Sixth Sense start-up spotlight: SmartParts

Sixth Sense start-up spotlight: SmartParts

By Insights team
|
May 17, 2022

Meet SmartParts

Mission: Enabling organizations to unlock the full potential of additive manufacturing by introducing an intelligent material that is scannable, traceable, and cloud-connected.

PrintParts is an additive manufacturing service and technology development company. Founder Robert Haleluk realized that traceability was a big issue in additive manufacturing and so developed SmartParts as a solution to manage, authenticate, and track additive materials and parts throughout their lifecycle. The goal is to increase the value of the part without affecting costs or the mechanical properties of parts.

We caught up with COO, Cody Burke, to see how they are getting on with the Sixth Sense programme so far…

How has Sixth Sense been different to other accelerators so far?

“The Sixth Sense team has done a really great job of meeting us where we are in terms of our maturity as an organization. Many of the companies in the programme are at different stages which could make things tricky, but Hexagon has been really flexible in adapting the programme to fit the realities of individual companies. It’s been super useful to have realistic goals and the specific help we need to achieve them. I think a lot of programmes out there are a little more cookie cutter and not as customized to the unique needs of companies.”

What have the highlights of Sixth Sense been so far?

“I found that all the coaches, internal and external, have been really engaged and responsive.

There’s a high level of buy-in, obviously they have their own day jobs but we’ve found all the coaches we’ve worked with to be extremely generous with their time and in making connections to potential customers and other people within Hexagon.”

What has been the biggest thing have you learned?

“The most valuable thing we’ve learned (and are still learning) is how a company the scale of Hexagon operates with its huge breadth of technologies and customers. We’ve been given insight into how they see their solutions, how they bring new products to market, and how they think about integrations. There are plenty of takeaways for us as we seek to scale our own company.”

How are you feeling in the lead up to Demo Day?

“Good! We’ve got a lot of work to do but we’re happy with the insight we’ve had from the connections we’ve made at Hexagon. We’ve been iterating and now have clarity about what we plan to do on Demo Day now and what the expectations are. Good communication is key and the Sixth Sense team has been very open with us and provided clear guidelines during our weekly workshops. We’re excited!”

Good luck on Demo Day, Cody and team!