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One of America’s Largest 3D Print Farms Started in a Closet! — Transcript

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0:00Here's how a 3D printer tucked away in
0:02this guy's closet turned into $500,000 a
0:04month. It was just a hobby and then I
0:06suddenly made $80,000. With printers
0:08overtaking his house, electrical
0:10breakers flipping came a moment that
0:12almost ended everything. I got laid off
0:15with two young kids at home. I had to
0:16bet on myself. Watch case reveal a
0:18step-by-step blueprint for starting with
0:20just $300. It's not about the equipment,
0:22but it's about positioning yourself
0:24where others can't. Learn how to get
0:25competitors to serve you customers on a
0:28silver platter. One build, which takes
0:30around 11 hours, can produce anywhere
0:31between 15 to $2,500 in revenue. Wow. In
0:34one day. In one day. And finally,
0:36discover the terrifying move that
0:38separates entrepreneurs and
0:40multi-millionaires. We intentionally
0:41lost half our revenue overnight, but it
0:43was the best thing that ever happened.
0:47Case, can you tell us more about exactly
0:48what you do here? Yeah, so we are
0:50essentially a contract manufacturer, but
0:52we have chosen to use a tool that is a
0:543D printer. In comparison to other
0:56traditional manufacturing methods like
0:58CNC or injection molding, it gives you
1:00the opportunity to iterate quickly. You
1:02can get product faster. You don't have
1:03to store inventory. So, there's just a
1:05lot of flexibility in comparison to
1:06other traditional manufacturing. We
1:08serve every industry that's out there.
1:09We're in aerospace, automotive, medical,
1:12orthotics and prosthetics, even women's
1:14fashion. So, things that I thought I
1:16would never get exposed to, we get to
1:17work with here. And that's a lot of the
1:18fun part. So, why they come to you and
1:20your services? A lot of them are just
1:21looking for prototyping. This allows us
1:23to turn things around sometimes 24 hours
1:25so they can get the parts they need in
1:26hand, make the decisions they need for
1:28their engineering team. But the core of
1:30what we do as far as volume is typically
1:32around what we call serial production or
1:34batch production. So serial production
1:35is something that every single part that
1:37the client needs is custom fit for
1:39example in the medical field or on batch
1:41production is somebody that has a ton of
1:43SKs, a ton of products and they don't
1:45want to have a big inventory. So instead
1:47they can just 3D print basically on
1:49demand based on their needs. Can you
1:50give us an idea of the scale of your
1:52operations today? Yeah, so we currently
1:53produce around 2,000 to 3,000 parts per
1:55day, but it can be a lot higher, a lot
1:57smaller. It depends on what kind of
1:58projects. There's some days that we
2:00produce over 10,000 parts in a single
2:0224-hour period. Wow. As far as
2:03employees, we typically have around 20
2:05to 30. It depends on there's a lot of
2:07summer interns that like to work with
2:08us. It gives them a lot of exposure to
2:10both technical and operations sides of
2:12things. Where's the process start to
2:14make our first 3D project? So, it
2:15depends on where the client's at. They
2:17either have just an idea in which case
2:18we can help them with the 3D scan or
2:20there's also a lot of clients that just
2:21have an idea and they don't know where
2:22to start in which case we can do reverse
2:24engineering and 3D scanning services for
2:26them. Did you have any experience in the
2:273D printing world before starting this
2:29business? I didn't. I just got exposed
2:31to it when I was in college. They had a
2:32rapid prototyping machine and I thought
2:34that's was only useful for is
2:36prototyping. But I was actually looking
2:38at it from a manufacturing perspective.
2:40Uh but about seven or eight years later
2:42when I started looking at 3D printing
2:43again, I realized how the technology had
2:45evolved drastically. So what used to be
2:47a quarter million dollar machine was now
2:49a $1,200 machine. So when I first got
2:51the machine, I had to figure out where
2:52to put it. And then the only thing
2:53available was the office closet. So I
2:55threw the machine in there and uh could
2:57fit a second one. But eventually I had
2:58to move out into the kids' playroom.
3:00You're working in the closet. I mean,
3:01how much were you making from this
3:02setup? How did it ramp up? Yeah. So, it
3:04was basically two machines and then
3:06eventually I kind of had to either one
3:08decide, hey, I got to find a bigger
3:09space or just be happy with where we
3:11were at. Basically, each machine was
3:13making around $25 to $50 a day. When
3:15were you like, okay, I need to like
3:16expand higher here. I mean, when did you
3:18max out? Yeah. At the end of year three,
3:19I had to have a real kind of heart-to-he
3:21heart conversation with my wife cuz I'd
3:22taken over the kids' playroom and we
3:24were flipping breakers. Like, I had to
3:25run downstairs, flip the breaker back
3:26on, keep the machines running as fast as
3:28possible. we either have to either
3:30decide to stagnate and just be happy
3:32where it was, two, maybe even scale back
3:34or three, let's let's go big. Well, we
3:36basically ran the numbers and said,
3:38"Okay, I'm doing around 70 $80,000 a
3:40year now and I have basically 10
3:41machines." So, if I scale that up to 20
3:43or 30 machines, then it's sustainable at
3:45least for my own salary and I can kind
3:46of make it a full-time job. Awesome.
3:48Let's walk over here and check out this
3:51machine. What do we got going on here?
