Small Empires: Shapeways and the business of 3D printing !!!

I'm Alexis I am I started startups invested in them
and an amazing people using the internet to change the world
our generation has an opportunity unlike any other we can create small empires Small Empires: Shapeways and the business of 3D printing !!! without anyone's permission
it ok
the Internet is a global platform
a company that started in the Netherlands is now headquartered here
on Park Avenue now this is not a street really expect to find the startup
revolutionizing manufacturing thats exactly
Shapeways is doing
color brochure printing fellow alexis Love five years
che places Saint reprinting community marketplace
to anyone can go to our website you can look at the faces the signs the
beautiful the science that's our community has created
over
them you can customize
lots of them by just clicking putting in your initials
no changing the shape a little bit really easy and then if you
are into 3d software you want to learn
even for free these days
you can design your own thing and the floor to our site
and you can see what it would cost you can have it made by us in all kinds of
different materials from plastics to me
metal to silver and gold-plated brass now
you all kinds of materials and then you get home you get your special products
may just for you
and like a few weeks later now it's just be clearer I could have a sad Keanu in
gold plated brass
yes you could I couldn't get
outta my head the sad Keanu me I was going around
and and I don't know if you've seen a spike and I thought I had
to bring us versus thats
you that's here said he unto me oh my god this at this is a war like happy
period for all of us will I not on cloud nine
and my family are having a confirmation I
ok you reach me started in Allenton and toll from
to get some perspective intellectually was a very small town that's cruel
really quickly because Philip still big factories there and if they build a city
which with workers
and everything moves out to to Asia and Eastern Europe
when we suspend other Philips which actually was our starting rounds
and we went into an office that had some
place to do some manufacturing and at the same time we opened our
our main office here in manhattan to hear we believe great team of like
marketer from the people and engineers
and back in
often we had a supply chain team and we had a
a customer support team in the world we're really eager to learn more about

we outsource everything so we bought our first
this was in a
in late
Anton so we started to learn about it and
brief pretty soon if we figured out that we could do this really well
parts in this is the entrance
yes well I'm just going to absolutely really the way
now for free it will free up in here and so I notice you can't go too far
without seeing it some water presumably Shapeways
yes racially much everything it safe to send
so this is I believe saint basil's cathedral and Moscow
yes I in fall colors and stuff roughly how long this entire
manufacturing process take them any access yeah so we we print actually in a
large sprint trait
so we don't print one thing at a time we put many things in a large tray at a
given time
and so we say for those trays to be printed
and then for the the breakout for all the how to be swept away
typically about nine hours yeah powerful Wow
that's amazing people feels like sandstone
and I its its its deadly having missus substantial I can often overlook any
place with it looks like I'm inside
Lao its cool game of Tetris
so moving games here see our fabulous
management team as you can tell they sit in the middle of it with all of us
touches the PDF and you have the brass knuckles so yeah
are sir I actually have the rescue her thats
she yes Mario vs and if they can Maria
that's amazing how fakin that how do people come up with this stuff
like fast custom at some time or another
circus arts as a matter of our minds for me to the session
la
materials why not a movie a speak n
made out love bacon right
we are there with 3d free printing technology or not no another it's
happening
car dealers yes i'm for him yes
yeah I know makers not require the guy who really knows when you can just have
bacon
you got a baby step for you can get some minimum viable products Beijing is
minimum buy the product
you guys were inside this massive
Dutch company and your startup life he was in you quitting your job
it wasn't you you know graduated from colleges was you
like taking this thing out of the massive company and starting something
how did that come about I've always been part of startups
the first one actually was a company that delivers the first free
Callander
said I was one of the reasons why i got really excited about reprinting
but when I I got the end here I mean where do you get money in and told him
there is not a big
angel investor seeking don't know feces and their banks but a
banks don't take risks to give you money when you don't need it typically yeah
and so and yeah how do you get money and
the friend to introduce me to 3d printing he was actually
working happen in Phillips at as a manager on the lifestyle YouTube airport
and he said why don't you pitch to us to actually what I did
is I could quit a start a palace as you feel it
fetched for them and joins Phillips
to start a company which is kinda causing within a company yes because
Phillips at the time had
incubators
focused on their core domains one of them
was largely incubator and within the last thing to bear they felt this makes
total sense
and since the amount I was asking for for them were reasonable
and maybe even small and they said well that's discussions
services products and design maintaining the front and everything in here the
