Inside ICI
Start-Up Company Utilizes Their Investment Casting Institute Membership to Grow Their Business Network
by Keith Orlebeck, Intrepid Automation Introduction
T
his paper discusses Intrepid Automation’s (a San Diego additive manufacturing start-up) journey
through starting the company and what joining the Investment Casting Institute has done for validating the company’s value proposition and growing their business network.
Intrepid Automation was started
towards the end of 2017. The company officially started developing our business network and validating our value proposition in January 2018. Intrepid Automation’s vision is to deliver automated digital manufacturing solutions that enable our Customers to transform their business. Our go-to- market strategy involves Investment Casting foundry requirements for Part Volume, Complexity and Customization.
In order to validate our strategy,
we set out to collect information from investment casting foundries and better understand the exact needs of a foundry through personal interviews. Our goal was to conduct as many interviews as possible to better understand what foundry pain-points were, their use of 3D printed patterns, what was their experience, and any other issues facing foundries throughout the investment casting process. We set out doing this by cold-calling local foundries in California initially. We then contacted a foundry in Michigan whom we had read about in industry news. We reached out to others but these two were the only two initially willing to spend time with us. During one of the interviews we were given an edition of INCAST and it was suggested we join the Investment Casting Institute
10 ❘ May 2019 ®
Figure 1: Intrepid activity chart April 2018 prior to joining the ICI.
Figure 2: Intrepid activity chart October 2018- 6 months of membership.
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