3:53Talk to us more about this. So, this is
3:54how we got started. This is a consumerra
3:57machine. It is what most people know in
3:59the consumer space as being a 3D
4:00printer. These are highly accessible to
4:02anybody. You can go to Amazon and get a
4:04machine like this. For us, we first got
4:06this machine around 10 years ago, and
4:08this machine was still being sold in its
4:10current form up until about 6 months
4:12ago. So, it's a great machine to start
4:14with. Now, you can get them for $300 or
4:15$400. You know, this is ultimately a
4:17tool, and just like any tools, I I call
4:19this like a shovel, for example. It's a
4:20tool. It's highly diverse. It's readily
4:22accessible, but we also have excavators
4:24for bigger jobs. And stay tuned. You can
4:26check out I got a $3 million machine
4:27coming up shortly. Can you take us
4:30through your revenue over the years from
4:31doing this part-time to doing it
4:33full-time and where you're at today?
4:34Yeah, so when I first started doing
4:36this, it was just part-time. I was still
4:37at a full-time job, two young kids, and
4:39I needed to make sure we have benefits
4:40and those types of things. But I enjoyed
4:42the technology and really I was just
4:44trying to have a self-funding hobby. I
4:45was hoping that I could buy the 3D
4:46printer and see if I could pay it off
4:48and have the revenue basically just pay
4:51for my own filament to do my own thing.
4:52But what I quickly found is one, it paid
4:54itself off in about a month. And then I
4:56could look at and say, okay, well, if
4:57that was one machine, then if I had two
4:59machines, and the revenue was very
5:01linearly scalable. So it made the math
5:03pretty easy to kind of project out into
5:04the future. At the end of year one, made
5:06about 10 to $15,000. End of year two, I
5:10was basically doubling that to around 30
5:11to 40,000. And end of year three, when
5:13it was still part-time, I was reaching
5:15around 70 to 80,000. Wow. So then you're
5:17doing that, then you go into full-time.
5:19Take us through your full-time
5:20year-over-year numbers. So year four was
5:22the first time I went full-time and it
5:24was a little bit nerve-wracking, but I
5:25was fortunate to we do about $180,000.
5:28So year five was around
5:30$380,000. 2024 we did just shy of $5
5:33million and in 2025 projecting around 7
5:36to8 million. Talk to us about getting
5:37laid off. I mean, how did it feel at the
5:39time? It's never fun, but take us
5:40through those emotions, but you're
5:42suddenly losing your safety net. Walk us
5:43through that. So I had three years worth
5:45of data and I had this big vision that I
5:47wanted to pursue, but I just didn't have
5:49the guts to do it at the time. But I
5:51started putting things in place. For
5:52example, we secured a lease on a new
5:55facility to allow us to get the printers
5:56out of my house. And then I also started
5:58looking and kind of putting ads out to
6:00see if I can hire somebody. The reality
6:01is I wanted to do it myself, but I
6:03didn't have the guts to do it and leave
6:04that safety net. Well, about a month
6:06after I signed the lease, I went into
6:07work and they basically said, "Hey, you
6:09know, we're scaling back." And honestly,
6:11I just thought, "Well, this is really
6:12what I wanted." And it just gave me the
6:14opportunity to do it. I went home, I
6:15told my wife, and I went to work about 2
6:17hours later. Do you need to be an
6:18engineer though to start a 3D printing
6:20company? I don't think so at all. Yes,
6:21it does help to have a little bit of a
6:22technical background, but really with
6:24today's the printers are so user
6:26friendly that really the idea is what
6:28drives the business. In our case, yes,
6:30we are a contract manufacturer, so we
6:32work with all sorts of different
6:33businesses, but there's an opportunity
6:34to just have an idea and once you have
6:36the 3D model, you can go with it from
6:38there. We see what we call Etsy farms.
6:41It's somebody that just has a problem in
6:42their day-to-day life. They know a way
6:44to solve it that nobody else has thought
6:45about. They create the product and then
6:47they use 3D printing as the tool to get
6:49that product out into the market by
6:50themselves. I really want to hammer that
6:52home for the subscribers. You do not
6:53need to be an engineer. You can have an
6:55art background, a marketing background,
6:56finance background would even help to
6:58really get started with like an Etsy
6:59farm. Absolutely. I would say about half
7:01of our employees are engineers, but for
7:03the most part, some of our best poe have
7:05zero technical background. Sweet. I know
7:07all these items here are finishing up.
7:08Where do they go after that? So, after
7:10the part is produced, that's where
7:11really the magic happens. Honestly, 3D
7:13printing is like 20 30% of the overall
7:15process. It goes over to our
7:16post-processing area and that's where we
7:18really add the final touches that really
7:19make it a a really nice product. Cool.
7:22Let's walk in here. What do we got going
7:24on in here? Talk to us about what's in
7:25this room. So, this is our
7:26post-processing area and this is where I
7:28think a lot of the magic happens. Most
7:30people think about 3D printing. They
7:31obviously focus on the printer itself.
