SanjayM

My hair style was actually derived from CFD modelling to ensure that my head dissipates heat effectively while directing convected airflow in a convenient direction.

1. I'd never heard of it until now!
2. Salted Caramel
3. Those are big words! I hope we do manage to initiate a decent amount of change, but there's a lot of work left to go yet. We're working with other companies who are interested in taking the concepts proven in the toolchanger and ASMBL and making systems that are more turn-key and ready to work out of the box. Once people can get out there and buy something that spits out machined quality parts with the design-freedom and ease of use of a 3D printer then we'll have made a real difference.

It's really not a problem - as /u/gardaz points out, the depth of cut and the stepover are a tiny fraction of traditional CNC, therefore your chip-load and tool deflection forces are also miniscule.

Oh man, yes, very steep.

I am very lucky to have had excellent co-founders in David and Josh who do a great job of looking after the majority of the 'businessy' aspects.

I think the main thing to bear in mind is that we never tried to start a hotend company, we just happened to make a great hotend, then they started selling. It was only once the hotend side of things was making enough to sustain us that we jumped ship, quit our job and went onto running E3D full time.

The main piece of advice is that the product comes first, once you know what that is, and if it's good enough, then a business model and customers kinda fall into place. Making a great product that people want to buy should be the first priority of any hardware business.

It probably won't look/work quite like you described or imagine, but I think people in the 3D printing world are going to be very very happy. ;)