Empire State Maker Faire Keynote by Limor Fried of Adafruit

Limor Fried is an American electrical engineer and owner of the electronics hobbyist company Adafruit Industries. She is influential in the open-source hardware community, having participated in the first Open Source Hardware Summit and the drafting of the Open Source Hardware definition, and is known for her moniker ladyada, a homage to Lady Ada Lovelace.

Adafruit Industries is an open-source hardware company based in New York City. It was founded by Limor Fried in 2005.[2] The company designs, manufactures and sells a number of electronics products, electronics components, tools and accessories. It also produces a number of learning resources, including live and recorded videos related to electronics, technology, and programming.

What inspired you to make this project?:
Adafruit was founded in 2005 by MIT engineer, Limor "Ladyada" Fried. Her goal was to create the best place online for learning electronics and making the best designed products for makers of all ages and skill levels. In the last 10 years, Adafruit has grown to over 100+ employees in the heart of NYC with a 50,000+ sq ft. factory. Adafruit has expanded offerings to include tools, equipment, and electronics that Limor personally selects, tests, and approves before going in to the Adafruit store. Adafruit is a 100% woman owned manufacturing company, and a certified Minority and Woman-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE).

During the COVID-19 outbreak Adafruit Industries is operating as an essential service and manufacturing business: NYC – Executive Order 202.6 making PPE and medical device components. In 2020 Limor was appointed to the Small Business Sector Advisory Council by the City of New York to help restart the NYC economy post COVID-19 pandemic.