The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast

Pushing the limit of 3D printing and trying new 3D Printing Filament – Matthew Gorton– Ep32 Matthew Gorton is Mechanical Engineer who has transitioned from employee to entrepreneur. For many years, he worked at WL Gore , in both Arizona and Delaware. (WL Gore is best known for the Gore-Tex Brand). As an aside, I also worked there as a summer intern in 2006. Matt has since left that job to pursue h...

Working as an Engineer for Caterpillar and Rubbermaid, and Creo versus Solidworks – Jon Klinger– Ep31 Jon Klinger has worked in the past for Caterpillar and Rubbermaid (now called Newell Brands). He has designed many interesting products, including edge belt conveyors, thermo-formed polycarbonate doors for the Skid steer D series, and Rubbermaid Fast Track parts . Jon also is now working for me pa...

Former IDEO Mechanical Engineer turned Startup Freelance Consultant – Jen Davis-Wilson– Ep30 Jen Davis-Wilson worked for 12 years at IDEO . Since then, she has gone off on her own to be a startup freelance consultant. She typically works with clients in the San Francisco (Silicon Valley area). While Jen and I are both Mechanical Engineers, our careers and the way we go about creating client projec...

Selling Old VCR tapes, Selfie-Glove Discussion, and other side hustles – Shane McLendon - Ep 29 Shame McLendon and I connected when he found my CADdesignhelp.com Facebook page . He was looking for guests on the Built in a Day Podcast . I went on the podcast and talked about product testing with the Selfie-Glove . This was in the fall of 2016. Shane and I hadn’t talked in a while, so we did a podca...

Talking Product Design with a Stanley Black and Decker Engineering Manager – Terry Gonzales - Ep 28 Terry Gonzales is currently an Engineering Manager with Stanley Black and Decker in Southington Connecticut with hand tool and auto mechanic group. Terry was my first boss at my first job out of college. That was at United Pet Group in Blacksburg, VA (we called it Tetra because that was the main bra...

Stepping up your CAD Design Business – Scott Hoffman - Ep 27 Scott Hoffman is the founder of PepperNickelDesigns , a CAD design and 3D printing service. Scott’s background is in electrical and computer engineering. He works full time as an insurance adjuster but he started PepperNickelDesigns as a side hustle that he wants to bring to a full-time job in 2017. We connected on the Facebook page for...

Jeff Funderburk is the inventor of the Big Bear Shelf ( bigbearshelving.com ). Jeff was cleaning his garage one day and realized he didn’t have enough storage space. He went to Lowe’s to find a solution but all the products out there were very costly. Jeff’s solution was to create a “holder” piece that holds 3 two by four pieces of lumber. We discuss how he made some initial prototypes, came up wi...

CADdesignhelp.com Business Update – Scott Tarcy (solo episode) - Ep 25 I thought it was time to do a solo episode and talk about random stuff I have going on in my business. Some of the highlights include: Projects Brush butler - https://brushbutler.com/ Engineering challenges 3D printing – 4 or 5 different materials used for the prototype Nearing completion! Microphone handle 2 piece product Thre...

UPDATE 3/15/2017: There was a problem with the original post (the track got looped I think). Anyways, I apologize and the new, corrected podcast is now posted. Trey Sullivan is from Louisiana and grew up on a farm. He learned a lot of hands on practical knowledge from fixing farm equipment. He started college after high school, but ultimately dropped out and worked most of his career as an insuran...

Pat Sweet has worked most of his career as an engineer in the rail industry. After reading the 4 hour workweek and some other entrepreneurship books, he got the inspiration to start some side hustles. He taught himself how to build websites and still creates websites as a side business. Another action he took was to create his own website: Engineeringandleadership.com . At first he created it beca...

I can’t give him the title of “King of 3D Printing in the World”, but I will give him the title for Michigan. And for good reason….read more below Jonah Dorman is the owner of SOC3D, which is a 3D printing company based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. His company has the most reviews on 3D Hubs (think of AirBnB for 3D printers) in the entire state of Michigan. They have 35 3D printers in use, which...

Brian Walt is only 22 years old but already is a business owner and entrepreneur. He started Walt3D, a 3D printing and manufacturing services company based out of King of Prussia, PA. We connected over Instagram, as we both often use the #3D printing (you can follow me on Instagram @caddesignhelp ). We talk about his story on how he got into 3D printing. We talk about the Pro Putt , a golf trainin...

