Cory McKane 0:00
So I'm here with Ethan. How do you spell your last name actually?
Ethan Baehrend 0:03
Spell il en I think I've screwed up somewhere with some of the European family coming down and going through Ellis Island they just wrote over they thought it sounded okay. So they just I think they had enough trouble where they kept rewriting and rewriting telling No, this is wrong and unjust. Whatever. Yeah, so spelled ba E H, r, e, n, d, but pronounced Barend Barend. Okay, don't really say the bay and all that. And then you throw the H in there and it confuses people. Gotcha.
Cory McKane 0:27
Okay, so Ethan Baron, okay. So every time I go to spell your name, I'm like, I have to go to your LinkedIn. And I'm like, I have no idea as well, this guy's name. So you're one of the biggest and brightest stars here in the tech space. You're also building some crazy stuff in the 3d printing world. And you're here to with us today on the why we stripe podcast. So I would love if you introduce yourself really quick. And then we're gonna get down to the nitty gritty of your amazing 3d startup.
Ethan Baehrend 0:51
Yeah, sounds good. My name is IMO, as you mentioned, already introduced me, Ethan, Baron, founder and CEO of creo, three technologies been in the 3d printing space for as long as I could work. But I always very much enjoyed seeing where people take technology, I've always grown up seeing all the headlines of these amazing things happening, and always like making tech and my whole goal is if I could make a tech that helps empower that helps people create more of these disruptive and futuristic texts without much constraints. And that's, that's what I get excited about. Making really advanced 3d printers and manufacturing technology platforms.
Cory McKane 1:26
That's amazing. So with the 3d printing, so what does because like, There's typical 3d printing, which you guys don't do. So you're not like a 3d printer that just like can 3d print. You guys are like this massive, like, I'm trying to think of a good a scale here. I mean, probably actually, from from here. To Him. To this high to the ground is how big your printer is right about that, like, give or take.
Ethan Baehrend 1:51
Yeah, so it is fairly large. I think about four foot by about four foot, sometimes it just stands a little taller, because there's little things that poke upwards, or there's a dome that you can add on to it. That puts it up a little too. So like four to five foot by about two and a half to three foot again. Gosh, okay, so what is the perfect size of fit through a standard US door?
Cory McKane 2:12
There we go. That's all we need. That's actually a good thing. I've never done any people. It's
Ethan Baehrend 2:16
a big problem.
Cory McKane 2:17
No one's surprised no one builds things thinking of how big the door is. For
Ethan Baehrend 2:21
the convenience side I know so many printers that tout themselves as portable and I'm there's one that just always sticks my mind were at a trade show over in Detroit. And it's this massive big camouflage printer they're touting it as like highly portable printer for metal parts like on a field. This thing is the size of I'm like a pickup truck and consistently they're in height. Except it doesn't have any wheels or anything it's just masa and I'm you're not doing that.
Cory McKane 2:47
Yeah. Who's Who's moving
Ethan Baehrend 2:51
for like a helicopter always attached?
Cory McKane 2:53
Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I mean, you guys it seems very poor but so but the difference between you guys and these other 3d printing companies as you guys are, you're making the 3d printers for other companies right? That's what
Ethan Baehrend 3:06
we manufacture the printers themselves. Sometimes we say 3d printing company people think oh, like, I can send you a final 3d printer it will do sample serve customers but I'm we're a little bit competitive with the actual service size. That's yeah, that's a 3d printing service where you send someone a file, because I mean, we have a really disruptive pricing model and for a lot especially big parts for more advanced parts. It's oftentimes cheaper for a customer just to buy the printer outright. Yeah, and just click Print and walk away and we've counted it's the exact same amount of clicks on one of our machines as it would be to use an online service it's doing it for you.
Cory McKane 3:40
Gotcha. So So basically your because I I usually don't bring up competitors until like way later in the podcast but it's but but it's super relevant for you guys because like paint a picture that exactly so like let's like what what are you guys doing differently compared to like the typical competitor and let's cover pricing and all that stuff?
Ethan Baehrend 3:58
There's there's a lot to dive into on that. Yeah, I think the best way is an analogy one of our salespeople helped make Iron and I didn't realize how apt of a comparison this is and it's pretty easy to understand. I look back at paper printing back in the day if you want something printed through paper, you would send it down to a print shop and have all the different tools under one roof to make it happen when he wants it in size a business card. They have a tool to do that. What do you want something the size of it like a banner that's a separate tool that they have then different colors like if you're doing business cards, little felted a gold trims a different fabrics and materials and all of it. I'm all under one roof to make it happen. And then eventually Xerox starts to come on the market. It's just the whole thing. And now there's printers and everyone's office to print those I'm multicolored and like different types of parts and scan them and do whatever and they brought in a whole ton of specially machines into one platform and are, funnily enough less disruptive first product is a similar shift for 3d printing. Right now 3d printers are very We fragmented where you need to know what you want to print before buying printer, you want something the size of this table? Great, you buy a large, lesser size large marker that only does a large, less precise B to plastic to make your part. And that's all it's good for you on something closer to the size of your microphone, whatever with standard size precision. You That's a job for more standard printer, you want quaint, faceless detail, you want metals, the carbon fibers that paste materials like ceramics or silicones, you want even like foods or like even feature sets, like having something be fully IoT connected for the future manufacturing. All those are things essentially to find your own sub markets a 3d printer. And if you want to buy just one of them, like back to the big printer, if you have a $50,000 budget, there's one to two companies, you tend to go to around that price point and for 70,000 Different competitor. So even though from an outside look, it looks very collude and competitive, it's a lot less so
Cory McKane 5:54
in my opinion is very broken into like, like price points kind of thing and what they do by function
Ethan Baehrend 5:59
and price. Some companies will make a couple of different printers that have their own separate function factor into those different price points. But I mean, it's rarer that printers start to cross that capital, because technologically it is tough find through a traditional approach to it. If you want to make say a large range, just as large lecture sized parts, there's a whole set of challenges. If you want to make a very large printer that does large sized parts, there's a whole set of challenges you and your team need to overcome to make that happen. And usually a solution that has large motors, large rails and everything large to make that work. And if you want to make a printer that did fine detail parts, different set of challenges with a different set of solutions. If you want to make a plan that does those two functions, not only do you have double the work going into it, but the hardware and the solutions to make those machines functional are contrary to each other you want. I'm the large rails a large motors are very contrary to the fine precision rails, motors, etc. So if you want to print those two, you have three times the amount of work because you have a whole new set of challenges that come from combining that. And the more and more types of premium add it just goes up exponentially 123 functions, it turns into five and all the solutions and make other things where each other just keep competing with each other. And to the point that if you want to make sense, it's really all encompassing, it just doesn't make sense.
Cory McKane 7:20
Gotcha. Okay, because you'd have like 1000 different things.
