Photo via Glowforge.
Photo via Glowforge.

So far, so good for the folks at Glowforge.

Glowforge laser project composite
Some examples of what you can print with Glowforge.

The Seattle startup began selling its 3D laser printer on Thursday morning and hit $1 million in sales just 15 hours later, selling 500 units during that time.

Glowforge CEO Dan Shapiro said he was expecting $1 million to $2 million in sales over the next 30 days — instead, his new company reached that goal in less than 24 hours.

“Apparently I’m not very good at forecasting because I was completely shocked,” he told GeekWire.

Glowforge’s printer lets people use raw materials like leather, paper, plastic, fabric, or cardboard and make products with a push of a button. It retails for $3,995, but Glowforge is selling the printer for $1,995 over the next month.

The device itself is different from most other 3D printers because instead of making objects out of plastic strands, Glowforge uses a laser to quickly cut and engrave products. Along with smartphone sensors built into the printer, the lasers allow the Wi-Fi-connected device to cut and engrave materials that are curved, uneven, or irregular. Glowforge’s dual cameras also measure the thickness of material to a precision of four one thousandths of an inch.

You can check out the full tech specs here. This FAQ page also answers other questions about how Glowforge works. There’s also an active discussion over on Hacker News with Shapiro answering a handful of questions related to the device.

Glowforge was founded last year by Shapiro, the brains behind the hit kids board game Robot Turtles — one of Kickstarter’s most successful campaigns ever — and fellow Seattle area startup veterans Tony Wright and Mark Gosselin.

Backers of Glowforge include Brad Feld’s Foundry Group and True Ventures, which led the company’s $9 million round in May, along with people like MakerBot co-founder Bre Pettis, former MakerBot CEO Jenny Lawton, Wetpaint founder Ben Elowitz, KISSmetrics founder Hiten Shah, director of open source at Google Chris DiBona, and former Swype CEO Mike McSherry.

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