MassChallenge Texas 2018 – Here We Come!

We're thrilled to be scaling up with MassChallenge as MassChallenge scales to Texas!

MassChallenge is a global network of zero-equity startup accelerators that is headquartered in the United States with locations in Boston, Israel, Mexico, Switzerland and the UK. To date, 1,495 MassChallenge alumni have raised over $3 billion in funding, generated over $2 billion in revenue, and created over 80,000 total jobs.

This year, MassChallenge is running an inaugural program in Texas. As a company that is founded, headquartered, and proud to be rooted in Texas as we scale globally, we here at re:3D are excited to be part of this cohort of 84 startups from 11 countries in a program run in our hometown. These startups are solving problems in industries from high-tech, health care, clean energy, social issues and beyond.

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Gigabot loves Austin & so do we!

Not only do we get to be collaborators alongside this cohort of high-impact entrepreneurs from around the world and in a program rooted in the Texas startup community we call home, but also re:3D will receive access to MassChallenge’s global network, world-class mentoring from experts, tailored programming, free co-working space, and access to corporate partners. The accelerator culminates in August 2018 at the MassChallenge Texas Awards Ceremony, where selected startups will pitch for the opportunity to win a portion up to $500K in no-equity awards. As we scale up the work we are doing and move the needle toward realizing our vision, getting access to these resources in real-time and on a day-to-day basis is paramount.

We are grateful for the opportunity to join forces with this global community of support who likewise share our commitment to strengthening global innovation. Follow the journey and learn more at texas.masschallenge.org!

Cat George

Blog Post Author

Lessons from Two WeWork Creator Awards Wins

With two WeWork Creator Awards (and two wins!) under our belt, we thought you might enjoy some quotable nuggets of our journey from the Austin stage to New York City. We hope we can inspire another Creator out there to enter for yourself!

Photo by Moyo melements.me / @moyo3k ©2017

A Silver Lining in the Eye of a Hurricane

Everything started back in June of last year when we won the $180,000 Scale Award at the WeWork Regional Creator Awards in Austin.

That cash from WeWork allowed us, as Head of Engineering Matthew Fiedler likes to say, to shorten a year-long process down to six months – that of creating a pellet extruder prototype. R&D Intern Robert Oakley and Matthew have been hard at work on the design, which we got to show off at the Global Finals.

Photo by Moyo melements.me / @moyo3k ©2017

We also established a more permanent presence in Puerto Rico, spurred on by our participation in the Parallel18 accelerator program.

We never could have imagined that just months after starting that program, not one but two of our offices would be hit by catastrophic hurricanes – Harvey in Houston and Maria in Puerto Rico. Our offices were spared damage, but what the twin natural disasters did do is reinforce our belief in our mission of creating a system to take plastic trash, grind it up, and 3D print with it.

With Hurricane Maria and the subsequent loss of running water in Puerto Rico, there is no shortage of plastic water bottles on the island. An island community is exactly the kind of environment in which a system like this would do so much good. Rather than resorting to shipping plastic waste to the mainland, a machine that could 3D print with recycled plastic could do the double-duty of creating useful objects in an isolated area while simultaneously dealing with the plastic problem.

We’re excited about the possibility of creating a machine that could be so useful in such an environment, and we also feel privileged to be in Puerto Rico working with some of the most driven, motivated people.

“It is a really optimistic place right now,” Samantha remarked. “People are really inspired.” Many millennials, she’s noticed, have thrown themselves into the task of rebuilding in the aftermath of the hurricane, leveraging technology to create a new future. “They believe in their island, and I’d say the sense of nationalism is higher now.”

Winning the WeWork Creator Awards in Austin allowed us to start hiring in Puerto Rico, and the latest win will afford us to continue.

Photo by Parallel18

A Million Bucks

Winning the Scale Award in Austin was a big deal for us, so getting the word that we’d be one of eight finalists vying for $1 million at the Creator Awards Global Finals in New York City was huge.

