So what possessed us to start this thing in the first place? It's really pretty simple. Throughout trying to build things ourselves, we realized there was a lot of friction to even get the ball rolling. This always starts in the form of a quote. With a shiny new quote, we would have a new data point in which we can make a decision or change a design. The real pain is when you need to get 3 or 4 of them to make a single part or product. First, you have to find the various places that have those capabilities and then send them, often duplicate, information and do the back and forth with each vendor. And for what? Just getting a price.
Our goal is to be able to make it easier for companies (or individuals) large or small to quickly and easily get pricing for the lead time they desire. Another source of value we are going to provide is a slow turn batching service. Have only 1 or 2 pieces to make? Don't want to pay all the setup fees yourself? With a long lead time, we can put your order with other similar orders or material types to help reduce unit costs. The batching service might not be limited to direct manufacturing processes, but could also help with heat treating, cryogenics, anodizing, or any other batch process with a minimum charge.
Cost generation can be a tricky business. To ensure our service is accurate (and thus valuable to you) we are going to start by offering only the most simple processes. For example, waterjet or laser cutting. After we get those under our belt we will be offering simple turning (lathe) processes. The closer to full 3-D processes, the more complex and intricate cost prediction becomes.