In February 2013, 3D Hubs founders Bram de Zwart and Brian Garret gave up their jobs at 3D Systems to bring the ingenuity of 3D printing to the masses. The platform connects 3D-printer owners and hubs with people locally that need something printed. Zwart and Garret had both written theses on the impact and opportunities of 3D printing while at university, and joined 3D Systems together as graduates where they spent four years learning everything from how to build a 3D printer, to the power of the apps pushing the ecosystem forward. In September, just six months after leaving their fulltime jobs, the service launched globally. Today it provides more than one billion people with access to a 3D printer within ten miles of their home, across 140 countries.

According to the 3D Hubs team, the 3D printers they have helped people gain access to globally have enough capacity to 3D print the Statue of Liberty in under a week. Impressive.


Founders: Bram de Zwart and Brian Garret

Launched: April 2013

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Headquarters: Amsterdam

Staff: 25


Funding: In September 3D Hubs completed a $4.5 Million Series-A funding round, led by Balderton Capital

What problem do you solve?

The inefficiencies of centralised, mass-production: large stock and long distance shipping. Secondly, 3D printers are still difficult to operate and mostly not affordable, so having access is more important than having your own printer.

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How do you plan to make money?


We take a 15 percent commission on each order that runs through our platform. In return we provide convenience and trust for both customers and suppliers by ensuring the customer gets a quality 3D print and the supplier receives only 3D printable designs and timely payment.

Who do you view as your competitors?

Amazon, as we are disrupting the way consumer products are currently being made and distributed.

How many employees do you have?

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25 international superstars spread across our offices in Amsterdam and New York. Also we have 100 3D Hubs Mayors (ambassadors) that grow local 3D printing communities and organise workshops and meetups.

Where did you get the idea for the business?

Until we started 3D Hubs no one was actually fulfilling the real promise of 3D printing, which is to bring manufacturing much closer to the end-user. We felt more people should have access to this world changing technology -- which we expect to have a similar impact as the internet had back in the day.

By adapting the access to this technology we're essentially pushing the whole industry forward.

How would you sum up your company ethos?

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Let's change the way we make things.

What's the biggest misconception about your business?

That 3D Printers run on paper :)

If you weren't working at another startup before, what pushed you to stop talking about launching a startup to actually doing it?

The realisation that it would be a huge waste if this idea didn't get executed and we'd probably feel very sorry for ourselves when we grow old without having done it.

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How has the business developed in the past year?

We have connected more that 7,500 3D print service providers in 140 countries and had 20,000 3D printed parts being ordered.

Our average monthly revenue growth is more than 50 percent.

What has been the most challenging time for the company?

When a well-known journalist broke the press release embargo and our website was still under development.

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How did you overcome that?

Brian was coding at lightning speed for about an hour and then quickly flipped the switch and acted as if nothing had happened

;-)

Do you have any advice for dealing with potential investors?

Keep in mind that investors will score you on three aspects, so make sure you impress them on all of them: market (is the size of the opportunity large enough?); product (does this software have a good shot at becoming prominent in that market?) and team (do these guys have the skills and motivation to pull it off? The team would preferably consist of at least one developer, one designer and one business guy).

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What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?

Get out of your comfort zone and quit your job.

Which businessperson do you most admire and why?

Elon Musk -- he has big ideas and uses technological innovation to have a huge positive impact on the world.

What is your biggest barrier to future success?

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Just like with music and movies, products are going digital thanks to technologies such as 3D printing. This change gives birth to new business models like 3D Hubs, but the question is if established companies are ready to embrace the opportunity or not.

Where do you see the company in ten years?

3D Hubs is by then THE alternative to mass-production in China.

Products will be different every day, produced locally and on-demand from recycled materials. Yesterday's phone case is tomorrow's bottle opener.

What do you think the impact of your offering could be?


We enable everyone to become a maker of his or her own products, which will lead to more equality in the world and less environmental waste.

What industries do you think your service could impact most?

Toys, fashion, replacement parts, consumer electronics, healthcare and food.