Episode 126: Connor Spiegelman – The Carbon University Program

While outbound selling is commonly considered the more difficult aspect of the sales role, it serves as an excellent way to understand your ideal targets and learn how to better penetrate your market. After all, a company cannot make its presence known in the field and identify the perfect prospect without prioritizing cold outreach.

In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Connor Spiegelman now the director of the Carbon University Program, recounts the many ways the SDR role has served as an excellent basis for his development and challenged him to continuously work to make himself more knowledgeable in the field.

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Connor Spiegelman

💡 What he does: Connor is the director of the Carbon University Program.

💡 Company: Carbon

💡 Noteworthy: Connor is experienced in implementing additive manufacturing solutions with a range of companies, from startups to Fortune 5’s in various industries such as automotive, aerospace, consumer, industrial, and medical. Connor currently works with university customers and prospective customers globally in cutting-edge research using Carbon’s 3DP solution and working to develop a curriculum of the future.

💡 Where to find Connor: LinkedIn l Website

Key Insights

⚡ Working from home is not a good choice, especially for beginners. In the world of sales development, there are many companies where SDRs work from home, but memoryBlue insists that their SDRs work in offices. According to Connor, it is very important, especially in the first few months, that you come to the office until you have perfected everything you are learning there. “You have a lot of colleagues that are there to help you and motivate you. And I think the training makes sense, and it’s valuable. And in my work today, I hustle, and I think that maybe I wouldn’t hustle as effectively or as much if I wasn’t in the office at first because I do remember some pretty intense days.”

⚡ Outbound sales is an excellent basis for development. When Connor and his memoryBlue colleague James started at Carbon, they were the only two SDRs on the team, so they were doing outbound sales. Connor says it’s a great way to get to know the market and develop experience. “It was us working with the sales team directly to define what were the 3D printed components that we were going to look to target. And then, for us at the time, it was electrical connectors and some of these other major automotive companies and things like that. And so we actually worked to go through, and I’ve been doing a lot of this work for the last several years, but understand that entire market and try to penetrate that market as much as possible with cold calls, emails, LinkedIn. And that was starting off because we quickly were like, ‘Okay, to meet our goals, we need to be delivering on the cold outreach,’ which was an awesome development experience.”

⚡ Knowledge is acquired through work. From an office full of SDRs, Connor moved to Carbon, where he and James were the only SDRs. They were the engine of outbound movement there and had to learn a lot to grow the business. Connor explains what the biggest challenge in this transition was. “James and I really had to work to understand the technical aspect of what we were trying to do because we were talking to VPs of engineering. And honestly, I was learning as I was going. And the conversations were helping, but sometimes you get with people who wanted a lot of information, and you had to continuously work to make yourself more knowledgeable. That was a challenge.”

Episode Highlights

Carbon – a 3D Printing Technology Company

“There’s a reason why people don’t know about 3D printing that much today, and the reason is three or four points. One, the materials can’t perform well enough, particularly soft materials, they don’t perform, and rigid ones are often too brittle. The economics don’t make sense; the cost per part doesn’t make sense; it’s much more expensive to 3D print a part than to injection mold in a lot of situations. And then the third one was the rate of the speed of production. 3D printers can take, some of these slower ones, 15 or so hours to print a small component like this, and my hand, for reference, is five or six inches.

With Carbon, we’re the first company to check all those boxes for a wide breadth of 3D printing applications. So, we create the 3D printers; we create the 3D printed materials; we create the 3D printing design software; and then we support all of our customers on the back end with great customer service, but also in certain areas where there are high-value projects such as with Adidas and with Rydell. On these shoes and with these football helmets and even with medical components and automotive components, we actually will engage directly to make sure that the component is printing as fast as possible, as well as possible, and the customer’s having as good an experience as possible.”

Why Use a 3D Printer?

“Injection molding is our main technology, or it is the main technology being used in automotive plastics manufacturing today. And so, that process requires a steel tool to be made for many vehicles, otherwise known as a hard tool, and these tools can cost upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they can take 12 weeks to 16 weeks to produce. And if you think about an automotive vehicle with 10,000 components, maybe a couple thousand being plastic, you can see that there are a lot of efficiencies that can be gained if you can really learn to run a 3D printed operation and print components; it makes sense for a vehicle.

And in some areas, we can improve function with that design freedom that we have. Because with molding, you have two steel pieces that are put together with a negative cavity in the middle that represents the part shape. And then the liquid is filled in; the part is cooled, then it comes out. There are a lot of restrictions in that process around what kind of parts you can and can’t make.”

Starting the Carbon University Program

“I became an inside sales force and focused on the automotive market, where I was able to dive really deep into the automotive space and get really specific with my engagement, but I was also able to develop the Carbon University Program, which is where I do sales account management now, and then a lot of product-specific enablement for my customers. […]

The Carbon University Program is essentially an olive branch that Carbon is trying to extend into the education space to really learn and influence this market because we know that 3D printing is going to be 100x bigger in the future. And so, we want to develop a program that allows us to gain student users, perform research that can lead to new products that are 3D printed with Carbon, and in general, academia opens up a lot of doors in a lot of different ways for various means. And so, when I started the program, I immediately found that my customers weren’t given the full suite of capabilities that we could even enable for them. So I worked to get them much more involved with the company, become an advocate for them. And then, about a year into that, I was able to finally really focus because I actually made a pitch to the now-CEO, Phil at the time, and other managers, to say, ‘I’ve developed a pipeline, and it’s pretty significant, and this is worth my time. Would you mind making this a full-time role and allowing me to really develop this?'”

