 | |
| Formation | October 1, 2006 to November 26, 2018, 11 years 4 months 26 days |
|---|---|
| Founder | Jim Newton, Ridge McGhee, and Robert Thomas |
| Founded at | Menlo Park, California |
| Dissolved | February 26, 2018 |
| Legal status | For-profit corporation |
| Purpose | Open-Access Workshop |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California |
| Services | Classes, events, access to workshops equipped with tools and state-of-the-art equipment and design software |
CEO | Dan Woods |
| Website | https://web.archive.org/web/20171012090853/http://www.techshop.ws/ |
| Remarks | Motto: Build your dreams here! |
TechShop was a chain of membership-based, open-access, do-it-yourself (DIY) workshops and fabrication studios. As of 2017[update] they had ten locations in the United States, as well as four international locations.
TechShop offered safety and basic use training on all of its tools and equipment in addition to advanced and special interest classes and workshops. For most equipment, a safety and use class had to be completed before it could be used. It was affiliated with the maker culture and participated in annual Maker Faire events.
On November 15, 2017, with no warning, the company closed all domestic locations and announced it would declare bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the U.S. bankruptcy code (immediate liquidation). An effort to purchase the company's assets and reopen the workshops fell through; however, the San Francisco location was reopened by a new owner on February 19, 2018. The original TechShop filed for bankruptcy a few days later, on February 26, 2018. Due to the continuing costs of litigation, the successor to TechShop also shut down in 2020. Many other maker spaces all over the world have sprung up in its place.