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3D Printing Is Coming

We may have witnessed something great coming out of this so called Great Recession, and that is 3D Printing. 2011 was a big year, an inflection point if you ask me, for the industry: scores of startups, few are well funded; lots of buzz and excitement; technologies improved; prices are dropping; the entrepreneurs, VCs, early adopters are all focused as they see this as an opportunity. It’s just at matter of time before they make them bots faster, cheaper and be able to print anything that we want.

Look at the Google Trends below. Can you feel it? I can feel it. That this could potentially be something huge and it’s picking up momentum.

I don’t own a 3D printer, but I’m watching the industry very closely. Here are a few startups I’m keeping an eye on: MakerBot, Shapeways, TinkerCad, PrinterBot. There are two publicly traded companies, both with $150M-$200M revenues, profitable and growing: 3D Systems ($DDD) and Stratasys ($SSYS). Hewlett-Packard had a deal with Stratasys; maybe they’ll decide to add another D to their printing business and give the industry a boost. I currently own none, just watching.

I also follow these guys @toddsampson, @bpm140, and @fusion94 on my Twitter stream, who show great interest in the space. Hopefully they’ll soon set up a 3d bot shop so I can go print my whitening mouthpieces (still have the mold). They are broken and I don’t want to bother my dentist. She is lovely and all, but she always finds something wrong with my teeth, and I can’t say no to her. Bummer.

There’s still plenty of liquidity out there and it will find a new home. I think this is it. Plus, don’t we all want to read about something else on Techmeme besides smartphones and tablets?