3D Printed Homes: How Automation is Transforming Construction

3D printing and automation are transforming home construction by cutting costs, improving efficiency, and increasing durability. 3D-printed homes eliminate traditional inefficiencies, reduce reliance on skilled labor, and offer fireproof, hurricane-resistant, and mold-proof housing solutions. With robotics and automation, manufacturers can scale home production faster than ever before while reducing material waste.

Key Highlights:
 • How 3D printing is making housing more affordable and faster to build
 • The role of automation in reducing material waste and labor shortages
 • The cost and time savings of 3D printing compared to traditional homebuilding
 • Why concrete homes offer superior durability and disaster resistance
 • The biggest challenges to adoption, including city regulations and builder acceptance

Key Takeaways:
 • 3D-printed homes can cut construction time by up to 50% and lower costs by 10-20%
 • Automation is making homebuilding more scalable and accessible
 • Concrete homes are fireproof, mold-resistant, and built to withstand extreme weather
 • Industry adoption is growing, but city regulations remain a key challenge

The construction industry is evolving, and 3D printing is at the forefront of innovation. Learn how Printed Technologies is using automation and robotics to revolutionize housing and what this means for developers, builders, and homeowners.

Connect with Lance Thrailkill:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lance-thrailkill-18a63b91/
Website: Print3DTechnologies.com
Email: lance@print3dtechnologies.com

Chapters:

00:00:00 Opening
00:03:08 Introduction to 3D-Printed Home Construction
00:06:35 The Blue Ocean Market for 3D-Printed Homes
00:07:25 How Much Faster Are 3D-Printed Homes to Build?
00:10:41 Cost Comparison: 3D Printing vs. Traditional Construction
00:12:25 Innovations Driving 3D-Printed Homes Forward
00:15:29 Designing Homes with 3D Printing: What’s Possible?
00:18:06 Why Printed Technologies Always Delivers on 3D Prints
00:27:07 The Biggest Challenges in Affordable 3D-Printed Housing
00:29:41 The Future of 3D-Printed Homes and Adoption Timeline
00:32:40 Why Printed Technologies is Entering the Custom Home Market
00:35:08 Planning for the Future of 3D Home Construction
00:37:57 Creating a Culture of Innovation in Manufacturing
00:41:27 Advice for Young Entrepreneurs in Construction and Tech
00:43:21 The Mindset for Success in Business and Leadership
00:43:51 Lance Thrailkill’s First Job and Entrepreneurial Journey
00:45:37 How Serving Others Shapes Business Success
00:47:23 The Role of Faith and Purpose in Entrepreneurship
00:50:33 How to Connect with Lance Thrailkill and Printed Technologies

Subscribe for More Discussions on:
 • Construction Innovation
 • Automation and Robotics in Manufacturing
 • Affordable Housing and 3D-Printed Homes
 • Leadership and Entrepreneurship in Tech

#3dprinting  #automation  #lifelessons  #affordablehousing  #manufacturing  #particle41  #podcast

Transcript

How 3D Printing & Automation Are Reshaping Construction!
Episode 40 on the Particle Accelerator Podcast by Particle 41

Ben

[00.00.00]

 Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Particle Accelerator Podcast, where we talk to future thinking business leaders about how to grow their team and accelerate their business. I'm here today with Lance. Lance. Why don't you introduce yourself? 

Lance

[00.00.11]

 Hey. Thank you. Ben. Glad to be here. It's an honor. Uh, Lance, it's my name. And I'm the CEO of All Metals Fabricating. We're a contract manufacturer. And, uh, in Texas, we just specialize in sheet metal fabricating, machining, powder coating, electrical, mechanical assembly. And, uh, and I'm also the co-founder of Printed Technologies, a 3D home printing business that is, uh, about to change the affordable housing crisis here in America. And, uh, we're excited about that. We are building. And also, , so we're building houses and we're also building and selling machines, which is through our unique partnership with All Metals Fabricating, which is the, , 50% shareholder in the business. 

Ben

[00.00.48]

 So it's super cool. So 3D printing homes, this is different. People usually think of 3D printing as like a desktop thing, making little Trotsky's trinkets and, uh, plastic pieces. But this is actually, uh, using that 3D printing model to build homes. So it's going to be super fun to dig into, , and super exciting innovation. Yeah, totally. Well, cool. Well, I'm excited to get to talk about some of these innovations that you're working on. I know your manufacturing plant is one of the most innovative manufacturing plants, , 3D printing obviously pioneer in that space. What tech, what tech trend significantly impacted your industry and how did your company respond? 

Lance

[00.01.31]

