05-22-2013: Zortrax launched its Kickstarter campaign for M200 3D printer
The Kickstarter campaign was one of the best prepared at that time
On May 22, 2013 Zortrax - a then unknown startup from north-eastern Poland, presented M200 - a desktop FDM / FFF 3D printer, which was soon to revolutionize the whole industry and set new standards in designing and manufacturing devices of that kind.
The fact that today the M200 design seems "classic and obvious" to us is due to Zortrax. At that time, 3D printers were either open structures with cables sticking out everywhere and were made mainly of wood, dibond, plastic or thin cheap sheet metal.
Zortrax M200 had a simple but perfectly professional "industrial" design, high quality workmanship and solid and relatively expensive components. But this is only the beginning. The remaining features were truly revolutionary…
When everyone was using open-source software (mainly CURA, Slic3r and KISSlicer), Zortrax introduced its own Z-SUITE, which was... closed to other 3D printers. While everyone allowed changing exactly every 3D printing parameter, Zortrax blocked changing even the filament temperature settings, forcing users to only use submitted materials. It seemed like a suicidal strategy, but instead… it was a resounding success!
It turned out that limiting users to selecting basic parameters, such as the orientation of the 3D model on the printbed, layer height and infill, as well as the choice of filament type (which was provided only by Zortrax), guarantees simplicity of use and high quality and repeatability. In fact, the M200 was a desktop Stratasys... Okay - it didn't have the same class and performance as Fortus, but at this price it was an excellent alternative. It cost only $1,899.
The Kickstarter campaign was extremely professional - one of the best prepared at that time. Zortrax obtained financing - 144 backers pledged $179,471. This began an 11-year career, where in the first years the company was one of the market leaders in Europe. Then things went south, but that's a completely different story...
Source: www.kickstarter.com