FirstBuild, the GE Appliances Microfactory Where Louisville Makers Prototype the Next Kitchen Gadget

A Small Factory Built to Move Fast

Most large appliance companies develop new products behind closed doors. A refrigerator or range program can take years, cost millions in tooling, and involve hundreds of engineers before a single unit ships. FirstBuild was set up in Louisville to work the other way: start small, show the idea to the public early, build a few hundred units, and let sales decide what deserves a full production line.

The building is separate from Appliance Park, GE Appliances' main manufacturing campus on Louisville's south side. That parent company's history, including its 2016 sale to Haier, is covered in detail on our sister site in the story of GE Appliances and Appliance Park. This piece focuses on the microfactory itself: what it is, how its process works, what it has shipped, and how someone outside the company can use it.

How FirstBuild Started

The University of Louisville announced the project on April 16, 2014. According to UofL's announcement, a former storage building at 333 East Brandeis Avenue on the Belknap campus would become a 35,000-square-foot microfactory run as a partnership of GE Appliances, the university, and Local Motors, a Phoenix-based open-source hardware company. The plan called for a showroom, a kitchen demonstration area, metal and wood shops, and lounge space where users would work alongside GE engineers, Local Motors staff and community members. The first projects focused on cooking.

GE Appliances president and CEO Chip Blankenship said at the time, "In just a few months, this will be a thriving hub of innovation, collaboration and making," according to the same release.

FirstBuild opened on July 24, 2014, about three months after the announcement, WAVE reported. Its first products, including a "Smart Pitcher" that sits inside a refrigerator's fresh-food compartment and a double oven with an easier-loading door, were nearly ready for sale on opening day.

The model came from Local Motors, which GE's own releases described as an open-source hardware innovator and FirstBuild's mentor. In a 2015 Brookings analysis, researchers Rachel Barker and Amy Liu described FirstBuild as a departure from closed corporate R&D. They reported that ideas were vetted monthly and narrowed to five or six new projects, and they quoted Venkat Venkatakrishnan, then GE Appliances' director of R&D and head of FirstBuild: "FirstBuild is a way to reduce those thresholds so you don't have to jump through so many barriers to get to market."

The First Year in Numbers

GE published a scorecard after twelve months. Its July 2015 release listed:

• More than 7,500 members in FirstBuild's online community
• More than 800 product ideas
• Eight new product introductions
• More than 40 collaborative projects with UofL and other maker startups
• More than 100 personal projects by local makers, startups and entrepreneurs
• 32 UofL capstone projects
• More than 3,000 people who visited or worked in the lab spaces

Products named in that release included the Paragon induction cooktop, the ChillHub refrigerator and the Opal nugget ice maker, along with microkitchens and easy-load double ovens built in small batches in Louisville. Venkatakrishnan said the team had cut product development time sharply, saying FirstBuild had managed to "more than halve the time it takes to get products from mind to market."

The Brookings piece described another early event: an April 2015 "Hack the Home" hackathon that ran for 33 hours with more than 200 participants building prototypes from GE appliances. The winning entry was an oven that could roast coffee beans.

Opal and the Case for Selling Before You Scale

Opal is the product that proved the model worked commercially.

Nugget ice, the soft, chewable pellets served at some restaurant chains, had been hard to get at home. In March 2015, FirstBuild launched a community design challenge asking makers to propose a residential nugget ice maker, and FirstBuild engineers built the prototype, according to a GE release from August 2015. The Opal product page says the community also took part in drink recipe challenges and a design challenge that shaped the machine's form.

FirstBuild put Opal on Indiegogo on July 28, 2015, with a $150,000 goal. Within its first week the campaign passed $1.25 million, with early-bird pricing around $399 against a planned $499 retail price and deliveries promised for mid-2016, GE said. Venkatakrishnan called it "one of the most successful launches in Indiegogo history." The campaign ultimately raised more than $2.7 million, per FirstBuild.