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Connor Spiegelman: Make yourself as valuable as you think you should be and develop skills that will translate no matter what change comes. In building invaluable skills and having good relationships and all of that is important.

[00:00:11] Connor Spiegelman joining us. It’s been a while, my man. 

[00:00:36] Connor Spiegelman: Excited to be here, Marc. Thank you. 

[00:00:38] Chris. 

[00:00:38] Chris Corcoran: Great seeing you, Connor. Looking forward to catching up. 

[00:00:42] Connor Spiegelman: The pleasure is all mine. 

[00:00:43] Marc Gonyea: Every time we come into the Bay, or I come into the Bay, I typically find SFO, and I go down the level one, and I see the Carbon building. And I’m like, “We gotta get Connor on the podcast.” He’s been there contributing at Carbon for a while. Gotta get that guy in the mix. So, here you are. 

[00:01:03] Connor Spiegelman: Yep. Six and a half years now. 

[00:01:04] Marc Gonyea: Six and a half years. That’s amazing. What a run. 

[00:01:07] Chris Corcoran: That’s great. 

[00:01:08] Marc Gonyea: I mean, you left memoryBlue November 2016.

[00:01:13] Connor Spiegelman: Woo. 

[00:01:14] Marc Gonyea: Let’s get into it. All right. 

[00:01:15] Connor Spiegelman: Getting older. 

[00:01:16] Marc Gonyea: Getting older. Get older and wiser, right? So, this would be good for Chris and I and for the audience. We got a bunch of SDRs at memoryBlue. People who, who worked with you, who may want to catch up with, with audience for us, are the people who are working here now,

[00:01:31] People who are thinking, “Hey, how’s this guy end up working at Carbon? What’s his story?” And also, you know, when you’re an SDR, it’s a long, arduous journey. It’s really nice for people to kind of see what kind of cool companies memoryBlue alum are working for. And with, and also what they’re doing.

[00:01:48] And kind of the trajectory of their career. And it’s not always linear. All those things we’ll talk about. So, let’s get into it. Before we do, share with Chris and I and the audience where Connor’s from, growing up, give us a little bit of taste of that. 

[00:02:01] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. So, I was actually, uh, born and raised in, uh, Birmingham, California.

[00:02:05] Marc Gonyea: Oh, wow. 

[00:02:06] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:02:06] Marc Gonyea: Right up the road. 

[00:02:06] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah, right up the road. So, 20 minutes from, uh, Redwood City, which is the Carbon HQ. I originally did fairly well, starting off in high school, uh, managed to get into, uh, Chico State. 

[00:02:17] Chris Corcoran: What were you like as a kid? You, like 

[00:02:18] Marc Gonyea: A sports guy? Did you have a sports job? Sports guy?

[00:02:21] Connor Spiegelman: Like, every, my whole life was sports, pretty much, like. 

[00:02:23] Marc Gonyea: Whole life? 

[00:02:24] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. Like, if it, you know, I was kicking balls, throwing balls, catching balls, e, everything, you know, involving with sports. Maybe we want to cut that out later, but, uh, I think that it sounds fine. 

[00:02:35] Marc Gonyea: That’s alright. We can edit. What, did you have a favorite sport? 

[00:02:39] Connor Spiegelman: So, I played, uh, you know, varsity soccer. I played. 

[00:02:42] Marc Gonyea: Uh, oh. What position? 

[00:02:43] Connor Spiegelman: I was right back. 

[00:02:45] Marc Gonyea: Oh, sweet. Okay. 

[00:02:46] Connor Spiegelman: And, uh, on the soft team, I played Stryker, so I did a little bit of that. And then on the baseball team, I played for, I think, my first one or two years, uh, and played outfield in that.

[00:02:57] Alright. And then, yeah, I went to Chico State. Uh, prior to that. 

[00:03:01] Marc Gonyea: What did you think you wanted to be when you were, like, in high school, when you grew up? 

[00:03:05] Connor Spiegelman: So, you know, I, my dream as a kid was to be a professional sports player, but kind of seeing the long-term kind of plan for myself kind of where my personality and my interests laid,

[00:03:18] I, I, I did actually want to go into either work in, in politics or work in business and in technology. Or being a lawyer. And so, I actually, uh, went to Chico State had, had previously interned at a, a local politician’s office and then

[00:03:33] actually, uh, went to Chico State and was the director of a legal, uh, information center where we essentially would provide case law to, uh, prisoners around the nation who were actually trying to file for their habeas corpus. And so that was called the Community Legal Information Center.

[00:03:49] And I worked with a, a great co-director, and we had about, uh, 12 interns. So, that was really my, my first experience working in a more professional setting and, you know, managing these things that ultimately led to, you know, eventually shifting into business when I realized that I didn’t want to be a criminal defense attorney or anything associated with that, and didn’t really want to go to law school after. 

[00:04:08] Marc Gonyea: So, you’re in college. 

[00:04:09] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:04:09] Marc Gonyea: You’re doing this data organization. 

[00:04:11] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:04:11] Marc Gonyea: Right? You’ve got your major in legal studies. Right? 

[00:04:15] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah.

