The idea that 3D printing has a lot of potential has been around for a while, but a new company officially launched this week, Voodoo Manufacturing, could be a significant step towards turning the production method’s potential into something tangible at scale.
Set up by four former Makerbot employees, Max Freiburg, Oliver Ortlieb, Patrick Deem and Jonathan Schwartz, Voodoo Manufacturing has been just four months in the making and is set up to offer fast, affordable on-demand 3D printing services.
Based in a factory in Brooklyn, a 127 strong 3D printer force gives Voodoo a competitive advantage in terms of their manufacturing flexibility and in terms of printing costs, where they can print at just 1/10th of the market average.
Voodoo’s sales model is outward facing with customers able to retrieve quotes by simply dragging OBJ and STL files onto the homepage of the website, however the real opportunity is still in working with businesses, where they believe bulk orders can move beyond being used exclusively for prototyping and be utilised as the end of use solution.
The company already reports profitability and through “word of mouth”, they’ve collaborated with a number of large corporations including Autodesk, Chipotle, Intel and Universal. The next step is bringing the offering to scale through an effective sales structure, when Circulate spoke to CEO Max Freiburg, he spoke confidently about the prospect of a period of fast-paced growth over the next 3-6 months.
Freiburg also shared the vision behind setting up Voodoo Manufacturing, “the ultimate goal of our work is to be a catalyst for manufacturing innovation by driving start-up costs down to virtually zero”.
His point is an important one. Currently, even experimenting with designs, creative ideas and making things is a costly endeavour, let alone developing prototypes and initial products, which often requires significant capital investment. It’s a cost that Freiburg has identified as a barrier to innovation and the development of cheaper, easy to use services, like Voodoo, has the potential to disrupt manufacturing in a way that transforms innovation and design processes. It also has the potential to change 3D printing from being a slightly ‘niche’ maker movement activity that appears to have some benefits in terms of speed, waste and effectiveness, into a tool that can actually be used by small and large businesses at scale.
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