The Blog

Becoming an Entrepreneur at 15 with 3D Printing!

My grandson, Brady, who is 15, became fascinated with 3D Printing technology. He started printing trinkets and having fun. Then it started growing into a business. Here is how the story began.

Our son, Eli, was proud of his interest and told his physical therapist about the gadget in their house.  The therapist had been playing around with a tool idea that could help so many of his patients. He wanted to design a tool that would fit in your hand and was easy to hold.  It had a ball on the end of it.  The tool enabled people to reach and massage muscles in their necks that were hard to reach and massage appropriately without the correct device.  He was looking for someone with a 3D printer to print out some prototypes for testing.  So Brady stepped in to help design, create and manufacture the tool.

The advantage of having a 3D printer was huge for the therapist because he needed to produce a small number of his newly designed tools, tweak them, test them, and reprint some more.  He didn’t know how many iterations of this process he would need before taking the product to a manufacturer and ultimately the marketplace.

Brady is learning about 3D Printing as well as learning some entrepreneurial skills.  He is learning about design and taking an idea to the marketplace.  He is making money and learning about reinvesting to grow his business. I am so proud of him that he is putting a dream and passion into action!  Good going, Brady!