Ethan Baehrend 7:23
So you really need to approach it from a completely new outside the box method make it happen. That's what we did. I mean, we're kind of our intro to the market. I mean, we're coming in an entire suite of 10 plus separate specialty printing functions and one modular platform. So as printing continues to evolve, so does the printer. I mean, we've built it to satisfy the speeds precisions the details electronics, I think the packet essential be any type of 3d printer, the major modular sound, even five years down the line. So I'm gonna go back to a swap on the latest printing tech and you're good to go very great. Within the first year, it goes from being 10 Plus functions to over 13 Because we're continuing to add new forms and then different features to it. So
Cory McKane 8:02
that's amazing. So you guys, you guys have one product, you have multiple, like different sizes, one product of different modules that you can swap onto it. Okay, what's what's your most popular like? What's a typical model that you guys would sell?
Ethan Baehrend 8:13
So a little bit of background, we started in the market with a printer called duo. And Duo's idea was what I just described. And since then, because we've just had so much progress during COVID-19, instead of sitting idle, we made strides. And well it
Cory McKane 8:31
could be that for you. Because you are the guy that builds it. So you were like out of cash to hire people. You were like, I'm just gonna do it.
Ethan Baehrend 8:37
Yeah, I genuinely started all this out of a true passion. If I I think if I had resources to pursue whatever I want, whether just traveling, I'm gaming, whatever I'm, I'm fairly certain I'd be right back to where I am. Because this is what was filling my time even before was making. Exactly I thoroughly enjoy it. I like I've always liked making printers and parts that just make the machines themselves better. And I'm going no constraints making the best platform I can. That's always been exciting to me. Yeah, absolutely. It's been exciting to see them full solution. But now I've been setting up a new production line up in northeast awesome like the real close to here. Yeah. And we're going to be producing duo EVO, which we'll be releasing in January. So essentially, that all in one suite, but pushed to even more limits implementing a lot of the technologies we developed over COVID and implementing a lot of exciting hardware and components that came out during that timeframe to gotcha so pushing that limit on I'm even though it's a jack of all trades, it's not falling into the issue of being a master of none. Because not only are we better and each single specialty We encompass, but we're more affordable in each specialty. So if you just want a large premium care about nine types of printing, unbeknownst to you, we're still combining different types of printing and their functions to empower and bolster to one method. Gotcha. But we can print that part faster, stronger, have greater outer finish for you. 80% Less you want to do metals where 95% less than the closer compare that to us and metals and typically there's powders and all these different tools you need to make a metal partner I'm there's a lot of waste associated with it so we're we eliminate 90% of the waste we mix different metals in the same part and make complex parts which just weren't possible in the past and that's I'm better in that one function for a lot less and each function better cheaper and better platform to do it and so mine are outside the box approach ended up being better at most things. We
Cory McKane 10:31
will What do you guys what do you guys charge too much less? If you like me, if you I know you do a better job like what do you guys when you know you could charge more? What do you charge more?
Ethan Baehrend 10:42
On a there's there's a couple of factors into that I mean on a personal level, it goes back to trying to empower that creativity and ability create it and I it's a limitation of some of these prices like we were at a trade show here looking at some of these machines and I am someone that was competitive us in two metals both 316 L stainless steel and 70 and for popular they're all over the place and they can do pretty similar parts so we can except they can't do some of the internal structures we can and that same machine cost $1.2 million and how much you guys charge 10,000 require they
Cory McKane 11:17
just fucking hate you. If I were them, I'd be like Are you fucking kidding me like really just as
Ethan Baehrend 11:23
a two metal so I'm titanium tungsten Inconel even like messing around like, Bro silicone, some interesting stuff and merging them like we've been messing around with doing steel parts of little Inconel strands inside them to reinforce them naturally be able to combine those metals before because I'm you can't mix all those different powders with the powder method of printing. Gotcha. But it just says who functions I think oh well can't do titanium. Like I mean theoretically but it's not safe who wouldn't? Right if we wouldn't recommend that you do so and I and that tends to be the case with a lot of the printers and I'm a tool like that could massively help someone because I'm 3d printers are the way my parts and shapes you just can't make on any other production method I'm you bring apart into a computer until the optimize it you're the printer while the computer is able to design the most physical structure and sometimes you're able to make things that are like 50% stronger but 30% lighter, because you just generate this complex riff that couldn't ever be made before. And I and a tool like that can empower a library to even on a startup side I want to start to be able to imagine something by a unit and not go into crazy debts or anything and just go from idea to prototype to final part to like batch production all in one machine. That's awesome man I like again empowering that ability to create but a bit of it's also market strategy. Yeah, I am to make the printer that we've made we've taken a very outside the box approach we were to IC three parents again as a way to make parts and can be made out of your method if you're building machine to outperform what's traditionally manufacturable Why should you limit the printer itself to those same shapes your billing to overcome I'm sure it's convenient, but that's not good enough for me. Yeah, so instead we designed the printer to meet the actual functions we wanted. And no excuse me, you're gonna meet the functions we wanted. And if it wasn't manufacturable that's fine we're making manufacturing tool and method we'll just make sure that our machines the only thing that's out there that can do that more we'll build a completely custom tool from the ground up using those shapes and put on a completely proprietary in house production line so our own lines the only way we can make some really unique parts have all these strengths at pull everything together and have the likeness and everything that we need to
Cory McKane 13:39
in Why did you come up with this because like I mean I know you've been in this space for a long time but you take it one day you just go like why is no one doing this for less was it was like a price thing or was it like why is that what is it doing all these things in one or what made you get to where you are right now?
Ethan Baehrend 13:53
It was so an unintentional I had a business before this that had a pretty heavy hand in the industry where right one three print came out pen strapped we're buying a lot of printers broken because we like your business or like yes gotcha Okay. Eventually skill into we initially was just an Ico that I started off I saw $250 printer broken down i and this thing's typically a lot more expensive. The 3d printer to clarify is 3d printing. What most of the time when I say print I'm gonna mean if I if I mean anything else I say paper printer. At this point I refer to 3d printers way more than I do the paper ones gotcha
Cory McKane 14:27
checks. Okay, we're joking I'm
Ethan Baehrend 14:29
it's funny that HP paper printer in our office is less reliable than 3d printing. It's
Cory McKane 14:34
nice nice. Very cool.
Ethan Baehrend 14:37
Just start 3d printing our documents you know, to different colors. That'd be fun.
Cory McKane 14:41
Little like 3d document would be cool. I
Ethan Baehrend 14:42
just started handing people plastic tablets.
Cory McKane 14:45
That'd be really that could be that'd be pretty cool. Actually. Maybe Yeah,
Ethan Baehrend 14:50
we could We're thinking of doing a little business card SIGN PRINT the logo like the same logo and that had the info on the back. That'd be really cool. And a couple of colors.