You already know what that crazy week was like (and if you don’t…), so I’ll fast-forward to the main event.

J. Kevin White of Global Vision 2020 and Samantha are the last two left sitting in the room offstage where all the finalists were being held. Wearing noise-cancelling headphones, they’re unaware that everyone is being awarded money, and that both of them will be getting $1 million. Samantha recalls the thoughts running through her head in the moment.

When we saw everyone but us leave the room, we both looked at each other and were confused. We considered that perhaps the winner had been revealed and we were receiving a side award or other commitment of support from WeWork or a partner. We were in shock that there could be a chance we might be receiving 1st and 2nd place.

They’re brought on stage. Samantha’s face goes through a rapid-fire sequence of emotions.

When we were brought on stage everything around us seemed to slow down. Kevin has become a friend in this process and while I recall him standing there, everything else was a blur.
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The first thought Samantha says entered her head when she realized they’d both won was happiness that the whole team was there to experience the moment, whether in person in the audience or via livestream in Texas or Puerto Rico. This included longtime friend and mentor Seba, currently Parallel18‘s Executive Director, whom we met back in 2013 when he was the Executive Director of Startup Chile.

But, she adds, “I’ll be honest, a week later it hasn’t set in.”

"Winning itself was surreal. Every morning I wake up and have to remind myself that Wednesday night really happened.
Samantha Snabes

No Such Thing as Overnight Success

It’s been a long road to this moment.

re:3D was born in 2013, and five years later nearly to the day, this 2018 win has been our biggest cash influx since our inception. Patience and perseverance have been the name of the game. To finally have in our hands the means to push full-speed toward our mission of 3D printing with trash, it can seem unreal.

Things could be so hard and lonely at times that it seems really unbelievable that we now have such a perfect partner (WeWork). I’m worried that at any moment it will set in and I’m going to break down in hysterics, because several times a day I’m overloaded with gratitude. Kevin and I spoke on the phone last night, and his experience has been very similar. I’m so thankful that we can share this experience together.

The WeWork win isn’t big for us only because of the size of the prize, it’s the type of partner we see in them – an organization with a similar mindset and vision to our own.

Although the win may not have completely sunk in for Samantha, she’s caught herself pausing multiple times a day to reflect on the newfound peace she’s felt lately. “Knowing that we have the resources to scale & care for our team & community,” she explains, “but more importantly, that we have a partner we respect and who supports our open-source, social-focused vision.”

The big Creator Awards win means a lot of different things to our team.

It means the resources to work on a major R&D project, the ability to grow our time, time to focus on telling the stories of our customers, health insurance for the team.  re:3D’s Head of Engineering, Matthew, added that the win provided “validation that there are other people who share our vision.”

And we’ve only just begun.

The thing I love the most is knowing that the journey is just getting started.
Samantha Snabes

“Not only are we excited to grow with WeWork, but also the other Creator Awards winners and future Creators we will get to know in 2018” says Samantha.

And as for those future Creators out there, some wisdom from someone who’s gone through it all?

“APPLY!”

“The experience is so much more than the awards or winning,” Samantha adds. “You, your team, and your community have everything to gain by submitting your application!”

There’s nothing to lose.

Photo by WeWork

Morgan Hamel

Blog Post Author

WeWork Gave Us a Million Dollars

Exactly one week ago, on Wednesday, January 17th, five members of the re:3D team joined the screaming throngs filling the theater at Madison Square Garden and watched as our CEO and Co-Founder Samantha Snabes took the stage.

Along with seven other finalists, Samantha answered questions from a panel of five judges: WeWork CEO and Co-Founder, Adam Neumann, Joy Mangano, inventor and entrepreneur portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the movie “Joy,” Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter, Tamara Steffens, GM of Business Development at Microsoft, and Tim Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Work Week.”

Everyone knew the judges’ deliberation was going to be hard: they were faced with picking just one winner from a golden lineup. When they came back to the stage, they had news for us. There would be a change of plans.

Instead of a single one million dollar grand prize winner, each finalist company would walk away with a chunk of money, and they would award two million dollar checks.