7:33But just like anything else, there's a
7:35lot of operations that occur after you
7:36actually make the part to really kind of
7:38make it a finished product. Yeah. Well,
7:39let's talk about finished products. I
7:40know we got like a few in here. Can we
7:41take some of these out and like look at
7:43them? Talk about pricing and all of
7:44that. For sure. So this is a just a kind
7:46of simple FDM part. You can make this on
7:48a consumer grade machine. Okay. In this
7:50case, I think it's basically an
7:51electrical connector. And in this part,
7:53we can produce for basically about 40 to
7:5550 cents and we can make about $150 on
7:57it. No way. Those are very good margins
7:59right there. Good margins. Uh what's
8:01another product in here as well? So this
8:03one is a little bit larger part. This
8:05goes to an industrial client. And this
8:07one's a very simple part, but it's a
8:08great use case for 3D printing because
8:10they only need about a hundred of them a
8:12year. So they can order them basically
8:13every 3 to 6 months. 2550 parts and in
8:16this case it's around 75 bucks to
8:18produce or to revenue-wise and it cost
8:20us maybe about 20 to produce.
8:23This is not 3D printing. But here's the
8:26thing. A lot of business owners make the
8:28same mistake. They try to scale
8:30businesses using tools that weren't
8:32built for the job. Whether you're
8:34running a multi-million dollar empire
8:35like Kase or just starting out, you
8:37can't afford to rely on guesswork,
8:39disjointed tools like this one or
8:42incomplete data to make critical
8:43decisions. Businesses don't fail because
8:46they're bad ideas. They fail because
8:48they don't know what move to make next.
8:50That's where Netswuite by Oracle comes
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9:01clutter to make confident datadriven
9:04decisions instead of risky guesses. If I
9:06wanted my business to start printing
9:08profit like Kase did, I'd use Netswuite
9:11to close the books in days, not weeks,
9:13and get crystal clear forecasts for
9:15what's next. So, take advantage of every
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9:26netswuite.com/upflip. It's free to you
9:28at
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9:30netswuite.com/upflip.
9:33We've dived to our fan blitz now. You
9:35ready for these questions? Yes, sir.
9:36What's the last thing you printed just
9:38for fun? Well, it was for my daughter.
9:39She's super into Harry Potter and she
9:41had this nice wand from Universal
9:42Studios and she needed a place to store
9:44it. So, built a nice little stand to
9:46store a wand. What's your favorite
9:47material to work with? I would say it's
9:50a nylon material. It's just highly
9:52diverse. It's probably around 40 to 50%
9:54of everything we produce because it's
9:56kind of that I call it the baby bear
9:57material where it's uh you know, just
9:59that perfect mix of mechanical
10:00properties. Great. When you're having a
10:02tough day, what keeps you going? Uh
10:04motivation is going home. And you know,
10:06at the end of the day, I love what I do,
10:08but it's my family that inspires me and
10:10I do what I do here so I can get home to
10:12them as fast as possible. What fears do
10:14you still struggle with despite your
10:15success? I would say for me it's just
10:18the fear of rejection. You know, there's
10:20always those clients out there you want
10:21to try to impress and there's even
10:23competitors you want to try to make your
10:24best look. Is there anything you miss
10:26about working a day job? I would say the
10:28coffee. You know, it's um there's a lot
10:31of coffee breaks and now here it's just
10:33more energy, drinks, and water. That's
10:35great. Uh what's the strangest thing
10:37someone has ever asked you to 3D print?
10:39That is a very tough question. One that
10:42might make me blush, but um I would say
10:44medical industries. There's some anatomy
10:46things that um that we've had to print.
10:48We'll leave it at that. If 3D printing
10:50didn't exist, what business would you
10:52start? I think services are just really
10:54neat. You know, I was powerwashing for
10:55example. So, I just I just like doing
10:57something that people are proud to see
10:58the result of. With over 750,000 parts
11:01make every year. That's a lot of system.
11:03That's a lot of the processes you have
11:05in place. Walk us through a product from
11:07placing the order to end. One of the
11:09most things that's unique about what we
11:11do versus other manufacturing methods is
11:13the fact that most parts are fully
11:14custom. We might have 200 different
11:16parts in any given day. So we have to
11:18know which ones are supposed to go where
11:19next. So we definitely developed a lot
11:21of processes to control that and to have
11:23basically everybody communicating in the
11:25same language. In our case, we're also
11:27leveraging artificial intelligence and
11:29machine learning to basically help us
11:30identify what the part is and ultimately
11:33make that decision for us. Perfect. Is
11:34that on that machine? I believe it's a
11:36machine called AM Flow. There's only
11:38about two or three of these in the US.
11:40So, basically what this allows us to do
11:43is we can put a part on the conveyor
11:45belt and it'll scan the part and it'll
11:47tell us exactly what part the order or
11:48what part it is, what order is
11:50associated with and what step it needs
11:52to go to next, which is a really really
11:54big challenge originally. Having a
11:56humongous facility like this with all
11:58the machines, all the employees must be
12:00costing you a pretty penny. I mean,
12:01what's the damage on something like
12:03this? Yeah, so we're in about a 10,000t
12:05facility here in the Houston area. It
12:07goes for about a dollar a square foot.
