Hi All,
I’d like to introduce everyone to my new company, MakeWhale. And by new I mean, we literally launched last week!
Who are we?
I’m Siddharth, the founder at MakeWhale. We are a design firm at heart and use 3D printing to produce unique one-of-a-kind products. While India so far has been exposed to 3D printing predominantly for prototyping and plastic products, we work with a variety of materials that consumers didn’t have access to before. We work with corporates and individuals both to create beautiful products which are 100% bespoke.
The problem
Sick of giving the same old gifts? Wanted to gift a product that was truly unique? So far consumers can only ‘customize’ to the extent of putting images on products or the usual etching on corporate gifts.
We aim to change this by offering consumers the chance to design their product, from scratch.
What can we make?
Pretty much anything. Really. We use the best 3D printing technology available internationally and empower the consumers to convert their vision for their perfect gift into reality.
Have a look at some of the products we have designed and made already. These are actual pictures and not renders!
Our take on Lord Ganesh
3D version of a company’s logo
Customized key-chains for a rock band – Each band member got his own key-chain with his name as well as the instrument he plays!
How we work
We work broadly in 2 ways. If the customer has an idea of what they want, they can either write it in or send us reference images which we use as a base to develop the product. Alternatively we do get requests such as ‘I want a gift for my fiance as a sign of our love..i’m just not sure what I want’ . In such cases our designers work with the customer to understand the reason for gifting, the personality of the person who will receive the gift and various other points which will help us come to a final product.
The gamble
When I started working on MakeWhale I knew that assuming people will be ready to sit and design products and also wait more than 2 days (in todays click and buy world) for products to be delivered, was a gamble. The reason why I took this gamble though was, unlike say the U.S or Europe, there are not many people in India who have knowledge of product design to make their own products (yet). Plus those who do have the knowledge might not have the time or resources for it.
3D Printing is still very much in its infancy in India and a large part of our business will also be educating the consumers on the fact that they truly can make *anything* and also getting them to understand the various materials available.
Did it pay off?
We just launched a week ago, it would be foolish of me to assume anything just yet. I will say though that we already had queries and customers from the first day of launch and the response on social media has been great, without spending a dime on advertising.
Like I mentioned before, this industry is still very new in India and more so in the consumer market. So far consumers have mainly read about its application in architecture, medical uses or industrial prototyping.
They aren’t aware that it can be used at the individual gifting level as well.We hope to change that.
Thanks for your time! Please do check us out on www.makewhale.com as well as @MakeWhale on Facebook,Instagram and Twitter. My personal handle is @siddsah on Twitter.
Not sure if other 3D printing folk are around – if so would love to connect!
And would love everyone’s inputs either way 🙂
Siddharth
UPDATE, MAY 4TH, 2016:
May the 4th be with you Rodinhooders! Check out this fun video made by my extremely talented team at MakeWhale. 3D Printed in-house as well!
For those interested, growth continues at a steady pace. This industry is still extremely nascent hence we cannot expect anything else! The good thing is that even 8 months after launch we are still getting traction simply by word of mouth! Something I thought might slow down after the initial excitement.
As some people had initially recommended, we have also started selling a few products online via Engrave.in & PropShop24. More updates soon!
asha chaudhry
OMGANNU!!!!!
siddharth – this is so cool!
where are you guys based?
that golden gannu is so awesome!
what material is this made of?
and what would the pricing be like (i realise you would need numbers etc – so mention minimum numbers that make it viable to you and the customer)
if therodinhoods were to get something made to reward its members (we have tees and laptop skins only at present) what would you suggest?
Siddharth Sah
Hi Asha, thanks so much!
We’re based in Mumbai but work with clients all over India. We’ll soon sell a couple of products that are as is (like the Ganesha) internationally as well.
This Ganesha is made of gold steel! We do have a wide variety of materials ranging from plastics to metals.
Well pricing would honestly only really drastically vary between 1 and 5 pieces. Beyond that it is pretty stable. We don’t have economies of scale per se in 3D Printing. So something like this Ganesha would be around Rs. 6000 approximately.