[00:04:16] Marc Gonyea: But somewhere along the way, you’re like, “Okay, business.”

[00:04:18] Connor Spiegelman: And and about, about junior year, I was like, “This is not, uh, probably gonna be the thing that’s gonna make me happy 20 years from now, I would say.”

[00:04:24] Marc Gonyea: When you grow up in, like, in the heart of the Valley, is tech just totally omnipresent? Like, do you realize you were growing up in, like, the head of, like, in the, the epicenter of high tech? 

[00:04:36] Connor Spiegelman: You hear about it, and then you’re, like, still driving with your mom to baseball practice, and you’re like, “It’s not that big of a deal.”

[00:04:44] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:04:44] Connor Spiegelman: But then, you know, when you get into it, and you start realizing that the world is as big as it is and this is as influential as it is, you, you, you start to get the picture in your late teens, maybe, you know, early twenties. 

[00:04:56] Marc Gonyea: Okay. 

[00:04:56] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:04:57] Marc Gonyea: Okay. And what, what I find interesting too, we’ll get into it, like, companies cutting-edge is Carbon.

[00:05:02] Like, it’s very insane to think, you know, there, they don’t, the companies like that don’t exist. There aren’t that many of ’em. All right, so you’re in Chico, you’re junior year in, junior mid in your junior year, like, “Okay, I’m gonna grow a business” or that sort of thing.

[00:05:16] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:05:16] Marc Gonyea: Walk us through kind of that process after you got outta school. 

[00:05:19] Tell us about that. You’re saying, like, while I was in school, or? 

[00:05:22] I would say the transition, transition from graduating. Like, did so, be like, “Okay, I’m gonna get into business, I’m gonna get into sales,” or did you think you’re gonna do marketing?

[00:05:30] How did you end up with us if we, we were your first job, right? 

[00:05:33] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. So, um, funny enough, I had decided about a year prior to double minor in economics and entrepreneurship because I felt like with my legal background, understanding, you know, how to grow a business and the economics behind just, you know, general things would give me a, a solid foundation to really go in whatever direction I wanted to go. Um, so I ended up becoming, I basically talked myself into becoming the senior vice president of a new business fraternity that was starting up. 

[00:05:59] Which one? Pi Sigma Epsilon. 

[00:06:00] Marc Gonyea: Okay. 

[00:06:01] Connor Spiegelman: And, uh, I was actually the SVP of finance and marketing.

[00:06:04] Marc Gonyea: Nice. 

[00:06:04] So, you started that, you started the chapter there? 

[00:06:07] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:06:07] Marc Gonyea: Oh, that’s, that’s a big deal. 

[00:06:08] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:06:09] Marc Gonyea: Okay. 

[00:06:09] Connor Spiegelman: I wrote the bylaws. 

[00:06:10] Marc Gonyea: Uh, you wrote the bylaws. Alright, nice. 

[00:06:12] Connor Spiegelman: And from there, you know, the first day I actually went to, I, I actually didn’t ha, like, I put together a suit, and they’re like, “Hey, there’s a career fair.”

[00:06:20] And I went down to the career fair, and I met Mike Misler. Like, and I got a job off for 20 minutes later, or not 20 minutes later, like, when the, in November when I showed up. When I got, I got an onsite interview within 20 minutes, which was really awesome. 

[00:06:32] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, you got an onsite interview within 20 minutes. 

[00:06:33] Connor Spiegelman: And I love going through my second semester ’cause it allowed me to actually relax and just, like, focus on, you know, having fun my last semester of college. 

[00:06:41] Marc Gonyea: Oh, so we hired you in this fall of your senior year? 

[00:06:43] Connor Spiegelman: Uh, my super senior year. 

[00:06:44] Marc Gonyea: Your super senior year. 

[00:06:45] Connor Spiegelman: I stayed a fifth year because, you know, I was really young for my grade, but ultimately, like, I didn’t want to be a lawyer, and I thought maybe if I stayed for an extra year, took on those two things, it could, it could pay off.

[00:06:57] Marc Gonyea: Chris Connor’s our favorite type of higher.

[00:07:00] Chris Corcoran: I mean, those are the best candidates. The ones that, uh, you, you can sew up and follow their senior or super senior year for sure. 

[00:07:06] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:07:08] Chris Corcoran: So, you’re a fish daddy, you’re a Mike Misler. 

[00:07:10] That guy. 

[00:07:12] Marc Gonyea: Right? 

[00:07:13] Connor Spiegelman: A hundred percent. 

[00:07:16] That’s exciting. 

[00:07:17] Marc Gonyea: All right. Did you know what you were doing when you signed up?

[00:07:21] Like, so do you remember the interview process? You, we didn’t, did we interview at Chico? Did you ever come into the office and interview, or did you show up? 

[00:07:28] My, my dad, uh, for instance, is, has been in sales his whole life. His has been doing well in sales, and my mom has been in, in sales for a whole life.

[00:07:34] Connor Spiegelman: And, you know, I think, um, as I looked at, you know, my career trajectory, my qualifications, e, everything with memoryBlue seemed to make a lot of sense to me. It’s, like, um, you know, going to Chico State, you’re not going to get, you know, the craziest best, most intriguing sales offer. You’re most likely gonna filter into an existing sales system and hope to work your way up, and, you know, what I liked about memoryBlue is there was that chance that I could get lucky like I did with Carbon. 

