About Elli Furedy & Fail Factory

Hey y'all. As I mentioned, you might also know me as cyonic. I'm a trans engineering polymath, and above all, a nerd. I grew up on technology, controller in one hand, mouse in the other. For most of the last decade and a half, I built mobile apps at every point on the spectrum - from AR powered apps at small startups, to redesigning marquee software for national food chains on corporate teams of hundreds. I've managed teams of engineers and I've built SDK's. At each turn of my career I've found myself drawn to the intersections - where emerging tech intersects with established mediums, and I have found profound joy in the act of making something.

With the advent of 3d printers and the accessibility of knowledge found on youtube university, I fell passionately into the maker world. I spent the pandemic building a lab in my home, which is where the Fail Factory was born. Driven by a desire to share the joy of creating with other people, I wanted to empower other people to see their ideas become a thing. Over time, the Fail Factory has become a study in boutique manufacturing, where I've designed and manufactured prototype and product runs of one to two thousand units.

I am a professional skills hoarder at heart. I love learning new techniques and methods, and man do I love learning how to use new tools. I've failed my way through 3d printing, laser cutting, cnc machining, metal & wood working and more. I've popped magic smoke on a lot of electronics and even broken a few of those new tools on the first go.

However, that persistence has led me on a path to incredible things. This leads me to Alleycat - for the last several years, I have had the incredible privilege to lead a small collective of creatives and engineers as we build a platform for immersive, in-person play. This project is the culmination of my life's work up to this point. My career as a software engineer, my years of tinkering and expanding my skill-set, along with a lot of hard earned lessons in leadership. Along the way, it's been very important to me that it be a fully open source project. I have learned so much from the open source community, and it's important to me that the work I do moving forward is open source.

If you're wondering, can I help you make the thing real? The answer's almost certainly yes. Let's make something cool together.

What I Can Do