 Yeah. So on the, uh, let's start with kind of on the, on the printed side, which is predominantly what we're here to talk about. , let me back up even with all metals. So the adoption of automation back in 2016, , we really started to automate, uh, and invest heavily. Uh, to the tune of $800,000 a year on average. And new equipment that is automated. , and being able to see the ability to scale through that, , was really eye opening for me. , and the efficiencies you gain in your business, , the, the way that it motivates and encourages people because they get to learn and adopt new technologies. , and then, you know, fast forward. I, uh, my business partner, Craig Pettit, uh, who's the co-founder of this business. , he had a real estate portfolio company, and, uh, and my family's been invested with him for over 30 years. And so he would bring, you know, he would bring buy checks for us at regular, you know, checks, distribution checks, and, uh, and he, he bought a, uh, a 3D printer back in 2018. Uh, into 2018, early 2019. And, , and was he was trying to anticipate. So he, he's been in real estate for a long time. So we survived the, you know, the zero eight, uh, financial crisis. Say we we were invested with him. , and then there was, you know, another correction in the 2012 to 15 area. , and, uh, so he was just kind of looking for the next way to innovate the business. He's very innovative thinker, very data junkie guy. He's got data for days. And, uh, and so he bought this 3D printer and was telling me about it, and it took him about a year to get it working. Had to, you know, reconfigure things. And, uh, so I'm super interested. And then I started learning more about this, uh, and started hearing about Ikon and what they were doing. , and, and I started being the visionary that I am. Started casting a really big vision for him and the possibility of this. Uh, just having seen what I had seen, uh, in manufacturing and the possibilities when you use robotics and automation, , to be able to scale and and applying that same thought process to this, uh, manufacturing of homes. And so simultaneously, I built two homes over the last, uh, five years or so. Uh, and so that process, just how horribly inefficient, . The construction industry as a whole is. It's not a knock against, you know, anyone builder I'm just speaking collectively as an industry. It's just, you know, very inefficient. , in general, they kind of accept that you're going to have to rework things throughout the process. , which to me, coming from manufacturing was like mind blowing. It's like some paying up front for people to screw up and like, that's just adopted and accepted the industry and like Norm and and they're like, yeah. And I'm like, I mean, for example, like if we get one piece of a thousand piece order wrong, it all metals like we have a formal investigation of corrective action. Like we don't count that order as accepted. , if we do root cause analysis and try to get to the root cause to fix it. And so just seeing what I knew in manufacturing, seeing the inefficiencies in construction and then seeing the possibility of with 3D printing. And so as I started to cast this big vision for Craig, he was like, man, Lance, I think you need to be the face of this company. And I'm like, okay, you know, I like that. And, uh, so we pivoted our investment, uh, from the the real estate portfolio into this 3D home printing. And so and then we've been we've renamed the company, rebranded it and we and then we also redesigned the machine because we have manufacturing we also have engineers. So we redesigned the machine and came up with our own, uh, design, which helped with the consistency of the beads and the and the quality of the print significantly. , and which now we have patents on our design. 

Ben

[00.05.04]

 That's really cool. So kind of taking, uh, the high tolerance, I should say, the low tolerance example of manufacturing, looking at home, home manufacturing, home building as a, as kind of a low tolerance or, sorry, high tolerance. I keep switching that up. But. Yeah. , there used to be this analogy for like, consider your work and if you're building a piano or a home, and home was always the that that kind of like high tolerance thing where you could just like, bend a nail over and smash it in and keep moving on. Whereas if you're building a piano, it had to be perfect, right? . But yeah, it's interesting how in our mindset we've gotten into like, oh, homebuilding doesn't need to be that precise when it's like the most impactful thing a person will ever buy is. Yeah. For sure. Uh, and it 

Lance

[00.05.55]

 really plays into efficiency, right? Like that's what it's all about. , and efficiency just means building the, the best product and the most, uh, cost effective manner that you can. And so you're right, square on about the tolerances. , but really what the, the, the negative impact is the efficiency that is done. Right. And so , one the quality and then two, just the cost. Those are the two kind of factors that factor into efficiency and time, of course. , which I consider part of a cost component. But uh, and so, yeah, in order to solve the affordable housing, we're really just even if you can use these machines on a high end product, which I think there's a whole blue ocean, uh, market for that, uh, that is not our core focus that printed on the construction side, but can play to the builder side. , but in order to address, you know, the, the housing crisis which costs us too high and, , and speed of implementation, building is too slow. You have to address efficiency. And so that's where that, you know, call it low tolerance. But you know, really it's efficiency. And so that's what we're looking we're bringing that manufacturing approach to construction  through the use of automation. 

Ben

[00.07.07]

 Yeah it's really cool. So what's the change there? , if I were to build a regular home, , it sounds like you're you have an idea for affordable housing. So you maybe have a standard around, like, your typical square footage you're trying to target with the 3D printed home. And then what do you think the time difference is? If you're going to build that with regular, uh, you know, regular construction versus the, the, the 3D printed home. 

Lance

[00.07.33]

 Yeah. So I'll just get real specific. , and so, uh, and we have printed, uh, three homes and a bunch of other structures as well, , which are rentals and, and they range from 850ft² to up to, I think 1200 or 1500. It's the largest one. . And so with 3D printing, you're removing framing, , sheetrock tape, bed texture, , paint and masonry. I say paint, paint is, uh, is paint and insulation. So that could actually be up to seven. , painting insulation, you can you still can paint the 3D and you still do have the paint or the concrete, rather the 3D printed concrete. And you still have to paint, you know, if you don't buy pre painted, which we will on a affordable housing side, uh, doors and stuff like that. Cabinetry. , then you would still need to paint those. So just going to be super transparent there. But every time you're removing framing, sheetrock tape, bed texture and uh, which typically is can be the same builder, sometimes two different ones, , to trades rather uh, in masonry. And so, , you know, the process those are done at different stages. Masonry, you know, comes in a little bit later. , but to print, uh, let's just say, like the 800 square foot house, uh, we could do that in a week to two a week, one week to two weeks. Uh, not including foundation. So foundation is the same process. , and so you're taking when you think about framing sheetrock and, you know, tape, bed texture, I mean, if you if you throw in paint, it throws the scale way, way up. I mean, painting my my house that had just completed last year, which took 2 or 3 months. , and so, uh, but if you take pain out of it, uh, you're talking about, you know, going from a three months, I mean, if you're on a really fast builder, like doing production homes, uh, on a, on a custom build would be, you know, much longer than that, down to two weeks, uh, just as it relates to those. So, I mean, you could do, you know, an a production home on the smaller side, like, you could do a house and, and, you know, six months maybe. I mean, you'd have to be really good, you know, builder, uh, a really efficient builder, I should say. Not good. , but really efficient and speedy. Speedy. . And we could do that in 3 to 4 months. Yeah. So you're removing a lot of the trades, and the trades would become difficult to manage. , and we don't we're not looking to replace jobs, but there's a there's a significant trade shortage in, in America. And, and the trades are the ones that are difficult for builders to manage. Uh, so it's a real great value proposition for builders. 

Ben

[00.09.58]

 So a community planner that has a high homeless population, , and, uh, needs this affordable housing could do a development. Bunch of foundations are laid in a bunch of homes. Get printed. , some some trades come in to kind of finish them. , but you're talking about like a significant like. Probably sounds like, like 20% of the time per unit that it would take to do the similar development with traditional construction. 