Samantha sat in a room just offstage with the other representatives from the finalist companies, each wearing noise-cancelling headphones and oblivious to the twist of events that was taking place onstage. The camera on the big screens cut to them, giving the audience a glimpse of the eight. If I’m not mistaken, all of them were on their phones.

In ones, twos, and threes, they were plucked from the room and whisked onto stage.

First, Manal Kahi from Eat Offbeat and Becca Keaty of Bunker Labs, each winners of $180,000. Next came Elizabeth Lindsey of Byte Back, who took home $360,000. As each round passed, those of us in the audience knew our odds of taking home a million increased. Then came the $500,000 round – three of them – Sebastian Jünemann of CADUS, Naveed Parvez from Andiamo, and Or Retzkin of EyeControl.

That was it. Samantha didn’t know it yet, but we’d just won a million dollars.

The final two – J. Kevin White of Global Vision 2020 and Samantha – faced the hosts on stage with expressions that vacillated between fear and confusion.

And then the reveal.

Almost before the words had escaped co-host Adi Neumann’s mouth, Samantha grabbed White’s arm with the realization they’d each be taking home a million. Confetti exploded from the ceiling, friends and family rushed the stage, and the audience went wild. We did, at least.

We said it last week – this entire experience with WeWork has been absolutely incredible, and taking home a grand prize was just the cherry on top. We’ve learned a lot since taking the Creator Awards stage in Austin last June, we’ve met a lot of amazing people along the way, and we continue to be inspired by our fellow finalists and semifinalists and the good you are doing around the globe with your work.

And of course, we are honored to have WeWork as a partner in fulfilling the dream we’ve had since 2012: to – in Samantha’s words – “make a toilet-sized 3D printer powered by trash.”

Photo from WeWork

Postscript: We have a lot of people to thank.

First and foremost, thank you WeWork for making this incredible event happen. Your vision is inspiring and the lineup of companies in the Global Finals exemplified that. We will forever be grateful for this opportunity and experience.

Thank you to all the people and organizations who have supported us along the way and made our journey to last night’s stage possible: Kickstarter, Startup Chile, Unreasonable Institute, Bridge Community, Parallel18, Bunker Labs, Tom Chi, Pascal Finette, Wevolver, IEEE N3XT, and more.

Gracias a Sebastian Vidal, Executive Director of Parallel18, for speaking on-stage at the finals as our advocate, or testimonial. From Santiago Startup Chile days to Puerto Rico with Parallel18, you’ve been with us since the beginning.

Thank you to all our fellow Creator Award Global Finalists and Semi-Finalists. Eat Offbeat, Andiamo, Bunker Labs, Byte Back, CADUS, EyeControl, Global Vision 2020, Quaker City Coffee Company, Warmilu, Coral Vita, Chatterbox, and LeVar Burton Kids. You guys inspire us.

And lastly, thank YOU, our community! From our very first Kickstarter backers to those of you who have been following our story online, we couldn’t do it without your support.

We are so excited to update you on our plastic-trash-printing progress.

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Photos by Wework

Morgan Hamel

Blog Post Author

Pitching for a Circular Economy: What We’d Do With a Million Dollars From WeWork

It’s Wednesday January 17th, 2018, and we’re in New York City.

Tonight we’ll be on stage at arguably the most well-known arena in the world, Madison Square Garden.

Seven incredible companies are by our side. One million dollars is on the line.

These are the WeWork Creator Awards Global Finals.

What are the WeWork Creator Awards Global Finals?

If you don’t already recognize the WeWork name, it’s time to get aquainted.

WeWork is, as their website says, a global network of workspaces where companies and people grow together. But it’s more than just office space. They’re the self-proclaimed platform for creators, and they’re putting their money where their mouth on this statement with the Creator Awards.

