200. How a Hobby Became a Multi-Million Dollar Company | UpFlip Podcast
Kason Knight was a successful mechanical engineer in the oil and gas industry when a sharp downturn hit. His job vanished overnight, leaving him with a newborn daughter and a mortgage to pay. Instead of returning to the corporate world, Kason doubled down on a side hustle he'd started with a single 3D printer in the corner of his kid's playroom.
That small bet turned into ISOLIDS, a massive 3D printing company that now operates 160 printers out of a nearly 9,000-square-foot facility. Serving high-stakes industries like aerospace, agriculture, and medical, Kason's business now generates over $500,000 a month. He transformed a self-funding hobby into a manufacturing powerhouse by focusing on strategic growth and building key relationships.
In this interview, Kason sits down with Ryan Atkinson to break down his incredible journey from layoff to CEO. He shares the blueprint for scaling a manufacturing business, the best way to manage your product development, the strategies he used to land major B2B clients by punching above his weight class, and why constant, strategic evolution is the key to sustainable business growth. If you're looking to turn your side hustle into your main gig , Kason’s entrepreneurship journey is definitely worth looking into.
Takeaways:
- Preparation Creates Luck: Having a side hustle for two years before being laid off provided a foundation to go full-time, proving that consistent hard work puts you in a position to capitalize on opportunities.
- Start as a "Self-Funding Hobby": Beginning with the simple goal of making a hobby pay for itself removes the initial pressure of profitability and allows a business to develop organically.
- Set a Hard Deadline: When going full-time, give yourself a clear timeline to become profitable. Kason gave himself two years, creating a benchmark for success or failure.
- Scaling Requires Strategic Pivots: The tactics that get you to your first major milestone won't get you to the next. You must be willing to pivot your strategy and invest in better tools—like upgrading from "shovels to an excavator"—to reach new levels of growth.
- Win Big Clients by Focusing Small: To land large B2B clients, focus on building a strong relationship with a single engineer or decision-maker within the company. Solve their specific problem, and they will become your internal champion.
- Embrace Constant Evolution: Entrepreneurship is a never-ending cycle of improvement. Be prepared for your processes to constantly change, as what works at one stage of business will not work at the next.
- Practice Mindful and Sustainable Growth: Rapid, uncontrolled growth can be dangerous. Aim for consistent, strategic growth where you can implement changes, evaluate the data, and confirm they had the desired impact before moving on.
- Your Definition of Success Will Change: The "dream" you have on day one will evolve. Acknowledge when you achieve your original goals, even as you set new, more ambitious ones.
- Know and Leverage Your Niche: Combine your unique background with your business idea. Kason's expertise as a mechanical engineer gave him a competitive edge in the technical 3D printing space.
- Support Your Gut with Data: Confidence to take risks comes from understanding your business metrics. Kason's decision to scale was backed by the predictable data that every new printer added a specific amount of revenue capacity.
Tags: Side Hustle, Entrepreneurship, 3D Printing, Product Development, Business Growth
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