12:08So it's roughly about $10,000 a month in
12:10rent. But one of the biggest expenses is
12:12actually power. So each one of our
12:14machines is essentially a heating
12:15element. So everything is a heat coil
12:17that consumes a lot of energy. On
12:18average, we consume on a daily basis
12:20about what 60 or 70 households will
12:22consume. So our electric energy bill
12:24comes out to around 15 to $17,000 a
12:27month. Oh my gosh. And expanding on
12:29that, I mean, what's like payroll as
12:31well? Walk us through your expenses even
12:32more. So payroll is roughly about
12:34onethird of revenue. I think personally
12:36if I'm going to invest anything in
12:38people is where I want to spend my
12:39money. We're in Texas. We're on the
12:41power grid. We have blackouts. Any scary
12:43stories with that? Yeah. So with 3D
12:45printing, one of the Achilles heels is
12:47power. Like you have to have power to do
12:48what we do. And one of the other
12:50unfortunate things is if all the
12:51machines are running and we lose power,
12:53we effectively have to restart. So that
12:55is an expense that I really didn't
12:57factor in would happen as frequently.
12:58But it does happen. We have weather
13:00events and it's something you need to
13:02keep in mind. If you could go back to
13:03when you were setting everything up,
13:04what's one thing you would do
13:05differently? For me, I would say it's
13:07try not to be a jack of all trades and
13:09master of none. For a long time, we
13:10tried to take on any industry and every
13:12customer that we could, and it it did
13:14lead to some good things, but it got to
13:16a point where it's hard to be
13:17sustainable. If you work in a specific
13:19industry, there's typically a language
13:20that comes along with it. And if you
13:22don't speak that language, they're going
13:23to know you're an outsider. So, if you
13:25can focus in and say, "Hey, I want to
13:26learn about this industry so I can truly
13:28understand their problems." They're
13:30going to know that. We've seen the whole
13:31FDM processor. Are there any other
13:33consumer grade 3D printing processes
13:35that we can check out? Yeah, so after we
13:37kind of developed the FDM, we really
13:38wanted to expand our product base and
13:40answer new material requirements for our
13:42clients. And a great way to do that is
13:43what we call photopolymers. Can we go
13:45check one out? For sure. Let's do it. So
13:48these are made by Form Labs. They're
13:49what they call an SLA or photopolymer
13:52machine. And it uses a resin material
13:53rather than a filament. And these are
13:55somewhere in between. I would call them
13:56like a proumer machine. So it gives you
13:58greater capability and more
13:59repeatability that might be good as you
14:01scale. We have these, we have the FDMs.
14:03What's the differences between them?
14:04Cost breakdown. Which would you
14:06recommend for someone just getting
14:07started in 3D printing? They just have
14:09different pros and cons. FDM is a little
14:11bit easier learning curve and sometimes
14:14has more material options that are just
14:16easier to work with. Whereas we get with
14:17photopolymers, there's a lot of
14:19materials, but they become more
14:20complicated. For example, some of them
14:22are ultra high temperature and they have
14:23some thermal characteristics that become
14:25difficult to work with. But the main
14:27difference is FDM you can print larger
14:29parts. You are a little bit more
14:31restricted on certain geometries whereas
14:33with photopolymers you can get extreme
14:35accuracy. That's great in things like
14:36jewelry making. Interesting. What are
14:38like the three best products you can
14:40make with this over an FDM machine. With
14:42photopolymers, jewelry is my favorite.
14:44You can have what they call a castable
14:46material. So you actually print like a
14:47piece of jewelry and you can sandcast it
14:49and burn it out and then pour in your
14:51metal. It's kind of cool. Um others is
14:53elastic. So you can make something out
14:54of what they call 65A hardness, which is
14:57extremely pliable materials that you
14:58just can't do with on FDM. And then the
15:01third is they have extremely rigid
15:03materials. So things that are just very,
15:05very strong that won't lose shape for
15:07like molds. As an entrepreneur, you've
15:09had to make a lot of decisions, a lot of
15:11tough decisions. What's been the most
15:12difficult you've had to make? How'd you
15:14handle it? Well, for me, we got to a
15:16point where we were growing so fast. I
15:17realized our customer service that
15:19allowed us to get to where we were was
15:21starting to decline. So what did we do?
15:23we had to intentionally slow things
15:24down. So, one of the things we had to do
15:26to kind of slow things down organically
15:28was increase pricing. And the other
15:30thing is just keeping in line with the
15:31market. We realized, hey, you know, we
15:34we've been selling this thing for x
15:35amount of time, but at the same time,
15:36our material cost is going up due to,
15:38you know, more macroeconomic environment
15:41situations. So, we had to increase
15:43pricing. And as long as we can explain
15:45that to our customers and still provide
15:47value to them, they're perfectly okay
15:48with that. We've seen the whole
15:50production. We've seen milliondoll
15:52equipment out there. We've seen 20 plus
15:53team members working, but this is the
15:55OG, the very first printer. What
15:57ceilings come up when you look at this
15:58first printer compared to where you're
16:00at now? Well, just very humble realizing
16:02that one, this machine was run for
16:04almost 8 years non-stop. So, uh, it made
16:06his money's worth, that's for sure. But
16:07I think the biggest emotion that comes
16:09up is gratitude. And I think about one,
16:11the things that we used to do back then
16:12were so much harder. The technology
16:14wasn't as advanced and we kind of
16:16learned things the hard way. So, in many
16:18ways, what we do today is easier, but
16:20it's also more complex. So, it's it's um
16:22just really humbling. Now, we got the
16:24big boys. How much do these cost you?