What happened next is the part worth studying. Opal lived at FirstBuild for several years. FirstBuild says it then became the founding product of GE Appliances' relaunched small appliances division, and it is now sold under the GE Profile brand. FirstBuild kept developing around it, including an Opal Side Tank that holds three times more water before a refill, a cleaning kit, a water filter and a drain extension.

The lesson for hardware founders is the sequence. Crowdfunding validated demand, small-batch production in Louisville filled the first orders, and a mass-market brand took over once the numbers justified it. Our guide to prototyping in Louisville covers how smaller teams can follow a similar path.

Other Products That Came Out of FirstBuild

Opal is not the only graduate. FirstBuild's site lists launched products including Mella, the Opal Nugget Ice Maker, the Forge Clear Ice System, the Arden Indoor Smoker, the Paragon Smart Cooking System and Monogram hoods, as shown on its homepage. A few have public track records:

Arden, now the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker. Arden is a pellet smoker designed to work on a kitchen counter, using a system that creates smoke, circulates it over food, and then eliminates it. FirstBuild launched it on Indiegogo in March 2022, where it raised more than $800,000 from 1,230 backers and shipped to backers in October 2023, according to FirstBuild's Arden page. It then "graduated" to GE Appliances. At CES in January 2024, the retail version was announced as the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker at about $1,000, Engadget reported, with an updated design but the same core idea.

Mella. Mella is a countertop mushroom fruiting chamber that automates humidity, fresh air exchange and lighting for growing gourmet mushrooms at home, controlled with dials rather than an app. FirstBuild says it was funded in under 90 minutes and raised more than $550,000 on Indiegogo, and its product page lists it at $479 and currently sold out.

Paragon. The Paragon induction cooktop was one of the first-year products in GE's 2015 release, and Brookings described an early connected induction cooktop with precise temperature control launched through pre-production crowdfunding.

At any time, FirstBuild's site also shows a pipeline of prototypes that may or may not become products. When we checked in October 2026, the homepage listed projects including a Sourdough Sidekick, a smart flower vase, a homebrew lab, an automatic French press and a pizza oven called Torch. Treat that list as a snapshot; prototypes there are tests, not promises.

How the Process Works

FirstBuild describes its process in three stages on its How We Work page:

1. Ideate. Ideas come from the team or the community and are shared publicly to gauge interest. The question at this stage is, in the page's words, "Does anyone care?"
2. Co-create. Promising ideas become prototypes that are shown to the community for feedback, and the team decides whether to continue.
3. Make. Once a prototype is proven and has a community behind it, FirstBuild offers it for sale.

The team says it reviews community ideas regularly, first checking what already exists. It aims to bring 12 products or features to life each year. Feedback comes in person, through firstbuild.com and YouTube, and through applications to be early purchasers or beta testers. Anyone can take part, and no engineering background is required.

Two rules matter for anyone thinking of submitting an idea. First, FirstBuild generally does not pursue patented ideas and asks people not to post ideas they plan to patent. Second, ideas are shared under a Creative Commons license.

What contributors can earn

FirstBuild publishes its compensation terms on the same page. Recognition can be promotion or access to FirstBuild resources, and in select cases money, granted through a non-exclusive, perpetual, paid-up license to make, use and sell home appliance products. The posted schedule:

"Feature sales" are calculated as the feature's share of product cost multiplied by FirstBuild's product sales; for an entirely new product, that can be the full sales figure. Awards and royalties are paid when a product sells, and royalties run for three years after the first sale. The page works through an example in which a $200 novel product selling 20,000 units a year would earn a project leader a $1,000 award plus roughly $20,000 a year.

That is modest compared with licensing a patent, and it is meant to be. FirstBuild's model trades exclusivity for speed: an inventor gives up control and patent rights in exchange for a factory, engineers, a sales channel and a small royalty. For a hobbyist with a kitchen idea, that can be a good trade. For a founder planning to build a company around a single invention, it usually is not, and our hardware and robotics directory lists Louisville firms that build products under their own names.

