Samantha Snabes is the co-founder and CEO of re:3D, a bootstrapped Austin and Houston-based company that makes industrial-scale 3D printers — manufactured entirely in America. She's also an Air National Guard officer, a former NASA strategist, and the only woman CEO leading a US-based 3D printing hardware company.

In this episode, Samantha shares with PV Bala, SCORE Mentor, how a group of friends turned a side project into a globally recognized manufacturing company — from forming an LLC on New Year's Eve to meet a Startup Chile deadline, to getting funded on Kickstarter in 27 hours, to earning multiple SBIR awards from the National Science Foundation.

What you'll learn:

• How re:3D went from a living room to customers in 55+ countries without taking outside investment
• Why field research in Rwanda and Nicaragua shaped a product built for real-world impact, not hype
• How to navigate the SBIR grant process as a first-time applicant, including what to do when you miss the deadline
• The real trade-offs of bootstrapping a hardware company in America — from reinvesting every dollar of profit to maintaining a vertically integrated supply chain
• How military service provides unexpected advantages in entrepreneurship, compliance, and leadership.
• Why printing from recycled plastic waste became both a social mission and a competitive differentiator
• Samantha's advice for retired engineers and late-career entrepreneurs entering 3D printing and deep tech.

Let us know what you think of this episode. What subjects you would like us to cover in next episodes.

Give your comments at https://scorehoustonpodcast.blogspot.com or write to pv.bala@scorevolunteer.org. Let us know what you like of this episode and suggest subjects on which you wish to know more.