The Hustle
Years in Tampa Bay
20 years.
Hustle (job)
Founder of MityMo Creative and Tangible Labs.
What do you do?
I’m a problem solver and wear many hats while working with inventors, startups, small businesses and non-profits.
Why do you do it?
I love helping people and in particular helping small business owners in St. Pete. It’s fun and rewarding to work with other inventors and small businesses to help them make their dreams a reality.
What was your Catalyst? (How did you get started?)
After hitting the 10 year mark for MityMo Creative, a Creative Services Agency, we decided to buy a 3d printer and thought we could offer products and services for our creative clients. But we soon discovered there were so many more possibilities and launched Tangible Labs, offering 3d design, prototyping and fabrication services.
Five years in and we have expanded with more 3d printers and have worked with hundreds of clients on their inventions, scale models and prototypes.
Being nerds and creatives, we are always trying new ideas and have started printing our own products, including 3d printed Wizard Wands, to demonstrate the possibilities of 3d printing and to show off our capabilities since we can’t talk about many of our client projects due to NDAs.
We also feel that we are really partners with our customers as we work with them to make their dreams come to life as an actual tangible item and we can continue to work with them to develop a logo, branding, marketing materials and a website for their invention.
What’s a common misconception or unknown aspect of what you do?
3D printing is not the answer for everything. It’s not magic. It’s a tool and different tools are used for different projects.
What’s the most challenging part of your Hustle?
Understanding our customers’ projects from their perspectives, and trying to solve a challenge they see. We have to be empathetic and patient.
What’s the most valuable piece of business advice/insight that’s helped you?
Find your tribe – a support group/networking group that will give you honest feedback and you can help to brainstorm ideas, troubleshoot and give you encouragement.
What are some of the 3d printing projects you can talk about?
One of the biggest projects we’ve worked on was a scale model of the South Cross Water Reclamation Facility. We designed 3d models for the 30+ main structures on the property, full color printed a GIS aerial image as a base and had the spots where the buildings would be notched out with a CNC router and 3d printed all the buildings that fit in like a puzzle. The display sits in the lobby at the facility and is used as part of their education program. As sponsors for Friends of Strays Animal Shelter, we have fun creating custom trophies for several of their fundraisers and for special awards they have given to volunteers and employees. We 3d print a green paw trophy for their annual scavenger hunt fundraiser, the Quest for the Emerald Paw, in December and we print a trophy for the winning team for their Shuffle for Strays Shuffleboard Tournament in the spring.
