Engineering entrepreneurs raise $54K – in just one day

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A McMaster-born company that hopes to revolutionize prototypes for start-ups has generated $54,000 in one day on Kickstarter.

Chipsetter Inc., which produces a low-cost desktop pick and place machine, launched a Kickstarter campaign on Sept. 27 with a goal to raise $140,000 in crowdsourced funds in 30 days.

The brainchild of founder and CEO Alan Sawula, a Master of Engineering graduate, the Chipsetter ONE offers a cheaper alternative for start-ups who want to create prototypes quickly and efficiently. Currently, inventors have to create their own prototypes manually or send them out to a third party, which often takes a lot of time and money.

The Chipsetter ONE allows innovators to create prototypes with smaller parts and electronic components in house.

After developing the product for two years, the company took its product to Kickstarter.

Currently, inventors have to create their own prototypes manually or send them out to a third party, which often takes a lot of time and money.

The funding will be used to finance the production phase the product.

The product was developed by Sawula’s team, all of who are McMaster alumni, with additional support from The Forge, Innovation Factory and the Ontario Centres of Excellence.

The team is currently operation out of The Forge, McMaster’s innovation hub and small business incubator, which has locations in downtown Hamilton and at the McMaster Innovation Park.

“McMaster Engineering gave me the ability to take apart a problem down to its fundamentals,” said Sawula, who completd his B.Eng. Mechatronics ’10 and M.A.Sc. Mechanical ’13. When you do that you can come up with new and innovative solutions with which you can build a great business.”

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