We had a fun visit last night from actor/musician/artist/tech evangelist/cowboy hat evangelist Jared Leto, one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business.
People know Jared from movies (Requiem for a Dream, Prefontaine, Panic Room) and TV (My So-Called Life), and then more recently from his shift into music. His band 30 Seconds to Mars won an MTV Video Music Award for the song Kings & Queens.
But as Fast Company points out, Jared’s newest journey into the world of startups is turning heads. We got a chance to see why yesterday. He explained clearly what it is his company The Hive does for bands and the kind of innovations that excite and interest him. The Hive is a company Jared started to help his band connect with the real fans through social media. A more recent venture Vyrt lets fans login and watch a livestream of a concert, which is huge for anyone that doesn’t live in a city with a lot of show venues, and perfect for bands to reach their truly passionate fans around the world. This is a guy who completely understands community.
We explained to Jared that a MakerBot is a robot that makes whatever you want, and he had some really exciting ideas about the future of MakerBot and Thingiverse and it was nice to exchange ideas with him and his team. He’s somebody who connects people — and a genius at social media, by the way — so he totally understood the power to share ideas and things within a huge community.
And of course the creative aspect wasn’t lost on him either. We got a chance to show Jared and his team the R. Maker Adventures animation series and he was impressed.
We were genuinely excited to have an artist and entrepreneur like Jared in the house. We can’t wait to find out what he’ll do with MakerBot, and if you have any suggestions for Jared, email our tips line or shoot him a tweet @jaredleto.