Our products are definitely catered more towards the high end market Asha. But if we are looking at some products that can be used as giveaways (keychains etc) we do have a base plastic material as well. So for example we could try and incorporate the Rodinhoods logo like we did for the band.
If the budget is higher though then all the materials open up! If I can get a better idea of an approximate budget I can suggest products to you!
Vivek Agarwal
Dear Sidhdharth,
I was also thinking for the same concept however was not able to start. I’ll be very happy if I can work with you. Currently I am based in Gurgaon. Delhi-NCR is a very big market for this.
regards,
Vivek Agarwal
+91 9560865634
Siddharth Sah
Hi Vivek,
Why don’t we get in touch on siddharth@makewhale.com.
Look forward.
Thanks!
Sridhar Rajendran
Hi Siddharth,
I love the concept of a personalised gifting and it seems to be picking up in India. You website is simply fantastic! It is tough to believe you guys are just a week old. Whoever did your website needs a special kudos. The interactive elements on the site, the well thought out questions in FAQ section and the gorgeous photos that made me want to lick my Macbook screen 🙂 Btw I have interacted with guys at GiftXoxo who are in personalised gifting space as well. They do cater to corporates as well. You could check out their site.
That Ganesha is gorgeous and I am restraining myself not to break the bank on it 🙂 Good luck
Siddharth Sah
Hi Sridhar,
Wow thank you so so much for the kind words!! Quite speechless 🙂
I have to thank my incredible team for the website. All the images are of products we sell and all the images have been created and rendered in-house! We may or may not have delayed launch to make this website 😉
Our price points are definitely high and we wanted a website to reflect that quality so we did put in a lot of effort and thought into it! We wanted it to be consumer friendly and not too techy!
Thanks for the link to Giftxoxo will check it out!
Thank you for all the kind words again! All of us at MakeWhale were thrilled to read them 🙂
Vishwajeet
This is great!
Siddharth Sah
Thanks Vishwajeet!
Abhishek Goel
Siddharth,
Great work. The 3-D printed designs look really cool, especially the mobile accessories & theme wedding section.
It would be great if you can make it like an e-commerce platform, having products to directly buy. Don’t have 10k products. But you can list the prices for 10 products that you have sold. You would have the designs/codes (whatever is needed to make) ready and have the idea about pricing. And keep increasing the catalogue as you keep selling more unique products. It would also help customers who want a product but don’t have the time it would take to complete your current process.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
this is awesome. Just sent a request via the website 🙂
Essentially, want to make gifts from our 3d games ! Check – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.games2win.highschooldt
Siddharth Sah
Hi Abhishek,
Thank you so much!
We definitely plan to have an e-commerce platform as well. To start with, since people are still not used to 3D printed products (especially with respect to materials used) and the variety of products available it was hard to create a collection of products to sell off the shelf. That being said we have been working on that simultaneously and certain products like the Ganesh can be bought as is. We are working on more.
Each product is extremely customized to the client, hence increasing the catalogue from these products is not possible, but we are working on products that can be sold as is or with minimum customization.
Thanks again for checking us out!
Siddharth Sah
Thanks so much again Alok! 🙂
One of our designers will get in touch with you today!
Amit Shroff
Hey Sid!
How is going? How have been the business shaping up and what is the tentative cost.
Regards,
Amit
Siddharth Sah
Hey Amit!
I’m very satisfied with our start – hard to be in an industry that you are pretty much forming on your own but still we’ve managed to get a good number of clients so far. Now will be the real test moving forward!
The cost completely varies based on the material used, volume of material, shape, size etc so I really cannot give you a tentative cost! If you would like please feel to reach out to me on siddharth@makewhale.com and we can talk about what you have in mind.
Thanks!
Sid
Amit Shroff
Sent you an email!
Siddharth Sah
Hi Rodinhooders! May the 4th be with you! 🙂
Check out our video for a small 3D printed tribute to everyone’s favorite character!
asha chaudhry
omg! that is sooooooooo cool sid!! are you making yodas as well?
Siddharth Sah
Thanks Asha 🙂 Unfortunately these are not for sale, but yes we can print Yodas as well!
3D printing is coming under the scanner due to blurry laws of IP, copyrights etc so it’s something we are avoiding for now. (However tempting it might be!)