Lance

[00.10.30]

 Yeah. I mean, I would call it 50 to be safe. You know, , it definitely 20% compared to just those trades, you know. But then the rest of it, it kind of even 

Ben

[00.10.40]

 half as much time. What do you think the cost difference would be because you are saving on trades. And then of course, the 3D printing is uh, is alleviating some of the sheetrock and framing costs. So it's a there should be a materials trade off. What do you think the difference is on cost then? 

Lance

[00.10.55]

 Yeah, it's uh it's about 10 to 20%. So the bigger the house you get like the bigger the greater the savings because it doesn't cost us a lot more to print. You know, it's just more air, right? So I mean, you have adding walls, but like, the interior walls, you know, don't really typically add a bunch. I mean, when you're doing a bigger house now with open floor plans, , there's not a ton of different interior walls, so 10 to 20%. We and we think we can get that down. , and right now we're using the highest, uh, most expensive 3D mix. Uh, and that's because we get the best quality print with it and curing. And so, , you know, with this round that we're about to raise, that is one thing we want to eventually develop our own white label, uh, 3D mix that we can hopefully have some cost savings there. That's just not something that's something a lot of the 3D companies have spent a lot of time or not a lot, but some of them, , and, uh, but for us in our stage, it's like, let's just use the best product. And our team is always wanting to try all these different ones and get cost savings. I'm like, guys like that, let's just stick with what works, you know? Yeah. , and so, , we do have tried a lot, but but the best one has been, uh, the most expensive. So I think we can, we can save some costs there. And just as we gain efficiencies and continue to develop the machine and the automation further, , we've also run with, uh, a three man crew, and we really only need to, , but just just having, you know, three people out there, uh, adds cost, of course. 

Ben

[00.12.18]

 Sure. That's really cool. Really cool. So, uh, cost savings, speed gain. , what are what are some other technology innovations that you're, , betting on to drive your business growth? Or does the 3D printing, , encompass some other technology innovations that people wouldn't otherwise know? Yeah. Before I answer that, let me let me add this to, uh, it's also a better product. So, , and what I mean by that is, , like, I lost my last home to mold. And so, you know, mold is a non-issue in these homes. , you fire, we look at, uh, what's going on in California. You can't burn these houses down. . They're concrete. You see the fires in Hawaii? There was one house left standing, and it was a concrete. It was made of cinder blocks, granite, not 3D printed to be fully transparent, but, , these are essentially fireproof. Uh, now, there's still things that can burn. I don't want to be, you know, misleading, , tornadoes, you know, like, these are not going to get blown over by a tornado. We do have, uh, , technology on a roof that that also makes it, like, completely tornado proof. Uh, that adds a lot of cost. So we're not we're not focusing that on that with our products, but that is something that we can offer, , hurricanes, you know, , and that same thing with the mold with hurricane comes water. , and so, , no, termites aren't an issue. , so you have to worry about termites eating the wood. So you're offering a better product. And I say that it is a different, uh, aesthetic. Right. So it's a more, you know, , contemporary architectural design. , but with this new with our next round or next generation of machine, and there's already people out there doing it, , we want to develop a way to print a brick style home. , and so then you can appeal to the traditional style, which is, you know, most people want a traditional style home. But all in all, you know, especially as we talk about affordable housing, like, a lot of these things that they're living in are total junk. I mean, now you're building a fortress. And if you want to talk about, you know, affordable housing for renters, we've had, you know, three rentals, two of which have been around for. 3 or 4 years now. And when we've had a changeover and, uh, the rental client, like you just hose down the floors, like, that's because we use slick concrete floors. I mean, there's no, there's we put on our, you know, slide deck for the capital raise, $1,000 changeover versus like 4000 plus for traditional, uh, rentals. , and it really can be less than that. And, and in those lower income, you know, it's like, you know, people can be, you know, known to put holes on walls and things like that. You can't do that. It's just an indestructible essentially. Yeah. So I just want 

Lance

[00.14.51]

 to add that it's a better quality. It's not just faster and more cost effective, it's better quality. And that's where it goes back to that blue ocean product for higher end builders is they want to build some very sexy designs. You can do anything also like you can make a wavy wall. You can you can design anything into the print you want and get as creative as you want. So just wanted to add that before I answer the 

Ben

[00.15.14]

 technology, a bit of a change to the aesthetic because you are going to see the 3D printed lines, but , unless you do something really cosmetic, which would be an additional cost. But I think, you know, that can kind of be cool. , what I also am reminded of is the, , you know, you've seen some really cool homes built with the storage unit or the, the storage trailer kind of design. And what they'll do is they'll combine multiples. It would be interesting to see what people think of where. Yes, it's three different houses, but they're configured together. And then, you know, there's some form of hallway connection or whatever to create a bigger 3D printed home. But it was still contemplated in kind of three separate builds. Yeah. , in much the same way that you could combine those storage units and then have some creative connection of them to build a larger home. , I imagine there'll be some creativity like that come up with with, uh, your guys's, uh, you know, unit of build. 

Lance

[00.16.12]