16:26How'd you fund them? So, what you're
16:28seeing here is kind of the topofthe line
16:30machine. It's probably retail. If you
16:33were to get from, you know, start with
16:34zero and try to get a system fully
16:36functional, it's around a half million
16:37dollars. But there are some economies of
16:39scale. You know, once you have the first
16:41system, a lot of the support equipment
16:42you don't have to have for the second
16:44one. And how did you fund these? uh
16:46traditional debt, you know, that was
16:47probably one of the most nerve-wracking
16:48jumps, you know, when you go from, hey,
16:50just cash flow basis to actually having
16:52some debt on there. But it was a matter
16:53of we were trying to keep up, you know,
16:55for example, we had FDM print farm and
16:58we realized, hey, if our production is
17:00increasing 20 30% month over month, then
17:02we have to increase our capacity 20 30%
17:04month over month and became very
17:06difficult. Whereas this machine kind of
17:07gave us an incremental leap in capacity
17:09to keep up with that surging demand. How
17:11much can this machine make you a day?
17:12Now, market rates kind of fluctuate, but
17:15uh kind of the average going rate over
17:16the last 3 to 5 years, is a one build,
17:18which takes around 11 hours, can produce
17:20anywhere between 15 to $2,500 in
17:23revenue. Wow. In one day. In one day.
17:25Industrial equipment like this must mean
17:27some pretty big deals. What's the
17:30biggest deal you've ever closed? So, a
17:32lot of projects are very quick and
17:34returning. So, project size isn't
17:36necessarily, but recurring revenue is
17:38one of our biggest things. I do
17:40specifically remember the first time we
17:41hit our six-figure PO though. That was
17:43pretty exciting. That project took
17:45roughly a month to finish and produce
17:46along with of course everything else
17:48that was going on. But for me, some of
17:49the biggest wins is not one single PO,
17:51but an established relationship that
17:53leads to steady recurring revenue in the
17:56range of I would say 30 to $50,000 a
17:58month. What does it take to close these
18:00huge deals? Well, for me, I just like to
18:02treat every customer the exact same way
18:04because frankly, we've seen some of the
18:06biggest deals come from the customers we
18:08least expect it. You know, sometimes we
18:10produce a part, we have no idea what
18:11it's for, we send it off, next thing
18:13they know, they send you a big PO you
18:14just never expected, and then other
18:16customers, you know, we talk to them for
18:18months or even years, kind of work
18:19through various regulations. So, it can
18:21be a really short and surprising sales
18:23cycle or a really long one. Can you give
18:24our viewers right now a stepbystep
18:27blueprint for starting their first 3D
18:29printing company? Well, I'd say step
18:31number one is if you don't already have
18:32a 3D printer or know about 3D printing,
18:35try it out. If nothing else, it's a
18:36great hobby and it might not necessarily
18:39be your business itself, but it could
18:40definitely support your business. Step
18:42number two is just see what 3D printing
18:44solves. One of the things I always
18:46articulate is just because you can 3D
18:48print something doesn't mean you should.
18:50Other manufacturing methods still apply
18:51in a lot of circumstances, but there are
18:53some certain problems that 3D printing
18:55solves that you just simply can't do any
18:56other way. So, focus on that. for
18:58example, can you use multi materials in
19:00a way that you just can't do in any
19:02other way? Or can you use multiolor in a
19:04way that kind of makes the product
19:05unique? And then third is just focus in
19:08on the product itself. Don't focus in so
19:11much on the fact that it's 3D printing.
19:13I think the product should stand in and
19:14of itself regardless of how it's made.
19:16Starting your own 3D printing company
19:18can feel overwhelming, but it doesn't
19:20have to be. In the business startup and
19:22growth blueprint, you'll learn from
19:24Brandon Vaughn, an entrepreneur who's
19:26built over a dozen 7f figureure
19:28companies over multiple industries. He's
19:30helped thousands of beginners go from
19:32idea to income. And he's giving the same
19:35exact framework away for free from
19:37setting up your business and building
19:38your brand to getting your first
19:40customer and scaling. This blueprint
19:42shows you how to do it right from day
19:44one. Click the link in the description
19:45or scan this QR code to get started. Do
19:47we have any other final products that we
19:49can go check out? Yeah, we got some
19:50life-changing custom prosthetics we can
19:52look at. Let's go do it. All right. What
19:54do we got uh on the table here? Talk to
19:56us about these two things. So, these are
19:57orthotic devices. They're designed to
19:59essentially help uh in this case small
20:02children kind of help correct various
20:04gates or kind of walking conditions that
20:06they might have. How did you get
20:07involved in prosthetics in the first
20:09place? One, I just saw a lot of
20:10companies that were utilizing the 3D
20:12printing technology mainly because each
20:14one is custom fit for a specific client.
20:17In this case, this is a company called
20:18Invent Medical that makes this
20:20particular part and they have a special
20:22software that allows them to take 3D
20:24scan data similar to what we did earlier
20:26today and just take that point cloud
20:28data and they put it into an algorithm
20:30that will produce this model custom fit
20:32for their client within minutes.
20:34Interesting. How much revenue are you
20:35guys doing from prosthetics itself?
20:38Overall with all of our prosthetics
20:39clients, we're probably doing around 50
20:41to 60,000 a month. What's the best way
20:42to find customers in the 3D printing
20:44industry? Well, in our case, we do some
20:46paid ads, but it's kind of just a a
20:47broad net to kind of keep our search
20:49results as high as we want. But for the
20:51most part, it's all relationship based.