geniuses behind the back
and everything so this is our whole glorious
development teams can we love steeply access its highest development in you
I presume this is the most probably think I'm shippers Reyna you think so
family stuff I want these people well there have to be see this
they're going to know whoever created this copycat bust
is a gonna do it very well after the show airs
it's fantastic what wire why are you working here chip
less fortunate we doing before this up for this I've had
times for jobs at work too financing apply contracting mind I want another
service
back into shape is just over a year ago and Ozzie request for places and times
just like
it seem to be the most fun may seem to be the most motivated group engineers
working on the course technology
it seems you to complete the emerging sector so like all those things just
keep getting to
skirt starts let's say and I've got a couple friends who have been in our the
situation right now
and their there there good at the work they do they just feel like
government contract work is exactly the most stimulating would you tell them or
watching us right now basically see where you work right now
see the folks who work with work for an and goalie
what your job man yeah I don't know it's just we have more fun
we have more fun used his work on a product that you really believe in a lot
of folks
you're doing like the bigger businesses do were approximately but its
you're so close to the end result like you're gonna government contractors to
my experience in working on a huge aircraft carrier
big fighter planes like well that's big but I don't I own a very small pieces
few years
the whole process from start to finish a complete ideation of ideas and products
to actually implementation building them and then you the whole something like
this in her hand yesterday
so it's like you have real tangible results that come out of all the work
you put into it
so I think for me anyway that's really really work do we have a higher
our marketing team is over here his other materials geniuses as we refer to
them
hello I was you guys at the talks about the bacon movie is trips made out of
bacon
so program we have the technology failure
3d printing land not play i mean people are printing on like human organs for
placements like if you were to lose right here
I'm thinking you'll excelled at position No per year so
hypothetically you could it seems like if they can make environmentally
fat cells you could make me and yeah should be able to
they're really expensive but but worth it
maybe if I opened a shape waste or
and made pecan Mobius strips out a big in
would you buy one yeah work

dollars well s
business Shapeways
tag the factory up the future so all the stuff came out other printer
yeah yeah
so much of what you guys do is is worth a typical
for start-ups today when it came to fundraising back in the day
you're probably met with a lot of skepticism because
it's one thing to build the marketplace it's another thing that's assertive
use 3d printing modeling technology developed let people create
sure lets the Val all that stuff jives with what investors expect
as soon as you also mention hey we're going to manufacture and ship this stuff
too
it stops looking like a traditional ones and zeros kind of start up because
you're dealing with stuff now
you clearly have great investors on for now and recent horwitz Union Square
Ventures
how how did that how do you sell that how did you convince them to
to get on board well you're right what stuff slashing the beginning
and was even tougher still because if it was the work manufacturing maybe I
didn't scare him I'm
that much in the beginning but I wasn't seeing manufacturing watching
printing
and people and like what is that most investors were were in the where most
people I mean
when I got in touch with in
with the technology
I was like what is this and I'm pretty tech-savvy
there was really really unknown so we were in the building this company and
we're saying well we manufacture the physical stuff
using 3d printers and young people Justin got it
and they sold more risks than rewards probably so it was a little skepticism
until I am I'm at Alberta Union Square Ventures
and America he said no this is great
he has a in his early as I think as some some background
in manufacturing Selanne he he said this is great
we we should do this and one after the other and here we are
hello I like this yes
I pleasure you thank you for high-traffic
services were all the actual magic happen you guys take
random ideas from people on the internet me mincing real
is goal txts 3 really make people's ID's from black
saga this great idea I want to create a
movie is so strip of bacon alright
so I i've a blow to the model I'm really proud of its gonna be great
now we gotta the 1st Asia planning yes we go to the planning of a of the
machines there we have a team of engineers
they gather all the mobile so come on every single day
dairy a double check them for Prince ability what they do is they basically
have a 3d version of well the inside of the printer
and they tried to put as many products as they can try to fit it in

in one print fields and this is a human stock digitally packing all these three
objects
it's a problem it's a combination of Buffalo for smarter
over them said quite a few smart people and now it's like the ultimate
Tetris game we have a big community in Europe also because we started tearing
the dutch community a strong
we start you know we already had lots of customers United States one of the
reasons we had our
main office here and we wonder it's it doesn't make sense to make stuff in
Europe and ship to United States right
