Brad Feld hands Fiberhouse keys to Handprint

Brad Feld’s Fiberhouse is ready to make its mark in the Kansas City Startup Village, the neighborhood where Google Fiber was first installed. The Boulder, Colo., investor, entrepreneur and author announced today on his blog that 3D modeling startup Handprint has won his KC Fiberhouse competition. “Handprint is working on some amazing 3D printing and…

The Handprint team at our Big Kansas City event, where they demonstrated their technology’s capabilities.

Brad Feld‘s Fiberhouse is ready to make its mark in the Kansas City Startup Village, the neighborhood where Google Fiber was first installed. The Boulder, Colo., investor, entrepreneur and author announced today on his blog that 3D modeling startup Handprint has won his KC Fiberhouse competition.

“Handprint is working on some amazing 3D printing and editing technology,” Feld said on his blog. “We had plenty of applications for the competition—many of them very interesting—but Handprint really captured our imagination.”

Feld opened applications in February in conjunction with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for the opportunity to live rent-free for a year in a three-bedroom house equipped with Google Fiber “no strings attached,” he said. “I don’t get any equity and there are no downstream obligations for them.” Feld also will pay for Google Fiber, which was installed in the house last week. Handprint will cover its own expenses.

Mike Demarais, Handprint co-founder, said in an email that they “are already halfway moved in.” He will be joined by the rest of team—Alexa Nguyen, Jack Franzen and Derek Caneja—which had recently moved from Boston to Kansas City. The startup Tuesday night posted a response to the news on its website: “Our team is crazy excited about relocating to the heart of the @KCSV. We can’t wait to use this next year to build some really cool stuff with Fiber. Huge, heartfelt thanks again to Brad & everyone involved.”

The project is an experiment of Feld’s to test the “Boulder Thesis” presented in his book, “Startup Communities,” a four-point outline of the startup community he helped establish in Boulder, Colo.

“I’m fascinated about what is going on in Kansas City around Google Fiber and rather than observe, I decided to participate,” he said.

 

Credits: Handprint team photo by Kenny Johnson Photography. House photo from feld.com.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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