[00:07:59] Marc Gonyea: And you didn’t get that lucky though. I’m gonna argue that, that lucky thing. 

[00:08:02] Connor Spiegelman: Well, well, I, I, I. 

[00:08:04] Marc Gonyea: Fortunate, you. 

[00:08:04] Connor Spiegelman: I feel per, I feel personally fortunate. 

[00:08:07] Marc Gonyea: Okay. That’s better than luck. 

[00:08:09] Connor Spiegelman: It was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me in my life.

[00:08:11] And, you know, I have you both to thank for that and your company, so I do feel really fortunate, uh, that whole process, Carbon was my first client, you know, it was a great experience. 

[00:08:21] Marc Gonyea: Well, I appreciate you saying that. I know Chris does too. 

[00:08:23] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, for sure. You, you seized the opportunity because we’ve hired literally thousands of people who all were given the same opportunity that you were given, and many of them don’t capitalize on it. So, hats off to you for taking the ball and run away. Yeah. 

[00:08:36] Connor Spiegelman: I appreciate it. 

[00:08:37] Marc Gonyea: Let’s talk about the early days then. So, did you know what you were signing up for, though? Like, did you understand, like, what the, the SDR role is? 

[00:08:45] Most people don’t. 

[00:08:46] Connor Spiegelman: So, uh. 

[00:08:47] Marc Gonyea: Maybe you did.

[00:08:48] Connor Spiegelman: I did, actually. So, I actually, uh, got my life insurance selling license, but, in college, to try to, and I was actually cold-calling already, and I cold-called and did like, for politicians back in the day And so, I was really comfortable talking on the phone. Albeit making money was, like, a new concept for me, so I wanted to do well, and I wasn’t sure, you know, if I, how I would stack up.

[00:09:09] But I would say that the expectations, you know, coming in were pretty well laid out. Like, I knew kind of, uh, everything made sense to me and, uh, the process and the rigor and everything else, kind of just, in the training just kind of ultimately kind of made me feel from, you know, the first couple weeks, like, I was already competent in what I was doing, you know? 

[00:09:30] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. That’s a hard curve path of selling. Right? Chris, selling life insurance in your twenties. 

[00:09:36] Chris Corcoran: I, well, I mean, so Connor, he had the good fortune of having mom and dad in the profession and then doing the political fundraising stuff and the life insurance.

[00:09:46] I mean, coming in that, I’m not sure you can have a better prepared recent college graduate for being an SDR, so he wasn’t shocked. Doesn’t sound like you were shocked like some of the SDRs are who just if this is their first taste of it at all. 

[00:10:00] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. And I think, um, it’s all about reps, right?

[00:10:04] And so, like, I came in with, like, a thousand reps, let’s say, and that made me feel comfortable, but you just gotta get to that first a thousand, and then you should feel as comfortable as I felt. I feel like, if, if you have the right mindset, that is. 

[00:10:15] What kind of mindset do you need to have? Good question.

[00:10:18] Hard not to give a bad answer here. So, I will say, I will say. 

[00:10:25] Marc Gonyea: You’d be surprised, my man. 

[00:10:26] Connor Spiegelman: No, I, I, my mindset has always been to represent myself well, do as good as I can do, and make the company as good as I can. And so, that’s what I look to do every day. 

[00:10:39] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about the early days as an SDR at memoryBlue because, so, you had some sales motions, you had some reps, but we’ve kind of got a different offense. What, what, what do you remember from that? 

[00:10:50] Connor Spiegelman: So, first day, let’s see, I met my Dan, who was helping me out. 

[00:10:57] Marc Gonyea: Dan who? 

[00:10:58] Connor Spiegelman: Uh, Dan Yorkey. 

[00:10:59] Marc Gonyea: Dan Yorkey. Daniel Yorkey’s playing center stage in the series of podcast, Chris. Yeah. 

[00:11:05] Connor Spiegelman: Well, he was a, you know, initially working with me to help me, and then Jenny was my client manager, Jenny. 

[00:11:11] Marc Gonyea: I can’t, I was mispronouncing CI. 

[00:11:13] Connor Spiegelman: And, um, so, you know, they both really took me under their wing the first day and laid out kind of, you know, what the expectations were, what the training was and kind of like what the intermediary steps were, like the calls that we would, you know, listen to and record. I, I still remember, like, the first recording that we played in a room full of everybody. So, there was all of my calls that you guys could choose from, and luckily, you chose the best one for my first time. And so, uh, that went 

[00:11:41] Connor Spiegelman: really well.

[00:11:42] Marc Gonyea: Uh, you were untouchable. 

[00:11:43] Connor Spiegelman: I was very touchable until that, until that point. ‘Cause, you know, you know, you hear, like, your, the waviness in your voice, and you’re like, “Am I doing good?” And then people will hear you. And then I remember Joe Reeves. 

[00:11:56] Marc Gonyea: Oh wow. 

[00:11:59] This is my job. I never get to do it. No. 

[00:12:03] Connor Spiegelman: I was like.

[00:12:06] Connor Spiegelman: So, Joe, I remember turned to me and said, you sound so relaxed on the phone. And I remember I hadn’t, I was actually really nervous for that call, but him telling me that I, you know, I was calm and stuff, it is still today makes me feel like in some situations, like, even if I sound bad, maybe to 75% of the people I sound okay.

