Dan Hendricks - Founder of Open Source Maker Labs (OSML)

Welcome to the Tacos and Tech podcast, where we discover cutting edge technology and the builders making it happen. I'm your host, Neil Bloom, San Diego's tech ambassador, and together we're going to uncover what technology San Diegans are creating with our own blend of local lifestyle. This podcast episode is proudly brought to you by our friends at Cox Business. Cox Business provides broadband, Internet and cloud services to the modern tech company Cox Business, a longtime sponsor of San Diego Startup Week and the San Diego startup community, also puts on the top tech awards. Get started. And most recently, Quick Pitch. Thanks again to Cox Business for their support of our tech community. Welcome back to another podcast episode. This is your host, Neal Bloom, and I am joined with Dan Hendricks, founder of osml. Thanks for joining us.

Hey, Warner, thanks for having me.

Absolutely. So we're excited to get to know what open source MakerLabs is. Why don't you give us kind of a quick overview? We'll get to know you a little bit and then we'll come back and hear more what OSML is working on.

Okay, sure thing. Well, Open Source Maker Labs. OSML is an innovation lab for makers and developers of new products. And it's a place where individuals and startups and companies all come together and develop new products and help grow the economy.

Really cool. So how did this start? Where did you get into the technology space and how did it lead up to?

Well, I got a long background in technology. I'm a retired Navy captain, Nuclear engineering. Pretty broad background there. And I'll actually say that I got started in this with First Robotics. One of my own children were First Robotics in high school. And from that experience I discovered that there's a lot of very talented and energetic people out there that always didn't have a way to connect. I found some students that were very talented, had a great potential. I also found other working professionals like myself that had a lot of talent and could mentor people. But there was a gap between where students were both high school and college, and also what companies needed. So as I retired from the Navy, I had a lot of experience and it all came together into this idea of an innovation lab to bring all those people together.

Interesting. Well, first, thank you for your service. Was any of this happening in the Navy? I mean, was there kind of a technology incubation happening at all that you were seeing?

Not formally while I was in, but in recent years they're really leaning forward in that they have several innovation groups and cells. We're just talking yesterday with a group down at Miramar that is doing experiments with power micro grids and looking at blockchain technology to do the administration of that. So there's a lot of innovation cells around in the department of fence that are really reaching out into industry. A lot more interesting.

Really cool. And that's like a private and government collaboration kind of thing, which seems to be what you're fostering here. Academia, industry, K through 12, STEM education, all kind of coming together and applying skill sets.

Exactly.

Really cool. So who were kind of the first people to come in and utilize the space?

Well, we've had some high school robotics teams. We've also had a team from ucsd, the Student for Exploration and Development of Space. They were first big project. They approached us two years ago with a NASA project that they were sponsored by. They wanted to build a 20 foot liquid fueled rocket and surprisingly couldn't find a place on campus that could support that. So they approached us and after a couple of meetings with the faculty at UCSD and with NASA engineers, they said that we're good to go up here. And they built a project up here and launched their. Successfully launched their rocket two years ago and started into the next project.

That's awesome. So this space, you don't have to have all the experts in every single field under one roof. Like, I'm guessing you hadn't launched a 20 foot rocket before.

No. Our favorite phrase here is we've never done this before. So that's kind of our criteria for a new project.

Yeah. Really cool. I mean you're a startup and it's a startup space in helping startups.

Exactly. We are a startup.

Yeah.

So we're walking the talk.

That's really cool. And so what's the wide area of other projects that have been worked on here besides robotics and rocketry?

Well, we've got some advanced manufacturing techniques. We have 3D printing and CNC work. We have several entrepreneurs that are really focusing more on the 3D printing side. They have their own designs, their own patents, and usually the first step in the prototyping is to come up with something that's 3D printed as a starting point. We're also doing a lot with Internet of things and looking at how that can integrate with blockchain technologies. See, that is a huge growth area that there really aren't a lot of resources for people to learn those skills yet. So that's why we're establishing that here.

Interesting. And so how does that lab environment, I mean, why do you need the lab to do it? Why doesn't someone with a Computer just do blockchain on their own.

Well, I think the real interesting applications are going to be the interaction between software and hardware. At some point you have to connect to something real. So yes, there's lots of great opportunities in a purely software environment. But the real interesting applications occur when you mix software and hardware together.

Really cool. Who are you seeing working on? Are they current students or is it industry?

Mostly industry. Right now the students really haven't discovered it yet. So we're trying to prompt that and get it going because again, industry needs people, those kinds of skill sets right now. And it takes so long to develop coursework and to form a curricula that there's a gap right now that we're trying to fill.

Yeah. What's really cool is the opportunity that whoever comes in, let's say it's industry, you can backfill with academia and student education and if any other side students come in, you can connect them with industry. So you're really kind of trying to be this big super connector.

Yep, we're the fusion point.

Yeah, that's really cool. Tell me about a little bit how industry's gotten involved. How did word get out originally to them?

