One of the biggest hurdles in running a 3D Printer manufacturer in US is the cost of talent. If you are hiring experienced technical folks from the other big players like SSYS/HP they have inflated expectations. Imagine running a tight ship to get 4-5MM in sales in the first year(e.g. Nexa,Carbon,Markforged )however your talent spread is barely covered with that revenue! So you have to dilute and infuse more capital leading to a spiral like a ponzi. OTH you can hire the same talent offshore in India/China for 1/5th of the cost. My friend in China who produces high temp printers that also provided 'kits' to a now defunct US based high temp printer brand and studied their operations, swore to me that "he would never ever be able to run such a high cost mechanical engineering cost operation here and survive!"
One of the biggest hurdles in running a 3D Printer manufacturer in US is the cost of talent. If you are hiring experienced technical folks from the other big players like SSYS/HP they have inflated expectations. Imagine running a tight ship to get 4-5MM in sales in the first year(e.g. Nexa,Carbon,Markforged )however your talent spread is barely covered with that revenue! So you have to dilute and infuse more capital leading to a spiral like a ponzi. OTH you can hire the same talent offshore in India/China for 1/5th of the cost. My friend in China who produces high temp printers that also provided 'kits' to a now defunct US based high temp printer brand and studied their operations, swore to me that "he would never ever be able to run such a high cost mechanical engineering cost operation here and survive!"