The Awards were “designed to find those world-changing ideas, put them in the spotlight, and give them the resources to go further.” In their words, they’re rewarding entrepreneurs, artists, startups, and nonprofits who are thinking in new ways and creating real change, supporting innovative projects and the people behind them. They’re putting millions of dollars into allowing people to fulfill their own personal versions of the WeWork mantra: “Create Your Life’s Work.”

Over the past year, WeWork has been holding Creator Awards around the world – from Austin (that’s us!) to Tel Aviv. Thousands of applicants, hundreds of regional finalists, and millions of prize dollars later, it comes down to tonight: the Global Finals.

The Finalists

We’re in the company of people and organizations doing absolutely incredible work. The lineup is staggeringly inspiring.

There’s Becca Keaty, 20-year retired veteran of the Army National Guard representing Bunker Labs, a national non-profit empowering veterans and active duty service members with tools to start and grow their own businesses.

Elizabeth Lindsey from Byte Back, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit improving economic opportunity for underserved metro area residents through computer training and career prep.

Manal Kahi and Wissam Kahi are the Lebanese sister-brother duo of Eat Offbeat, a company delivering home-style ethnic meals conceived and prepared by refugees resettled in NYC.

The CEO of Andiamo, Naveed Parvez, whose company in London is using data, biomechanics, and 3D printing to create affordable, custom, and fast medical braces and other devices.

Tel Aviv’s Or Retzkin, the CEO of EyeControl, creators of the first communication device that enables locked-in individuals like ALS patients to communicate using only eye movements, without the need for a screen.

Sebastian Jünemann of Berlin-based CADUS, a nonprofit humanitarian relief organization that has developed and implemented affordable mobile hospitals on the frontlines of crisis in Syria and Iraq.

And then there’s one wildcard, a mystery eighth finalist who will be chosen by popular vote from a group of six semifinalists.

Like we said, it’s quite the group.

One Million Dollars

One million dollars. That’s the grand prize the eight of us are competing for. Each organization has unbelievably compelling reasons for how they’d use the money – we can’t say we don’t feel for the judges.

We know you’re curious – what’s ours? We figured you’d ask.

There’s a few different things we’d do with the money, with the main being the development and release of a system to 3D print from plastic waste. Thanks to the Scale Award we won at the WeWork Austin Creator Awards, we’ve been able to prototype a pellet extruder to 3D print using plastic pellets, including pellets made from recycled plastic. Here’s a video about our progress on that project and what’s still to come.

But our ultimate goal is bigger than this.

In order to fulfill the dream of able to shred volumes of plastic trash that would be dried and fed automatically into a printer, there are some resources we need. Winning the $1 million would provide us the financial resources to not only refine our pellet printer prototype to accept ground-up plastic water bottles, but also to allow us to engineer a grinder, dryer, and feeder system to allow people to truly manufacture from waste onsite.

It’s been our mission from the start to create a standalone system that could serve as an on-site factory, allowing a user to 3D print directly from waste. No matter what happens tonight, WeWork has helped take us one big step closer to that dream. We’re so thankful for this experience, the incredible people we’ve met, and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.

Best of luck to all the finalists tonight, and thank you WeWork for the adventure!

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Morgan Hamel

Blog Post Author

Christmas in July at re:3D

We had to fill up all this new office space with something, right?!

Shiny new toys abound in Houston. Joining our Tormach PCNC1100 on the production line is the Hurco VM30i CNC, which our manufacturing team is thrilled about.

It truly is Christmas in July at re:3D!

Morgan Hamel

Blog Post Author

The New re:3D Digs

You may have heard the word on the street: re:3D has upgraded to a bigger, badder office space in Houston.

We outgrew our old spot some time ago and have been biding our time waiting for the right place to relocate Houston production and operations. The wait paid off: the new digs are just down the street from our previous spot, and the ample space is a much-needed upgrade from the nest we had grown too big for.

We know everyone is dying to know the exciting, nitty-gritty details of this new office (sarcasm), so without further ado: the exciting, nitty-gritty details of our new office!

