Welcoming Technical Machine

In his book Makers, Chris Anderson (Founder of True portfolio company 3D Robotics) explains how the invention of the spinning jenny in 1766 sparked the Industrial Revolution. This historic marker is well known, but as Chris points out, the jenny wasn’t the first mechanized spinning contraption—inventions in Egypt, China and Asia predated it by centuries. However, there were two other critical factors at play: 1) this machine spun cotton—a commodity unlike silk, hemp or other fibers; and 2) it connected to and distributed power from a central source, enabling rapid scaling beyond human power.

The newest addition to the True portfolio, Technical Machine (introduced to us by Eric Nakagawa), is working on creating transformative tools based on similar guiding principles. Focused on delivering the best tools to the widest audience of tinkerers and inventors, their first product, Tessel, brings the digital programmability of hardware within easy reach of web developers everywhere. Supporting a wifi-connected node.js server on an Arm-powered microcontroller board, Tessel makes manipulating hardware behavior as easy as plug, push and play. Tessel runs javascript, the Netscape-developed language that powers millions of web pages and server applications worldwide, and supports packages from npm to support the fast-growing node.js community. With Tessel, “the web is your backend,” and a developers can simply connect via wifi and start connecting Tessel-powered objects directly to the web.

We believe we are at the beginnings of the new Industrial Revolution, in which connectivity and digital control will integrate with most objects around us, not just smartphones and screens. Technical Machine is clearly at the forefront of this movement, and we are incredibly excited to work with this dynamic team.

Tim, Jia and Jon conceived and founded Technical Machine while at Olin College (Tim & Jia graduate later this year), and since their very first interaction with us, the team has displayed a concise, humble and creative ambition, as well as values rooted in living the principles they espouse in their mission. Focused first on supporting and growing their community of developers, Tessel hardware designs are open source hardware, and their compiler/firmware will be open source at release.

We are thrilled to support Technical Machine at the start of their creative journey. Team Technical is part inventor, part entrepreneur, and wholly driven by a mission to amplify the potential of as many developers as they can—while truly transforming our world.

Tim, Jia, Jon and the entire Technical Machine team: Welcome to True!

Read more about Technical Machine in GigaOM, Xconomy and the Boston Business Journal.