If you enter La Nave Makerspace don’t expect to find a team here… Basically you will find more. A very welcoming family with strong making abilities!

Indeed, once you cross the front door, you first feel being at home as the first room you see is the shared kitchen. Then, you will meet the 5 members of the family who will be available for you to explain you how the makerspace works and help you for your projects. And finally, the term family is all about once you know they also live together, just above the makerspace. As a consequence, they have no choice but communicate and help each other.

While every member knows how the machines work, they each have their specialties. Alberto would help you with all the casting processes and metal works. Ricardo is wood making friendly. Andrea is fan of textile and literature so she also does community management for La Nave. Arturo is skillful with electronics. And, Ana masters design and pictures. It is more likely to find the last two one in late-day as there are working during the day at Hacedores, another makerspace of Mexico city.

All member takes part of the activity of the place which consist on helping the projects’ holders, producing product for companies, giving courses and welcoming people who ask for a coworking place as there is a small area dedicated for it.

Also, some of them, are helping at the café, an open place located inside the makerspace to eat, take a coffee and play games.

The main part of the makerspace’s community are entrepreneurs (90%) whose works highly involve manufacturing like architects, designers, artists and engineers. The rest are teachers who develop teaching tools like Montessori materials. In total, each month, 20 persons come to use the machines, for the work space and last but not least, the great support of the La Nave family.

The community is very committed in particular during the “meeting makers” events which purpose is to allow visitors to discover what can be done in the lab.

This open minded spirit is strongly encoded in the lab’s ADN. They don’t hesitate to work in collaboration with other Mexico makerspaces like inventor house and proyectils.

The ecosystem in which La Nave is part of is also composed by big companies like Honeywell, Petresense and Alsea who ask for their services due to lack of time or machines. For example, to produce electronic circuits, sensors and make wood prototypes.

Finally, La Nave share projects through its Facebook page to share projects to show what its community is making and what the team produce. It is also a way to attract new clients besides the network they built when they were working at the Hacedores makerspace and by word of mouth.

In December 2017, the 5 cofounders found the perfect place to create their cooperative : a former bakery. After 2 months of work and a first investment of 10 000$, they converted it in a makerspace with enough areas and space to put all the machines that each of them already possessed. The only machines they bought, for half the budget, was the laser cutter and the CNC milling. This first investment was funded by their personal savings and they achieved themselves all the construction, electricity, carpentry, furniture work with their knowledge and by recycling materials.

4 months later, their activities covers 40% of their costs without their salaries. The projects made for clients stands for 60% of the incomes, 30% comes from the digital fabrication made for users and 10% are attained with memberships and workshops. The objective of memberships, which is to cover the maintenance costs of the machines, is already reached. 2 members out of the 5 are working full time in Hacedores makerspace to cover the remaining costs.

But more than a cooperative, La Nave Makerspace looks like a family business. While waiting for the breakeven that should be reached in a year, they are living in a part of the space and are investing all their time and money to make it work. To make it sustainable without salaries, their daily costs (accommodation, food, electricity, transports…) are payed by the makerspace.

To increase their incomes, they are working on different levers :

• summer camp for kids
• sponsorship by major electronic or mechanical companies
• collaboration with big companies to provide them a made-to-mesure solution funded by an annual income to pay the development, installation or maintenance.