Cory McKane 14:57
I mean, that makes sense. You're like, this is this is my business card and this is How are we? This is our product
Ethan Baehrend 15:01
we made. This is our business card. He's a demo
Cory McKane 15:07
actually really like that. Very cool. We were saying so why why did you get started with oh, so we mentioned the printer and
Ethan Baehrend 15:13
unintentional i in the previous business was refurbishing I bought my first one for $250. I knew what was wrong with it because I already had a printer by then. And gotcha. I knew 3d modeling and everything else go with it, I started like, I can fix this line, it's dirt cheap, because no one else was buying it. And the industry had really just started to kick off. Because prior to that two companies own the whole industry and how that PennDOT
Cory McKane 15:33
will use this. Cash like 2017 2018 No,
Ethan Baehrend 15:40
no, no, no, no. And patents dropped down closer, like 2012 ish. Oh, damn, I
Cory McKane 15:44
didn't see one until 2016. I don't think there are
Ethan Baehrend 15:47
some very much not so functional ones at the time. But so I saw I thought I could fix it. And so I bought it and spent about $50 for parts and printed other parts that weren't functioning. And then for under two hours of work, I was able to sell it off for over $3,000. Very cool. And that line. That's what really started rolling business. No one else is doing this. Let me get started on that Naomi to buy more and more and more printers until there's another staff there's helper there and I and we were buying the broken fixing them up. And instead of buying the parts from the OEMs and taking the effort to write the emails and wait those lead times, we just design redesign the parts. And a lot of times what's your redesign part anyway, just make it better? Yeah, so we add new features, new functions made more reliable, and then sell that directly to customers anywhere from the hobbyist out of his garage, doing RC car parts to the Argentinian military. So I was seeing the absolute worst of these printers, I knew how to fix them, I knew how to make them better. And we were selling directly to customers, you saw the full industry cycle, you know what they wanted, you knew their frustration with these printers. And because OEMs became a little bit dependent on that. We started to get a lot more information we should probably have at the moment. And eventually we were almost a bit of an innovation arm because those printers we made better a lot of times we start to this is mostly later on after we've done it for a while I start to offer those developments, like hey, offer back to the OEM, or we're gonna go to your close competitor, which might have an application for this. And in that same sense became a bit of a bit of an innovation arm for some businesses out there too. And if you look at printing, it's almost like the cell phone market in a way where it's incremental changes. I mean, for example, if an Apple phone, you put one more camera on and then that's one of the biggest hardware differences. And of course, there's a lot more on the software side. But and it's it's more of an incremental change on the hardware side instead of a big leap. And I mean, it's very similar 3d printing. And we're able to be the source of a lot of those incremental changes for a lot of different companies for a while, it's so cool that we're trying to scale them. And I had a lot of different printers that print a lot different parts, I'm we were doing a lot of electronics cases that fit on the side of these printers to put new custom electronics in them. These are big cases. And the best way to do that is a large printer. And that load train has large, less precise parts. The it does not have the precision for me to drop electronic sport in there snugly fit and screw it into place. Because that resolution is a more standard printers job. So even in just that one example, I had to print two separate parts at two separate printers and glue them together and hope it works. So you're saying one printer made big things. One made them precise? Yes. So one made small and precise things that fit into the big things. Gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha. And I and I wanted to streamline a lot. So we started making a lot of friends actually did more than just a single function. And even with the not so functional proof of concept and not so techie, suburban Chicago, people want to buy it on the spot. And I realize you know, well. Even though I'm a lot younger I'm the education is there. We know the whole industry, we have a lot of information because we are deeply embedded within it. We know the customers, we've seen the absolute worst. And I've studied heavily The Rise and Fall of all these businesses throughout the five plus year timeline. Let's do it. And eventually that scaled into create a 3d.
Cory McKane 19:05
That's awesome. I mean, I have like 18 questions. So from the origin of like 3d printers, what were people printing then? And then like, well, we'll say that's 2012 10 years ago, that's actually convenient. And then 2017 What were they printing and then what are they printing now like what was like the common use case for 3d printer from middle beginning and end?
Ethan Baehrend 19:27
I think initially when it first emerged I'm one public eyes were first on it. There were some industrial printers but they also kind of spewed out not so functional parts, but it was a better way than just going to traditional prototyping route because you're paying China 10s of 1000s of dollars for custom molds and everything and you virtually simulating and you're hoping to God it works at the end if you need to do any changes. That's tough, so expensive that can throw a company under. So I'm it's always been a lot of prototyping and that's still very consistent and more than 40% The industry is prototyping at the moment. gotcha, let's more efficiently do so because design it, click Print have a part. Well, that's that's what people would advertise is the final process. I mean, it is that's our process. But it's a lot more heavy for the printers, all these maintenance, seeing prep steps and things like that. But it's been a lot of prototyping, when the public first started to hear about in 2012. And a pen strapped, it was more on a consumer side where people thought, Oh, this is going to be in everyone's house, this is going to be the next paper printer. And it's going to take a better a pretty big innovation to be that. And at that time, it was a little trinkets, little knickknacks, little statues, figures, things like that in 2016 it was the guy a guy knew it's making little like things like it wasn't anything you guys can do. Well, the industrial science always been a lot quieter of it. I mean, it's been a massive tool that's really put in history is it's a massive marketplace as well, it's worth quite a bit and it's been growing insane rates. Yeah, but it's not something everyone's hearing about because the it's not as relevant to the consumer side. So the consumer magazines or anything, they're not going to be publishing articles about it until unless you hear every now and then I increase the like, Oh, we're printing rocket engines. And I have like human body parts and things like that. Sometimes you see those headlines, and you can but for the most part, had a big press wave. And I'm kind of died down a bit. But it's been making massive waves on the industrial side. What's manufacturable sometimes it's been used for more final parts now. But it just completely changed how things are designed and how things are produced on a small scale.
Cory McKane 21:27
Yeah. So I know you're really smart. And like anyone that runs a 3d printing company has to be intelligent. So but my question is, this might be hard to answer, maybe it's really easy to answer. Are you just that much smarter than all these guys running these companies? Because like, they're, if you're doing it for 10,000, what they're doing for 1.2 million? And they have like, I know you don't have a lot of stuff like I know, it's mostly you doing this stuff. I mean, even made now, last book scale will scale. Well, now last, but like, earlier on when you were already doing it, it was pretty much you so like, are you just literally that much smarter than these people? Is that? Like, I know, that's a weird question to ask. But like, some day, it's like, what's your competitive advantage or like, I'm just fucking smarter,
Ethan Baehrend 22:09
not because of any natural gift. And because of any lack of effort. I mean, I only got to hear through genuine passion I find when people say passion nowadays, it's simply referring to this is my preferred career. This is what I like to be my job when my passion is marketing. When I'm saying passion, it's I like it was mentioned earlier. If I could do anything, I think it'd be right back here. Yeah. And I And again, it was filling in my free time, I enjoyed this stuff. And it's awesome to be able to do it. But having what you love also be behind your main job. I mean, there's it's hard to strike a balance, and experiences a measure of time. And given that most seamless restart at the same time, I have put more hours into it and put more time into it than anyone else has. Because for four years trying to build this company, I was sleeping every man cycle, which is four hours of sleep per night, plus two three minute naps during the day. So I could work 120 hours a week, but you were
Cory McKane 23:02
like, technically optimizing your time intentionally like kind of just happened that way.