Who Runs It Now

FirstBuild's Who We Are page lists André Zdanow as president, with a team of engineers, product developers, technicians and a content producer. The site describes its staff as engineers, artisans, marketers and makers and summarizes its approach this way: "Our microfactory, open makerspace, online community and go-to-market approaches lead to innovative products people love."

GE Appliances has been owned by Haier since 2016, and the products FirstBuild graduates go to GE Appliances brands such as GE Profile and Monogram.

Visit and Work With FirstBuild

FirstBuild is one of the few corporate R&D facilities in the region that the public can walk into. Details below come from its visit page and process page; hours and policies change, so check before you go.

Address. 333 East Brandeis Avenue, Louisville, KY 40208, on the University of Louisville's Belknap campus.

Community hours. FirstBuild lists community hours on weekday evenings and Saturdays, open to walk-ins. Reserving tools in advance gives priority access.

Membership. Community membership is free, and members get free access to the makerspace. The process page lists an age requirement of 18 and older, or 13 to 17 with a parent.

Makerspace equipment. The open makerspace includes three Thunder Lasers, six 3D printers, design computers and hand tools.

Shop equipment. Welding, metalworking and woodworking tools and a water jet are available after you earn FirstBuild's Craftsman Certification, which is handled through the Get Craftsman Certified page.

Classes and clubs. FirstBuild runs clubs and classes taught by its staff makers in subjects such as 3D printing, woodworking, laser cutting and soldering. Many require an RSVP.

Tours. Visitors can request a tour through the Schedule a Tour page.

Ideas. Submit an idea through the idea submission page, or follow a prototype and apply to be a beta tester or early purchaser.

Buying products. FirstBuild sells its current products through its online shop.

For other places in town with shop tools and fabrication equipment, see our prototyping and makerspaces directory. For two very different Louisville production stories, read about Louisville Slugger's bat factory on Main Street and Stoneware & Co.'s hand-painted pottery.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is FirstBuild?

FirstBuild is a microfactory and co-creation community run by GE Appliances in Louisville, Kentucky. It opened on July 24, 2014, in a former storage building on the University of Louisville's Belknap campus, originally as a partnership of GE Appliances, UofL and Local Motors. Staff and community members propose, prototype and test home appliance ideas, sell promising ones in small batches or through crowdfunding, and pass proven products to GE Appliances brands.

Did the Opal nugget ice maker come from FirstBuild?

Yes. FirstBuild developed Opal after a community design challenge in March 2015, and its engineers built the prototype. Opal launched on Indiegogo on July 28, 2015, with a 150,000 dollar goal and raised more than 2.7 million dollars. After several years at FirstBuild, it became the founding product of GE Appliances' relaunched small appliances division and is now sold under the GE Profile brand.

Can anyone use the FirstBuild makerspace?

Yes. FirstBuild says community membership is free and includes makerspace access, with walk-ins welcome during community hours on weekday evenings and Saturdays. Members must be 18 or older, or 13 to 17 with a parent. The makerspace has laser cutters, 3D printers and hand tools, while welding, metalworking, woodworking and water jet equipment require Craftsman Certification. Check the FirstBuild website for current hours.

Does FirstBuild pay people for their ideas?

Sometimes. FirstBuild posts a schedule under which a project leader can receive an initial award of up to 1,000 dollars per concept plus a 0.5 percent royalty on feature sales, and a key contributor up to 500 dollars plus 0.25 percent. Payments begin when a product sells and royalties last three years. Ideas are shared under a Creative Commons license, and FirstBuild generally does not pursue patented ideas.

Where is FirstBuild located?

FirstBuild is at 333 East Brandeis Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky 40208, on the University of Louisville's Belknap campus. It is separate from Appliance Park, GE Appliances' main manufacturing campus on the south side of Louisville. Visitors can schedule a tour through FirstBuild's website.