Pawel, what have you liked most about the fair so far?
The Atomic Layers: S4E20 (00106)
Atomic Layer of the Day:
This is the question I’m asked most often. My usual answer goes like this:
All the showcased machines, materials, and solutions are great, but none of them are extraordinary. They’re “slightly” bigger, “slightly” faster, and “slightly” more precise. But at the end of the day, they all do the same thing.
What interests me isn’t what the machine can print but whether there are customers for it. Does anyone want to buy it?
And even more importantly, if you sell them a machine, material, or service, will you actually make money from it? Because, let’s be honest, most produce, sell, and lose money in the process…
Do you know the best thing you can hear from a company at a trade show? “We’re profitable.”
It might seem obvious—but not in the additive manufacturing industry. Here, if you’re making money in this business, you’re considered weird. The norm is to burn cash and then not show on the trade show because you run out of it.
That’s why I’ve focused on meeting the few companies that are weird—and that matters to me the most. The products they make are secondary. If they have customers for them, that means they got to be good.
Because what’s the point of creating something truly exceptional—something spectacular—if there are no customers for it or if you lose 50% on every unit sold?
What do you expect to get for that? A 3D-printed medal?
Atomic Layer from the Past:
11-20-2012: 3D Systems sued Formlabs for patent infringement, and Kickstarter for Formlabs promotion.
News & Gossips:
Today was the 12th anniversary of 3D Systems suing Formlabs for alleged patent infringement. By complete coincidence, today I had also the opportunity to talk to Maxim Lobovsky - CEO of Formlabs. I mentioned it to him and he told me in detail how it all happened. Wow, what an incredible story... If I get permission - I will write about it sometime. You wouldn't believe how vicious certain people
arewere…HP announced collaborations with Autodesk, Materialise, and Fabrex to integrate their tools into its ecosystem. Pay attention to the last one. Pay attention to Print&Go (they are in the same group). I mean REALLY. What they are doing is unbelievable. Trust me on that.
Once again, I spent some time at the Prusa booth, and I’ll say this: they have a lot of money, and they really love spending it. I’m not sure if that’s smart, but I’m just calling it as I see it.