 Absolutely. Yeah. We've got a design for, uh, so they're like tri triplexes for, uh, a Princeton development that we're also raising money for. , so you can do some really cool stuff there, too. You're right. Yeah. That's cool. The possibilities are endless. Yeah. But yeah, it's back to your technology question. Uh, so in terms of other technology, uh, we've created an augmented reality, uh, in our app where you can pick one of our model homes. If you have an iPhone, you can go and and. Any place you want. If you. Let's say you want to. You know, build it out on this lot. And you can pull up the model on your phone and view it on the lot. You can turn the house the way that you want. You can walk through it. , so giving people that that experience is, is a cool thing that we developed. And we want to further develop that, to actually be able to train the, uh, builders that by that by the machines and use the augmented reality to be able to train them as well as help train the trades. And so that's something we want to utilize and grow that. , it's, it's for where we are. It's, you know, it's pretty amazing that we already have an augmented reality app. , and we've really just scratched the surface on that. And then on the software side right now. So the printer is G code based. And one of our strengths is, uh, is being able to have this flexible entry point of the print. , because different things come up on the jobsite, like, you know, it might not be perfectly level and we're able to quickly pivot. Whereas if most of the other printers, uh, The printing companies. If not, everything's right like they had. They had to shut down the job and then go reprogram everything. Whereas we can make adjustments to the G code on the fly. , so our system is very elementary in that way and utilitarian, , which we don't want to lose that. So I start there, , because we do have an advantage in that. And like one guy, this, this 3D printing journalist and this concrete guy also was like, what I love about you guys is when you say you're going to print, I show up and you're printing like you're going to print every time. And most of the other companies, it's like, you know, something goes wrong and they don't. I share all that to say what our next gen, we want to develop a software. That's partly what we're raising capital for, uh, where you can drop a model home into it and it automatically create the G code. Or you could and I don't know, too many scenarios. You could do this, but you create the G code and then it creates the home. So allowing architects to drop their, you know, their floor plan, their 3D CAD model into the software and then it automatically creates. So what that will do is it'll help us as we go to start selling these machines, which has not been our focus yet. But but is a huge market there. Eventually, once it gets widely adopted and we'll be able to scale up quickly because of all metals fabricating our partnership here, we could crank those things out by the day. , and so that's the that's the next technology that we're looking to develop as our software and further develop our reality and just continue like there's like, you know, in tech, like there's no point of arrival. And with automation, like if you're not constantly improving, you know, your your machine, then you're, you're going to get passed. And so we have some ideas. We want to develop a third gen machine, uh, different style machines. So we have two different options for people. , and then possibly also are eventually also a smaller machine for people that just like, want to print benches and different things like that. Like our setup is, is way more than you'd ever want to set up to print, you know, benches. But there's some like really high end products that you can sell. And so having those other, you know, kind of three different levels of the machine, uh, is, is another development that we're going to be working on. Yeah, 

Ben

[00.19.37]

 that's really cool. I mean, I even think of. Like interstate development, rest areas, you know, these kinds of things that a lot of them are getting so old and are so, uh, have been so poorly maintained, just like there's already a foundation there. Scrap it, put in some 3D printed, it's going to last longer, be more resistant to mold like you mentioned, or more resistant to harm, easier to clean up. Uh, just a lot of advantages, even to some of the kind of community, , resources that we leverage on a daily basis. Yeah. Really cool. Yeah. I think 

Lance

[00.20.11]

 it's going to be adopted across all, you know, I mean, commercial construction and everything. They're already doing some of that in China. , and so I think the, you know, the possibilities to your point are endless, but we're focused on our niche. 

Ben

[00.20.22]

 Yeah, that's really cool. Well, , what do you think some of the most significant gaps are between your ambitions and realities? Like, you know, if you are there adjacent problems that are kind of creating gaps for you, that if you had a magic wand, you could, , you know, you could help solve. I mean, one I could think of is just the general awareness that this, that this exists, right? This, this alternate option, , exists, but what are some gaps that you're, uh, need to that you just, like, are interrupting your ambitions? 

Lance

[00.20.54]

 Yeah, absolutely. I'd say the nber one biggest by far is adoption of this technology by cities. And so to get. So right now we're limited to printing in rural areas where there aren't as much code and governmental control. And so the issue is one that governmental entities are slow to move on anything. Right. , but but so they don't know how to inspect the plans. Like, we have engineered plans for every build. , we get those stamped, of course. , but, like, a city wouldn't know how to inspect those and, and or green tag it come out and, you know, inspect the plans or inspect, , the, uh, the actual print. And so that's the biggest block right now. And so you've seen some cities start to embrace it. There's, you know, down in the outskirts of Austin where icon did a development. , they embraced it. There's another, uh, area in Colorado that has embraced it. And so that is by far our biggest hurdle to wide adoption of this technology. And it's just kind of a waiting game a little bit. , it's just a matter of time. , but if there's things that we can do to help further drive that, and I think coming at it through the affordable housing will motivate because that's such a problem. I think that will motivate the, the government, uh, to, uh, start to adopt this stuff. , so that's that's one. And then you really nailed the second general awareness. Uh, so and it's kind of a twofold thing. Like one just being aware of that, it's what's available. And I think that's growing significantly thanks to icon and others that have paved the way for us. , and the other part of that is, is actually the desire for that. It's a different style of home. And so it takes a unique person, you know, generally a younger person that's interested in innovation, sustainability cares about sustainability. , and, uh, and doing the cool new thing. And so that, that architectural thing that I was talking about earlier that plays into that appeal. So it's like a lot the general population doesn't like contemporary construction. You know, that's a kind of a small sector of people. , and that is growing with the younger generation. , but that's why I believe it's critical that we develop a brick methodology, uh, to be able to print bricks and then just to paint the picture for everybody like it's a picture like an ice cream, self-serve ice cream dispenser. Uh, if you've never seen a 3D printer like a desktop one that Ben alluded to earlier, , that's what it that's the way it works. You just you just functions as well. I was going to say, , and it works on a, ours is a gantry system. There's others out there in different ways, , that are more of like a robot, but it just soft serve ice cream coming out of the dispenser and printing the concrete to make the walls of the house moving along the gantry system. 

Ben

[00.23.28]

 Yeah. , I think people can visualize that. You know, uh, if you've ever seen any CNC machine or the gantry system is kind of like that. It's a set of rails that move the the spigot, if you will. , and then you explain to me, uh, when we talked about this in our intro, that like, the pipes are still in the walls, the wire is still in the walls. It kind of paints around those or prints around those. So the walls still have some hollowness to them, like, uh, like a traditional stud based wall. , but it is concrete. It's just the aesthetic of it is like these lines, , in the wall, I think. I think as you get going, though, there's going to be some designers and the, uh, you know, the Pinterest and the Instagrams of the world will have these houses decked out, and even the normal non brick look is going to be made to look really cool and different. Absolutely. That adoption that, that alternate like vision isn't there. But I think people are going to buy into it. , totally in this. Yeah. In much the same way. Like I've seen some pretty cool looking vans that are decked out, uh, that I admire, you know, people that it's really about aesthetics and that's going to be a different kind of aesthetic. 

