EP 111 — Vision Miner's Rob Lent On 9 Years Of Bootstrapping Accessible High-Temp 3D Printing

<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rlent/"><u>Rob Lent</u></a>, Co-Founder and COO of <a href="https://visionminer.com/"><u>Vision Miner</u></a>, has spent nine years making high-performance polymer 3D printing accessible to companies that used to need quarter-million-dollar machines. Materials like PEEK and ULTEM have been used in industry for over 40 years, but printing them in-house was out of reach for most.</p><p>Rob walks Dave through bootstrapping from a bedroom printer to manufacturing their own IDEX machine in Ukraine, surviving eight months of wartime shipping shutdowns, and designing hardware around ITAR requirements based on nine years of customer needs.</p><p>Topics discussed:</p><ul><li><p>Making PEEK and ULTEM 3D printing accessible to smaller companies</p></li><li><p>Bootstrapping a hardware company with zero outside funding</p></li><li><p>Manufacturing machines in Ukraine through wartime disruption</p></li><li><p>Designing ITAR-conscious hardware with removable WiFi modules</p></li><li><p>Why 3D printing ROI lives in the manufacturing process</p></li><li><p>Nanopolymer adhesive built for PEEK that works on all plastics</p></li><li><p>Emotional control as a founder&#39;s most critical leadership skill</p></li><li><p>Comparing 3D printing adoption to semiconductors in the 1970s</p></li></ul><p><strong>Listen to more episodes: </strong></p><p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dib-innovators/id1720062726"><u>Apple </u></a></p><p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Z3PpCHsglA3uk2S6dCRBP"><u>Spotify </u></a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX2eBOnzz1SX0Psj6BmbdCw"><u>YouTube</u></a></p><p><a href="https://radicl.com/dib-innovators-podcast"><u>Website</u></a></p>