3D Alliances Brings Channels Together

3D printing industry veteran Gil Lavi shares the story of his latest endeavor.

Lavi, whose career spans Objet, Stratasys, Roboze, and most recently BigRep, has spent more than a decade dedicated to 3D printing. And now, he tells us, “I wanted something of my own.”

We sat down at formnext last week to speak, catching up on the genesis of his latest endeavor and a look at the quickly growing additive manufacturing industry and all the global networking it brings.

“It’s all about building channels. I have all this experience in FDM, but am more and more often asked about SLS; I realized I needed to know about more technologies. I know the 3D printing industry, and I know its challenges: with 3D Alliances, we are bringing these together,” he explained.

Targeting a gap between engineering and market, Lavi is leveraging his expertise to help broaden channels around the world. There’s an art to salesmanship, and understanding both technological needs and cultural differences is key to expanding bases to reach the wider world. Managing these skills and bridging cultural gaps, 3D Alliances was formed to create connections.

“I will connect companies I choose to work with, who are ready to grow, with resellers. There are companies with this value proposition, and I will connect them with resellers who have this-and-this technology but need this one. They are all vetted,” he adds.

Working with known quantities, vouched for by an experienced eye, offers a level of much-needed reassurance in building new global relationships.

“This comes from the point that I know channels, I know challenges — I know truths,” Lavi said. “I can be the Swiss of these companies: neutral, confidential, knowing and sharing information that needs to be transparent, and communicating throughout.”

Of the genesis of the project, Lavi sees now as the right time to launch: he’s known he wanted to do something like this, but only recently has the market reached a point of being ready for such an offering: “I think the market was not mature enough, say two years ago.”

“For each medium and small company, they will have an international salesperson. My goal is not to replace this person, but to help them grow their business. I have 550 companies from 57 countries in my network; I can help channel managers be more successful in what they want to achieve,” he said.

“So many companies out there are amazing with their technologies — and they need a bit of help with business. They need to feel trust.”

The long-term vision for 3D Alliances is to become the biggest hub between companies and where they want to do business. Finding the right partners — forming the right alliances — is key to next growth stages, and Lavi seeks to help those connections form.

“We will create a one-to-two page report to help with what’s important, so they can review exactly what they need to know about potential connections,” he explained.

During our meeting at formnext, Lavi noted that 3D Alliances had launched just the week before, and at the show was receiving a warm welcome from companies. Reception was helped along because 3D Alliances is “touching a soft spot because they know they need help”: meeting needs at the right time was a key point for this year’s formnext, and Lavi’s timing seems to have landed well.

The new business is targeted not only at startups, but at any companies looking to move into new markets.

The reaction, said Lavi, was telling: “We need this kind of help.”

Via 3D Alliances