Ethan Baehrend 23:08
It sucks to get used to him because for a while and just be like that. But once you are high in those three min naps or productivity boosts and it's 30 or 330. Okay, I was like chi to 30 minute naps. So you got five hours of sleep per day. Gotcha. Okay, and the rest is work in between education, research, and then building the company to structure and prototype and it took a lot because we had to design a design method when against buying a lot of what engineering schools teach you isn't manufacturable design a production method to make those parts and then make the printer if that didn't work, restart, it took 280 plus iterations to get right. Until we cracked that formula of this is it this how we can manufacturing? And the reason it's so much less expensive is because of that manufacturing method we made to we designed to be crazily efficient, both in human capital and how many people are working these workstations and efficiency. I mean, it's $250,000 for us to double production, if we want to very cool and I mean, it's easily scale easy to scale up and scale down because I prepare from everything Plans A through H and I am even though we're an affordable product we have I'm pretty solid margins for it as well. I mean, it's yeah, it's surprising for a hardware product, especially given the stock price difference. And a bit of that is again, the production method, but also market strategy. I mean, we know a lot about the market. And we see that growing at over 30% year over year. And there's a lot of folks saying that closer to 2026. It's going to be over 63 billion and it's currently upwards of 16 right now, gotcha. Because of mass adoption, people are going to China saying hey, I need these parts made. I know this geometry is producible. Now and they have to say well, we don't have the tools. Gotcha. So there's mass adoption of technology and people starting to make it for final products. And if you have a product that's going to take a couple of years for someone to make a direct competitor to because it's that much further ahead. They have a rate of innovations High, we continue to innovate and build upon that. But we also get to corner the market for a short time become an instant instant industry leader. And that's what we've seen a lot of times demand wise and shows that people are saying, these were kind of slow. We've been overwhelmed. Yeah. And it's, it's been it's been a journey
Cory McKane 25:17
in so it's been a journey is like, how is your product? Because I know that it's hard to question to ask because there's so many different you said 280. Plus, way more after that, probably. So from the moment and not when you did that thing in 2012. But the moment that you guys were 3d creative, and you guys were like live, people bought a product, how much has it changed since that first purchase till now
Ethan Baehrend 25:37
that's it's changed quite a bit. And it's mostly because we just had some awkward timing i and we started to hit the market, mid to late 2019, which is why a lot of our media and of our market and presence is out there. And I'm I'm turning over 250,000 the first week of being around and you guys did Yes, I just from mine going to some shows and at the shows you can't get close these printers module has touched on some companies, they'll send out engineers to watch every line of code and make sure this thing's actually functioning versus I tend to my sales now just kind of people interact with it. And it was more of a design test for me I want to see if someone could break interact if something breaks don't worry about it. I'll get back to in a week only fixing it but improving upon it. I'll show you why very cool. And the things built like a tank people loved it ionic gotten hands on interactions, and it got a lot of interest early on. Okay. And that's why we're able to get a lot of traction time. And you couldn't really do much in terms of the small tiny like, basically out of a bedroom, and stuff that was there. But we're all together, we're able to move a few and gain more interest and shoot a couple more shows. And then I mean, after that we're like okay, we need to scale this so early in time, like tail end of 2019, early 2020 moved down to Austin have all this demand we're going to leverage this demand from sorry, Chicago.
Cory McKane 26:53
Gotcha. Oh, that's right. Yeah, my girlfriend's from ta cool.
Ethan Baehrend 26:57
Yeah, we're gonna move out here leverage that demand raise capital set up our production line much bigger and hit the ground running COVID So exactly. Me locked in a room with only this printer and also our virtual staff to try to help them move Yes or no Yes, though. You had just just moved nice nice not knowing anyone I'm being locked down all that with I'm basically it was a work apartment, I and I had a tiny corner for the bed. Everything else was printers, hardware, test benches, and everything else. And I was just me kind of going over and over on it and seeing what things we can improve upon. And there's been so many leaps and bounds made during that timeframe that it wouldn't make sense for us not to release it as a new as a new product name. And that's why we're releasing Evo and in January,
Cory McKane 27:44
so cool. And so what is gonna be the biggest difference between I think you might have mentioned this already, but between Evo and your current product, what's the difference?
Ethan Baehrend 27:52
There's quite a billion in terms of more Yeah. Yeah, I'll keep it briefer. I in terms of looks alone, we've made things a lot more sleeker find a lot of the wiring the function, the interfaces, on top of that, and we've really cranked up the speed and we're talking I'm hundreds of millimeters a second I'm really whipping these tools around. It's made it so easy that I'm you can swap anything from like a paste fixture that extrude paste, pellet extruder is carbon fiber and whatever function of printing you want. And it's super simple and it's one pull off and then you just plop the other thing on and connect one wire and that's it. Okay, and then we already identify what's connected to there and it's doing all the functions I mean, it's faster it's more precise, it's more reliable it's easier to use I'm kind of hit all the marks
Cory McKane 28:38
I'm excited to take this that's why you got to watch that video guys. I'm like people gonna be like What is he talking about? So we're gonna in the first three minutes I'll have a video of the products that we go see how it works and people can be like okay then they'll keep up the audio wise I feel bad for everyone is like there's so many things that you guys can do.
Ethan Baehrend 28:57
And then a I'll give I'll try to describe a visual that there we go. A tool head for a printer is typically composed of a couple of components and it can fit into a about six inch tall by three to four inch wide by three inch deep. I'm cube line kind of enclosed little bit with fans in it some wires and some boards on it. And we've made a cover printer do you mean you mean the motor different type of 3d printer? Yeah, thanks. Sorry 3d printer. There's a little thing on it that does most of the magic. Gotcha. All the rest of its computers and motors and belts are slinging that thing around Gotcha. But the tool heads potentially pushing out the material. Gotcha. And we have all these different tool heads. I can push on all these different specialty materials. And we've made it so easy that it's just a quick clamp like literally just place the thing in place. Hook up one wire and then your printer is capable of doing completely new function. So cool.
Cory McKane 29:48
I love that man. So okay, I'm trying to figure out ask this question. What What kind of how do you get this million answers to this? What kind of things can you build what Like, what can you build like a car? Or you said to me, could you build a car if a car was the size to fit inside that four by four frame?
