What a difference a little bit of properly fused and modelled ABS plastic can make. To Jason Rider, founder of Thriving Systems Design LLC, in Ft. Collins, CO, it made the difference between seeing his ideas brought to market by others and launching his own company by inventing the C-Bite Stake Clamp and Anchor System. It is a simple but very useful item which snaps on to most trellising products to hold garden plants.
Rider saw his first 3D printer at work back in 2000 but the machines were far from affordable. Since then prices have come down a hundred fold so, in 2013, Jason invested in an Afinia Desktop 3D Printer based on his analaysis of MAKE Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing. He then got to work on his C-Bite. It was just an idea and he was able to play around with TinkerCard enough to apply for a patent.
By perfecting and 3D printing the model he obtained a workable prototype and presented it to a bank to obtain a loan. He then took the samples to garden stores and even got commitments from a large number of them, not just from the garden stores and greenhouses but also from some large retailers.
“Product adoption in my niche is pretty high,” says Rider, who coincidentally shares his first name with “Jason” in RadioShack’s Superbowl ad featuring an Afinia 3D printer. “It has been a function of seeing and holding the product,” he adds. “This is noteworthy, because I did not bring in a final manufactured product to sell, but an idea in ABS. The Afinia has really accelerated the progress of my business.”
He came up with the idea for C-Bite in November of last year. He applied for a provisional patent in December, used the Afinia to perfect the design, went door-to-door getting pre-sales in January and now he is about four weeks away from delivering the product.
“I’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign but I also took my prototype to a manufacturer, – Rider, whose C-Bite is also featured on Crowdfunder.com, continues. “They were surprised to see that my concept was that far along. They are used to seeing drawings, not finished prototypes. Because of my Afinia, I can move ideas from my brain into 3D in a few hours with total privacy and at a very low cost.”