[00:12:22] And, which is all you really need.

[00:12:23] Marc Gonyea: Chris, West Coast, Connor, right? Bringing the, the, the Joe was like, “Man, this guy’s got the West Coast vibe on the phones.” 

[00:12:32] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah, exactly. 

[00:12:33] Marc Gonyea: Which is good. So, you, did you think, like, listening to the calls and having those people giving you feedback was good for your development? 

[00:12:39] Connor Spiegelman: Oh yeah.

[00:12:40] Yeah. And trying to talk to 12 people a day is, you know, those, those are the right reps that you need. Right? And, um, I think, as you think about, you know, those calls, always, like, looking at it like an art form and trying to say, you know, ” How long should this call be?

[00:12:55] Is there any lulls? Am I getting all the information that I need to get, and am I, you know, presenting a differentiated solution that’s really driving value?” I mean, those are all the things that you have to continually refine, and you’ll never be perfect at it. And you, like, I’ve been practicing the same Carbon pitch for six years.

[00:13:10] I’m still figuring out new ways to do it. So, yeah, I, I think, you know, getting comfortable is, is all part of the problem or all part of the thing. 

[00:13:17] Marc Gonyea: All part of the, the, the gig, right? 

[00:13:20] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:13:21] Marc Gonyea: Do you remember anyone else? 

[00:13:22] Chris Corcoran: I feel like, I feel like we’re talking to the Charles Deming of SDR, just continuous process.

[00:13:30] Marc Gonyea: Connor wants to know who Charles Deming is. Are you consulting him? 

[00:13:33] Connor Spiegelman: I’m not trying to insult Chris, but. 

[00:13:36] Chris Corcoran: No, no, no, no. He’s a continuous process improvement person. 

[00:13:39] Connor Spiegelman: Ah. Yeah, no, that, that, that’s, um, in my new role, you know, I’m constantly looking at process. I’m looking to optimize and reduce friction in every sense of, like, everything I’m doing.

[00:13:50] Marc Gonyea: We’re gonna get to that. 

[00:13:51] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:13:51] Marc Gonyea: All right. So, who else, who are some of your contemporaries besides, so we talk about Jeanie, Jenny, other SDRs you kind of worked with, or? 

[00:14:00] Connor Spiegelman: Uh, Timmy was a… 

[00:14:01] Marc Gonyea: Timmy. 

[00:14:02] Connor Spiegelman: Timmy was a huge help. 

[00:14:03] Marc Gonyea: Timmy’s a baller. 

[00:14:04] Connor Spiegelman: Timmy’s a baller. Uh, for sure. Uh, so I remember Timmy, like, he would be the first person to show up to the office a lot of times. I, I don’t know if, if he has that reputation, but. 

[00:14:14] Marc Gonyea: He might dispute a lot of the times, and probably say it all the time. 

[00:14:17] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. Well, that’s, that would be Timmy. You know, when I, when I did see him there, you know and, and hearing, like, a lot of the, the coworkers, everybody was calling, and I think that that atmosphere and, like, Jake Bennett, for instance as well, uh, it was, was, uh, really helpful. And, uh, Justin, uh, Henry. 

[00:14:35] Marc Gonyea: Justin Henry. Chico. 

[00:14:37] Connor Spiegelman: Yep. There you go. 

[00:14:38] Marc Gonyea: Mr. Chico himself. 

[00:14:39] Connor Spiegelman: Mr., he is Mr. Chico. And so, you know, all these people, uh, really did add to the experience because I think it’s important to, you know, as you’re putting yourself out there to the world and trying to, you know, develop business and try to talk to people who may not want to talk to you sometimes, or maybe they do, it’s good to have colleagues who, who are there to help.

[00:14:57] Marc Gonyea: I’m gonna belabor a point, but, you know, we’ve got a bunch of SDRs that work at memoryBlue across five offices, and they have friends of their own who are also in the sales development world, and they get to work from their house. Or they work hybrid. And like, “Why can’t I work from my house?”

[00:15:13] And we say, “No, no, no, no. You have to come into the office every day ’cause at this point of your career.” 

[00:15:20] Connor Spiegelman: I’d say until you earn it. I, I think that that’s fair. 

[00:15:21] Marc Gonyea: Or ’till you earn it and learn it. 

[00:15:23] Connor Spiegelman: Earn it and learn it. Yeah. 

[00:15:24] Marc Gonyea: I mean, go. I would like you ’cause you’re experienced now. Can you, and I know I’m not, I’m setting you up for, like, the answer that I want to hear, but you can, go ahead.

[00:15:35] Connor Spiegelman: Let me, let me give that, that answer. So, I would say that, especially for your first six months, it would be good to come to the office for, for certain. And, um, beyond that, I think it would be, like, potentially, like, a merit-based system based on your performance. 

[00:15:50] Marc Gonyea: Okay. 

[00:15:51] Connor Spiegelman: It would make sense to me, but I would continually, for the first year and a half, like, reinforce that, you know? Being in the office until you feel like you know everything that there is to know about doing sales development for all of your clients that, you know,

[00:16:04] and you have a personal rigor that’s set up and has been proven in that intermediate time where you were given that leniency, that’s when I think like it would make sense to start allowing it. But, uh, until then, I think you have, like, a lot of colleagues that are there to help you and motivate you

[00:16:18] and I think the training makes sense and it’s valuable and, and in my work today, you know, I hustle, and I think that maybe I wouldn’t have hustled as effectively or as much if I wasn’t in the office at first because I do remember some pretty intense days. 