The biggest difference is the physical space. The Houston team is overjoyed to have some much-needed elbow room and private desks. We’ve now got over 2.5x more space – a big bump from 2,600 square feet to just over 7,000.

You may have seen our photo a few weeks ago of some slick-looking doorstops we printed – they’re coming in handy with the 17 extra doors we’re dealing with.

More shelving means more inventory means less running out of popular filament means less waiting for you! We’ve got 2.2x more shelf space – somewhere around 85 linear feet.

Our previous office didn’t have any dedicated rooms for education, training, and research – that’s changing. The new space will come in handy for R&D projects, workshops, and on-site training at our facility.

The crown jewel of the office, however, is right at the front door – the area we’re calling “The Showroom.” The entire front wall of our new space is windows – 90 feet of them – where we’ll be showcasing bots and interesting applications of Gigabot.

We hope to see some of you in person once we’re fully up and running for the public!

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Morgan Hamel

Blog Post Author

GB3+ Introductions

Fall is in the air and re:3D is very excited to introduce you to the latest updates for Gigabot. Over the past year we have been working hard to provide you with enhancements for Gigabot to print at a higher resolution, faster, and with better quality. Additionally, we have improved the user interface, made it easier to change filament and level the print bed. Here are the upgrades you have been waiting for!

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  • New bed side plates with two more guide wheels. Now with six wheels on each bed side plate the additional stability gives higher quality print throughout the Z axis travel.
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  • re:Designed cold end extruder with thumb tab for easily filament loading and unloading. New extruder design is more simplified with reduced number of parts, as well as more open and accessible.
  • re:3D all metal hot end designed for reliability and quality
    • Electroless nickel plating on the hot end nozzle and thermal tube offer higher lubricity and higher hardness over standard hot ends, giving smoother flow of plastic with less wear and maintenance.
    • Screw-in thermocouple temperature sensors offer industrial reliability.
    • Interchangeable nozzle for printing with 0.4mm or 0.8mm extrusion diameter.
    • Heater cartridge is almost completely captured inside the heater block for better thermal efficiency in the hot end.
  • New filament tubes are lighter weight and more flexible while reducing the load on the print head.
  • New Viki enclosure allows more room for wires and connectors and presents itself ergonomically for the operator.
  • Filament Detection units have been revised for easier filament feeding/more reliable detection.
  • Easier to use filament spool holders on the back side of Gigabot are modular and now accommodate multiple 15lb spools for printing huge!
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  • The new GB3+ is dressed up and looking sharp with a new Gigabot nameplate, engraved corner logo plate, and XL/XLT badge corner plate. The serial number plate also proudly displays the flag and Made in America tag.
  • LED lights on every Gigabot shine bright and will show off your latest print.
  • Updated bed leveling allows simple and easy adjustments for bed leveling with the new four point bed leveling.

Wow, I know that is quite a bit of upgrade for the new 3+ and I am super excited for all of you to see the REAL benefits! To make sure that none of our customers are being left out we are offering all the upgrades as a bolt-on package starting next month. Happy Printing!

Matthew Fiedler

Blog Post Author

Pitching for a Circular Economy Part 1: Why We Went to Aruba

Musings From Our Amazing Experience at the ATECH* Conference

As I sit on a plane flying in the opposite direction of Aruba I feel there is nothing more important than finding a way back. You see, Samantha & I spent the past three days as co-founders immersed in a new culture with new people and pitching an idea that is new and maybe just ahead of it’s time. The event that brought us all together is Atech2016. There exist in the paradise of an island nation of Aruba a group of inspiring founders who for the second year now have decided to put their money on the table. These visionaries invite tech savvy entrepreneurs and guest speakers to discuss thoughts and ideas on topics ranging from mobile banking & blockchain technology. I’m just glad we did research into sites like https://beincrypto.com/tag/coinbase/, as this meant that we were kept up to date with all things relating to the blockchain industry. We even looked into wearable tech & social inclusion from the perspective of Burning Man to inspire each other as well as the local Arubans how we as a society maintain relevance in the age of acceleration that we are living.