if we can bills and manufacture and actually have a factory and i cant open
what everybody thinks is crazy because everything left there you I know
bill a factory here in New York to have a factory close to the main office force
makes sense because stand you know everybody can work together and learn
faster
so we start to look around and to you know we saw a lot of
old factories that were empty and not use for a long time
and then we found to say this with place in Long Island City
that was perfect for a small to large what a small reasonable rents
and to you know me sad let's do it old-boy
wow this is where the actual magic happens
and the real Shapeways we gotta have a whole set up with this year lined up
on yes you can have a look it's okay I don't know that my parents used to tell
me not to stare directly above the microwave
which i think was just hogwash but they were paranoid and scared
microwave carte services in the middle to build right now
yes and presumably I if i sat here long enough I would see my hypothetical
be construed novia speak redirect for my eyes yes
yes this is said this is babybaby staff very hopeful fun
and he's testing just below the melting temperature and at the moment that the
laser
shines casa from it seemed to 50В°c professing together
so and basically doesn't nearby layer by layer
and about
hours later you have a
completely
ready for this is a
operation it easy for me to think about
you know having a
business when it's just a website you know the website
goes down
you know it's a pain yet to solve it
but it's not like a giant machine with stuff how do you think about running a
business that is as
digital as it is physical I really like it personally
I mean this is why I am part of shape ways it's just
really great to be able to make something that people like
will hold
in their hands and especially one
if it's their own creation with a pain and you know if I'm this is perfect if
it brings a whole over interesting challenges and and exciting things that
you can do
we're building a factory here I mean from now from can you have I feel like
everyone in
is living like five years in the future you almost kind of have to because you
have to believe in a vision that hasn't yet arrived
but seems imminent I mean to some extent every founder does my feeling especially

you know when you started this business only a few years ago what was the most
impressive if you understand where I'm coming from like impressive thing that
could be printed
and what is it today and then what you expected to be
two or three more years from now it's less slot machines can new
because what two machines can do today is not wildly different from what I do
five years ago
yeah but it's what people can come up with the first things that we saw were
really basic shapes
we need to get our heads around what is possible with
more and that the technology is holding us back sure there are lots of
limitations I mean
I'm not gonna say it's perfect at butts if you're a designer especially a
product designer what you get taught in schools is what people tell me
is that you need to design for manufacturing
regular manufacturing mass manufacturing has a lot of limitations you need to
think about a lot of things
and quite a few those limitations do not apply for
but since if you're trying to think about those limitations all the time
you don't like to break those rules and that sexy what's happening now people
start realizing wait a minute
all the things that I couldn't do I cannot do and I think that s
where you know their complexity of the things daring of our designers over
community is growing growing and growing
sometimes and rashes mass because they come up with it things that are so on
the edge of what the machines can do
but and its I think still a lot of stuff that you can do
conceptually with reprinting is not done yet when you were a kid
and you were in elementary school
and you were asked to write a letter to like yourself as an adult
talking about what you want to be when you grew up was it designing
cufflinks as one of the most successful businesses power by Shapeways
absolutely 9 because it was that would be awesome now
so pressure show calls a rear so how
definitely an unintentional so how this happened sorry as friends
going out for drinks but then quickly realize we all had the shared
frustration up
just like so much crap in the world so much stuff that was not good quality its
so many things that were so disposable arm
were like we don't want that we you we thought back to
you know the times were like you had an item had a product you had a pic a piece
on that then you would give to your son they would pass along
in Eastlake elements a family heirlooms and we countries had this
strong urge that like those pieces where Lake
disappeared somehow that's where like she plays with it's not great their
more like oh wait we can just do this and
upload something and have something our hands and for weeks
for sure let's do it so honestly we have three products
put it up on a sacrifice a arm
likely got picked up by a Swiss Miss wired
Engadget Gizmodo arm and then a
a slew of orders came in and then we were
a company and certainly I love this notion of all these artists and
designers are doing things without permission is creating
but not long after I think the release original iPad you all had designers
manufacturing cases within days
yeah Sarah yeah presumably you know they didn't go to Apple for permission for
this they were just making useful cases for these devices are cheap ways
I think was on a Friday in April somewhere and on Monday
we saw an iPad case pop-up Alan che place this guy
huge bother thing measured it four days later he has this I'm ready
