SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
Will This 43 Year Old Win The 3D Printing Industry? EP 260: Drew Taylor
05 Jun 2016
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have.
Chapter 2: What inspired Drew Taylor to create AstroPrint?
I'm now at $20,000 per top. Five and six million. He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark. And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Okay, Top Tribe, this week's winner of the $100 is Zach Faron. He's a 22-year-old Apple employee, and he's listening to the show and loving it.
For your chance to win $100 every Monday, simply subscribe to the podcast on iTunes now and then text the word NATHAN to 33444 to prove that you did it to enter. Good morning, Top Tribe. You're listening to episode 260. And coming up tomorrow morning, you'll hear from Robin Thurston, who launched his own company, got 20 million monthly active users, and sold to Under Armour for $150 million.
We'll have a special video edition of this as well. So stay tuned and tune in bright and early tomorrow morning. All right, Top Tribe, if you like 3D printing, don't move a muscle. Listen in on this one. We've got the founder, Drew Taylor, with us today of AstroPrint, which is an IoT, Internet of Things platform in a 3D printing vertical and is often referred to as the
android of the 3d printing industry the astro print software platform is the world's largest ecosystem okay largest ecosystem of 3d printing content and applications and is compatible with 80 of 3d printers on the market today this position positions astroturf as the default platform for third-party content development and distribution for the entire 3d printing market
Monetization occurs through commercial licensing, which we'll get into in a second, of the platform, and a 70-30 revenue share on the 3D printing app store. Drew, are you ready to take us to the top?
Oh, I'm ready.
I'm ready. Let's knock it out. I know. I'm so jealous of your Twitter feed. I see all these cool 3D printed objects that are like human size. It looks like this is like a rocket ship or something from March 20th. But tell us more about what Astro Print is and how you make money.
Okay, two big things. What actually is it and how does it provide benefit to society, right? Yeah, so basically, you know, we saw some time ago that the 3D printing hardware has come a long way. It's amazing. It can do amazing things. But the software side and the ecosystem was holding the industry back.
So what Astro Print is, is a company that makes 3D printers incredibly simple to operate so that no one needs any technical skills to operate these machines and then connects them to the content that they want to print. So we solve the problem of what to print and how to actually print it.
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Chapter 3: How does AstroPrint monetize its services?
Oh, they'll basically white label a machine. So they white label a machine to a major brand, and then we white label the software solution behind the machine.
So I'm going to make up a name. Nathan's 3D Printer Inc. already works with, I'm making this up, Toys R Us. And it's a boring basic 3D printer. I would partner with AstroPrint to deliver additional designs, all the cloud-based infrastructure to Nathan's 3D printer that's already in Toys R Us. Is that right?
Yes, but it could be even more. So basically, if you had a deal with Toys R Us to white label that machine to be the Toys R Us printer, then our software would make that printer intelligent, connect it to a cloud with Toys R Us apps, and then also allow that printer to be interacted with through iOS and Android apps as well.
Specific for Toys R Us, that's also white label?
It could be for Toys R Us, but another aspect of it is by connecting to our entire app marketplace, that Toys R Us machine is connected to every other app that's out there, which means remote monitoring. Thingiverse is a very, very popular model repository with hundreds of thousands of models.
When we say model, you mean like designs people can print, right? Exactly, exactly. So the machine gets more valuable, obviously, just like the iPhone gets more valuable if there's more apps.
That is exactly it. And then that's why Toys R Us would want that machine connected to as many apps as possible because in this industry, content sells the hardware. Totally. Just like in phones. Yep, totally. And just so you know, it's pretty interesting you brought up Toys R Us.
One that, I mean, we are not currently partnered with, so I feel okay bringing it up, is Mattel will have a $299 3D printer in stores this Christmas. It's already been announced.
Why didn't you guys get that deal?
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Chapter 4: How does AstroPrint's app store model work?
And it's that tranche that we've got the the interest from from these VCs.
Well, congratulations, Drew. Top triple link to all this in the show notes at Nathan Latka dot com forward slash the top two six zero. And if you're listening on SoundCloud or Stitcher or anywhere besides iTunes, you can go on to iTunes and download all 250 episodes by just searching Nathan Latka, the top in iTunes.
Drew, real quick, before we get into my favorite part of the show, if people want to connect with you personally online, where can they do that, man?
Oh, definitely on Twitter. Astro Print 3D. People can email me. I'm OK with that. Drew.Taylor at Astro Print dot com. Awesome.
Yeah. Okay, Top Tribe, do not forget your chance to win a hundred bucks right here on the podcast every Monday. It's very simple. You just subscribe to the show on iTunes. And then once you've done that, text me to prove that you've done it. My number is 703-431-2709. Subscribe now and text me to enter 703-431-2709.
okay top tribe i have to tell you many people go nathan and you came out of nowhere your website's growing so fast how'd you do it the answer is simple so i use hostgator i don't know if you guys know that but i use hostgator and the reason i do they have like about 4 500 free templates i can use because i don't code they've got a great e-commerce plugin and guys i bug the heck out of their support they've got 24 7 support
which I love. So what I've done is I've worked with him.
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Chapter 5: What challenges did AstroPrint face in its early years?
You guys know I make great deals. If you go to hostgator.com forward slash Nathan, you can sign up, get your own domain for 30% off and a 45 day money back guarantee. Okay. Again, I make great deals for you guys. Go to hostgator.com forward slash Nathan to grab that now. Awesome. Well, Drew, we're about to get into my favorite part of the show. No pressure, man. Do you know what's next?
What's next? It's time for the famous five. Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. Let's do it. Number one, what's your favorite business book?
Oh, favorite business book for me is Crossing the Chasm. I mean, which fits our market.
Yeah. Yep. Great book. Number two, is there a CEO that you're following or studying right now?
You know, there's not. But but I'm a fan of Tony Hsieh. I know he's doing some unusual things these days, but I'm a fan of people that view their workforce in a different way than just productivity tools.
Number three, is there a favorite online tool you have like HostGator?
I use Trello. I almost abuse Trello. Spread planning? Yes. Awesome. Two-week sprints usually? For me, it turns into just some massive to-do list over time. But yeah, we do a lot of two-week sprints.
All right. Number four, what's your situation currently? Do you already married? Single? Do you have kids? I am single. Okay. And how old are you? I am 43. 43. Okay. So here's my question. As you're building this new business, okay, you're 43. Yes or no. Are you getting eight hours of sleep every night or not? Absolutely not. What are you getting? Like five, six?
Uh, yeah, five or six. I mean, I would say it's more about being sporadic. There are times when, when I could get eight, eight to 10 and, you know, sleep late and work late. And then there's other days where it's like, yeah, five, five to six.
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