The Perky Collar Invention- David Frankel - Ep 20 David Frankel is inventor whose background is in sales and marketing. He found a need himself to keep a dress shirt collar upright when he is not wearing a tie. After finding a makeshift solution (his daughter’s headband) for the sales meeting he was about to have, he knew he was onto something. He took the idea from that initial handmade prototype...

Designing on Stage Machinery for Lady Gaga Performances and CES 2017 Discussion– Emanuel Moshouris - Ep 18 Emanuel Moshouris is a Mechanical Engineer working for Black and Decker. His background includes working as an engineer in both the automotive and entertainment sectors. If you ever wondered how the big-name artists create their elaborate on stage performances, you will want to listen to this...

Scott Houdashell is an insurance salesman by day but an inventor at his core. One day he was decorating a hardboiled egg with his family and thought there must be an easier way. After some testing and trials, the Eggmazing was born. I first connected with Scott when he needed his Sketchup drawings converted into Solidworks drawings. He has since already gone to tooling with his product and he had...

Tu-Hien is a mom who lives in Florida. She had her first child a few years ago, and found that using a breast pump was very uncomfortable. She went online and couldn’t find a product to solve her problem, so she set out to solve it herself. She created a Facebook group of moms to use as her focus group / testing group. She went through 41 iterations to come up with the perfect final product. Then...

Get Recognized for Your Expertise- Carl Friesen - Ep 16 This week we have Carl Friesen. He is from Toronoto, CA and his background is in Journalism. He currently helps people get recognized for their expertise and helps authors get published. Carl talks to me about how I can get more recognition in my field of CAD and Product Design. We talk about doing speaking engagements and writing articles on...

Will Gibbons is a Training Specialist at Luxion, the makers of KeyShot rendering software. He's got a degree in Product Design and experience in marketing, product design and development and visualization. Will has experience in more CAD programs than anyone else I know. We discuss many of the different programs out there and give the pros and cons of each. I mainly use Solidworks so this conversa...

Andrew Bougie has a background in general IT and has (until recently) worked for a ScanSource, a company that sells 3D scanners. During his time there, he learned a lot about 3D scanning by getting hands on with the scanners and answering customer calls about scanner issues. Andrew told me that he always wanted to own his own business and he had some side hustle jobs in the meantime. But he recent...

This week on the podcast we have Anthony Fasano. Anthony is civil engineer by background. He has shifted his career from practicing civil engineering to becoming an entrepreneur in a few different areas. He is the Executive Director for The New York State Society of Professional Engineers, he runs the Engineering Career Coach podcast , and he runs The Italian American Podcast . Anthony reached a h...

This week on the podcast we have Louis Foreman. Louis is the CEO of Eventys and Edison Nation . His companies help inventors take their product to market. We discuss Louis’ background (he has 7 patents!), how he started his companies, and some tips. As with any entrepreneur, we discuss some successes and failures. There is a lot to learn in this podcast! Key takeaways Do a market feasibility of yo...

This week is a little different. This week I talk about my recent invention, The Selfie-Glove. I started this project in August and I have just made my first 2 sales. In this podcast, I talk about the lean startup philosophy and how I have applied it to this product. I discuss how I used validated learning to improve the product and find the right market. I discuss how I came up with the idea, how...

This week we have Lyman Bishop on the podcast. Lyman is a mechanical engineering and entrepreneur. His background is mainly in weapons and defense (body armor). He runs both his own company for product design ( www.star-labs.com ) and he is in development of his own line of body armor after working for years in that space. We discuss a story of how he got started as an engineer at 8 years old, how...

Derek Timm graduated college with a degree in business. After college, he took a job as a paper pusher (his words) and was able to transition into a product designer/CAD position. He found his passion in design and his experience and expertise has grown since. He even started his own side business. We discuss Derek’s path so far, some projects we have done together, and where he is headed with his...

Joe Moya is an industrial designer by degree and is now a business owner. He runs Studio Moya , which is a full service product design firm based out of Columbus Ohio. He also has created the Hilljak brand, which is a performance magazine loader. We discuss Joe’s journey to where he is today as well has how he invented the Hilljak line of products. Anyone who is interested to learn how to successf...