How to Cultivate More Entrepreneurs? Give Them a Workshop and Let Them Tinker

With more than 17,000 square feet of welding machines, wood-working tools, laser cutters, and textile labs, San-Francisco based TechShop is a DIY fabrication workshop for tinkerers, inventors, and flat-out nutty entrepreneurs. CEO Mark Hatch says it's got everything you need to inspire heaps of innovation. "One member built the world's first ever two-wheel, self-balancing,18-mph barstool," Hatch says. "Now that's what the world needs," he says.

"We have a lot of people that are hacking Roombas and turning them into robots. We've had people building lunar landers, jet packs. One woman set to work on a Halloween costume and decided to make a metal set of butterfly wings. At the end of the project, she couldn't get it off the table because it weighed 150 pounds," he says. But, it all worked out in the end. "She took pictures of herself lying on it and then wore the photos," says Hatch.

It's not only the outlandish projects that are born in TechShop. Dodo Cases, camera strap mounts (called C-loops), and a "phase-changing polymer blanket" developed by the nonprofit Debrase were all first prototyped in the space.

Members can take classes and work with "dream coaches" so they can learn how to use the machines properly. Hatch believes that giving people access to tools is the most effective way to tap the resources that have been widely ignored -- the free time, creativity, and disposable income of the so-called creative class. And maybe he's on to something. The company has seen steady growth in the 50-70 percent range year over year for the past 4 consecutive years. TechShop has four locations open currently, with a fifth shop opening in Detroit in the Fall. The company has also recently announced partnerships Etsy.com and Burda Style, an online sewing community.