20:53And some of the relationships are
20:54actually with competitors. The industry
20:56itself is growing. So, our goal is to
20:58grow along with it. If I can sustain 3
21:01to 5% of this overall industry that
21:03grows on average 50% year-over-year,
21:05that we sustain our piece of that pie
21:07and we'll do quite well. What advice do
21:09you have for listeners about working
21:11with competitors to grow additional
21:13business? Obviously you think about
21:14competitors like I'm not working with
21:15them but in your case it actually is
21:16useful to grow your company. Yeah. One
21:18is sometimes it's a camaraderie you know
21:20what we do it's not something you can
21:22like especially on the industrial
21:23machines you can't just go to Google and
21:26find the answers. So having somebody
21:27that you can relate with your challenges
21:30on and kind of have that same sense of
21:32um problem solving and bouncing ideas
21:34off of is great. And so yeah you just
21:37kind of develop that personal
21:38relationship. And now I would say
21:40probably 50% of our competitors I have
21:42the direct CEO or the owner in my phone
21:44and I can call them and we can ask them
21:46questions and they appreciate that. So
21:48you got prosthetics here, you've worked
21:50with drones, military, healthcare, you
21:52name it, you basically have done it.
21:53What's the sales process like for some
21:54of these larger B2B companies? Well,
21:56each one has its own unique requirements
21:58and kind of challenges that you have to
21:59work through. And that is one of the
22:01things as we've scaled you know 3 to 5
22:03years ago we weren't necessarily worried
22:05about industry certifications like ISO
22:0790001 is a quality certification there
22:09wasn't a restriction on our business but
22:12now it can become as you as you grow you
22:14have to worry about those types of
22:15things. So for us you know for example
22:17we have to supply a very in-depth
22:19quality manual that we can show our
22:21customers hey we're not just making this
22:23part but we're tracing it we have full
22:25uh quality control throughout the entire
22:27process. Those are things that we just
22:29didn't have to worry about, you know, a
22:30few years ago. Do you want more
22:32gamechanging business strategies and
22:34insights from entrepreneurs like Kasein?
22:36Hit the subscribe button down below and
22:37stay in tune with all of our future
22:39episodes. There's a lot of
22:40misconceptions in business, particularly
22:42talked about 3D printing. What are the
22:43biggest misconceptions people have? I
22:45would say that they think the parts are
22:46somehow weak or fragile. You know, the
22:48parts that we make can go in extreme
22:50environments. And uh I think the reason
22:52that conception is there is because the
22:53history it's been around prototyping.
22:55Well, the technologies are just
22:56different now. You can use these parts
22:58and in really extreme environments. In
22:59fact, some of the machines that we have
23:00behind us are designed to prick
23:02something called peak. That's a material
23:03you can literally throw anything at it.
23:0580% of the time, if you have a product,
23:07you can make it. The question becomes,
23:08should you make it with 3D printing? And
23:11it really comes down to how quickly do
23:12you iterate on your design because that
23:14allow you to save in molding t or
23:16molding cost or what is something about
23:19this design that makes other traditional
23:20manufacturing methods not feasible?
23:22Peeling it back a little bit here. I
23:24mean, are you happy today? Do you think
23:26money buys happiness? Well, obviously
23:29money is required for the life that we
23:30live. Um, you know, for me it's
23:32supporting my family is super important
23:34and you know, sustaining a certain level
23:35of lifestyle that we do is, you know,
23:37right now my kids are in baseball and
23:39softball and it costs money. So, having
23:41the ability to provide that for them is
23:43super important. But I think running a
23:44business has taught me one of the most
23:46important lessons is time is value. And
23:49everything I do, even in my personal
23:51life now, I think about it and time
23:52value costs. For example, I like mowing
23:54my grass and I can do it myself, but I
23:56also know that there's other companies
23:58out there that like us can do things
23:59more efficiently than I can do that. So,
24:02for example, I think I can't pay myself
24:04minimum wage for the cost that it would
24:06take me four or five hours on a weekend.
24:08And I would much rather spend that four
24:09or five hours with my kids. So, really
24:11to answer the question here, does money
24:12buy happiness? I don't think so. I think
24:15it can help support a lifestyle that can
24:17be fulfilling and be very happy. There's
24:20a lot of cons of being an entrepreneur,
24:21but there's a lot of pros to being an
24:23entrepreneur. Let's talk about the pros.
24:24What is the best part of being an
24:25entrepreneur? Yeah, for sure. As far as
24:27cons, you know, it's, you know, long
24:28hours. You know, there's plenty of days.
24:30It's 12, 13, 14 hour days and you come
24:33back and do it again 7 days a week. But
24:35on the flip side, you still can kind of
24:36define your own schedule to some degree.
24:38Uh, we're a manufacturing facility, so
24:40we have certain things that they got to
24:41happen in those times of days. Luckily,
24:43we got the team to do it. So, if I need
24:44to go out and have something be done,
24:46you know, I can define my own schedule.
24:48Mhm. Can you take us through your
24:50different types of materials, what each
24:51works with best? Yeah, so fundamentally
24:54our three different technologies use
24:55three different kind of raw materials.
