Can Kano’s Computer Kit turn kids into masters of the technology around them?
Image: Kano
Can Kano’s Computer Kit turn kids into masters of the technology around them?
Like superheroes, startups always like to have a good origin story; computer kit-maker Kano outdoes its peers by managing to have two.
The impulse for the company, which makes a range of build-it-yourself computer kits and beginners’ coding tools, came from the six-year-old cousin of one of the founders who wanted a computer that was easy to build.
The company’s first product was its Computer Kit, a collection of components including a power supply, Raspberry Pi, cables, case, SD card, and keyboard that kids could build into a basic computer. The original Kickstarter project back in 2013 raised $1.5m to bring the idea to life.
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“We started with basically a bunch of bits in a box and a challenge from my little cousin to make a computer that he could make himself, as simple and as fun as Lego,” says CEO and co-founder Alex Klein.
But Klein’s own interest in the innards of PCs went back even further, to when his Macbook got smashed.
“I think I was about 12 and I was being a bit of a little shit and someone very near and dear to me smashed it to pieces. I remember I was in the garden, there were pieces in the grass and I was going through the pieces trying to find the hard drive, which I only…