Lance

[00.24.41]

 , exactly. 

Ben

[00.24.43]

 Yeah. Well, what do you think the biggest challenge is to maintaining, uh, your competitive edge in this industry? 

Lance

[00.24.51]

 . The biggest challenge to maintain our competitive edge. Well, our. You know, I believe our competitive edge is our partnership with All Metals fabricating. And so we've already got a world class manufacturing facility built into our business, which, I mean, you know, most startups that would cost millions and millions of dollars. , so because of, you know, the investment all metals is made into printed that that really, , helps maintain our competitive advantage. It would take very, be very difficult for somebody else to have that. But it really goes back to what I was saying earlier is like, you can't just get comfortable and feel like you've arrived and and be satisfied with your technology. It just takes this relentless drive to always be improving, always and never be satisfied with it. , and simplifying it, , and looking for ways to, you know, ours is after affordable housing. So we want our machine and it already is when we go to market with it is about half the price is as the competitors. And so figuring out ways to make it efficient as possible doesn't need to be cheap. You know, it needs to be efficient. , and never being satisfied with that with where you're at. 

Ben

[00.25.55]

 Mhm. Cool. . Totally agree. I don't have much to add there. You do seem since you're making the gantry system, you're making the actual 3D printed machine through your partnership with your, , generational manufacturing company. You seem to have that connected. Like you can take care of the machines and then 3D printed is really the business to, , really how you're going to conduct business around selling the machines and operating them building homes. , that's super cool. , yeah. 

Lance

[00.26.25]

 And if I may add to it, it's, you know, I con originally did their raise to sell affordable housing and, , and, and through, you know, through the VC process, you it's all hypergrowth and you can get, uh, for lack of a better word, fat as an organization, a lot of overhead as an organization, , through that process and, , and some of the other, you know, , printing companies or, uh, companies that are looking to solve construction issues through automation, , have a lot of CapEx, you know, investment, uh, on the front end. And we've already have our machine. We have the manufacturing facilities, which, you know. , but what I'll say is, is icon, you know, they, they, they positioned themselves where they really couldn't do affordable housing and they're still working to help, you know, try to figure that out. And and Jason's very passionate about that and great guy. And I believe he may figure out a way to do it. But they also early on were approached by the government and to start printing for the government, and that really helped funded their business. They even got a contract to print on Mars. Uh, and so they really left a void in the, in that what they originally set out to do, uh, which was sell affordable housing. And so I think staying focused on our niche and through the fundraising process, remaining lean, uh, and not allowing ourselves to, , to get too much overhead to where we can't print as efficiently, uh, and cost effectively, rather, uh, as, as we can right now. 

Ben

[00.27.52]

 Yeah. So you're taking me up for my next question. I find entrepreneurs that know how to manage their roadmap and connect their, their, their their roadmap to their business strategy. And you've you've kind of hinted at this a couple of times. You seem to have a really good handle on what is your niche, what are you trying to solve. And then so so your business strategy and your roadmap seem connected on a really solid target. And I think that's a super, uh, good indicator of success. But why don't you talk a little bit more on the principles that you've incorporated and, and really share your experience on how you're connecting your technology roadmap with your overall business strategy? 

Lance

[00.28.35]

 Yeah. So and I'll kind of just outline what our, what our roadmap is. And right now is we want to capture as much of the printing business as we can. We had a natural, uh, sales channel internally with Craig's real estate portfolio, so we've never really had to go out and get business, so to speak. And that's our next step, which we're focusing on right now, is and we started our marketing strategy. And , and kicking that off, we want to start to capture the print opportunities as they come in and then as and educate the general public on it. And then as these machines in this technology become, uh, adapted by municipalities and it gets widely, uh, accepted, then we transition. And not to say we just immediately transitioned this way, but it's it's a parallel path. One, it's, you know, crawl, walk, run. Uh, but then we start to focus on selling machines. So the machine then once it gets widely adopted and it's like, you can't unless you go start franchises all over the country, like you can't capture all this printing business. Even then, you'd capture just a small portion. Uh, at that point, it's like, no, we'll be a machine distributor. And sell machines to people. And so that's where the business really can grow. And like at what point that happens? I'm I, you know, I don't know I don't I just know it will I don't know how long it will take before it's adopted widely. , but that's where , that's where the focus is, is like, okay, once that happens, then it's like, okay, now we're making 50% margin. Every machine we sell and the business is already profitable. , and so that's just a quick, uh, quick roadmap of what our strategy is. So capture prints, raise awareness, start to find some early adopters on the machines for the for builders in rural areas. So we can kind of work through the kinks of being a machine distributor. , and then as it's widely adopted, go and just and sell as many machines as we can. And maybe we do franchise out for the building side of it. , so that's I don't know if that answers your question. , but yeah, that that's the overall roadmap and how we weave the technology into that. Is that the second piece of it? I mean. Yeah, yeah. For that 

Ben

[00.30.35]

 question. Yeah. How are you keeping it small? Like keeping the idea refined because you've mentioned that a couple of times. Like we're going to stay in our niche. And so are there some principles or some some way of thinking that kept you there? Because I'll give you an example before. Uh, as you think of your answer. Uh, we worked with a company called Forte that does online music lessons, and that's the business they wanted to start. Basically, the Uber for music lessons. Come get a music lesson from a Juilliard teacher. And early on, what they realized is they need to nail the in lesson experience. So you click on a link, you jp in, your teacher's there, you're enjoying a lesson. It's a good experience for the teacher, a good experience for the student. They had this this idea of like, well, teachers want to schedule and they need to pay for the lesson. So should we work on scheduling and payment? And what ended up happening is, as they tried those two features, the requirements that teachers had for scheduling were like, huge, right? Scheduling is a big problem. And so they smartly said, you know what? People can schedule themselves. We're just going to really focus on the in lesson experience and then we'll get around to payments. Uh, when we get there, they found a, you know, so kind of let the teachers invoice and schedule on their own. For starters, it was a great way to get exposure into the market without trying to build everything all at once. And so because of that, they were able to progress through investment rounds and, , you know, phase into the business. And I just think that appetite, like that appetite for solving certain problems, but not all the problems, , is really a key to success. And I'm hearing that in some of your language. Uh, so just how you're thinking of it, like what kind of things are out there that you could do, but for now, you're just going to focus on, on a core competency. 

