Textile, painting, carpentry, glasses work, these are a short list of the art skills you can find in Fablab Puebla. Each of the 8 members come from a speciality and with their personal experience to create this place. 3 years ago, when Fablab Puebla and IDIT offered them digital training, they didn’t imagine building they own business, moreover within a team.

Now, they stand together to make this project work. To put all the chances in their side, they decided to choose a cooperative model for the Fablab. All the decisions are made together, one vote for each person. It applies to their daily organisation such as new business opportunities. Fablab Puebla and the city council, who support them, are part of an administrative board to advise them with the strategy without interfering in their executive decisions.

To financially survive during the first months, some members have kept their personal business but the rules are very clear and shared : between 9 am and 6 pm, they need to work for the cooperative. Outside these hours, they can rent the machines for a few fee to make their products. Compromise, honesty and transparency are some values chosen by the team along with their mission and vision built as the first stone of the project. Their experience during the Fablab Puebla training brought them closer and they learnt to work together before giving up almost everything to be dedicated to the Fablab Analco success.

Even if the adventure is just starting, they consider collaborating with new craftmen and eventually integrating them in the cooperative.

“I am the heart of this team”. When you met Ana, one of the 8 craftmen who run Fablab Analco, you quickly understand that the place they are growing is not just about business. They build the cooperative to make a new turn in their career but after months without salaries, they keep working to achieve a larger mission : open this new world of digital fabrication to release the 300 craftmen of Puebla from their constraints and give them confidence to fulfill their dreams. The coaching and training provided by IDIT and Fablab Puebla give them the courage to build their own structure. Now they want everyone to benefit from that in return.

To achieve this goal, they open their doors to everyone and provide them support. The objective is either to raise awareness about art for laypersons or to show the digital potential for craftmen.

Since the opening, with the support of Fablab Puebla, they welcomed students in weekly classes who are attracted by technologies but need support to design their idea and develop their creativity. The advertisement made by the city also helped them to welcome some entrepreneurs and companies to help them innovate and prototype ideas. The most rewarding for them was to start helping or collaborating with local craftmen. Once they discover the place, they cannot imagine working as they used to do : alone and manually. To attract them, each member meet them in events and selling places and just stopped trying to explain what they do but they simply invite them to visit the Fablab. They also created a “free design month” to help them to numerically design their products. Even if they benefit from government and Fablab Puebla helped to initiate the community, they are conscious of the communication work they will have to quickly tackle to foster people around this project.

To help the 8 craftsmen to launch their own FabLab, the government and IDIT, the innovation research institute of IBERO university, financed all the machines and the operational costs during a period of 6 months. The lab pay no rent as the proprietary of the place gave them for free.

In that way, the craftsmen started their business without the 40 000US$ of debt that represents the financial help given. But they have 6 months to find enough revenues to cover at least the 900US$ monthly operational costs plus their salary.

Since the beginning, each month, they succeed in earning the monthly operational costs :

• 25% come from the sale of craft objects to zoological parks.
• 60% from the projects done for specific clients like the building of londonian phone door for the coworking space Emprenderock.
• 15% from the use of the machine for clients. Today, people have not access to the machine yet, as client usually don’t have the skills and the FabLab has not started dedicated courses yet.

To develop their business, they just started courses for students and are working on trainings to allow anyone to use the machines.

Their short term objective is to reach a monthly revenue of 3,500US$.

One particularity of the start of this FabLab is that they have been helped by a business student to design their business model to adapt it to the market in which they are. (See more by reading the inspiring practices of the lab)