for back and call for of an iPad
in four days you go from an idea here to a product that you can sell
as an individual Dennis
almost impossible without a platform checklist we like to say it's our
our playground for ideas since our lil same box where we kinda sketch around to
do things we like I've making new things and test them out
in we still all have our day jobs realizes just grab the costs and just
completely collapsed
and and then also is really free name um
because at that like as a designer and as a creator the lake
you're not sitting here and having that check a flick oh I made this thing but I
don't think it's gonna sell
it's like it doesn't really matter so anyone's out there it's
through just go and learn time right which is it doesn't go ahead and
and go for it and the tools are out there that occasion that there's so many
tutorials to please the cats Emilie
so much information out there that's really just about like your time and
energy in one in the tools and then
arm to committing to it what do you say to skeptics would you say to people who
look at that and say this is an important user trinkets these are just
little things like
toys when you set it up you if you think about the fact that we see more and more
people
printing their engagement ring sorry there their wedding ring such a place
and make an
and designing them themselves and I don't think that
those things are trinkets to those people they're really important things
they're really important
in their lives and the first time I heard its I was like blown away
you're doing this on Shapeways you going to be getting you're not going to a
jeweler
and then I realized plan on this is such a the personal in Fenton someone's life
buying something that's I someone else can also buy isn't good enough for
for them they want to make something they want to sign something
and given away that is truly personal to them
and they can unleash their own creativity so then I understood but I'm
so that's not really gets by a long shot what happens here
is when you have a tray we take them out of the printer
this is how it comes out of the printer and
we've all done it this morning already sound for to me I can assure you
actually i the actual thing going out on the sand
everything it raise cool down in order by order we put a victory
put it on here the best from crisis and then basically
the outside box I'm disappears
and though whites cake combs out
top of it so it looks like Han Solo frozen in the Carbonite
new yeah spineta and then basically we just religion free we know where its
smallest
we start digging at the way also the break up station yeah
and all the most likely they actually come here we put them on these wrecks
an energy of a new mic want real some other comes in here
and then basically we sort it here is clearly a very important human processed
a lot this to make sure
quality control is so high and make sure everyone gets but they
are expecting again yeah hello are you
Alexis some greatness mister great
as well scenic hill and the so
are you gonna been missus UPS label packing slips by which are familiar with
and the pockets of people a
good battle axe
I don't know the damage per second on if we can find it later
okay so I'm I'm gonna be sorted hands off with this on the first to do so
take the UPS label but it you put a line with
you 6 go live with the box how it's doing right and then
and the new PC can assemble hassle of class himself it starts
with the but I'll break your your for
brief their she say them so person with a customer see is this
yes tonight great human rights here squirts
the TPS
watch small
empires there right zone
reso with
the
what suffer some was watching a show on his thinking I want this job
I wanted to use what you know and then let's say they are
had let's either in the massive company that doesn't have any kind of incubation
program error maybe
as does my ability they are doing the
thing maybe their college
will you tell
Tyler to to end up like you
well I think one of the most important races that you you don't listen to work
no
and when I started she waz and
we have some premixed and technology challenges
if you upload a file to us how do I know I can print it right hardly even know
it's a file that a printer would recognize
how big is it what will it cost so
I want around the corner and I asked quite a few very very smart San
technology people can you build me something that helps me understand
whether this printable and can help me fix it if it is and and
what it will cost cetera and he said I'll Dennis
and it's really hard to it's actually to almost impossible
and say if you were to build this I mean this was a big company and they say wow
is my question $
to $
million and maybe three years quite
nothing cost $
to $
million and nothing takes three years
so and in here that take up looking and I found these great guys and and and
channel
and and
and hats in an hour and must issue of data company and its not
working for us
and me see if I can do this in three months not get
that sounds everything can be done in three months so you know don't listen to
know
here no go somewhere else open source software rips down the barriers to entry
for anyone wants to build the business using code Shapeways
as level the playing field for anyone wants to design and make
Phoenix and it's all happening right here in this building
in New York City fun
said it can't be done can make thinking
yes China Skype
protection against don't take no for an answer posters with pizza
so techno for cancer
won't rights
just put this here it's still beta
yeah by delicious I just need my thousand dollars now
this
old workers done
but
d
d
this *** ***