We were lucky to catch up with Pablo Nieves recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Pablo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I got back to my hometown after a long trip away, and an old friend who owned a local bakery asked me to work for him. After training, I was working alone all night long, which provided me hours upon hours to watch TV shows, movies, music, and most importantly, think. After a year, and lots of pondering on what my major goals in life are, I came to the definite decision that I don’t want to put the power of my future into someone else’s hands in that way. I had heard, and it made sense, that the best time in your life to start a business was in the exact situation I was in. That is, not married, early to mid twenties, and no dependents. I also believe in doing what you love for a living, and I love making things. With these points among others in mind, I knew I had to get going if I ever wanted it to happen. I had a grand idea for my career goal, and knew I needed to make lots more money than I’d ever had in order to make it happen. I also knew that working at the bakery alone wouldn’t provide me the funding necessary to accomplish my ambition, but it did provide me the time in the week, and the ability to see how a small business starts, since the bakery was less than 5 years old at that point. I could see the inner workings and have someone to bounce ideas off of as well. My first thought on raising money was to do an IT business, since I had some IT training through the Army, and found that I could pick it up rather quickly. I started looking more into it, and designing the business plan and running tests, buying simple gadgets to test theories. After all my work to do the IT thing, it became very clear that I didn’t have all the skill needed to do what it would require, nor the funding to pay someone else who would have the skills. I knew this would set me back, but I kept learning on my down time. One night while working at the bakery, I was racking my brain trying to find if there was something I was overlooking, or if there was a better path to my goal, and I found there was a camouflaged elephant in my brain. I had 3D modeling and printing that I quite enjoyed, and I had already bought a 3D printer for a hobby. It just made sense to go for that! It was something I was already doing as a hobby, and I had already taken a 3D modeling class at a local college. I started dabbling with the idea through the rest of the night, and started bouncing ideas off the bakery owner when he showed up in the morning.
I used months to look around to find where I could either improve an existing product, or invent a whole new product. I eventually stumbled upon lithophanes, which were first seen thousands of years ago, and became more popular with 3D printing and CNC machining. I looked at the current market for them, and I felt a majority of the sources had the exact same product for too high a price. I knew I could improve this and give better quality. I had a stepping stone to my goal. I spent the next year and a half improving, innovating, and in the end, designing my own whole new method of showing the beauty of Lithophanes, and gave my version the name Memlights. I gave them to friends at first to get the basics and get very familiar with printing them in order to optimize the experience. A friend bought some for their family members. After hearing the intense sentiment that caused the family members to choke up and gaze upon their gifts, I was incredibly moved that something I developed had such a profound positive influence on others. I knew this could work. I decided to get a booth at a local wedding convention to get my name out there and provide this same feeling to people on their wedding days.
My sister called me one day and asked if it were possible to make a container for polyhedral dice often used in Dungeons and Dragons, but she wanted it in the shape of a sword. I looked to see if anything like it existed, and found they’re commonly called dice daggers. While the concept existed, she had specific designs she wanted, and those did not exist, so I went to work designing, and while it took way longer than expected, I now have a couple designs with another on its way. This provided a second audience who I could sell my own creations to.
To be quite frank, I am not sure how this will turn out. I don’t even know if I am on the best path to my goal, but I do trust and am confident that I will find a way to get there eventually.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When I was young, I had an obsession with learning how things work. I checked out every book on the matter that my local library had a couple times over. A neighborhood friend of mine and I would think of crazy inventions and talk about how we’d make it work. When I was 10-12 years old, the father of this friend had gotten a 3D printer. They were very new to the public at the time, and the technology was inspiring to me. Years later during my senior year of high school, I started 3D modeling and printing. I had a teacher whose classroom I was in for 3 or more hours a day, and he allowed some of us to print anything we could design. Another friend and I bounced ideas off each other, and grew our skills steadily over the course of the school year. The two of us then took a class after we graduated high school at a local technical college that further grew our 3D modeling skills, and even electrical systems. A few years later, I bought my own 3D printer to have at home, and picked up where I had left off with modeling and printing. I used my love and knowledge of how things work with my skills in 3D modeling to design objects, then I was able to prototype ideas easily with the printer. I could then work on the electrical systems to go inside the objects.

Through my business, Ingeneerity, I offer assistance for other people’s printers, helping them understand, or repair their machines. I also design, prototype, and/or print the finished product for others. The area I live in has no store for 3D printing materials, so I started working my way into filling that void. As for products I sell, the main two are my take on Lithophanes, which I call Memlights, and my other type of product are Dice Daggers for holding polyhedral dice.

No matter what I make, I do my best to make it high quality, and despise doing anything less. I keep in contact through the process to make sure you get what you ask for. I am also constantly looking for ways to improve the products I offer. This fits the meaning behind the name of my business. Ingeneerity: a mix of ingenuity and engineering.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I was working at a bakery, where I wasn’t earning a lot. I saved up for quite some time in order to have the money to get my first 3D printer. Then I did that over and over until I had everything I needed such as my business license. As I went, I was able to make some money here and there from selling my prints to friends and family who believed in my vision, and that accelerated me to where I am now.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Yes, I manufacture everything I sell myself. 3D printing is the manufacturing method of choice for me. I started in high school, which is where I learned how to model and about the printing basics. I really got to know the more advanced parts when I bought my own printer years later. I had to learn the mechanics of the machine, physics, and even software settings in order to enable my ability to use the right settings for the right print. I like to integrate electronics with my products. I had taken a course in robotics and automation, which included a lot of electronics theory and learning. Using these fields of knowledge, I have enough knowledge to design and manufacture my products all on my own. I have made iteration after iteration making tweaks here and there to improve my products to a whole new level above where I started. I learned that I could not be afraid to make something, and put it out there for others to see so they have the opportunity to share their perspective in the form of constructive feedback. I get the opportunity at that point to take the feedback into consideration to improve my products and thought processes.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Ingeneerity.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ingeneerity
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ingeneerity
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablo-nieves-5854881a6

Image Credits
Adrianne Parker, Darcy Hampton