24:57The FDM or FFF technology, which is most
25:00common, just comes on a a spool and it
25:02looks almost like a weed eater line. So,
25:04it's interesting. Yeah. Really easy to
25:06work with and it gives you a lot of
25:07options. These are consumer grade
25:09materials. This one in particular, I
25:10believe, is uh called PLA. That's the
25:12most common. It's super easy to work
25:14with and a great part or place to start.
25:16As you step up in that same technology,
25:18you can get all sorts of other diverse
25:20materials that allow you to different
25:21things. For example, ABS is also just a
25:24generic plastic, but it allows you to
25:26hit higher temperature exposures. Then
25:28you can get into urethanes and all sorts
25:30of things that like flexible materials
25:31or ones that glow in the dark, ones that
25:33sparkle, even metallic or even
25:35composits. So, there's a lot of options
25:36there. To buy like materials, how much
25:38those materials cost? Uh, we do have
25:40wholesale rates. So, it's around, I
25:42would say, $13 a school or maybe even
25:43less depending on the type of material.
25:45So it's around seven or $8,000 on
25:47average. Someone watching at home,
25:49they're like, "Oh my gosh, I want to get
25:51started in 3D printing." Do you think
25:52that they could replicate your success?
25:54How quickly? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I
25:56think the journey would definitely be
25:57different there. You know, the
25:58technology is in a different state and
26:00uh there's more opportunities. I think
26:02uh what we're seeing now is people are
26:04looking at 3D printing and understanding
26:05more what it does. Our biggest challenge
26:0710 years ago was describing what the
26:10technology does. Now the same printers
26:12are in junior high schools and high
26:14schools. So that challenge doesn't
26:15exist. So the opportunity is boundless.
26:17I would say start small and don't try
26:20to, you know, change the world
26:21overnight, but find something that um
26:24people see value in. You have a wide
26:26range of projects here. How do you
26:27forecast material needs, inventory when
26:30so much is coming at you? Yeah, it can
26:31definitely be a challenge because
26:32sometimes, you know, people ask for a
26:34very specific color that might be pretty
26:36unusual. But the way we handle it is
26:38have thresholds that we found out over
26:40just years of experience and kind of
26:42looking at the data. So, we'll normally
26:43set a one month at least, sometimes
26:45upwards of three months worth of
26:46inventory. That way, if we do get a
26:48project that does last more than one to
26:50three months, it gives us plenty of time
26:51to order the material while new material
26:53is replenished during that time period.
26:55Do you have any stories of someone being
26:57like, "Hey, we need like a humongous
26:59order like very quickly where it's just
27:01like so unexpected the data couldn't
27:03even predict it." Yeah, that definitely
27:04came into play especially postcoid when
27:07supply chains were really disrupted. We
27:09had one client that was in the lighting
27:10business and they needed a very specific
27:12material that we keep in stock but
27:14definitely not in the volumes of
27:15hundreds of kilograms and we definitely
27:17had a challenge from that perspective.
27:18We had to go to multiple different
27:20suppliers and basically buy out
27:21everything that was out in the US at the
27:23time. That one project was around $1500
27:25$200,000 and it lasted about one month.
27:28One month of work for $200,000. Yeah.
27:31How'd you make the transition from being
27:32a technical founder with mechanical
27:33engineering background to being someone
27:35who manages 20 plus people? Well, there
27:37are some slightly different skill sets
27:39there. One, I got a good exposure in my
27:41previous experience. I worked for big
27:42Fortune 500 companies and then I kind of
27:44worked for smaller and smaller
27:45companies. So, I understood what a big
27:47company would require. So, that gave me
27:49some good foundation I was very
27:51fortunate to have. But really, it was
27:52just a matter of finding the right
27:53people. So, as I could step up to the
27:55next business requirement, I had to have
27:57somebody to backfill and be able to
27:58sustain that same level of expertise and
28:00and attention to detail that I had. So,
28:03finding the right people for me was the
28:04biggest thing. You've been offered
28:06acquisitions. People are like, "Hey,
28:07we'll throw you a bunch of money. We'll
28:08acquire you." You turn them down. I
28:10mean, talk to us emotionally how that
28:12feels to turn down such big amounts of
28:14money. Yeah. For one, as a founder,
28:15you're you're embedded in the business.
28:17And for many, especially in the first
28:19years, like the business is life, and it
28:20kind of intertwined in a in a strong
28:22way. So, there's an emotional attachment
28:23just kind of just separating yourself
28:25from it. However, the biggest thing for
28:27me was our visions in those potential
28:29investors just didn't line up. And
28:30sometimes they had more lofty goals than
28:32we did, but we thought they were
28:33unrealistic. and other circumstances. We
28:35didn't think the visions were that
28:36optimistic and so we just wanted to stay
28:38to our roots. We knew it worked and we
28:40were confident in it. I want to ask like
28:42what was the biggest amount of money
28:43that was thrown your way to acquire? Uh
28:45we had around a seven or eight million
28:47offer one time, but again it just didn't
28:49line up for me. I would say turning away
28:51some of the offers was the best
28:52decisions we've ever made. Let's go back
28:54to the beginning with what you know now.
