HMC Student Startup Named to Kairos 50

A printable 3D-design marketplace launched by two Harvey Mudd College seniors and an HMC alumnus was named in the Kairos 50, an annual list of the Top 50 innovative companies founded by undergraduates.

The designation allowed Jonathan Schwartz ’13 and Max Friefeld ’13 to travel in February to the 5th Annual Kairos Global Summit in New York, where they presented their venture, Layer By Layer, to a distinguished crowd of business leaders, investors and media representatives.

“Max and I demoed our product and pitched our company for a grueling four straight hours. It was exhausting, exhilarating and, overall, a great experience,” said Schwartz. “We got to meet many of the biggest players in the 3D printing industry from innovative companies such as Autodesk and Stratasys.”

Layer By Layer is an online marketplace for the buying, selling and sharing of 3D designs meant to be printed on personal 3D printers. It aims to capture the growing market of consumers with 3D printers by providing them with ready-to-print products.

The students have contacted more than 80 designers to help build their initial product base. Their website is currently in its beta phase, with designers testing the platform.

“We are like the iTunes App Store for 3D printing,” said Friefeld. “We connect designers with consumers.”

Inspiration for the development of their software application and online marketplace arose from the students’ mutual history of using 3D printers to produce custom parts for personal and academic projects. While studying together for an engineering final last spring, Schwartz and Friefeld developed the concept for Layer By Layer.

They left internship opportunities to pursue their business idea, and they spent the summer learning about the 3D printing industry. The two created their business plan with the help of economics Professor Gary Evans. They recruited Oliver Ortlieb ’12 to help build their marketplace.

They began beta-testing the site last November, providing a free 3D printing service for students in all five undergraduate Claremont Colleges. Once its initial product base is built, Layer By Layer will launch to a closed group of consumers and then finally to the public.