May 31, 2017 at 08:17PM

Reddit scan:Dear TechShop Member,I'm writing to let you know about several significant steps we are taking to position TechShop for growth and expansion, in the process creating a more sustainable organization for the coming years. Since taking over as CEO last summer, I have focused on stabilizing the existing business while exploring ways by which we can grow more rapidly than in the past. There is enormous demand for TechShop to expand across the country in communities large and small. I've come to believe that this could not be achieved with our existing business model. Today we are announcing a fundamental change in how we do business by announcing our new partner licensing model. We are seeing a constant and increasing interest and demand from new markets eager to invest in makerspaces to transform their communities and to generate the kind of economic and social impact that TechShop has had in its existing markets. The licensing strategy will allow us co-develop new locations with strategic partners – corporations, universities, municipalities, real estate developers – and rapidly grow a network of stores across the country. Licensing will allow us to be more flexible in how we structure each new location and will enable us access funds from a wider variety of sources. While we are announcing this new strategy today, we have been using the model successfully internationally with partner-operated stores in France, Japan and the United Arab Emirates with many more countries in development. In each location we have collaborated with strong national and international brands e.g. Leroy Merlin (France) and Fujitsu (Japan) and successfully opened new locations under the TechShop brand. The experience has shown us that this is a highly successful business model and hence, our intention to bring it back home to the US. In tandem with the new licensing model we will introduce a Managed Services offering to support it. We will build on our 11 years of experience to provide a full spectrum of services, including licensing, design, staffing, equipment provisioning, management, and operating solutions to third parties, such as the aforementioned universities, foundations, municipalities, and corporations. This is a smarter way for TechShop to leverage its IP and expertise to meet the accelerating demand for makerspaces around the world.So we're open for new business and opportunities and will immediately embark on an outreach program to engage with partners old and new, sourcing locations for new stores and new opportunities across the country. There are exciting times ahead.When I communicated to the membership last summer I outlined plans to stabilize the business. I pledged to reduce our monthly cash deficit and improve individual store performance so that we could reinvest in member experience, infrastructure and the development of our employees. We have made significant strides since, turning around the performance of all our locations, achieving same store profitability at all except one, cutting our monthly cash deficit in half, and winning a competitive grant from New York City to design, build and operate a world class community makerspace in Brooklyn. In the course of developing the new strategy for the business we've taken a long, hard look at the existing stores to see how they will fit into our new model. In evaluating store performance we came to the regrettable conclusion that TechShop Pittsburgh is not a fit. Despite the support of a small but very active community of makers and hardware startups, TechShop Pittsburgh does not meet its operating expenses. As CEO, I have the responsibility to get the total enterprise on a firm footing, financially viable, and capable of long-term sustainable operation. And I can't achieve this without making some very difficult decisions. Closing TechShop Pittsburgh, effective September 1, 2017, is one of them.We have worked hard with our landlord Walnut Capital and Bakery Square to arrange to keep the shop operating through the summer months so as to not impact our very full youth STEAM summer program and to buy as much time as possible for our members to make alternative arrangements. We realize one or more of Pittsburgh's many foundations, universities and corporations may step forward to express an interest in becoming a licensee of TechShop Pittsburgh. If this were to happen, we will go the extra mile to ensure business continuity. However, I don't want to set any false expectations that this will in fact occur.We are taking a number of additional steps to get ourselves financially healthy again. A key element is a further reduction by an additional 50% in corporate staffing and right-sizing the staff required to oversee continued improvement of our wholly-owned stores and to deliver outstanding managed services to our clients.This reorganization of the corporate team will enable us to capitalize on the new opportunities available through this strategic pivot. Our lean and responsive team will build on the existing success of our consulting services and the licensing model of TechShop Global. This team boasts a collective 50+ years' experience in design, opening, and running TechShops.No reductions are being made to our local stores. In fact, as soon as we improve our capitalization, investing in local staff development and infrastructure is my highest priority.We Want to Hear From YouI realize I've just thrown a lot at you. My apologies, but I wanted to address the complete picture of change and our rationale in one announcement as opposed to dribbling it out over an extended period of time.It's only natural that our members will have many thoughts and questions, and I've asked my team to try to personally respond to all of them. Therefore we have setup an email address to facilitate our handling of your inquiries. I invite you to write to us at pivot@techshop.com. I promise, all inquiries will be answered, but know that it may take us several days to respond to all of them. As always, I also encourage you to communicate directly with your local TechShop General Manager.Onward and Upward,DanCEOTechShop, Inc.ceo@techshop.comMain: 1-(855)-TECHSHOPhttp://www.techshop.com/ http://ift.tt/2sfFpv9 by Towson Makerspace