28:56What would you do differently? Well, I
28:58think the first thing is not
28:59underestimating my value. And that
29:00sounds really arrogant maybe, but the
29:02reality is that a lot of times I would
29:04price things that I could just secure
29:06the job, but I really realized later on
29:08that hey, what we're doing is unique and
29:10it does provide a major value to our
29:12clients and we need to respect that. Any
29:13stories about underpricing and how that
29:16kind of bit you? Yeah. So, there was one
29:17time where we had a a project that was
29:19really fast turnkey and so we bid on it
29:22and assumed that we would be able to get
29:24our material from the same supplier, but
29:26eventually they ran out because the
29:27project was so large. We didn't estimate
29:29the fact that we didn't have to go to
29:30retail supplies where the margins are
29:32much lower. So, you know, just learn
29:34from that. You would do better about
29:35estimating in the future and factor in
29:37those types of things that could happen.
29:38If you could go back and tell yourself
29:40one thing about the journey ahead, what
29:42would it be and why? I would say don't
29:44be afraid to get outside your comfort
29:45zone. Me, as somewhat of an introverted
29:47engineer, I would go to trade shows and
29:49conferences and I'd be the guy just kind
29:51of walking around and looking at things
29:52but not talking to people. And there
29:54were so many times that I kind of went
29:55outside my comfort zone, walked up to
29:57somebody I didn't know, and just had a
29:59conversation and those led to
30:01relationships and relationships
30:02ultimately led to good work that uh paid
30:05off dividends in the long run. You're at
30:07day zero of 3D printing. What advice
30:09would you give to yourself to get going?
30:11I would say focus on marketing a lot
30:12more than I did. You know, we've been
30:14very blessed that a lot of what client
30:16base that we developed was relationship
30:17based, but the scenario was very
30:18different back then. We were trying to
30:20educate people on what the technology
30:22can do. Now people have a greater
30:23understanding what the technology can
30:24do. So you need to somehow separate
30:26yourself within a not flooded market but
30:28at least a more aware market. If you get
30:29started in one marketing channel what
30:31would it be? Well actually for us
30:33LinkedIn has been very helpful but uh
30:35YouTube and just Instagram has also been
30:38very helpful. What aspects of your
30:40business became easier as you scaled.
30:42What became more challenging? I would
30:44say we've been able to implement
30:45automation at a much greater return on
30:48investment when you're at a certain
30:50scale. So, say you're producing 3 or 400
30:51parts per day. Sometimes just brute
30:53force, manual effort can get the job
30:55done. But as you get to 2,000, 3,000,
30:574,000 parts per day, you have the
30:59opportunity to automate more that just
31:01simply didn't exist at a smaller scale.
31:03What would surprise people the most
31:04about the physical properties of these
31:063D materials? Well, I think there's a
31:08common misconception that 3D printing is
31:10inherently weaker than other
31:11technologies like injection or CNC. And
31:13there is some truth to that. Most 3D
31:15printing is something called FDM or fuse
31:17deposition modeling. and it builds layer
31:19on layer. However, there's other
31:21technologies like multi-jet fusion and
31:23photopolymers which don't have that
31:25layer weakness and those parts easily
31:27compare with other manufacturing
31:28methods. Mhm. Process for maintenance
31:30has to be a nightmare. What does that
31:32process look like? Yeah. The truth of
31:34what we do is something's going to break
31:36every single day. The question is when
31:37is it going to break and how bad is it
31:38going to break and how well can we be
31:40prepared for it? In our circumstance, we
31:42actually stock hundreds of parts, spare
31:44parts, basically predicting what's going
31:46to fail. That way, we're ready for it.
31:47One of the most things I'm proud of is
31:49the fact that we keep our utilization
31:51almost at 100%. On any given day, around
31:5495 to 98% of our machines are revenue
31:56generating. Almost a quarter of Uplift
31:58viewers name fear as the biggest
32:00failure. What's stopping them from
32:01starting their own businesses. What
32:02advice do you have to them? I would
32:04definitely relate. Fear was something
32:06that kind of haunted me and held me back
32:08for quite a while initially as well.
32:09There was two major points in our
32:11history where fear was something I had
32:13to specifically overcome. one was going
32:15full-time and the second was when we
32:17kind of made the jump from consumer
32:18grade machines to industrial-grade
32:20machines. We had to, you know, take on
32:22some financial debt and some burden that
32:24I was a little bit concerned about. But
32:26the reality was I ran the numbers. I
32:27felt confident that the business was
32:29there and the only reason that we were
32:31comfortable doing is I had to stretch my
32:32muscles and get over that. Books are
32:34important for the entrepreneurial
32:35journey. What's one book that you read
32:36that you'd recommend everyone to read?
32:38What's one takeaway? For me, I read a
32:40book called Strength-based Leadership,
32:42and it allowed me to focus on how we can
32:44leverage our team to not necessarily
32:46focus on what they might not do as well
32:48as I would want them to do, but yet
32:50leverage the diversity and their
32:51different skill sets to actually further
32:53the business and strengthen the aspects
32:54that I don't necessarily have as good
32:56characteristics of one like very actual
32:59piece from that book, give it to us.
33:00Focus on everybody's strengths and don't
33:03try to put them in a situation where
33:04they won't succeed, but yet change their
33:06scenario where they can succeed. If you
33:08enjoyed this episode, you're going to
33:09want to check out episode 196 with Tim,
33:12who started a company that does
33:14$350,000 a month and a feature on Shark
33:17Tank. Like and subscribe and we will see
33:19you next

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