[00:16:33] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Well, tell me about those days.

[00:16:35] Connor Spiegelman: Well, uh, my favorite story was, uh, so originally, James and I were brought onto Carbon. 

[00:16:42] Marc Gonyea: James J, James. One and only. 

[00:16:45] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. And so, uh. 

[00:16:47] Marc Gonyea: So, you and James are both colleagues, and you were both brought on the memoryBlue about the same time, probably. You were both working on your client, which we’re gonna talk about in a second.

[00:16:55] Connor Spiegelman: Exactly. 

[00:16:55] Marc Gonyea: So, tell us the story. 

[00:16:56] Connor Spiegelman: James and I were both assigned to our client which was Carbon. It was our only clients, and we went in, and we had a meeting with the now CEO, Phil De Simone, who broke down all of the 3D printing technologies, and I, you know, at first, I was, like, trying to take notes, but then I just put my head down ’cause I had no idea what was happening.

[00:17:14] And so then, uh. That’s the beauty of it. So.

[00:17:18] Marc Gonyea: your first meeting with Carbon and one of the first ones with the gentleman who’s now the CEO. 

[00:17:21] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:17:21] Marc Gonyea: It, it was you and James? 

[00:17:23] Connor Spiegelman: It was, uh, me, James, and what was it, Mike, I think. 

[00:17:26] Marc Gonyea: Mike Misler. Fish Daddy. 

[00:17:27] Connor Spiegelman: Fish Daddy. Yes. Yes. And, uh, Mish, please send this to him.

[00:17:33] And, uh, you know, I, I understood I had a, a really large learning curve and, but I really wanted to be at Carbon. And so, James and I would actually come into the office every day at 5:30 AM. The lights would be off, and then the CEO at the time, Jody Simone, who, who was as Phil’s father, would actually come into the office, and, you know, the lights would turn on, and he’d see us up in the balcony. Just the. 

[00:17:58] Marc Gonyea: I love that. 

[00:18:00] Connor Spiegelman: And, uh, we were, uh, working with his daughter at the time, Emily, and then she, uh, was talking about how her dad was impressed about our work ethic and, and these sorts of things. And James and I were friends, and we would spend, you know. 

[00:18:12] Marc Gonyea: Remain friends.

[00:18:13] Connor Spiegelman: We’re still, still friends. Getting lunch today, and, you know, we would do 3D printing terminology flashcards and a bunch of other stuff. But, but the most, uh, and so there was like, it was like, ’cause, with Carbon, it’s like, you don’t, you don’t, it’s, like, with some of these technologies, right,

[00:18:30] like, you’re trying to break into a new marketing, convince people to do something that is totally against the grain, but it’s, there’s a good reason for it and so you kind of have to know your stuff. And so, that was, like, the first year and a half was really understanding that, but, you know, in that time, right,

[00:18:44] there was a, a big trade show that we had called the, or it was IMTS, it was the International Manufacturing Technologies Show or Technology Solutions Show. I don’t know what the S is. But during that time, actually, so James had already been hired out by Carbon. he was hired out as soon as his initial contract, uh, was up.

[00:19:03] It was, it was at three months, and then I was on a month-for-month contract following that because my opportunities generated weren’t as, as high as James’. And so, that freaked me out. And so, essentially, what I did was I locked myself in a memoryBlue conference room for about a week, and I just dialed, one day I dialed, I still remember 284 dials

[00:19:21] and I ended up one week with 11 opportunities. And then I had a meeting with the VP of sales the next week, and he said, you know, “If you keep this up, we’ll make you full-time.” And I made sure to keep that up and then, then, get hired out a couple months later, so. 

[00:19:34] Marc Gonyea: I love how he remembers, Chris, I love how he remembers the stats.

[00:19:39] You don’t forget 284. I mean, we’re talking, that was, that was like 6, 

[00:19:43] Chris Corcoran: 7 years ago. 

[00:19:44] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. Well, you, you don’t forget it, honestly. If you sit, like, if you wake up and you’re in the office at 6:00 AM, and you work till 8:00 PM, and you get home, you eat a bowl of salad that your mom made, and you pass out, and you wake up at 4:00 AM, like, for a week, like, you’ll, that’ll stick with you, you know?

[00:20:00] Marc Gonyea: It’s like, isn’t the same guy who was calling himself lucky? 

[00:20:04] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. Right. 

[00:20:06] Marc Gonyea: I don’t think that, I think you created your own luck. 

[00:20:10] Connor Spiegelman: Well, I think it’s both, right? 

[00:20:12] Marc Gonyea: Look at you. You, you won’t let me give you the compliment. I, I mean, listen. You, I believe it. You create your own luck. But you could have been like, “Man, this guy James is better oppor,” you could take that. 

[00:20:27] Connor Spiegelman: You’ll never win with that mindset. 

[00:20:28] Marc Gonyea: You could take that shit personal. 

[00:20:30] Connor Spiegelman: You’ll never get anywhere with that mindset. 

[00:20:32] Marc Gonyea: Right. 

[00:20:34] Connor Spiegelman: You’ll never get anywhere. 

[00:20:35] Marc Gonyea: You won’t get anywhere. You gotta step aside, push it to the side and put yourself in a conference room or your desk and go. 