Ethan Baehrend 30:07
Funny, you should mention that we have another as well, as I alluded to earlier hind the duo and EVO are both I'm our larger entries into the marketplace, though they're not the most disruptive thing we have in the pipeline, we've, we've gotten quite a bit bigger. And we've had stuff that's I'm starting to turn the heads of world government saying this isn't just a industry disrupter. But this can disrupt full supply chains, and even certain economies, which they excited to have. It's another thing that we unintentionally stumbled upon to, funnily enough, but we're releasing that closer 2025 or six, and the debut model for it is an almost entirely printed car, including the ECU wiring, like, the door is printed and metal than autonomously painted, polished, smooth dropped in line the glass and motor and like route silver ink in between the layers and potentially on one module. And we've been designing out the door and everything. So on the one module and 70, the whole assembly line, and then make that door, which is kind of crazy. So a much deeper topic to
Cory McKane 31:12
jump into this, this new printer could print a car and I could just get into it with a key and just turn on the car
Ethan Baehrend 31:19
or there'll be a couple assembly because I mean, it's not large enough to fully make one on one. But you can essentially take it from being like I'm not sure 1000s and 1000s of pieces to being like under 100 large pieces, because that's your, you could just bolt on if I'm four screws, and then it's their son I and that's it, we just design out the scripture that want to start testing a bit of that, and it's gonna be awesome to see that happen. So some stuff, it won't make as much sense for us to print, like, the shock to the structure of some of the springs, because it'll be hard to put in the gas. And I don't know how to do any of that. Thankfully, we have a lot of automotive partners that can help in some of those areas, but we'll be printing as much as we can because a lot of these shows I'll see cars are and it's because oh, we printed this one part of this little bit. Because you can't we're gonna do the whole thing as are as much as we can. I love that.
Cory McKane 32:08
What was your typical target market? Like are you working with like a Ford? Or are you working with like Amazon or like a consumer? like who are you working with?
Ethan Baehrend 32:18
I can't get to any specific names out Oh, sorry.
Cory McKane 32:20
I'm sorry. Yeah, type of Ford ask.
Ethan Baehrend 32:22
I think there's atch I think there's a well there's a lot of marketing, fake market advice in the market like I thought like I was mentioning I metals are their own sub market I am different functions, different specialties or features are all their own sub markets. Those in my opinion, artificial dividers, they all need to be dividing the industry if you can not do so through technology, the real divider is price. And I think there's three price tiers of customer there's a sub $10,000 consumer, it's not an everyday consumer, but I in within that price range. And you'll see startups hobbyists, engineers prototype or design people kind of doing stuff out of garage like early Ethan's basically there are a couple of them Yeah, we could do like a whole timeline of you growing. Even like cosplayers make costume and stuff like that we'll have a lot of these tools just anther disposal so if they're doing Etsy shops and things, it's an excellent tool for them very cool and 10,000 tends to be like that top of the line there. Yeah, and especially if they want something good that's going to last a long time. There's the sub $50,000 middle market of small and medium businesses research labs, universities, prototype errs machine shops, things like that. And I think that's probably one of the largest segments in the market just because of how many businesses are out there. Yeah, and then there's the 50,000 industrial market align military sports and companies and everything and thankfully you have to well I'm duos line of printers and EVO The objective is to build the reputation of all of them gotcha okay as a good quality products and future machines like the one we're aiming towards 2026 can specialize in each market because we've already built a reputation in it Yeah, so I'm duos keep our price perfectly to hit the very highest end of that consumer market be perfectly price and function for that middle market while outperforming the industrial market
Cory McKane 34:06
so do we'll be closer to 50k kind of range it should do well
Ethan Baehrend 34:09
so dual is 1800 when we used to manufacture we suspended orders on to and we've been paying them to do EVO orders Oh sorry, I was thinking EVO was at a $10,000 price point and then the one we're talking about 2026 is looking like it's going to be closer to 50,000 Gotcha.
Cory McKane 34:24
Okay, sorry. I thought EVO was trying to do was the new modes duo and the duo EVO gotcha
Ethan Baehrend 34:29
yes it's duo as the duo is what we're labeling the line of 3d printers so got to do the OG was the first one I do Evos the evolution of it and then there'll be some outside or like EVO HT for like especially high temperature I'm typically non printable materials and things like that.
Cory McKane 34:45
I love that. No, that's cool. I am a such a crazy price point for you guys to do all that stuff for these these massive companies. So how hard would it be for someone to just blatantly copy what you guys are doing?
Ethan Baehrend 34:59
It's tough. I mean, first of all, there'll be a lot of IP issues behind that.
Cory McKane 35:03
Sorry, if we take a step back, what do you guys have patents all this stuff? Or what do you have?
Ethan Baehrend 35:07
I think you have to take an interesting approach with 3d printing, especially if you're trying to market to any extent and that consumer market, because if we look, historically, there's been a lot of trouble with open and closed source and 3d printing is the 3d printing movement has grown to the extent it has because of a semi open nature in the industry, where consumers, consumers, like me would buy these printers and like, I make this better, I can print this part to make it better. And, and then a lot of times, like me, they share those sign innovations back as long as they got a little bit of credit. I mean, that's what they cared about moving the industry forward, and it helped push the industry. But the problem was certain companies try to who are fully open at first, which I don't think is the correct approach either fully open, no IP got copied, one to one by China, and the copies came out and they took the full 180 and went to fully closed source and a lot of community that built them up in the first place. Didn't like that. So that's why there's been movements to stop a lot of that. And if you want to build a reputation there, it's good to be able to support you on that. Because not everyone is going to have a 3d printing function that you know of it. There's people that are looking at our platform right now saying, hey, because you have this crazy level of precision, you have all these feeds, this would be perfect for a bio printer, can we have files so we can adapt our syringes and petri dishes onto your printer? Yeah, that would be a customer we couldn't have unless we were semi open. So we just keep it open, the customers actually buy the printer, but we have licensing that protects each of the individual design files. Gotcha. And a lot of those design files again, can't be manufactured any other way. Gotcha. Thankfully, and, and we have the entire production line keeping a lot of crazier machines trade secret, which is helpful and be and we don't share any of how we made any of those anywhere. And on top that there are certain parts that are are within it that are crucial to machines function that do have pans in it through our partners. And I'm it's a good approach that has proven to be defensible on an international scale, even in places like China have a history of copying a lot of products, while still keeping an open enough to expose yourself to more customers and empowering those hobbyists. That's how we're initially starting and moving forward after he built a real relationship showing that we're willing to be open the customers will start to move on two defensive patents while still being open to paying customers again, like so it gives us a higher tier of protection. And people being a people trying to take something copy and then sell it directly. But again, it's hard to do so if you don't have the production line if you don't know how it was made. And even if you try to do so there's IP issues behind it all so it's, it's gonna take a while and we've had we've had folks spend a lot of money we can't wait to folks that had projects that spent a lot of money trying to do so before saying we can't get this done. So that's not reaffirming I'm not sure what is
Cory McKane 38:02
this they were just trying to basically copy what you guys are doing. Yes. Nice. Okay, and they're like they don't have anything man. What are they gonna do? Yeah. So when you first started off, were you handling the product sales like basically being like an OG CEO, solo founder or like what was the original team like
Ethan Baehrend 38:21
a bit I am folks assume upon first glance that creative 3d Especially if they were looking at like investment perspective, that there was only me and for a while it was then and for a decent bit of time, it was that I especially in the development side, it's pretty much off in me early on, though, that hasn't been the case because there's a large network of people that are super supportive me my projects what I'm doing and I'm believed in me in the last business and I believe in me now and they've told I'm a lot of pro bono and advisory help i and mentorship and active partnership in a lot of ways has been really helpful and made up for that lack of Team early on and even investors on we've almost every single investor on our cap table has signed on to be a fully active partner cool. And even the first one told us and sign off on whatever you need on as needed basis when I said I need you all to share your team and train people on our product and send to a trade show. They offered it when I needed graphic design I marketing and all this different stuff. They've been a resource and cool. Put in a lot of effort with out of being an expense to us. So it's it's been a lot more supportive and a lot less lonely that might look from the National view, but it has heavily been me and all that because it's still coordinating all those lighter commitments to help. Gotcha so I'm that's scaled quite a bit now. I mean, I've been very fortunate to almost put together their dream team and I feel especially when 3d printing goes to smaller industry. It's hard to find out people have put the level of time dedication experience into something and can rival that experience wise, though I've been able to Find people that in my opinion are better than me in their own specialties. And that is the best thing to find
Cory McKane 40:05
in 3d printing itself or just like in marketing and that kind of stuff.
