Sparkfun Recognized For Their Growth

The Denver Business Journal has recognized Sparkfun Electronics as the 2nd fastest growing company in the Denver area (in the $17.5-$46million class). This is fantastic news, not only for Sparkfun, but for Open Source Hardware.  Sparkfun is the worlds largest manufacturer of open source hardware, located right in the middle of the country, Boulder Colorado.

Not only has Sparkfun grown immensely in open source hardware products, they’ve also put together several educational systems like their tutorial section as well as their “learn at sparkfun” system. Way to go sparkfun!

26 thoughts on “Sparkfun Recognized For Their Growth

    1. The term “middle america” refers to the part of the country slightly to the left of the east coast. Its probably a holdout from before we had california and the other western states, but it no longer has anything to do with “the middle of america”. If you look at a map, Boulder CO is much closer to the center of the country than any place in Ohio. So the article saying Sparkfun is “right in the middle of the country” is correct. If they said it was in “middle america”, they’d be wrong. But they didn’t.

      Just like Asians would disagree that they are “the far east”. Hell, they’re more west of america than anything else.

  1. I work at Qualcomm in Boulder, just a block away. I can see their building from my office, and we frequent the Thursday food truck in their parking lot. Everyone who comes out of that building looks happy.

    Good for them, I’m glad they’re getting some national-non-nerd spotlight. I, for one, look forward to the day when SparkFun, Adafruit, and others get together and build our robot overlords.

  2. Growth. How stupid. It’s easy to grow if you are small. Try growing 100% when you are already a 5 billion dollar company and compare to growing from a 1 dollar company to a two dollar company.
    These banksters are stupid and the system this “rating” is based on is severely sick. Infinite growth in a finite world. Ridiculous.

    1. From the second line (on my computer, anyway) of the first sentence (just after the hyperlink):
      (in the $17.5-$46million class) .

      That doesn’t look much like two dollars, up from one. That gives me; someone who has taken one Intro. to Business class, and another in Economics, some idea of the scope/scale/size of Sparkfun. And that without even looking at the page. That would be a “petty cash” purchase for IBM, Exxon-Mobile, or Monsanto; and a long-range purchase for many companies that would be local or regional in size.

      And yes, I know, I know…
      Don’t feed the trolls…

  3. SF is ok for breakout boards you can’t or don’t have time to make yourself, but they are seriously over priced on a lot of things that you can either get as a sample from a vendor or buy much cheaper at one of the bigger suppliers. I see it as a store for newbs that don’t realize they are paying $5 for a $1 part and people that are primarly software folks that don’t want to bother with from scratch hardware. A.K.A. the arduino crowd.

    1. I think some of the overpriced things SparkFun sells might be for shear convenience. For example there are a few things sparkfun sells that digikey sells for less, but the fact that you can purchase all of your supplies from one vendor, can save you money and time.

  4. Sparkfun is a great gateway for rediscovering making. Good on’em. Once you’re serious into making, and price becomes more an issue, you begin to discover other sources as well. Adafruit as well, deserving as the same type of portal to what’s out there- where the more you learn, the more you learn there is to know.

  5. [Quote]
    SF is ok for breakout boards you can’t or don’t have time to make yourself, but they are seriously over priced on a lot of things that you can either get as a sample from a vendor or buy much cheaper at one of the bigger suppliers.

    1. Have to pay for the *other* things somehow.
    -Other Things:
    –Tutorials
    –R & D
    –Fun work outings
    –Beer at work

    2. If I sold you a $0.49 transistor for $0.49, HOW WOULD I PAY SOMEONE TO TELL YOU *HOW* TO USE IT?

    3. *Most* web pages for *SF* branded products have attached schematics, software and/or eagle files attached — FOR NO CHARGE

    4. Any price paid for a *SAMPLE* is seriously overpriced!

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