[00:20:42] Connor Spiegelman: Just be introspective.

[00:20:44] If I am, I being a hundred percent perfect, and if I’m being a hundred percent perfect, then it’s the circumstances and it’s not my fault. But if I’m being anything less than a hundred percent perfect, then there’s room for improvement. 

[00:20:54] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:20:55] And you don’t have to do 284 every week, but those reps get you better at it.

[00:21:00] Connor Spiegelman: Exactly. So, then a hundred’s not so bad. 

[00:21:03] Marc Gonyea: Then a hundred’s not so bad. Speak in our language. When you get the skill, and you figure out how to better qualify and what to say no to and what to say yes to, you just put your head down. So, what happened after? So, those are the intense days. And other days not as intense, but the intense days are the ones that were all,

[00:21:23] formation process comes from, right? It’s like your own little 3D printer printing something up, right? Work of art. So, what happened at that point, then? ‘Cause you were with us for about six months. 

[00:21:33] Connor Spiegelman: Six months. Yeah. 

[00:21:34] Marc Gonyea: So, Crabon said, “Give, gimme this guy too.” 

[00:21:36] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. So, I was, I was hired and, and brought on full-time and, uh. 

[00:21:39] Marc Gonyea: The clients have to pay us a fee when they convert the employee, so, right, this is not case of charity. They’re like, “This guy’s worth the transfer fee.” 

[00:21:46] Connor Spiegelman: Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, so when I started off at Carbon, you know, we were the only two SDRs in the, in the team. And so, we, at, at that point, six months in, we had kind of progressed through all of the inbound leads that we had gotten from our major TED Talk, and we had started to focus on, you know, what was next. And so, it was more targeted outbound. 

[00:22:07] Marc Gonyea: You were a classically trained SDR, right? 

[00:22:11] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:22:11] Marc Gonyea: At Carbon. Yeah, keep going. 

[00:22:14] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. And so, yeah, we were just, like, basically targeted outreach where, you know, essentially it was, uh, us working with the sales team directly to define, you know, what were the 3D printing components that we were gonna look to target.

[00:22:28] And then for us at the time, it was electrical connectors and some of these other major, like, automotive companies and things like that, and so we actually worked to, you know, James and I to, you know, go through, and I’ve been, you know, doing a lot of this work for the last several years, but just understand that entire market and really try to penetrate that market as much as possible with, you know, cold calls, emails, LinkedIn. And that was starting off because we, we quickly, you know, were like, “Okay.

[00:22:54] To meet our goals, we need to, you know, be delivering on the, on the cold outreach,” which was, you know, I think really it was awesome. It was, it was an awesome development experience. 

[00:23:01] Marc Gonyea: Heck yeah. Let me interject here. Tell everyone what Carbon is ’cause we take the technology for granted in memoryBlue,

[00:23:08] we have so many technology clients, {Yeah.} so we don’t make it as much about the technology as we do about the process. Mm. The craft side, the craft part about sales, although technology’s critically important. 

[00:23:18] Connor Spiegelman: Sure. 

[00:23:18] Marc Gonyea: But tell us, Chris and I and the audience about Carbon. 

[00:23:21] Connor Spiegelman: So, so if, if I had to describe Carbon, I think that the easiest way to describe it would be to say that there’s a reason why people don’t know about 3D printing that much today.

[00:23:30] And the reason is three or four points, one, the materials can’t perform well enough, particularly soft materials. They don’t perform, and the rigid ones are often too brittle. The economics don’t make sense. The cost per part doesn’t make sense. It’s much more expensive to 3D print apart than into injection molded in a lot of situations.

[00:23:46] And then the, uh, third one, was the rate at the speed of production. Printers can take, you know, some of these slower ones, 15 or so hours to print a small component like this. In my hand for reference is five or six inches, you know, is what I’m trying to say, 15 hours or something similar to that.

[00:24:04] Connor Spiegelman: So, so with Carbon, you know, we’re the first company to really, in my opinion, check all those boxes for a really wide breadth of, of 3D printing applications. 

[00:24:13] Marc Gonyea: Okay. 

[00:24:13] Connor Spiegelman: So, we create the 3D printers, we create the 3D-printed materials, we create the 3D-printing design software, and then we support all of our customers on the back end with great customer service, but also in certain areas where there’s high-value projects such as with Adidas and with Rydell on these, you know, shoes and with these football helmets and, you know, even with, you know, medical components and automotive components, we actually will engage directly to make sure that, you know, the component is printing as fast as possible, as well as possible

[00:24:41] and the customer’s having as good of experience as possible. So, so when we look at our company and we, we take a, you know, a further step back, you know, we want to now position ourselves not as a 3D printing company, but rather as a platform of technologies, a business model that’s really hoping to take 3D printing into the future.

[00:24:57] Marc Gonyea: Excellent. Well-versed, thank you. So, when you were in those early days, you and James kind of getting after it, you were getting after it, who were you calling? So, you left memoryBlue, you got convert by Carbon, and you said the inbounds, there are only so many of those inbounds companies growing the outbound side.

[00:25:15] Thank God for our business. 

[00:25:16] Connor Spiegelman: It’s, yeah, they need to know. 

[00:25:18] Marc Gonyea: They need to know who are you calling, who are you getting after? 

