This Reservist Created Affordable 3D Printers To Help Innovators Around The World

While volunteering abroad with a nonprofit engineering group in 2011, Samantha Snabes noticed piles of discarded medical equipment degrading in the hot sun. Some people might just shake their heads and keep moving. But that’s not Snabes’ style. As an Air National Guard reservist who’s always had a strong sense of service and community, she had an idea: “What if this plastic waste could be thought of as a resource instead of sitting in a landfill or polluting our oceans?”

That question became the starting point for re:3D, an eco-friendly social enterprise that makes affordable industrial-size 3D printers for problem-solvers around the world, helping them to create everything from prosthetic hands to solar-power prototypes. Snabes launched the Austin-based company and its flagship 3D printer, “Gigabot,” in 2013 with a conviction that she could make a global impact through sustainable and accessible technology.

From Start-up to Growth and Expansion

Fast forward to 2024, re:3D manufactures its affordable industrial 3D printers, including models that use reclaimed plastic waste, in the United States and sells them in more than 50 countries around the world.

But this kind of growth doesn’t happen overnight or without support. Snabes turned to her military community to scale re:3D through CEOcircle, a program sponsored by JPMorganChase that helps veterans and military spouses grow their businesses.

CEOcircle, operated by Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) provides expert advice and resources from JPMorganChase, like networking opportunities and mentorship, to veteran- and military-spouse-led companies. It offers CEOs a sense of camaraderie and tools to drive business growth.

“CEOcircle has been instrumental to the growth of our business,” says Snabes. “With their guidance, we’ve doubled sales revenue, added 20 employees, secured our largest multimillion contracts to date, and purchased and moved into a larger facility in Austin, with room to scale production and meet rising demand.”

Snabes has found CEOcircle to be such a pivotal resource, in fact, that she has participated in it twice on behalf of re:3D — in 2023 and 2024. “Being around military-affiliated individuals who are CEOs and who have been at our stage of growth is really motivating,” she says. “[CEOcircle] is a cohort that supports each other; they grow together; they develop together; they also have accountability to one another,” says Terry Hill, Co-Head of Emerging Middle Market and Co-Head of Veteran Initiatives, JPMorganChase Commercial Banking. “As a veteran myself, supporting the military and veteran community is incredibly powerful and exciting.”

Supporting Military Entrepreneurs

Programs like CEOcircle reflect JPMorganChase’s commitment to business growth and entrepreneurship; they also reflect the firm’s commitment to bring the military community’s valuable skills and expertise to the private sector. The firm has made more than 18,000 military hires since 2011, and it offers programs and initiatives that help veterans and their families thrive in their post-service lives.

“When we can help people like Samantha grow and develop their businesses, we’re stronger as a country, and we’re stronger in our communities,” says Hill. Since JPMorganChase and the IVMF launched CEOcircle, more than 170 business owners have gained access to growth opportunities, mentorship, and a robust network of peers, and more than 70% of CEOcircle participants reported gaining new business opportunities from the program.

There’s a ripple effect, Hill says, when JPMorganChase supports a program like CEOcircle. The support helps businesses grow, and those businesses generate jobs, services, and products — all of which can help communities flourish.

Vision For The Future

So what’s next for Snabes and re:3D? For one, she hopes to stay active in the CEOcircle alumni community and scale “re:3D 2.0,” creating new technologies to address plastic refuse. “The most prevalent waste streams are some of the trickiest materials to work with, but we want to take that on,” she says. This includes evolving her large 3D printers and expanding the materials they can print with, all while still maintaining a competitively affordable price point so innovators around the world can continue to #DreamBigPrintHUGE.

The growth mission extends beyond innovation and also includes a focus on community impact. “We’re guided by a vision to create 500 jobs in five years through second- and third-order effects,” says Snabes.

“Being in hardware manufacturing, our challenges don’t go away,” says Snabes. “They change with every season of growth. That’s why it’s important to surround yourself with a community you can problem solve with.”

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