内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2025/glowforge-hits-restart-after-restructuring-co-founders-acquire-key-assets-of-laser-engraver-startup/

内容总结：

【科技初创企业Glowforge完成资产重组 创始人收购核心业务重启运营】

曾以桌面激光雕刻机引领家用创意潮流的美国科技公司Glowforge，在成立十年之际经历重大变革。联合创始人丹·夏皮罗与马克·戈瑟林通过自有资金收购公司品牌、硬件平台及软件专利权，使业务免遭清算命运。此次重组标志着这家累计融资1.83亿美元的初创企业，在经历多轮裁员、融资失败及西雅图工厂关闭后开启全新阶段。

夏皮罗坦言，公司曾因过度追求增长指标而偏离初心，2022年 craft工艺市场萎缩及重要合作伙伴JOANN破产更使上市计划搁浅。近年来，Glowforge虽尝试通过产品线扩展（如推出699美元入门机型Spark）和制造回流策略调整业务，但仍未摆脱经营困境。

重组后的新团队将聚焦20人规模，回归"让每个人轻松创作精美物品"的初始愿景。目前公司已推出生成式AI辅助设计工具Box Builder等新功能，并维持西雅图本土生产线。夏皮罗表示，新Glowforge将告别盲目扩张模式，以盈利为导向深耕产品创新与用户服务。

（注：JOANN为美国手工工艺品连锁零售商，于2024年申请破产保护）

中文翻译：

西雅图激光雕刻机制造商Glowforge成立十年之际，这家初创公司的元老级管理层正带领业务重启。经历数月的动荡——包括多轮裁员、融资失败及西雅图工厂关闭后，该公司通过"债权人利益转让"程序完成重组（这种州级程序可替代破产保护）。联合创始人兼CEO丹·夏皮罗透露，这家融资1.83亿美元的初创企业"经过九个月艰难探索所有可能性后"最终走上这条路。

但这并非这家桌面激光切割/雕刻机制造商的终点——其产品曾在2015年席卷手工艺市场。夏皮罗与CTO马克·高瑟林通过谈判，从准备清算公司的资产受让方手中购回了商标品牌、硬件平台、软件及在西雅图生产打印机的权利。他表示："由独立第三方主导的出售流程未能吸引竞标者后，我们动用个人储蓄提出了收购。"

新公司起步阶段的收入足以维持约20名前Glowforge员工团队运转。两位创始人计划"回归本源"，专注硬件软件升级与客户服务。

艰难岁月
夏皮罗称2022年公司距上市"仅数周之遥"，却因"手工艺市场崩盘"而受挫，重要战略合作伙伴JOANN亦于2024年申请破产。尽管资本与团队扩张让公司实现了"不敢想象的成就"，但过去三年维持运营举步维艰。"不惜代价追求规模、为融资优化数据、用增长指标支撑估值...这些都让我们偏离了本质。"

2025年初，Glowforge在SoDo总部开设新厂，将高端机型组装从墨西哥迁回西雅图。该举措创造了15个岗位，当时公司员工总数超90人。但经历8月多部门裁员后，该工厂于9月随新一轮裁员关闭。"今年堪称残酷，"夏皮罗坦言，"裁员令人痛心，重组混乱不堪，原有公司的支持者感到失望完全可以理解。"

创造无限可能
2015年夏皮罗与高瑟林等人共同创立Glowforge。其设备能让用户通过按键对皮革、纸张、塑料等原材料进行精细切割雕刻。通过云端软件，用户可在电子设备上设计创作。夏皮罗曾表示产品能制作珠宝、装饰品、手机雕刻、钱包玩具等"几乎任何物品"。

公司支持者包括领投2015年900万美元A轮融资的Foundry Group与True Ventures。2015年10月其创下30天预售2790万美元的众筹纪录。"我们坚信每个人都应能创造美好事物，"夏皮罗表示，"由此开辟了无人预见的桌面激光市场。"

2016年2200万美元融资后，发货延迟持续至2017年引发客户不满。2018年与2022年公司再获5300万美元融资。从直营模式起步，后与JOANN等大型工艺品零售商合作，2021年拓展教育机构市场。产品线涵盖4995美元Plus款与6995美元Pro款高端机型，2023年推出1200美元Aura与2024年699美元Spark以扩大客群。

全新征程
历经沉浮始终乐观的夏皮罗，面对重启依然充满信心。他称之为"重生"，是回归2015年初心——组建"为目标而非虚荣指标奋斗"的团队，专注服务客户而非"优化投资人提案"。

"增长至上的代价巨大且隐晦，"夏皮罗指出，"剥离冗余后，我们看清了服务客户的真实需求。"现有硬件软件产品将继续提供服务并持续升级。本周与下周将推出新功能：运用生成式AI的Box Builder可用通俗英语生成定制盒子设计；Snapmarks技术可让用户通过普通喷墨打印机输出图案后，用Glowforge激光进行切割。

夏皮罗表示将延续西雅图本土制造模式，并称新Glowforge首日即展现卓越潜力——"卓越产品、忠实客户、盈利模式"，如今企业更"精简、专注、立足长远，我们已全力以赴。"