Lance

[00.32.17]

 So, . Yeah, I mean, custom builds. So funny. We actually are going to do we're in talks to do one right now. , and while that's not in our niche and not what we should necessarily be focused on, we also need for our portfolio to be able to showcase kind of a higher end build for the machine sales side, to cast a vision for the, you know, the other builders of like what's possible. And so we are making an exception. We're doing two kind of custom builds with one family, uh, and one of them is still squarely in our niche, even though it is a, you know, quote unquote custom. It's one is a small kind of affordable house. The other is a little bit more, uh, higher end. And so I'm, I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth. But the reason we are doing that is because we see the need for this other side of the business on the machine sales side, like, you have to be able to show what the capability and what because like printing affordable like we saw affordable houses. We print. They're not sexy. Like they're not anything anybody's going to get excited about on the builder side. And so, you know, our business is to focus is one our construction and then one machine sales all wrapped in our technology business. And so , we're pivoting and making a calculated decision to do that so that we can satisfy this future need over here. But really, the need for affordable housing is so great, uh, so huge that I just don't see us needing, you know, I mean, every business early on, that's the challenge, right? Like, you have to take what you can get, you know. , and so that's where I think people kind of get sideways and start doing too many different things and don't remain focused. But I, I'm just hopeful and, and, and believe that because that need is so great and because we've seen others that set out to do it and, and got diverted and like, this is where our opportunity is, like, if you want like an amazing sexy house, 3D printed like buy an icon house, you know, , and but if you want affordable housing, like you either buy our machine or have us come print them so that that because that opportunity is missed by others, I think it's just clear, like, hey, here's the huge opportunity. It's lots of reps and a lot of people don't want that. You know, they want to build a house and make a, you know, a sizable clip on it. , so I'd rather make a little bit of money a bunch of times, , and solve it really. Like for me, it's about the heart, right? It's like, man, we have a real problem in this country and it affects the people that need it the most. And so that's what motivates me, uh, is, is really helping solve this major issue. And it's not just in America. It's worldwide. 

Ben

[00.34.40]

 Right? I love that and, uh, to to maybe make you feel better about the custom housing trial. Uh, McKinsey has this model. It's called the three horizon model. And it's basically saying horizon one is the stuff that is immediately relevant to my business. Like I have to do it. Horizon two is kind of that next stage of hey, like. Next year I need. It's really about growth and new revenue. And then horizon three is really that like vision casting. Where could this go? And it's common that businesses would do like a 70 2010 and that they the idea is if you never work on those future opportunities then you won't create that next level of growth. So you'll you'll create a business that plateaus. So if you if you at least think about what is that 10% spend we could do, that would be that next level of growth that, that next, , trajectory, the some adherence to my five year plan rather than just, , always focused on the current problem. , and a lot of folks will expend some energy into those future strategies, those R&D initiatives. , and that can be okay. Uh, if it's and I think to McKinsey, , hypothesis is that you need to do that, that, that, that is part of, , strategic planning, uh, is to think about horizon three. Don't ignore it. 

Lance

[00.36.02]

 Thank you. Yeah. And for us, it's like if you want to sell machines to other verticals, like, you've got to dabble in that. I mean, you look at like, you know, army barracks, like, you know, storm shelters, uh, you know, barns, you know, shops for people. You know, it's there's so many different verticals. And we're going to have to early on print some of those things so that we can show it can be done so that when we go as we're selling machines like, hey, we did this, we're not going after this. On the on the construction side, we did a little bit of it to showcase that it can be done. Yeah. And 

Ben

[00.36.32]

 I, I even think of like the affordable home as a Lego block and then something like Army barracks as, , some sort of repetitive Lego block that. Yeah, maybe needs a little bit of trades to incorporate with each other, but that the, , you know, like intelligently moving the gantry like so many times to build some larger event, but like there's a unit of, of work and we build that and then we can pause and then we can build the next thing. , I think that's what you see in 3D printing plastic is that. Oh, well, if I just do this same printing operation tons of times, then I can, I can create something really cool. , yeah. So cool. Well, . Since you mentioned something earlier that I've waited to ask, because I knew this question was coming up in my in my agenda. In manufacturing, you, uh, you shared that you were always buying automation machines. And now your team, you've made a culture statement that your team is now like, hey, how could we do this better? How did you cultivate a culture of innovation and that kind of fluency? Because when I think of manufacturing, I think of people who would be threatened by automation that would be worried about it. , but it sounds like you've made a transition there with the way that your manufacturing company runs at All Metals. How did you do that? What was can you give us any secret on how to create that type of organization? 

