Transform the Future of Hardware Design with us!

For the history of hardware design tools, such as CAD (computer-aided-design), they have been designed for point-and-click, manual interactions. Compared to the development for the animation and games industries as an example, which have long since integrated super streamlined, code-based, automated pipelines - the hardware design industry still is limited to slow, direct, user interactions.

In nearly every other industry, you can run code written by a combination of designers and developers, with a strong focus on code-first collaboration. This creates the flywheel of software where reusable, modular, automated developments build on top of each other to create ever more complex projects.

KittyCAD is leading a revolution in hardware engineering, and has the mission to develop the world's most advanced software for hardware designers. Our API for hardware designers unlocks this for every element of the community. We're not re-inventing the wheel, we're bringing the long forgotten software-for-hardware-design back to the modern era.

Our Story

KittyCAD was founded and incubated by Embedded Ventures in 2021.

It started from a conversation between Jess Frazelle, Jordan Noone and Jenna Bryant. They were discussing the many pain points of the current state of CAD that Jess was experiencing on her team at Oxide Computer Company, which led them to discuss Jordan's experience at Relativity Space and whether he knew about any modern CAD or other hardware design tools that they had used or knew that existed.

Through that conversation, they began to research and realized there wasn't anything that they saw existed to make the advancements they were looking for possible. They decided to post an open source project on Github soliciting input from the community to find a startup that was modernizing software for hardware design, and received essays and essays from people asking them to not only find a solution that they would immediately use, but to actually develop the product. We decided to develop a solution ourselves, but first we had to find a fourth co-founder with the complimentary skill sets and perspectives that we didn't have.

We were lucky to add Hannah Bollar as a co-founder and CTO. Hannah previously worked at Pixar, Unity, NVIDIA, and Cesium. From our very first call with Hannah, we knew she was the one to complete our team. We were envious of the animation world, they have moved forward in graphics technology leaving CAD platforms in the dust. She has a passion for graphics and GPUs from the vantage point of animation and gaming, which is the breath of fresh air we were looking to gain for our product.

Embedded Ventures was thrilled to bridge the gap between curiosity and action and both fund and launch KittyCAD!

Our Team

Our team is made up of founders, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts with a shared motivation to challenge “what is” and push the boundaries of innovation.

We bring expertise from 3D Printing, Hardware Manufacturing, Computer Graphics and Animation and have experienced first hand the challenges our customers face with the current state of hardware design tools.

We know how the industry will greatly benefit from the modern advancements we bring to the software that exists today.

Our Values

We truly believe in the Values that we've stipulated below and use these not only as a way to define company focus and product benchmarks, but also as genuine metrics for team interactions and individual performance.

Tool Building

We are code first for hardware designers

We take a strategic approach to solving problems by building high quality tools for others that we would use ourselves

We have the eagerness and curiosity to learn and do things differently driving efficiency, optimization, and automation

Usability

We operate like everyone is a potential user and customer

We have an obsession with customer onboarding, productivity, and growth

We do test-driven development, with a focus on precision, accuracy, and quality

Conquer

We are tenacious and driven to achieve the mission, transforming the CAD industry

We conquer the unknown and challenge what is possible

We have a business mindset focused on company-wide needs, making decisions for the long-term success of the team

We lean in to provide the right product and seek to find new ways to grow the organization

Non-Toxic Candor

We promote and deliver transparent communication to create productive psychological safety

We give and receive honest, open, and timely feedback in a constructive manner to further growth and development

We challenge directly while caring personally

Accountability

We are accountable for our work and deliverables, alongside the needs of ourselves, our team, and the customer

We follow through on commitments and proactively communicate short-falls with a solutions-oriented approach

We focus on documentation for the purpose of decision tracking, future planning, task lists, and knowledge sharing

About You

We're looking for curious, ambitious, and hardworking self-starters to join our founding team and help us bring our mission to life! Our culture has innovation at its core in order to achieve competitive growth and success. We think you'll thrive on our team if you're:

Excited to get in on the ground floor of something big!

Energized by complex challenges and problem solving

Able to operate autonomously but also enjoy collaborating with innovative teams

Agile and thrive in a scale-up, changing environment while maintaining customer-facing interactions

Curious at your core and known to grab from modern research, papers, and trends to implement new techniques

Join Our Team

We are a fully-remote team and empower our people with the flexibility to maximize their impact and creativity in ways that are suitable and sustainable for them. We have a digital-first approach to our ways of working and we aim to provide the best technology to elevate the remote work experience for our people. We operate autonomously while fostering team collaboration, brain-storming, knowledge sharing, and friendly banter via our weekly All-Hands, team syncs, and our many team Slack channels (shout out to #farmcadinc!). We also know the value of meeting in person and aim to provide opportunities to do so on occasion!

We know that embracing diverse perspectives is key to our team's success. We're committed to equal employment opportunities and encourage you to apply to any roles that look interesting to you!

We appreciate your interest in KittyCAD and look forward to getting to know you further! Check out our open positions, and stay tuned for future positions as we continue to scale out our team.