# Dan Shapiro

> Dan Shapiro is the Seattle-based founder and CEO of Glowforge, creator of Robot Turtles, author of Hot Seat, and a Senior Research Fellow at Wharton's Generative AI Lab. His career runs from the Windows 98 kernel team and two startup exits to a record $27.9 million Glowforge preorder campaign. After Glowforge restructured in 2025, Shapiro and co-founder Mark Gosselin used their own savings to acquire its core assets and rebuild the desktop laser business around a smaller team.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Glowforge; Senior Research Fellow at Wharton's Generative AI Lab
- **Organizations:** Glowforge, Wharton Generative AI Lab, Robot Turtles LLC, Google Comparison Inc., Sparkbuy, Ontela, Photobucket, Microsoft
- **Education:** B.S. in Engineering, Harvey Mudd College
- **Known for:** Created Robot Turtles, whose Kickstarter campaign raised $631,230 and funded 25,000 games for backers in 65 countries., Led Glowforge's self-hosted 2015 preorder campaign to $27.9 million in 30 days., Sold Sparkbuy to Google six months after the company was incorporated.

## Career timeline

- **1997** — Graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a B.S. in Engineering and began his career at Microsoft, working on the Windows 98 kernel team.
- **2000s** — Worked on a Linux-based mobile phone at Wildseed, then co-founded mobile imaging company Ontela and served as CEO.
- **2009** — Ontela combined with Photobucket; Shapiro later described the merged business as Photobucket Inc., formerly Ontela.
- **2010-2011** — Founded consumer-electronics comparison service Sparkbuy and sold the three-person company to Google six months after incorporation.
- **2011-2013** — Served as CEO of Google Comparison Inc. after the Sparkbuy acquisition.
- **2013** — Launched Robot Turtles on Kickstarter. The campaign raised $631,230 against a $25,000 goal and funded 25,000 games.
- **2014** — Licensed Robot Turtles to ThinkFun and co-founded Glowforge with Mark Gosselin and Tony Wright in Seattle.
- **2015** — Published Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook with O'Reilly and led Glowforge's self-hosted launch, which generated $27.9 million in 30 days.
- **2025** — Became a Senior Research Fellow at Wharton's Generative AI Lab while continuing as Glowforge CEO.
- **2025** — Following Glowforge's restructuring, Shapiro and Mark Gosselin used personal savings to acquire the brand, hardware platform, software, and manufacturing rights and reboot the business with about 20 former employees.
- **2026** — Continued publishing about AI-assisted software development, agents, and organizational adoption on his personal blog.

## Achievements

- Created Robot Turtles, whose Kickstarter campaign raised $631,230 and funded 25,000 games for backers in 65 countries.
- Led Glowforge's self-hosted 2015 preorder campaign to $27.9 million in 30 days.
- Sold Sparkbuy to Google six months after the company was incorporated.
- Authored Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook, published by O'Reilly in 2015.
- Has been credited by current professional biographies with more than 60 patents; O'Reilly's current author biography says more than 100 patents.
- Appointed Senior Research Fellow at Wharton's Generative AI Lab in 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Published '0%, 50%, or 200%,' an essay about the organizational choices companies face when AI increases white-collar capability.
- **2026-03** — Published Trycycle, a lightweight workflow for AI-assisted software production, and wrote about 'dark factories' for software.
- **2025-11** — With co-founder Mark Gosselin, acquired Glowforge's key assets after an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors and began operating a smaller rebooted company.
- **2025-06** — Announced a Senior Research Fellow role at Wharton's Generative AI Lab alongside his continuing work as Glowforge CEO.
- **2025-03** — Discussed Glowforge's company-wide AI experiments, including sales coaching, editing, factory analysis, and financial review, in an interview.

## Links

- Website: https://www.danshapiro.com/blog/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danshapiro
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/danshapiro
- GitHub: https://github.com/danshapiro

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dan-shapiro
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27