Lance

[00.38.02]

 Yeah, absolutely. So it really just starts with caring for people. So like if the people know that you have their best interests at heart, then they're going to trust you. And so it really like you have to really care about people. And so, , you know, and then it's just reminding people like, hey, uh. Automation. Robotics is not a replacement of hans. It's actually like for us and and all middle side. It's actually job security because it's a very cyclical business. And you can easily ramp up and ramp down without having to hire and lay off people. And so it all starts with like putting people first. Caring for your people and building that trust with them. , and then uh, and really like on the manufacturing side, it's getting buy in from the people. And so for example, like, I mean, we're talking million dollar machines. And anytime we buy a new machine, I take the department lead of that department that we're going to add the equipment. And then, you know, the machine tool providers will fly us all out over the country, which is a cool experience for them. You know, the department lead to get to partake in. And and I'm like, hey, pick out whichever one you want, whichever one you think is going to be best. You pick it out and if it goes well, awesome. If it if it doesn't go well, I'm your fall guy. It's all my fault. So you're picking it out. So what I'm doing is I'm getting buy in, right? So, like, you can't, like, you can't, uh, force innovation and automation onto people without their buying, especially in manufacturing, because they're they're going to be the ones running it. And so, you know that that is key to get that buy in. , and so that's my process, one, making sure they know you care for them. And then , and then just getting their buy in is, is really part of it. So and as it translates, somebody printed how we're building our team. , it, you know, it's also. Finding the right personality types, right? So like I'm a big personality profile guy. , and in manufacturing, to your point, earlier, like a lot of people aren't uh, like if you're going to sit there and run a machine all day, every day, like, chances are you're not a very autonomous person, which is also associated with the risk, which is also associated with with innovation. So like typically those people that that like processes and or that are highly detailed like processed and highly detailed, which means they're not going to like change, right? So that goes back to that buy in. , but as it relates to, you know, our building at our team on printed, it's identifying people that are autonomous, , that do have that, that high trait ingenuity ideas. , and so we do personality assessments on everybody we hire both for all metals and printed, , and really everybody that's been hired at printed is all entrepreneurs. And so we're building an entrepreneurial organization. , and eventually we'll need more administrative type people. But early on it's like everybody's wearing, you know, ten different hats. So you got to have people that are really autonomous. Otherwise you're going to be, you know, answering yes or no and telling me exactly what to do. Like, we don't have time to handhold like, hey, go take this and run with it. , and so, , that, that's, that's the other part of it. It's like you want to as you're hiring your team and building out your team, you want to get people that are autonomous, that like new challenges, like to solve problems, , and that have, you know, the either either the high trait, you know, or high autonomy. One of the two is critical, uh, in that and when you can get both, it's it's really dangerous. 

Ben

[00.41.18]

 Cool. That's awesome. And if you can get a high detail on top of it, then you found a freaking all star. Yeah. The 

Lance

[00.41.23]

 unicorn, a bunch of people like me. 

Ben

[00.41.25]

 That's awesome. Well, what, uh, what advice would you give to somebody who's starting their their career journey or starting entrepreneurial ship? Like, what do you say to the The Youngbloods? 

Lance

[00.41.38]

 Man, I feel like I'm getting back in. Like, it's just like I, uh. I've been feeling the angst of, like, the entrepreneurial journey and and stepping. I've never done fundraising before. So, like, I'm about to do this, I've always been on the other side of the table. And so, like, one, I just can relate. Like, it's like it's forcing me to exercise my faith. Uh, which is a great thing, right? Stepping. I say life happens outside of your comfort zone. I say that all the time to my wife and kids. And so, , anything great is going to is going to be hard, you know? I mean, we talk about this then with with bicep kings. It's like pain is the path to all the things that are worth it. Pain is the path. Right. And so I mean, you look at it like, what are the most rewarding things in life like raising kids? Well dadg it it is freaking hard. I'll tell you right now. I got a newborn, a two year old and a six year old, and we're in the thick of it. It is hard, but there's also nothing more rewarding. Same with your marriage. Like you have to be constantly investing in your marriage, uh, for it to be good and working at it. And so what I would say to anybody is, you're going to have to work your tail off. And, uh, but it'll be worth it. And even if the business is not successful, it's still worth it because you learn something. You tried something new, , you stepped out in faith, out of your comfort zone. And that's where life happens. You know, failure is just an opportunity to learn. And so I don't even believe in that word. , it's really, uh, just the process we talk about it to. And it's the journey is the outcome is are the destination or outcome is not like what it's all about. It's about the journey. Like it's, you know, you set a big, ambitious goal for your business, and you get there, it's like, okay, well, now what? You know, but it's like, no, the journey. And so I know I'm rambling a little bit, but its bottom line is like, step out in faith. At worst, you'll fail. And that's still a great thing. It's it's a, it's it's a learning opportunity. And you grew in that process which is not a failure whatsoever. Yeah. 

Ben

[00.43.23]

 It's just this general attitude of I get to like, I get to do this, right? I get to clean up this kid's vomit. I get to like these. Like even these painful things are really like, we get to do them. , and, uh, I think being being a business leader, we get to help people. It's like, oh, you know, my, my, my employees can never get it right. No, I get to lead my employees. I get to mentor people. , I get to have a life of meaning because of those harder things that I'm doing. What was your first job like? How did you make your first buck as a han being? Uh, I 

Lance

[00.43.58]

 think my first job was actually working here at the shop. My family's fabricating business. I'm the third generation owner. I didn't state that, which I should have. , also, early on, I sold gym memberships and, , and worked as a, at a restaurant, a breakfast diner, , and which I think everybody in their life needs to serve food at some point. Uh, it's just like. Puts you in a place of hility and teach you how to serve others, which is huge, because no matter what you do, like being a leader just means being a servant. And so, , and then, you know, when I was 18, I started a party planning business. And so I had a party planning business when I was 18. , and wound that down as I transitioned to all metals in my, uh, kind of early to mid 20s. , and so, uh, entrepreneur from the, from the start. Yeah. Really cool. Yeah. I had a paper out. Definitely did some food service. , yeah. It's great. It just, you know, it's cool to see where people come from. , what toy or hobby did you have as a child that inspired what you do career wise today? Uh, that's a great question. I played a lot of sports. Uh, soccer was, was, uh, my primary sport. , but growing up, I played all of them. And then I decided to pursue soccer. Seriously. , in kind of middle high school, , middle school, high school. And, , you know, how does that overlap to, I'd say, leading, you know, from the, you know, I was a leader on all the teams I was on. I was captain of my, you know, select soccer team in high school, which was one of the top five in the country. , and so just leading people, , motivating people, serving people, is. That's what. You know how I, I don't it doesn't matter what industry I'm in. I came to my business that my family's business, because my dad and my grandfather are two of the biggest servant hearted people I've ever met in selfless. And so, , I always wanted to come help. Help them. Help my dad. , because my grandfather had retired when I came on board. But serving. Serving people, man, that's that's what it's all about. And so whether that's in, you know, uh, metal, metal fab or construction or my family, uh, any arena that I'm in, I want to lead people by serving them and pointing them to Jesus. 

