Welcome to RAWWERKS! This site features the work of Raymond Weitekamp.
I mostly make materials and music. I run polySpectra and help scientists become entrepreneurs at PhD to CEO.
I recently wrote about why I think it is important to share your failures. The idea behind my Rejected… series of posts is to do exactly that. It is not my intention to spite those that have rejected me. Instead, I want to celebrate rejection and thank the gatekeepers for keeping me out. There might be a healthy release in ranting a bit, but catharsis is not my primary objective. My goal is to choose stories that have the potential to meet at least one of the following criteria: »
(This is the first post in my Rejected… series) Recently, I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite books and tools on this site. My motivation for revamping this site was to lower my own activation barrier to sharing, this seemed like a good place to start. I had recently hung out with Spencer Wright of The Prepared fame, so perhaps his tool guide was in the back of my mind. »
It is our natural tendency to want to share our successes and hide our failures. In many ways, this is a confirmation bias towards conformity. As a society we celebrate success, there is a clear advantage to portraying oneself in the most successful light. The only problem with this is that we almost always learn more from the failures (both individually and as a collective). Every airplane crash contributes to the improvement of the safety of the overall aviation industry. »
It is hard enough running a ‘hard tech’ startup. Hardware is one thing, but companies bringing physical science innovations to the world have it toughest of all. Mother nature can be a very cruel compiler. Do not abandon hope! There are many tools available to help you on your journey. As with most things in life, the best ones are (often) free. Here, I have curated a short list of open source apps and tools that have been useful to us at polySpectra. »
You probably don’t know it, but you are my angel investor. This piece is dedicated to every US taxpayer — congratulations! You took a big risk and it is paying off. You didn’t get any stock, but I hope to show that you’ve created tremendous value and it is starting to return dividends. polySpectra just spun out of the Cyclotron Road program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Cyclotron Road is a hard technology accelerator program, focused on giving first-time entrepreneurs a launchpad to build cleantech and advanced manufacturing companies. »