| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electronics retailing |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Boulder, Colorado, United States |
| Products | Port-o-Rotary, Giant NES Controller, Picture Frame Tetris |
| Website | sparkfun.com |
SparkFun Electronics (sometimes known by its abbreviation, SFE) is an electronics retailer in Boulder, Colorado, United States. It manufactures and sells microcontroller development boards and breakout boards.
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SparkFun Electronics was founded in 2003 by Nathan Seidle. Its first products were Olimex printed circuit boards.[1] The name 'SparkFun' came about because one of the founders of SparkFun was testing a development board, and sparks flew out; Fun was chosen because the company's self-stated aim is to educate people about electronics.
On 7 Jan, 2010 SparkFun gave away $100,000 worth of merchandise during "SparkFun Free Day", where each customer had a chance to get $100 worth of free items. This popular event lasted 1 hour 44 minutes and 47 seconds, and was widely reported in the news. Additionally, a contest was held to guess how long "Free Day" would last; the winning guess was a mere three seconds off from the actual duration, at 1:44:44.
On November 24, 2010 SparkFun announced Free Day II. It will be held on January 13, 2011. SparkFun said "We grew by over 50% from 2009 to 2010 so we figured we’d increase the pool by as much. We are going to be giving away $150,000 to users and potentially $30,000 to charity.". Participants will have the chance to win up to $100 of credit on an order after answering 10 questions correctly. For every question answered correctly, they receive $10 and for every incorrect answer $3 are deducted from credit already earned. For every question answered correctly on Free Day, SparkFun will give $2 to a charity. Alternatively, participants can receive $10 of credit for every year since their first order.[2]
SparkFun has become one of the favoured suppliers for the increasingly popular "Maker" community, particularly for the Arduino and related devices.[3]
Whilst the majority of products sold by SFE are from other manufacturers, it does manufacture and sell some of its own products: