3D printing is a large industry but it’s also a very fragmented industry with a lot of different sub-industries. These include everything from commercial and consumer printer manufacturers and the companies that make the printing materials, to service bureaus, scanning companies, and companies selling 3D-printable content. Then there are software publishers that make the modeling software. We are positioned in the services side.

When people think of 3D printing they usually think about quick print jobs. You plug in a USB cable to a printer and out comes the end product. It’s not that easy. It takes a lot of work to prepare for a 3D print job. When we say we’re a service organization, that’s true because we are providing a service for other companies. But we have a lot of software and intellectual property on the front end to help us deliver a great quality product. In that respect, it’s nothing like your local copy center.

Mckinsey and Company, a worldwide management consulting firm, has said they believe that by the year 2025 there will be $4 trillion dollars of consumer products that could be 3D printed. That doesn't mean they will be, but they could be. They analyzed actual products that they believe will be printed, and that could be a $100 billion to $300 billion marketplace by 2025. That is the exact market that we are going after.

We've built an end-to-end software platform, what we call a 3DaaS (3D-as-a-service) platform. It allows us to go into multiple verticals. The process is basically the same for each vertical. Today, our company is focused in four areas: architectural, medical, gaming, and visual prototypes and displays. We try to identify marketplaces where personalization and customization play a big part. In the future, there will be other areas that we put additional resources into. We currently have a number of customers in the shoe industry and we see some additional growth opportunities there.

We work with different hospital chains directly - a few customers are Intermountain Healthcare, University of Utah, Stanford, and University of Texas. Keep in mind, 3D Printing is still extremely early in the healthcare sector. We have forged a very strong partnership with TeraRecon, the largest 3D Visualization software provider in the medical space. Globally, they have approximately 4,500 hospital networks using their software. Their software is vendor neutral, meaning they work with any CAT scan or MRI provider - it may be GE, Toshiba, or Philips. Our partnership with TeraRecon provides the first end-to-end click-to-print solution for the medical professional to segment (select the region of interest from a CAT-Scan/MRI) the 2D data and receive a 3D printed anatomical model. WhiteClouds’ software and design professionals position the model for best display capabilities including the use of our patent-pending hinge and slice functions.
These models are used in preoperative collaboration for surgical planning and patient education. TeraRecon sells what are called “PrintPacks” to hospitals - bundles from 50-5,000 prints.

We are also working with Anatomical Warehouse, a global company that provides standard anatomical models to hospitals, research centers, and educational institutions. We are providing the customization and personalization of 3D prints from CAT Scans and MRIs or special prints to be used in displays.

We have grown from that first color printer we purchased in 2013 to having approximately 50 production printers in a 60,000-square-foot facility. We moved into our new facility in October of 2015 and that was a nice milestone for us. We were in very cramped quarters and to be able to move into this facility, and be prepared for our future growth, was one of the best decisions we have made. The move, along with additional 3D printer purchases, made us the largest full-color 3D printing company in the world.

As we have grown, we have increased our R&D expenditures to make sure we are continuing to innovate. For example, in early 2015, we invested heavily in healthcare 3D printing--being able to take CAT-Scans and MRi’s and converting them into personalized anatomical models for surgeons to use.

Several months ago, we filed our first patent. It is our sliced hinged model for medical use. We also did two acquisitions in the last 18 months. We acquired two 3D printing related software companies, Sandboxer and 3DPlusMe.

In mid-2015, we started adding additional talent to our executive team, adding a Chief Operations Officer (Joey Skinner) and a Chief Revenue Officer (Braden Ellis).

In 2016, we had $2.5 million in revenues. From a historical gross margin perspective, we have typically hovered around the mid-40 percentage points. For this year, we expect gross margins to increase to a blended gross margin of about 65%. Many of our new products/customers that are coming online will typically be in the 60-70% gross margin range. With increased efficiencies and with price negotiations on the consumables we're using, we'll be able to reduce our cost and increase our gross margins. If we continue hitting our projections as planned, we expect to be cash-flow positive by mid-summer this year (2017).

Imagine the future when 3D printing has significantly altered how products are designed and manufactured, allowing complete personalization in all business sectors. Whiteclouds will be the enabler for businesses to accomplish this. Behind the scenes we are building a great company and setting about to make a difference in the world. We think we're early in 3D Printing and this industry has unlimited potential. We have built a great foundation and are well poised for the future.