Ethan Baehrend 40:09
In each of their specialties. I'm marketing sales sign, even on the development side, too.
Cory McKane 40:14
Oh, very cool. Okay. Cool. Okay. So Drew Bulcock couldn't be here. He's an Arkansas priority. I don't know why you'd be in Arkansas for priority. What he had a one question so he wants to know how long until you can just literally print anything on your computer on your 3d printer
Ethan Baehrend 40:31
2026.
Cory McKane 40:35
Thanks, drew for the shitty questions. There. Just kidding. So
Ethan Baehrend 40:39
I can give a short summary on that because we can't go into too much detail. People don't know where to look, I guess can find some of the information I mentioned. Where we've been stepping up from just 3d printing we're seeing how we can improve it. And again, I'm we saw oh three Princess Leia. So if we mix in subtractive, manufacturing and milling to smooth those as you build up if you add in machine learning, so you can qualify the parts like compare each layer to the actual visual output of what the computer simulated that look like and learn often if not self correct, and the more you practicing part making more efficient, but we've just kind of saw that we made the absolute most no compromise platform and speed precision and we're talking about single micron uncoated tolerance, I'm poking a one micron on one side, moving like three feet per second to another corn and touching that same data. Again, I'm crazy platform and then really innovated upon swapping technology to actually encompass different types of manufacturing. If you encompass different types of manufacturing and bring them into that layer by layer process that is 3d printing, you can make some insane parts were never before possible. And we're talking about I'm effectively being able to produce anything from mine, like a full drone and the end including electronics wiring, I'm we're talking about taking even producing semiconductors, in some ways, producing boards like taking a 12 inch by 12 inch board and turning to a three inch by three inch cube. I'm painting parts smoothing parts, centering parts. And we're even like, we're starting to look at different modules because again, there's uses outside of what I know and what my what I'm proficient at. And well, we've been partnering with a lot of really disruptive companies and their own industries and make these excellent tools that do their one function. And I'm because we're an efficient platform to really pull it all together. And there's even like medical models, and people are considering doing personalized medicine on there. Because in terms of affordability, we essentially put a factory in a box and we're as efficient as I am. In terms of cost per product, we're eating a lot of centralized manufacturing, because we're taking out 10s of millions of dollars machinery, the supply chain all the pollution, the waste associated with in doing so a lot more sustainably and a lot more efficiently and shapes are never before manufacturable. That's so cool. So that as the as the slightly longer teaser, and there's a whole lot more to it. But as simple as I can make it,
Cory McKane 43:03
we'll do another podcast and 2026. And you're you talking answered or brought my question back then, okay, 10 minutes ago. And I brought this up with our last interview with Abigail. So as, as a CEO, as founder, like you constantly are just like, oh, we can do that. We can do that. We can do that. And then one day you go like, alright, we need to focus. When these people are like, we want to do medical and this, we want to do that. And this, like, are you going to do all of these things? Because your your printer is so easy to do them? Or is there a limit where you're like, that doesn't really make sense for us to do this. Like,
Ethan Baehrend 43:36
there are certain things I mean, but they're not. There's, there's a bit that there's two sides. It's always fun to say Yeah, and you know, everything, you could do everything, but I'm not one to be I'm, that's not my philosophy. That's not something I follow. And I unfortunately, the problem because this company, Stokes thought through through every potential bad scenario, and everything that if we're talking like we've had in the past, we've talked to investors, and it almost comes across as cocky. And I never mean it to, but everything they say is something that we've already been able to back and prove. Yeah. And that's a difference. I mean, I am very results driven, unless there's a result of backing, I'm not going to say it, I'm not going to bring it up, I'm not going to act like I know it or we can do it. And that's what I was saying like that 2026 unit. It can do quite a bit. And like on the medical side, I don't know nothing. I know nothing about it. And I'm not going to act like a can. That's why a partner if a company that does know how to and says this platform is excellent for it. I'm I am not one to Well, I fill myself I surround myself with a mess, knowledge advisory mentorship and all the areas I don't know what I'm not afraid to delegate. That's one of the that's been one of the issue. So not want to say no at all, but for a lot of 3d printing a lot of printing applications. It really is a one stop shop and that's always been the aim but certain things don't make much sense. Like if you're trying to print concrete I'm sure we can Extra concrete is not going to make sense. So you want to make a house fit. Gotcha. Maybe a small structure something. Sure. But on its own because everyone always mentioned the house printing whenever brings mentioned, we're not going to say we can print a house with that specific machine. Gotcha. And I'm there's there's certain limitations to them. But we've really refined the platform, the functionality enough that they're a bit on the extremes.
Cory McKane 45:19
Gotcha. Okay. So there's in 3d printing, there's no real limit to what you guys can create, basically,
Ethan Baehrend 45:25
there. I mean, there are certain like geometric limitations. I knew, of course, there's certain things we get very technical. Yeah. But I mean, as a platform for us, I mean, we see it as a way to open up a lot of avenues that typically weren't manufacturable through a completely new out of the box approach to how we can manufacture it, and how we can make these complex internal structures that make that part possible. You can't defy gravity, you can't break laws of physics. So and we are bound, we are bound by that unless we send the printers in the space which we can operate no gravity. But I'm sorry, I said I'm there. They're on the extreme end, as long as it's in a physical product, there's a lot of times a way that we might be able to help.
