Market, or lack of it, makes or breaks any startup that is aiming for a big impact. (See this old essay by @pmarca). We had some anecdotal evidence that people were excited about Glowforge, but it was hard to know how that would translate into customers. We didn’t (and still don’t) have any direct competitors that were as big as our ambitions were. The only real way to prove that people will buy a thing is to actually be able and willing to sell it to them.