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SupplyBetter Launches 3D Printing Comparison Engine to Give Designers More Choice
SupplyBetter Launches Comparison Shopping for 3D Printing
Calling itself the “Kayak of 3D Printing”, SupplyBetter provides comparison shopping for 3D printing. With over 200 suppliers, SupplyBetter gives more choice to a designer or consumer looking for a 3D printed object. Sometimes you want to print high quality and sometimes you want low cost. SupplyBetter helps you find the right fit.
We spoke with SupplyBetter co-founder and CEO Matthew Du Pont.
On 3D Printing: Tell us what SupplyBetter does.
Matthew Du Pont: SupplyBetter does two main things.
1) We help buyers find better service bureaus for 3D printing – most companies online are trying to sell you their own printing services, even if they’re not the best fit. We have a database of hundreds of companies that provide 3D printing, which lets us match companies with the right supplier based on geography, material, price, speed, and application. It’s similar to Kayak – buyers come to us, upload a drawing and some information on what they want, and we pick the best suppliers and pull together quotes for the buyer.
2) We help buyers find better contract manufacturing beyond 3D printing. Our eventual goal is to be the best way of finding manufacturers for custom mechanical parts, so whether they need a small run of wood parts in the US or metal casting in China, we’re happy to help them out. We charge buyers if and only if they select a supplier we find for them, and have helped people with wood, plastic, and metal parts.
On 3D Printing: How did you get started?
Matthew Du Pont: Matt and Rob have been friends for seven years. They both have previous unpleasant experiences with procuring custom parts (Matt at a trucking company, Rob at a robotics company), and decided to build a better way to get things made. They’ve been working on SupplyBetter since early 2013.
SupplyBetter has helped buyers in North America and Europe, and quoted suppliers worldwide. Our customers so far have mainly been hardware startups and makers, seeking to prototype or bring prototypes to production.
On 3D Printing: Where can someone go to learn more?
Matthew Du Pont: Here are some links:
www.supplybetter.com - The main homepage, for people looking for quotes on 3D printing
www.supplybetter.com/
www.supplybetter.com/getting_