Davis makerspace Inventopia is presenting a four-day NorCal Make-a-Thon to offer its facilities and equipment to startups and makers to develop ideas into hardware or software.
The event will be held on four Saturdays, starting this week, with a break for Thanksgiving weekend.
“At a regular hackathon over a day or weekend, it’s difficult to make anything,” said Inventopia founder Tim Keller. “You need to order parts and wait for them to arrive. If they don’t work, you need time to try something else.”
A featured speaker at the event will be Dale Dougherty, founder of Make Magazine, which started conducting Maker Faires in 2006 for do-it-yourself enthusiasts.
The NorCal Make-a-thon is being put on by Inventopia and Sacramento-based Bekonix Inc., a company developing a no-code platform to help people build smart hardware and software for internet-connected devices.
Bekonix will have some of its starter kits on hand.
In early October, Folsom-based venture capital firm Moneta Ventures led a $1.3 million seed funding round into Bekonix to expand its no-code platform.
Founded in 2020, Bekonix recently generally released its platform for Mac and Windows machines that lets users drag-and-drop access to controllers, inputs, outputs and sound players without any coding.
Keller is also chief operating officer at startup AmCyt, a company that is developing a robot that performs rapid on-site evaluation, or ROSE, of fine needle biopsies using microscope slides.
Both AmCyt and Bekonix are in the current cohort of the Rocklin-based Growth Factory funded accelerator, which is where they met, Keller said.
At hackathons, there is often a need for participants to make a business case for their ideas. That isn’t required for the Davis event, Keller said. “Commercial viability isn’t something we’re going to force on them. But I look at it like this: If you want it, there’s a high likelihood that other people will want it.”
Keller said he anticipates at least a couple ideas from the event will develop items or technology ready for crowdfunding campaigns to assess markets and raise money.
So far, some of the applicants are pitching ideas as varied as lava lamps to ionic drive satellite motors, Keller said. He’s going to be working on a powerful handheld pen-shaped 3-D printer prototype.
The first weekend will be orientation and team building. Keller is encouraging people to work on multiple teams.
Inventopia will have volunteers on hand to use equipment for participants. The events will run from 2-6 p.m. over four Saturdays. The entry cost is $60, which includes food supplied during the events.
