This part requires some clarification. Sourcery (the China company and supplier) is my company, owned by a family group I am a part of. We are based in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. I am an American, and we have an office in Chicago (Sales) and Dallas (R&D). I was not one of the original partners in Make Made, but I am the primary supplier and was involved very early on. Sourcery’s business is quite a lot more than Maker Made, although our website is very basic.
Sourcery holds senior secured debt of Maker Made. What happens in the future with Maker Made ownership has not yet been determined. However, Sourcery, for the past 18 months, has committed to keeping the Maker Made brand alive. There are three partners in Maker Made and different versions of every story. This is not the forum for me to get into those details, but Bar is correct - there is a large debt owed to Sourcery.
Now let me put on my Maker Made hat…
When Maslow made the “Chain Maslow” Open Source in mid-2018, there was a high demand for Maslow kits. Maker Made jumped on this opportunity to continue supplying the community at a price point very close to Bar’s price. Of course, businesses have basic overhead - salaries, taxes, operating costs, travel, insurance, etc… When you add staff - those costs go higher. And when you need to put marketing, advertising, and R&D into the mix, those costs can sometimes spiral out of control.
Maker Made added a 3D Printer to the lineup - we were the first to run a Raspberry Pi onboard with a 7-inch touchscreen and creative UI. We expanded on the original Maslow and introduced the M2 with the DUE board, additional controls, different software, laser, camera, etc… . A bit of R&D went into the M2 and the need to recoup that investment. In the commitment to keep the Maslow project going, the Orignal Maslow Basic Kit is still available and selling. We direct people to the Maslow forums and encourage them to be part of the Maslow community.
Now to Sourcery and Maker Made - as part of my commitment to keep the Maker Made brand alive - and promoting the Maslow project - Sourcery does have engineers on staff and more products lined up. We aim to build on existing open-source platforms and keep the costs affordable for people to buy. We will not price our products extremely low as we see from many overseas sellers in Asia, but we will not be priced on the very high end as we see from other hobby CNC and 3D printing companies.
If there is ever a need for Maker Made to step in and sell the Maslow 4 as we did with the original Maslow, Bar can reach out to us. We respect and value our relationship with Bar and Maslow CNC for enabling and empowering this community.
I am available for any questions or comments but feel free to email me unless you feel it is important for the forum and the thread.
Thanks,
–t.j. weber
tj@makermade.com - Maker Made
tjw@sourcery.com - Sourcery