Cory McKane 46:05
Very cool. And how many, how many of those machines? Have you guys made the current? Duo's? How many have you made so far?
Ethan Baehrend 46:13
So like I said, doing was just had awkward timing, we we had a pretty limited run in it. Because I mean, we did a few of them, and then we're ready to scale up and like regard them and get into production. And then it couldn't happen. Just timing also, right. Now, we're still have to make a whole lot more. And we're making a lot of Evos for our own production line right now. Cool. And that'll be exciting. I think we're gonna have upwards of 40 of them in our
Cory McKane 46:38
soak in our space. Do you use your own 3d printer to make 3d printers? Yes. So that's,
Ethan Baehrend 46:45
well, that's so cool. It's a statement. I mean, it shows you trust your own product, enough to print more of your own product, why and it's a continuous 24/7 stress test, we're going to run into an issue more likely before a customer does and I and we're so modular, and I'm flexible, that we can change our entire production line to make essentially most high a lot of things. And within a day, yeah, or if we need to push on updating, we can easily wildly push on it's constant stress, it's using your machine and it's good to have it's easy for the team to learn interact with because you have all them there. It's a resource to it. That's a telephone line, we'll we're hoping to be a resource kind of like for the local community as well with some of those too.
Cory McKane 47:27
I was glad I asked that because I didn't even that didn't even pop into my head until just now. But how cool is that that your own product makes your like building a clone army like just like
Ethan Baehrend 47:35
blowing. That's how we can. That's one of the reason why we can scale up so easily. And one of the biggest lot of the biggest parts that really bring all together the parts that were buying from other OEMs, and nine, having pre manufactured are the printed parts. And those are the most likely factor just print more printers or print more of these custom in house production tools to make more than so very cool. As I was saying it's very quick to scale up or scaled down.
Cory McKane 48:01
In Are you were you bootstrap when you started this because like we mentioned again, like you could just do it yourself. You didn't really need like other people to pay for stuff. So you start off bootstrapped like how you don't say how much you've raised if you want to, and then like what round. Are you guys? Are you raising more like where are you right now? Yeah,
Ethan Baehrend 48:21
we did a precede right when the company was founded, because we've had folks that's right, when you do something in venture, right when you Sunday, and I can get in on I want to be there. Those are some of our earliest I'm I'm asleep best supporters. That's been excellent around the time. So we did raise some initially, but it's been a lot of financial commitment from my side. Yeah. And I thankfully getting the funds for an increase business and things like that helped. But I mean, when when you're doing the hardware, and you're doing a lot of iteration development, it only goes so far. So yeah, we had some race. And that was mainly to develop this idea to a functional proof of concept and then not only verify, but quantify the demand and market for it, because there hasn't been a real direct comparison yet. Gotcha. And then. And then after that it was once that was validated, we could then raise a larger seed round because I'm the best way to produce this is having a full production line set up. I'm not trying to swamp the garage, though, we could if we wanted to gotcha was the leverage the man that we generate to scale things up set production line hit the ground running. So we had a recent seed round, we did a really good job over funding cattle on demand. A lot of that came from actually the customers who got to interact with the machine saying, Well, I want to buy this. And we told them, the quickest way to get is if you helped help us get there. So that was great, because I mean, for us, it's a clever approach. And a lot of people are thrown off by hardware for looking at the investment side. Yeah. So and we essentially took a crowd equity approach initially during the pandemic, which is what platforms you use micro ventures out here in Austin. Oh, cool. Nice. Very cool. Yeah, so I am we use that as a tool in a unique way that I'm labial say I never thought of you. I never thought of doing it like this. Yeah. We were doing at a time that no one is really investing because I'm pandemic started on, you're nervous about your funds, you don't know what's going to happen. There's a sense of caution of everyone. And so we go to our customers. And if you want this quicker, here's what you can do it. And for us to raise a decent bit, then I'm is a statement. But I also showed because it's coming from a lot the customers that it's a proof of conversion. It's such a valuation, it's such a term sheet that once it's over, that value is still set in stone, we can get other VCs and angels to jump in on that as well. And it shows investment interests. And I'm first investor is always the hardest, right? Yeah. And it showed that and I'm it was unique strategy and unique way to leverage it, but it worked out really well. So
Cory McKane 50:51
when you go into these funding rounds, that was the figure seed round, for example, like when you're talking to these investors, like what are you pitching them? Like this is the future of 3d printing, this is like we're gonna make a billion dollars like what is what is like your what is like your main like cover slide kind of
Ethan Baehrend 51:05
now we're then if we're talking to him, while you said that, because a very there's been a difference? Well, I'm
Cory McKane 51:11
glad you asked. Because I usually do ask that. And for some reason I didn't. So like, yeah, when you did your pre seed versus your seed, what was the difference in like the the pitch that you were bringing about?
Ethan Baehrend 51:23
There wasn't as much to the pitch on the precede admittedly, as we had the concept kind of showing them at the at that point, we didn't you know how to pitch it properly, because we're just saying we want to make a bigger, better printer. The objective wasn't to make an all in one solution printer, though, we realize kind of after we made them figured out the production line, everything, hey, this is fast enough to be this type of printer. This can handle the carbon fibers to be this other type prime. And we kind of realize, oh, this is a lot of printers. So though I'm just making really reliable functional printer in the first place, because I my frustrations are of printers not working. Of course you want to make one it just worked. That was the main objective. And that was the only pitch with them. And I'm like I said they were early supporters, they want to be in it before even announced that. Yeah, that's all and eventually, when the seed it was, hey, hi, I'm investors want to make money. And in 3d printers, a lot less industry specific investors as well, because it's in terms of how many people are populating it a smaller industry, even though it's worth a decent bit, yeah. And what 96% of funding is software, 4% hardware, and then, like 12, or 15% of that's like companies at the stage in terms of traction level of where we were doing that Gotcha. It was rough. So at that point, it was really trying to appeal to the investor of here's the impact that we want to have, here's where we're going, here's our traction, here's the team behind it. And I that was the biggest one. And at this point, now I am because we've had a lot of leaks that 2026 product, and that's something that people have deemed to be an impossibility for a while now. Because that leaked. I mean, it's been a very different story. And because of the traction we've been able to have, as well, it's also been a different story in that. And we've had the pick of the litter and a bit of ways. A lot of folks have told us no early on have come back. And that's that's, that's a great feeling to have. And
Cory McKane 53:17
well, what um, was that an intentional leak? Or? No? Okay, that was
Ethan Baehrend 53:22
that was refine. Mentor advisor that's been helping on that project for a while told her to a government party they knew so now essentially function as CTO for a foreign party. And then they told him, Hey, there's the technology, you might want support, or else it might compete with you. And they're like, Okay, let's check this out. And they had a lot of information. And this is just 126 product. They allow information, I thought, Oh, well. So working with them what we can make this and they tried to they spent a decent bit of money to before they close a project short or close a project short, saying this, this might not be possible. And they're like, Okay, well, then we'll work with them. And then that leaked to that country's Communist Party who was not a fan of it. And they've been sending threats and everything saying like this can really shake things up. We can't have this. So I'm and then that's what started to make things public event. And on that front end, I'm the folks that are really diligent in keeping up and finding a lot of information. I'm have reached out and it's been funny. I've had folks on interviews for some jobs we're hiring for because it's been a completely different demographic after that leaked out. Oh, gotcha. Initially, I was just focused on it. Yeah, you know, I'm three prints. Cool. I might be interested in this to folks that would talk about that 2026 product without me even mentioning it. You're like, oh, well didn't What about this? And how do you find out about that? Yeah, you're like, scrambling for an excuse to try to find nine trying to say something like, Oh, it's on your LinkedIn. I scroll through it again. I don't think so. So I'm you can tell who knows, but no, not not intentional. Well, But it had pros and cons. So very cool.