英文来源：

Ten years after Glowforge was founded in Seattle, the startup’s longtime leaders are rebooting the laser-engraver business.
Following months of turmoil involving multiple rounds of layoffs, a failed funding round, and the closure of a Seattle manufacturing facility, Glowforge has undergone a restructuring through an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, a state-level process that’s an alternative to bankruptcy.
Co-founder and CEO Dan Shapiro told GeekWire that the company — which had raised $183 million from investors — arrived at this moment “after spending a painful nine months looking at every possible option for the business.”
But it’s not the end for the maker of a line of desktop laser cutters/engravers that took the home crafting world by storm back in 2015.
Shapiro said he and co-founder Mark Gosselin, the startup’s CTO, negotiated with the entity that was assigned Glowforge’s assets — which was otherwise ready to liquidate the company — to acquire the trademark and brand, the hardware platform, software, and rights to manufacture more printers in Seattle.
“The board of directors ran a sales process led by an independent third party,” Shapiro said. “When there weren’t any bidders, Mark and I put in a bid from our own savings.”
He said the company makes enough money out of the gate to support a team of about 20 former Glowforge employees, and that he and Gosselin plan to “get back to basics,” improving hardware and software and serving customers.
A difficult few years
Shapiro said Glowforge was “weeks away from going public” in 2022 before it was derailed by what he called “a collapse in the crafting market” that took out key strategic partners like JOANN, which filed for bankruptcy in 2024.
While he credits millions in capital and a growing staff for enabling the startup to do things “we never dreamed of,” Shapiro said it’s been a three-year struggle to keep serving customers.
“The need to scale at all costs, to optimize for the next funding round, to hit growth metrics that justified ever-higher valuations … it pulled us away from what mattered,” he said.
In early 2025, Glowforge moved assembly of its highest-end machines from Mexico back to the U.S. and Seattle with the opening of a production facility in its SoDo headquarters space. The work employed 15 people, and Shapiro said at the time Glowforge employed just over 90 full-time and contract employees.
But following layoffs in August that impacted multiple teams, the production facility was shuttered in September in the wake of more layoffs.
“I’m not going to pretend this year was anything but brutal,” Shapiro said. “Layoffs are painful. Restructuring is messy. And there are people who believed in the original company who are understandably disappointed.”
Create ‘almost anything’
Shapiro founded Glowforge in 2015 with fellow startup veterans Gosselin (founder and former CTO of Cequint) and Tony Wright (founder of RescueTime, Jobby and CubeDuel), who left the company in 2017. Shapiro previously sold the startup Sparkbuy to Google, and he created Robot Turtles, a coding board game for kids that was one of the most successful campaigns ever on Kickstarter.
Glowforge’s machines let people use raw materials including leather, paper, plastic, fabric, or cardboard to intricately cut and engrave products with the push of a button.
Via its cloud-based software users can design and develop creations from a web browser on a computer, tablet, or phone. You can create “almost anything” with Glowforge, Shapiro previously said, including jewelry, decorative items, smartphone engravings, wallets, toys, and more.
Glowforge backers included Brad Feld’s Foundry Group and True Ventures, which led the company’s $9 million Series A round in May 2015. MakerBot co-founder Bre Pettis, former MakerBot CEO Jenny Lawton, Wetpaint founder Ben Elowitz, KISSmetrics founder Hiten Shah, and former Swype CEO Mike McSherry are among other investors.
The company set a crowdfunding record in October 2015 with a 30-day campaign that generated $27.9 million in sales.
“Mark and I started this because we believed something simple: everyone should be able to make beautiful things,” Shapiro said this week. “Not just people with engineering degrees or expensive workshops, but everyone. And we created a desktop laser market that nobody had even imagined could exist.”
In August 2016, the company raised $22 million, but it was dealing with shipping delays that stretched into 2017 and caused mounting customer frustration and order cancellations. In 2018, the company raised another $10 million, and $43 million more in 2022.
Glowforge initially focused on direct-to-consumer and later partnered with large craft retailers such as JOANN and Michaels. The company also expanded to serve schools and universities in 2021.
The startup eventually sold two higher-end machines including the Glowforge Plus ($4,995) and Glowforge Pro ($6,995). In 2023 it released the $1,200 Aura and in 2024 the $699 Spark in an attempt to attract a wider audience of consumers.
New focus
Eternally optimistic throughout Glowforge’s years of ups and downs, Shapiro exhibits that same characteristic in the face of starting over.
He called it a “rebirth” and a return to the vision that he and Gosselin had in 2015, with a team “that’s here for the mission, not the vanity metrics” and to serve customers “rather than optimizing for investor presentations.”
“The cost of being a growth-first company is massive, and not always obvious,” Shapiro said. “When we stripped the business to its essentials, we could see what we actually needed to serve our customers.”
The same hardware and software products will be offered, and Shapiro said improvements are coming. New features are also being launched now and next week, including: Box Builder, which uses generative AI to let users describe a custom box in plain English before Glowforge creates the design; and Snapmarks, in which users can print anything on a regular inkjet printer (stickers, iron ons) and load it into a Glowforge laser for cutting.
Shapiro also said they plan to continue the manufacturing formula they previously developed to build machines in Seattle.
He called the new Glowforge a great business from day one — “awesome product, amazing customers, and profitable,” adding that the startup is now “simpler, more focused, and more committed to the long haul. And Mark and I are all in.”