Limor Fried

Fried studied at MIT, earning a BS in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) in 2003 and a Master of Engineering in EECS in 2005. For part of the qualification she created a project called Social Defense Mechanisms: Tools for Reclaiming Our Personal Space. Following the concept of critical design she prototyped glasses that darken when a television is in view, and a low-power RF jammer that prevents cell phones from operating in a user's personal space.

Fried was an Eyebeam fellow from 2005 to 2006.

During 2005, Fried founded what became Adafruit Industries, first in her MIT dorm room, later moving to New York City. The company designs and resells open source electronic kits, components, and tools, mainly for the hobbyist market. In 2010 the company had eight employees and shipped more than $3 million worth of product. The company's mission extends beyond the adult hobbyist audience to pre-school STEM education. Adafruit is a company based on sharing ideas as well as resources; everyone who works for the company is offered the same 401k plan and they get paid time off for volunteer nonprofit work.

In 2009, she was awarded the Pioneer Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for her participation in the open source hardware and software community.

In 2011, Fried was awarded the Most Influential Women in Technology award by Fast Company magazine and became the first female engineer featured on the cover of Wired magazine. In that same issue of Wired she said, "Having websites that sell parts online is a really big deal. It used to be that if you wanted to order parts to make something, you had to dig through a catalog, and they probably wouldn't even send you one if you weren't a professional. Now everything is online. You can just Google the parts to make your submarine."

In a 2012 interview with CNET, Fried said, "If there's one thing I'd like to see from this, it would be for some kids to say to themselves 'I could do that' and start the journey to becoming an engineer and entrepreneur." She is also quoted as saying, "There's always something newer and funner and more glossy, but we want to make sure people can actually build stuff, too."

Fried is a member of the IEEE Spectrum editorial advisory board as of 2017.

Fried is married to Hackaday founder, former Make editor, and former Engadget podcast host Phillip Torrone. In 2022 they had a baby.