Meet 3D Print Co: Our Journey from Hobby to Business in Ohio

My name is Ryan, and alongside my wife Abbey, we run 3D Print Co. I’ve been a nerd for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been playing around with 3D printers on and off since high school, which is now over ten years ago. This is our story of how we went from Hobby to Business in Ohio.

Our business didn’t start with some big plan or strategy. It started with us getting married. I wanted to make something special for our new life together, so I designed and printed a custom sign with our last names. The letters came out so crisp and high quality that people kept asking where we got it, how it was made, and if I could make one for them. That’s when the idea clicked: if something as simple as that sign could bring us so much joy, why not share that same feeling with others through quality 3D printing?

Our Wedding Sign

From there, our journey began small. We opened a booth at the Lebanon Peddlers Mall, where every month felt like a scramble just to make rent. We launched in November, hoping that Christmas shoppers would give us some momentum, and we leaned into holiday-themed items to make it work. The truth is, once Christmas ended, I thought that was it. I figured our little experiment would fizzle out and we’d pack up our things. I recall looking at my wife and saying

"Either we have no business in 3 months, or we come up with something new and it's extremely successful and saves us"

But then we tried something different. We started posting our products on TikTok, and that’s when everything changed. One of our items went viral…