Headquarters Vancouver, Canada Website pinshape.com Parent organization Formlabs | Services 3D printing Founded 2014 | |
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Founder Lucas Matheson, Nick Schwinghamer,
Andre Yanes | ||
Pinshape Inc. is an online 3D printing community and marketplace with headquarters in Vancouver, Canada. It allows designers to share and sell their 3D printable designs, and people with 3D printers to print those designs on their own printers.
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About
Pinshape was founded in 2013 by Lucas Matheson (CEO), Nick Schwinghamer (COO), and Andre Yanes (CTO). The site is a marketplace that showcases the digital work of 3D designers from all over the world. 3D print designers set their own prices for their design files, and also choose which license to offer their work under (Creative Commons or other). People with 3D printers can browse the selection of designs and then either get the file for free to print themselves, or pay the designer for access to the file before printing.
Designs found on Pinshape can be directly downloaded if the designer allows, or they can be sent directly to a user’s 3D printer using a direct browser-to-printer experience that removes the need to access the design source file and thus, increases intellectual property (IP) security. Utilizing a cloud slicing and file streaming technology, designers have the option of charging per print, so that 3D files aren’t stored on a customer’s computer. Pinshape also allows its users to review designs and share the settings they used to print off the files.
On 30th of March the company announced about its closing. "The value of a 3DP marketplace is obvious in the long term, but for many, the path to monetization isn’t so clear. Part of our challenge was demonstrating a financial path forward", was written on their site.
500 Startups
Pinshape was selected for and attended the 500 Startups accelerator program in Mountain View, California as part of Batch 9, from April to July 2014. They were one of 30 companies selected from over 1400 applicants to participate in the 4-month program.