Through several folks in North County. The Economic Development Council has been very helpful with that. Chambers of commerce have been helpful getting the word out. One of our first industry partners is Simer, their actual corporate sponsor. And they're looking from a perspective of recruiting talent. And as we walk around the lab, all the projects out there are physical resumes of people. It's one thing to just put on paper I did this. But when you can point to some of those projects and demonstrate what people have done, that's immediately from a hiring perspective, that's huge risk reduction because that's the proof positive that yeah, this person can really do these things.

Yeah. I mean, when you're coming out of school, you've got the same degree as everyone else. Theoretically, you should have. You have a baseline.

Exactly.

But what's unique about you? The differentiator.

Right. How do you stand out?

Yeah. Really cool. Are you teaching them that aspect of the demonstration of their skill sets? Like how take this and here's how to actually display it to a company.

Yes, we do good with that. Of course there's a lot of multimedia involved, but it's all about telling the story. Explain what's the problem that you are solving and how did you uniquely solve it?

Yeah, really cool. Any other industry partners that have come in?

I've done a little bit of work with viasat. Some projects back and forth and also with the Department of the Navy.

Okay, so it sounds like it's a very much like a local San Diego story that are leaning in and kind of growing the region. How else, you know, why else is this a San Diego story?

Well, it's a unique combination. There's a great set of schools and universities here. So you're producing the talent of young people coming up. The industry sector is very diverse and that, that's very healthy. I mean, we've gone from, you know, like a purely aerospace back in the 80s and 90s to it's very diverse between biotech, software, defense. It's well balanced. So there are a lot of opportunities for growth in new areas from that.

Really cool. How long have you lived in san Diego?

Since 2002.

Okay, that's great. And all in the north county area.

Yes.

Okay, really cool. So tell me a little bit about you in San Diego. You know, like, do you have a favorite taco spot?

Taco bar over on Las Posos Road.

Okay, great.

Quesadillas. Love that.

Okay, let's check it out. How about favorite coffee place?

Well, I have to default with the usual Starbucks. But the reason is it reminds me of customer experience. They're business model, they're very successful. And when you go to Starbucks, you're not just buying a coffee, you're buying an experience and interacting with other people. And it's just a good reminder of good customer relations. Good customer experience.

Yeah. Really cool. And how about favorite San Diego beer?

Wavelength Brewing Company. And the favorite one they produced was called Cosmic ipa. And the quick story behind that was the reason it's called Cosmic ipa. Because one of our high altitude balloon launches we've done for scientific flights, we had one of the experiments was to take half a kilogram of beer yeast and put it into near space exposed to cosmic radiation, which really did nothing to it. And Hans Haas, the owner of Wavelength, took that yeast and brewed it into Cosmic ipa.

Oh, that's cool. That's really cool. We'll have to go find that and highlight it. Want to go back real quick? I want to highlight a little bit more on the space. So this is a startup, this is a business. Tell us a little bit about the business aspect. I mean, you're bringing great partners in. What is the business side of osml?

It's really through memberships and through corporate sponsorship, bringing those two together. And the process we went through was, you know, we started this on our own. It's a family business. You know, my wife And I and our two kids and we have one part time employee as a college student and we just started reading how do you do a startup again? Back to that. We've never done this before. Found lots of help. There's lots of. Kauffman foundation had a great course for veterans to help get started. Lots of local resources and just read the book and we did our own crowdfunding campaign. Exceeded our goal to get started. It was very successful and we just kind of have been learning as we go along.

Really cool. So what's the future of osml? Where are you headed here?

Well, I want to grow it into more regional asset and the model could be replicated. That's why open source maker Labs is plural by design. So it could be replicated to other regions in the country.

Really cool. It almost could also be. You could almost broadcast it as a co working space too, right?

Actually that's a good point. We're starting to reach out to some of the co working spaces, particularly north county to partner with them because we can offer a complimentary resource for startup companies working out of this space. Co working spaces are great on the business side. Office space side, we don't have that. We've got the get your hands dirty build the hardware prototype side. So I see those being complementary.

Really cool. And what about the. I mean the north county brewing scene is pretty great. It's also usually a small garage built.

Yes.

Any kind of collaboration there at all?

We started with Wavelength Brewing company and did some great collaboration with Hans Haas, the owner and could expand that out too. There's a lot of. We had some initial talks like using Internet of things to monitor the breweries to improve their product, to give them the tools that are approachable and easier to use to help improve their own products.

That's really cool. Well, how can people find out more? Is it mostly a website or are there other social media channels?

Mostly website opensourcemakerlabs.com but also we're on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn as well.

Awesome. Well, really excited. Thanks for showing the place off. And we'll have to definitely get some pictures and video.

Very good Neil. Thanks for showing you around.

Yeah, thanks Dan, thanks for joining us on the Tacos and Tech podcast with Neil Blum. Thanks again to Cox Business for helping make this possible by expanding the reach of the San Diego tech ecosystem. This has been a partnership with the San Diego Venture Group and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation's SD Life Changing campaign. You can find Neil Bloom on Twitter eelbloom and on linked Sam.