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Gatherings like Atech2016 are really the nexus, bringing together in one place a group of young individuals with passion, focus, and hunger for change. With connections made, and new ideas formed we are all contemplating our next steps as we fly in the opposite direction of Aruba. We feel honored to have been part of such an event and encouraged by many Arubans who resonated with re:3D’s vision and our pitch for the Atech and Aruban communities. We were stoked to be named finalists in the pitch competition, and, while we didn’t win left more determined than when we arrived.

Several things became clear to us in the few short days we spent on the island:

  1. Arubans are ready, in fact hungry, for greater technology. Meeting and talking to the young men and women volunteering at the conference we felt their excitement for 3D printing as well as other technology on display.
  2. The island nation of Aruba is resource constrained and imports the vast majority of all their physical goods. There is very limited manufacturing on the island.
  3. With an economy largely based on tourism and very little to nonexistent recycling program there is a growing problem with trash and landfill space.

Our goal and dream, that which we pitched to Aruba, was that re:3D would engineer and manufacture the prototype hardware needed to take the first step in 3D printing useful objects from plastic trash. During our few short days at the conference, we reached out to community leaders, local entrepreneurs, Aruban schools and universities and well as hotels to partner in the effort of recycling, re-using and re: imagining the possibilities to own their our factory as well as the supply chain. The response was super positive and affirmed for us first – hand there was a HUGE opportunity to leverage trash for a more circular economy.

Why is this important?

Where do we go next?

While we left Aruba affirmed that 3D printing from waste is inherently right, we unfortunately did not secure the resources we needed to complete a prototype to leverage reclaimed plastic using Gigabot. Stayed tuned to upcoming blogs in our series as we continue to share our vision in future competitions and pursue partners to donate post-manufacturing waste streams to test. With a little luck, we will raise enough support to partner with Aruba on a pilot!

~Happy Printing!

Matthew Fiedler

Blog Post Author

Stepper Motors vs Servo Motors

One question we sometimes get relates to our choice to use stepper motors over servos. We’d like to explain our rationale behind that, as well as why we personally prefer stepper motors to their servo counterpart.

I think the biggest advantage for servo systems is its ability to produce higher levels of torque at high RPM whereas stepper motors produce the most torque at low RPM. You might want to look into something similar to propshaft services for more information on what might be able to help. More torque at higher RPM means having a higher degree of certainty of achieving the desired position in high speed movements, i.e. accuracy and repeatability. If you have any more questions about servo motors or just need a repair check out the Servo Motor Repair Experts. In order to achieve potential benefits of closed loop control you must be willing to make some trade-offs:

  1. Increased cost
  2. More parts and more complicated system (ie more parts that can break)
  3. Decreased low end torque and power

Stepper motors on the other hand give time-proven reliability at a lower cost and provide a more robust system with fewer moving and electromechanical parts that can break. Some will point to servo closed loop control as being superior to steppers because it can correct positional errors should they happen. This may be helpful in traditional manufacturing technologies, but I challenge that a great majority of print failures and positional inaccuracies are caused by the 3D printer operators’ (in)ability to anticipate and control the thermodynamics occurring during the additive manufacturing process.

All plastic shrinks as it cools. Parts that warp and curl can become dislodged from the print surface, cause interference with the print head, and result in a loss of positional accuracy. Here are two reasons it does not help to have closed loop servo control: 1) If the part is warped and dimensionally deformed then the part will be scrapped anyway 2) If the part comes loose from the print surface and effectively causes the print head to loose position relative to your part, then your part will be scrapped. In the majority of causes of print failure, servo control has not saved your part.

If the size of the stepper motor is correctly chosen based upon the loads of the system, and appropriate limits are placed on acceleration and velocity, you will have the same reliability as a closed loop system. I have two large CNC mills driven by stepper motors that will drive a 1/2″ EM through steel at amazing rates machining parts to greater than 0.001″ tolerance. Stepper motors – we went to the moon on this technology!

Matthew Fiedler

Blog Post Author