformed the other students' to an almost ludicrous extent.
Finally, the engineering department gave in and let him into the mechanical engineering major.
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.
He realized most engineers had trouble finding affordable materials and he saw an opportunity; started Inventables, "the hardware store for designers."

Career

Founder & CEO

I make 3D carving machines to ignite digital manufacturing world wide and provide makers a way to get started.

Career Roadmap

Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Engineering
Entrepreneurship
Building Things

Interviewed By

No More What If's

No More What If's

In Chicago, the Roadtrippers interview Zach Kaplan, the CEO and Co-Founder of Inventables, a company that connects product developers with novel materials. The team then heads to Chicagoland Skydiving Center to interview skydiving instructor Ward Hessig and do a skydive of their own.