Glowforge 3D Printers, Breakout Growth that Started with a $30M 30-Day Crowdfunding Campaign

In this episode of The Breakout Growth Podcast, Sean Ellis interviews Marlo Struve, Glowforge’s Vice President of Growth. Glowforge is a 3D printer that allows crafters and makers to create unique and innovative things using a subtractive manufacturing process. Where traditional 3D printers add layers of material to create items, Glowforge carves away material using a CO2 laser to reveal a maker’s ideas for prototypes, parts, crafts, and gifts. Breakout growth started with a hugely successful 2015 crowdfunding campaign that yielded more $30 million dollars in 30 days, and while that did demonstrate incredible demand for the concept, it would actually take two years before the first Glowforge printers would be delivered to customers. In this interview, Sean uncovers how the team built off of the excitement and anticipation of the original crowdsourcing campaign to transform customer love for an idea into a flywheel effect that now drives sustainable growth (28:36). He also discovers how the company’s growth mindset stressed the idea of “growing the market while you sell it,” to unlock opportunity and expand the potential userbase (23:02). Perhaps the most interesting part of this conversation is a deep dive into how Glowforge intentionally and skilfully uses friction to unearth a white-hot core of passionate fans and users (19:44). The idea of always working to reduce friction is ingrained in the minds of growth professionals through books, conferences, and interviews, but this discussion may make you think differently about how you might apply “educational friction” to accelerate growth. We discussed: The advantages, opportunities, and challenges that grew out of the company’s crowdsourced beginnings and the two-year period before delivery. (2:20)How early demand served as an indicator of product/market fit and how the company navigated its transition from concept to growth (9:09)Why intentionally introducing friction helps the company distinguish an intensely loyal customer base excited to help share and grow the product (19:44)How an incentivized referral program contributes to 50% of sales. (21:25)The power of Glowforge customer enthusiasm in helping to make a difference during the Covid-19 outbreak (34:25) Get full access to Sean’s Substack at seanellis.substack.com/subscribe