SendCutSend CEO Jim Belosic says it can meet or beat China on only 20 to 25% of its parts and wants that to reach 100%.
Belosic says the company raised about $110m while giving up only 10%, arguing that a larger early raise would have cost 50% or 70%.
Belosic names recruiting and training as his next bottleneck, with three recruiters on staff and two more coming.
A bootstrapped US manufacturer aims to match China on speed
SendCutSend is betting that on-demand custom parts can be made in the US at prices and speeds that rival China, and that it can become as accessible as Home Depot. Eight years of bootstrapping let Belosic raise $110m on his own terms to pay for expensive facilities. The limits now are speed, people and power.
Takeaways
US manufacturers can beat China on some parts. About 93% of US manufacturing is done by companies with 100 staff or fewer, and about 75% of those have 20 or fewer. SendCutSend meets or beats China on roughly 20 to 25% of parts. Well-paid workers who care about quality matter as much as automation.
Bootstrapping for eight years preserved ownership. Belosic ran the company like a lemonade stand, profitable from day one, with some help from debt. The recent raise of about $110m cost only 10% of the company. He says raising earlier would have meant giving up 50% or 70%.
Speed is the goal for the coming years. Amazon showed that fast delivery becomes expected. Ground shipping across the country takes five or six days, and UPS and FedEx constrain delivery. Internally, 3PM is the new midnight, so orders due that day must leave on the truck by 3PM.
Facilities are costly bets made ahead of leases. A large facility now costs $50m, against maybe a million dollars in the old days. SendCutSend ordered equipment before signing a lease on a 150,000 square foot building, since saving 30 days at the start could be worth millions.
People and power are the next bottlenecks. Recruiting and training limit growth, with three recruiters and two more coming. One building with 1,200 amps ran short, and a compressor draws as much electricity as four CNC machines. The company now prefers metro buildings with 4,000 amps.
Culture spreads through experienced staff, not the founder. With almost 500 people and about 1,000 more expected, Belosic cannot be everywhere. Senior leaders act as his eyes and ears, and staff can volunteer for six weeks at another facility to carry the culture across.
Expectations are promises, and prices stay fair. A promised delivery day or price must be met, and improvements raise the bar permanently. Raw material prices only rise, and the Strait Of Hormuz closure cut 15% of global aluminum supply. Belosic still wants fair prices without competition.
Other choices at SendCutSend
About 90% of the work is now for large enterprise, though the company began with hobbyists.
It open sourced its design-for-manufacturing rules so others can build tools, and it uses LLMs to generate CAD from plain descriptions.
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On this episode 2
Show 1
It has no CFO yet and is trying to build a merit-based slush fund for intangibles.
Belosic says venture capital treats capital-heavy manufacturing as less attractive than software, and he chose investors by character rather than by firm.