Macro Micro Michael Marco & Startups at the Edge (M4Edge) - The Shape of Things to Come with Ben Redwood of 3DHubs (part2)

The Shape of Things to Come with Ben Redwood of 3DHubs (part2)

04/27/19 • 32 min

Macro Micro Michael Marco & Startups at the Edge (M4Edge)

Our show today is part 2 of our interview with Ben Redwood of 3DHubs. Ben is bookend-ing our miniseries on Additive Manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D Printing. In part 1 of our interview with Ben, we spent most of our time discussing many of the different additive manufacturing techniques, which was a great intro to the next set of episodes. Ben has also written a book about 3D Printing, and M4Edge listeners can get part of that book for free by going to https://www.3dhubs.com/podcast/m4edge/ . Also on the 3DHubs site, you can check out their really useful trends report about what‘s happening in the industry, by going to https://www.3dhubs.com/get/trends/.
In between parts 1 and 2 of the Ben interview, we spoke with 4 fascinating founders of additive manufacturing companies, each with a really amazing technology, each markedly different from the next. They were Greg Mark of MarkForged, Bob Swartz of Impossible Objects, Nanci Hardwick of MELD Manufacturing and Blake Teipel of Essentium. If you’ve missed those, I encourage you to go back and give em a listen.
Today we close the miniseries with Ben and discuss 3DHubs' business model, which is manufacturing as a service, we discuss the 3D Printing industry and its place in the global manufacturing chain, and of course, since Marco can’t help himself, we discuss SciFi.
NB: It turns out that if you live outside the US, chances are that Marco and I haven't seen your review. Please let us know if you've written one, so we can give you a shout out on the show - send an email to [email protected]

Previous Episode

Scaling 3D Printing and Making Manufacturing Fun Again, with Blake Teipel of Essentium

Where else will you find a podcast on 3D printing that references cassette tapes and cowboy hats???

In this new episode of our 3D Printing series, we talk with Blake Teipel, CEO and cofounder of Essentium. Blake is perhaps the best person to explain how the success of 3D printing relies on the synergy of machines, software and materials. He started as a design engineer, went back to school for a PhD in materials science, and then set out to create 3D printing solutions that can better solve the hard design problems faced by engineers.

Before co-founding Essentium, Blake worked at two large industrial companies, John Deere and Caterpillar. Based on this experience, Blake concluded that the primary advantage of Essentium’s 3D printing solutions had to be speed: only speed can allow 3D printing machines to produce large numbers of parts at lower cost, and make them economically competitive at large scale against traditional manufacturing techniques. For Blake, this is the secret sauce that will allow 3D printing to play an increasingly large role in industry.

In the episode, we discuss cybersecurity, and how Essentium uses software to check the materials and the production protocols, including for example the extrusion temperature, so that the parts produced can be certified, protecting against counterfeiting (and without using blockchain, to Michael’s great satisfaction and relief...)

We also discuss how 3D printing will transform global supply chains, shifting production closer to the ultimate consumers. While at the moment this has supported reshoring of manufacturing to the US, as in emerging markets wages rise and consumers get wealthier, we should see more production move closer to these increasingly attractive developing markets.

An important note: don't forget to stick around for our Ricky's Reports from the Edge segment, at the end of the show.

Next Episode

Revolution, Live. Anna Mason and David Hall of Revolution's Rise of the Rest fund - from American University

And now, for something completely different... Our show today was recorded live at American University, with Professor Jeff Sosland and the students in his International Business—Global Entrepreneurship class. And our guests today come from another side of the tech world: the Venture Capital on which entrepreneurs rely to turn their ideas into a successful business. We talk to Anna Mason and David Hall, partners at Revolution Ventures’ Rise of the Rest Fund.

We talk about strategy, and what VCs look for as they try to identify the next big success story, the ideas worth funding among the many pitched to them every day. What makes a successful strategy? How do you build the right team starting with limited resources? Should you focus on perfecting your technology and protecting your IP, or on growing your market share as fast as possible? Anna and David will give us some enlightening examples of how some of their portfolio companies have evolved their strategy over time, identifying new opportunities and quickly adapting to capture them.

Rise of the Rest seeks to fund startups outside the traditional tech hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston. Anna and David explain why they believe the companies located in less tech-dominated areas might well have a better chance of disrupting some of the large traditional industries, from manufacturing to agriculture. And indeed some of the companies we have already hosted on M4Edge fit the description—can you spot them in our episodes list?

Professor Sosland and his students get a chance to pepper Anna and David with questions at the end—and to decide whether all they’ve heard makes them more or less likely to test their mettle as entrepreneurs. What about you? After you hear from two experienced VCs the good bad and ugly of startup ventures, do you feel more or less tempted to give it a try? Drop us a note on [email protected] and let us know!