Darrel Barnette understands that it may seem strange that the US government is paying other people to do their 3D printing.
But what they understand, he says, is that even an entity as large as them is not exempt from the 3D printing learning curve. “It takes a lot more than just having a 3D printer to produce a 3D printed part,” he explains. “The government realizes that, and they don’t have the time to stop what they’re already doing to learn something new.”
It’s in their best interest at the moment to dedicate their time and human resources to other projects and instead pay outside entities to do their 3D printing work for them. And this is where businesses like Darrel’s come in.
Digital to Definitive’s 3-pronged business model relies heavily on this 3D printing government contract work at the moment – about 75% of Darrel’s time is consumed by it, since he worked so hard with a Bid Protest Attorney in order to win the contract. In the future, he’d like to flip this ratio so that most of his time is spent working on his own projects, but he understands that he needs to, as he puts it, “walk before he runs.” It’s this work that will ultimately allow him to make the transition to focusing most of his time on his own 3D printed products.
Come get a glimpse into the first pillar of the business Darrel has built from the ground up: 3D printing for the government.
Morgan Hamel
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