Part 2. Episode III: 2016 The Year of Expansion

So just two years in and already a swag of transformations, location changes and awards. But then came the real bombshell.

Aleks and Stephan were becoming increasingly aware that there was no easy way for companies to get their print orders filled that didn’t involve a seemingly unending stream of calls and emails. And so, in an about turn, 3YOURMIND Mark II was born. Or rather, Mark Forever! The platform that dozens of companies around the world are using today, began being developed exactly at this point.

“I remember being in my car with Felix on our way back from visiting a new customer — we were giving several workshops on how 3D machines worked back in those days! It was in that car that the idea of 3d-button.com was born, and later developed into our current Platform. This was the biggest turning point for 3YOURMIND so far: we could now develop a revolutionary idea directly based on our customer needs… and were later awarded for this with the German Innovation Prize.” Stephan Kühr, founder and CEO.

Seems we were inline with the zeitgeist: the attention garnered enabled us to extend our global reach across the Atlantic. Our founders Aleks and Stephan spent most of the year building what would become our first office outside Europe — in San Francisco (where else?). Our friends and neighbors from EIT Digital came to the party in a big way, introducing us to a myriad of companies including one of our biggest present-day customers.

It was all about trust, building relations and continuing to raise awareness. The US market was unknown to us and we needed to work hard to stay. At the same time though, we couldn’t afford to forget about our customer base back home.

With a keen eye, we set about tracking down additional charismatic, efficient and emphatic people: we needed an Online Marketing Manager, a General Director for the Polish Office, a Project Manager, and a PR Manager.

Just one month later, they were all locked in. Girls of summer with fresh ideas and a lot of expectations for developing and growing together with the company.

“When I joined I was very excited about the human relations within the entire team; its diversity was something fantastic, really! — Also, as my position is directly engaged with the product, I was really impressed by its level of development. I became quite proud of myself getting a position here! Though my first months here were busy due to the amount of responsibilities I acquired, I could settle down in Berlin, learn some German and make good friends.” Katarzyna Luczak, Project Manager

But let’s be honest — although the guys felt like rockstars, it wasn’t just about touring and gigs. The team was getting more and more mature, and we really needed to support the growth with a solid base. So while in 2016 we were acquiring new international customers, our Polish office was experiencing a significant increase of incoming projects as well. We needed a few 3D talents to help us deal with the complexity of these new requests. So… ladies and gentlemen… please give a warm welcome to our lifesavers Jakub Karkocha (alias Kuba) and Boleslaw Telesinki (better known as Bolek)!.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! It really felt great to get on board with the team that year! I had already been involved in 3D printing for a few years before meeting Aleks, one of the founders. He called me one day to talk about the company, their future goals and aspirations on the 3D Printing field. And it was easy — It just matched exactly what I was looking for. I didn’t have to think about it twice — I knew I wanted to be part of the project! Now I even get to drive around Wroclaw in the same car where everything got ‘cooked’ — all legal I swear!” Jakub Karkocha, Research team leader & Product manager for 3D Squad.