Fifteen years of Raspberry Pi: The ‘tiny’ idea that came into fruition

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The Scale Up

05 Jul 2021
Growth

Meet Eben Upton, the creator of Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi-oneer, and apparently a man of extraordinary travel booking skills (the pandemic slowed that a little, but he does have a holiday to Disney World® booked…)

We head towards Pi Towers, ready to meet the man behind the tiny credit card-sized computer that costs just $35 (and broke the website when it was launched). His organisation, Raspberry Pi, is a charitable, non-profit one that helps people create things with digital technology.

Eben Upton, CBE, founder and CEO started this hugely successful venture, not only develop the Raspberry Pi single-board computers and innovate, but to promote the study of basic computer science in schools and ultimately increase the number of university applicants. A licensing company with insanely exceptional engineering wizardry and true purpose.

 

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When we launch products, we don’t know which are going to be the winners. Nobody knows what’s going to work. You’ve got to get in contact with the market. Sell some stuff.

What’s in a name? Raspberry Pi is a reference to a fruit naming tradition in the good old days of microcomputers. We used this as a good excuse to bake Eben and his team a shortcrust pastry raspberry pie…

The interview

Here’s James Hyde, CEO of James and James chatting to Eben about the incredible growth of Raspberry Pi over the last fifteen years, from its industry-defining inception right through to its global scale today (and all of the challenges in-between).

The interview: Eben Upton, Founder, Raspberry Pi

James and James Fulfilment

It all began in 2010, when James Hyde and James Strachan couldn’t find a modern shipping service for the eCommerce business they ran. Faced with messy warehouses based on out-dated systems, they decided to build their own.

We’ve not stood still since, helping hundreds of online brands scale up – and scaling with them.