Polymaker CEO argues that better filament, and not necessarily better desktop machines, will unlock the disruptive potential of 3D printing.
An entrepreneur friend of mine likes to tell the story of the time he met a very rich man. Impressed by the guy’s car, clothes, and companion, my friend wanted to know what the man did for a living. The rich man said he sold a product to Wal-Mart. My friend wanted to know what he sold — clothes, electronics, housewares? The man dismissed all these with a chuckle and a wave. “No one gets rich that way,” he said. “You know the boxes Wal-Mart uses to ship all that stuff? I make the glue that holds them together.”
I thought about that story the other day during a phone call with Xiaofan Luo, founder of the Chinese company Polymaker, which makes filament for 3D printers.