Ben

[00.46.10]

 Yeah. It's awesome. , and like, soccer is such a good metaphor for all of that. Like, positional play, like, hey, this is your position to play so that we can score the goals so we can win the result. But it takes such a collaborative energy and then you're like, hey, I'm going to serve you from from my position, but I'm also serving you by letting you know what what I expect of you and, , how you could best help get to the result. So, uh, love that. 

Lance

[00.46.35]

 Uh, yeah. Team sports are so great for business. 

Ben

[00.46.39]

 Yeah. 

Lance

[00.46.39]

 For sure. What translates there? 

Ben

[00.46.41]

 Absolutely. Well, what was your favorite and least favorite course in school? 

Lance

[00.46.46]

 Favorite was always math stuff. I enjoyed math and was good at it and just came. Maybe it was my favorite because it was easy. , at least favorite was probably English or History. , in high school, I went to private school with a really hard English curricul. So, like, people think I'm a really good writer now, but, , it was I was an average student there, so it was very challenging. , that would probably be my least was my least 

Ben

[00.47.13]

 favorite. I'm still highly dependent on modern technology for correct, correct writing. So I'm right there with 

Lance

[00.47.19]

 yeah, we all are. Once you have it, it's like you become dependent on it. Like, I don't know how to spell anymore. 

Ben

[00.47.24]

 Sure. Well, what's your, , what's what quote from a famous person lives in your mind rent free. Uh, that shouldn't be a hard one for you, because I know you and I are in a similar faith based mastermind group, uh, with rise up beings. And so we we definitely collect the quotes. But what's your favorite? 

Lance

[00.47.41]

 This is a good one right here on my desk. There's a couple good ones, but it's from the well, one is buffalo, the other side. So Buffalo's run towards the storm. So when the storm come all the animals run away from it. And like I've been holding on enough. Uh, and, uh, buffalo has run towards it. And by doing that, they're through the storm quicker. , and then the, the other side is just the man in the arena, the Thomas Roosevelt. It's kind of blurry, their apologies, but, . You know, and there's a there's a long quote here, but, uh, it's just about, you know, it's the man. It's the man in the arena. It's it's just doing your best, striving valiantly, uh, with everything you have. , and then, of course, Scripture, you know, Colossians 323 is my life verse. You know, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord, not for han masters. And it goes on to say that in 24 that essentially you'll get an eternal treasure, , as a reward. And so whatever you're doing, whether it's sweeping the floor or serving your family, you know, journal entries and accounting, whatever it is, do it for the Lord and you will receive an eternal treasure. Because we know that money doesn't satisfy. , and doing a good job can satisfy you in some ways. But but how much more? And that verse was really the turning point for me in my career is I went from party planning to actually doing journal entries. I have a CPA license, so I came into the business, , from the finance side, and I was like, what am I doing? And let God was changing my heart at that time. And I'm like, this is crazy. I'm taking a pay cut from throwing parties to like, come to, you know, time entries and journal entries. And it was just like felt odd and and, uh, in that verse I read in a devotional from Rick Warren and it gave my work and new a new purpose. That was an eternal purpose. And so I went from like, being a punch the clock guy to like the first one here, last one to leave because I had an eternal perspective and internal motivation. So that's that's really my life verse and my favorite quote. I love that. , what we talk about in Stem is, , you know, if you look at Genesis and how God's creating all these complex systems and then when we're in software development, we get to organize the details of a business just like we're kind of imitating God in the sense that we're creating complex systems, we're organizing details. We're having dominion over the Earth by naming things properly. That's what software development is all about. And I think there's something very glorifying in doing that, uh, to the fullest extent, to the best of your ability, where you're you're 

Ben

[00.49.58]

 really the God could just do it by speaking. We have to do a little more toil. , but we get this ability to imitate him by creating software and organizing details and, , you know, creating something from nothing, uh, which I think is really should be considered purposeful and, uh, and, , yeah, you know. Absolutely. 

Lance

[00.50.18]

 I mean, we were created to create we were created. I mean, the first commandment was to cultivate, you know, which is isn't exactly creating, but an aspect of it is. And, uh, and so I totally that's that's a great analogy. And that's why there's fulfillment in that way, because God created it that way. , if people 

Ben

[00.50.34]

 like what you've had to share today, how would you like them to connect with you? 

Lance

[00.50.38]

 Yeah, they can reach out to me at Lance at print 3D technologies.com. That's Lance at print 3D technologies.com. 

Ben

[00.50.47]

 Cool. We'll get that on the show notes. And 

Lance

[00.50.50]

 you can also check on our website. Sorry. Yeah. Print 3D technologies. Com is our website. Feel free to check us out there.  and Instagram, YouTube, all the social media, LinkedIn, you name it, we're on all of 

Ben

[00.51.01]

 it. So. Okay, cool. We'll get all that on the show notes. , and then you are actively looking for investors. So as we air this, , you guys, you guys are looking to talk to, uh, capitalists that want to be part of the 3D printed home affordable home movement that you are creating. So, , and developers 

Lance

[00.51.22]

 builders too. So, you know, we're looking for strategic partners. I mean, you think about if you're a developer, you can, uh, invest in the company also, you know, set up, give us a rep at a development deal that you have for rental community or houses you're selling now. You're you're investing and you have this deal that's secured typically, and that type of investment. And then you're funding your business that you've also invested in and ramping it up. So strategic guys like that in the development side and then finding early adopters on the on the builder side is is really strategic for us. So then we're looking for 

Ben

[00.51.56]

 awesome. Awesome cool. Well thanks for being with me today. 

Lance

[00.51.58]

 Thank you Ben. Appreciate it so much.