Founding story
Built by someone who has been on the team.
Cade Kaminski · Founder
I'm a solo founder pursuing a mechanical engineering degree - a creator and a builder at heart. I love making all kinds of projects with teams of people who are passionate about what they do. The idea that started Plinth comes straight from those experiences: leading teams and running head-first into the problems that show up whenever you start something new.
Plinth turns a project idea into a real, buildable plan. It sources parts with live pricing, generates wiring diagrams you can drag and explore, hands you CAD and PCB starters, and lays out a week-by-week schedule that drops the right tutorial into the right week - along with much more. The differentiator is the prioritization of education over having everything done for you. Users gain a deep understanding of what they build, and when they finish, they walk away with a genuine skill set, not just a finished object.
Here's my bet. In 2024, AI visibly changed who can ship software. That same shift hasn't reached hardware. Students without a network, without expensive maker programs, without an easy internship face a barrier that's far harder to overcome when building anything physical. Plinth is how that changes. The value the platform already creates - and its potential with the right minds behind it - is vast, and these few words only scratch the surface of the problems it can solve.
Roadmap
Where Plinth goes from here.
- 01 · NowLive
The platform is live
The full build pipeline runs today: a sourced bill of materials with live pricing, draggable wiring diagrams, CAD and PCB starters, and a week-by-week schedule that teaches as you build.
- 02 · PilotNext
A paid pilot at Mines
Put Plinth in front of real capstone teams, prove the model against the way engineers actually work, and let their feedback sharpen every part of the product.
- 03 · ExpandPlanned
The next five schools
Take what proves out at Mines to the next five programs, adapting to each one’s courses, constraints, and the projects their students care about.
- 04 · TeamPlanned
Build the team
Bring on Mines students who fill the gaps I lack in business and marketing, so Plinth can grow faster than one founder can push it alone.
- 05 · VisionThe bet
Close the hardware gap
Do for building physical things what AI did for shipping software - make it possible for anyone with an idea to build it, regardless of their network or budget.
I’m building Plinth either way. The right backing and the right people just get it to the students and programs that need it faster.