Cory McKane 55:03
As a we'll get to you as a founder. So like, as a founder, what do you think like your best, we would throw out your best stuff? What do you think your worst skill is you think as a founder, or CEO, either one.
Ethan Baehrend 55:20
Like my printers, I like to think of myself as a jack of all trades in a way, I'm not the best at each individual thing that I can encompass, okay, but I, I am good at them. And I'm good at being able to manage the folks that can do each of those functions better than I can. And I've had a track record of being able to track good talent also keep in, and I'm just build environment that values people's inputs that they like to be in. But I think my worst skill in doing so at least in terms of number quality, I could probably mention is trying to be better be a bit more relatable, and I just on the social aspect is I've sacrificed so much in my life to just completely dive into the technicals. I mean, not barely socializing, if anyone for four years kind of screws you up, especially in like younger developmental years. I mean, it's, it's something I didn't have to pivot from, and I've been trying to make up for, but I did eliminate a social circle, and I killed a lot of that and teenage life just to and just for work with the previous business and, and even the current wine, it's, there's been a lot of sacrifices. And they're ones Honestly, I'd be happy to make over again. But I'm the only thing my own way. So when trying to be relatable to like in the investor talks, that's when I will start to see some of that stuff come up. And then because I get less technical, but I am still giving impact and everything. But it's very much this is like strictly business even now you need to lighten up, lighten up, I need to be a little more expressive. So those are all things I've been working on. But I think that's the biggest one.
Cory McKane 56:54
Do you really want to have investors that can speak your language? Or like do you just like do not really care like?
Ethan Baehrend 57:02
Well, again, it's been it's been like varying stories, I mean, it's always been ambassador that we can find additional value in, okay, and when we were doing the rounds previously, and in the future ones if they need to have some sort of active input, other than just capital, because at this point, especially with how disruptive we've been with the traction, we've had the interest we've had, they're, they're the ones winning in a lot of scenarios. So we need to find how they can make up for it. A lot of times the difference, the continuing difference evaluation, as we progress after we open around as we progress week after week, how they make up for that line that is partnership, we want something that's going to be strategic, we want something that's going to be a benefit, and we want something it's going to be great to have as a partner on the cap table. So and when we've looked for it, it's been someone that can fit those things and provide something active Alesso if it's industry specific, because again, there's less in the industry, but if we can find some external value, just from a personal level with them, that's going to be helpful because I am there's some marketplace aspects, for example, with the 2026 product and even though an investor initially looking at it might not think I'm marketplace, ecommerce, that kind of thing that I am that doesn't mean it's not in the roadmap at all. So sometimes the very contrary, or some apparently opposite skill sets or experience that we'll have with some people are going to be on the cap table can actually be really helpful. And I And sometimes that external perspective can really open up your
Cory McKane 58:28
eyes. Gotcha. Okay, very cool. He has asked me, I feel like you're just getting investors from all angles. So as long as they're helping you out and giving capital that works,
Ethan Baehrend 58:37
I gotta find a good one. So we've definitely had some learning experiences along the way to have partners that commit a lot and make a lot of promises and not fulfill them too. So it's really trying to screen them first, which has been one thing I've been trying to improve on with our team or really screen them to make sure the absolute best for us and their sign, it's going to really hold them to it. good problem
Cory McKane 58:58
to have to have too many investors. Too many.
Ethan Baehrend 59:02
That's that's one of the thing we've had a lot of interest come in as a late specially the more traction we have, but I'm not sure when we need it. Yeah, because I mean, we built this thing to be selfish. And if we do 13 units in a month are profitable, our least disruptive, high income competition that started at the same kind of base plate that I that we did, with a price point that's three times higher than ours, was doing upwards of 20 units a month. So and we made things sofas, and that's unrealistically low, and it doesn't take much to profit and we've have more than 10 times that amount of demand on a monthly basis. I mean, so we make it like 100 of these things in wonder like what do you guys typically were saying at the current production line to do closer to 150 a month cool. Hoping for that and especially once people are training, gain more proficient each of the stations it's gonna go quicker. But I'm scaling up to that because with little to no marketing, we've been seeing bad backlog issues so already meeting current product or the future production capacity much and my once there's marketing and actual sales effort put into it, it's might be a worse story.
Cory McKane 1:00:09
Oh, yeah, I mean, basically quick math, you're just doing like one to 1.5 million a month in those. So I mean, that's insane. I mean, if you do need to raise
Ethan Baehrend 1:00:20
any, that's not saying, Well, I was trying to touch on if we look at the three praying history because again, I've I mean, grossen I hear it all the time. I see it all the time. I know what's happened. Some of the best products to hit the market have historically had large backlogs. And if it's a quality product that people like, the industry is willing to wait, gotcha. There has been successful products have sold and people pay full upfront and wait over six months, just hoping they get it very good I am we can likely subsidize any large growth that we need to do through backlog, or even I am debt on that side of things too. So we don't need to sell much more equity. But if we need to as well, there's definitely that interest there too. And you never want to burn up bright and shiny. And we're keeping those combos open and we're keeping likes on the acquisition cars. Oh, because you never know. And I'm, you want to keep on your pies. We never know who might be helping you later on. Cultivate the relationships? Yeah, absolutely.
Cory McKane 1:01:16
Well, sweet. Do you have anything you want to close with? Are you guys hiring? Do you are you looking for a certain person to work with like, what are you looking for?
Ethan Baehrend 1:01:25
So we're concluding our current hiring wave and we're going to be going through a bit of a bigger one starting in closer to October November. So we're going to be hiring on that front. And on top of that, we're also really revving up for duo or Evos launch duo Evos launch.
Cory McKane 1:01:43
So keep an eye out for that. There we go. Awesome, man. It was pleasure to have you on here. Yeah, I appreciate it. That's why we strive man
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
