01:06
Zach Kaplan Highlight
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.
About Zach
- 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."