[00:25:20] Connor Spiegelman: Oh, well, initially, or just that? 

[00:25:22] Marc Gonyea: Just initially. Initially. ‘Cause I’m, I’m, I’m sorry. We’re gonna timeline through some of these roles. 

[00:25:26] Connor Spiegelman: So, I really liked automotive, actually, because the way I looked at automotive was every car has 10,000 components

[00:25:32] and so if you look at 3D printing, you can be like, “I can print, you can print anything.” Right? And it’s impossible to learn first principles about 3D printing if you’re not focused on a particular area. And I thought automotive was interesting because there’s 10,000 components in the average internal combustion car, and you’re able to understand who makes those parts and where exactly you can print apart in production, and what sort of value you can bring. And so, what James and I did was we went through the entire automotive market and then picked out, you know, the best companies with the best titles, and we tried to learn as much about automotive as possible and tried to push all these, you know, opportunities to our AEs or at the time. ​

[00:27:07] Marc Gonyea: What was the biggest transition you made from you left memoryBlue to going the Carbon? Because you were in this office with all these one-percenters, as Kendrick Trotter likes to call ’em. Right? And so, now it’s you and James, and I’m not saying that people are Carbon aren’t smart, but you guys are, like, the engine of the outbound motion there.

[00:27:24] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. I, I think that James and I really had to work to understand the technical aspect of what we were trying to do because we were talking to VPs of engineering and honestly, like, I was learning as I was going. 

[00:27:35] Marc Gonyea: Sure. 

[00:27:36] Connor Spiegelman: And the conversations were helping, but sometimes you get with people who wanted spec, you know, a lot of information and, you know, you had to continuously work to make yourself more knowledgeable. And I think that that was a, a challenge.

[00:27:48] It was a fun challenge, I think. 

[00:27:49] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Certainly. When you’re still there, you obviously know. 

[00:27:51] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:27:52] Chris Corcoran: So, I, I’ve got a question. I’m more of a, taking a step back just on 3D printing. So, let’s say I’m an automotive, uh, part manufacturer. Why would I, and I’m, I’m making these parts how I’m currently making ’em, why would I wanna switch from how I’m currently doing it to using a 3D printer?

[00:28:07] Like, help, help me just understand the whole concept. 

[00:28:10] Connor Spiegelman: Well, well, that’s a good question. So, I, I think as our CEO says, “If you can conveniently injection-mold it, you probably should.” And so, injection-molding is our, is our main technology or is the main technology that’s being used in automotive plastics manufacturing today.

[00:28:23] And so, essentially, that process requires a, a steel tool to be made for many vehicles are, otherwise known as a hard tool, and these tools can cost upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they can take 12 weeks to 16 weeks to produce. And if you think about an automotive vehicle with 10,000 components, maybe a couple thousand being plastic, you can see that there’s a lot of efficiencies that can be gained.

[00:28:44] If you can really learn to run a 3D-printed operation and print components that, it makes sense for a vehicle. So, we work, for instance, with Lamborghini and, um, Lamborghini, you know, is looking at several, you know, products throughout their vehicles and saying, “We don’t make a tool. We wanna instead, you know, fabricate this ourselves, print these things on demand

[00:29:03] and, because we’re able to do that, we’re able to more easily adapt our designs” because, with 3D printing, you can generate and print a new design on the next day. And in some areas, we can improve function by, you know, with that design freedom that we have. Because with molding, you know, essentially you have two steel, uh, pieces that are put together with a negative cavity in the middle that represents the part shape, and then liquid is filled in, the part’s cooled, then it comes out. There’s a lot of restrictions in that process around, you know, what kind of parts you can and can’t make. 

[00:29:30] Chris Corcoran: Man, this is the future. 

[00:29:32] Marc Gonyea: How is that for a good answer? 

[00:29:35] Chris Corcoran: Hey Connor, you put that one in the cheap seats, brother. 

[00:29:39] Connor Spiegelman: Oh, man.

[00:29:40] Yeah. Thank you. 

[00:29:42] Marc Gonyea: You were playing right back in the middle one time or off a corner. 

[00:29:47] Connor Spiegelman: Exactly. 

[00:29:48] Chris Corcoran: Exactly. 

[00:29:49] Marc Gonyea: Alright. 

[00:29:49] So, let’s talk about your, your transition there. So, when you’re at Carbon, where did you want to go with your profession, with your career, like you Connor incorporated? 

[00:30:00] Connor Spiegelman: I just, I’ve always wanted to just have fun with work every day.

[00:30:03] And I think that’s kind of what I pursued at Carbon, and I was always, like, wanting to help people out, always wanting to get myself involved in projects and try to push the envelope while getting, you know, things done. So, um, where I see myself going, I have no idea, but I just want to keep that mindset.

[00:30:20] Marc Gonyea: What about the time, though? Oh, you had, you moved up the ladder. 

[00:30:23] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:30:23] Marc Gonyea: And what, let’s just stop, pause real quick. What, why is having fun at work important? I said that in an interview once and 

[00:30:29] I got, like, laughed out of the room. 

[00:30:30] Oh, I, I think it’s the most important part. Why is that? 

[00:30:33] Connor Spiegelman: Well, if you think about it, right, like, you spend more time at work than you are sleeping and, and both aren’t necessarily, have to be fun, you know?

[00:30:40] I think most people don’t enjoy their jobs and so. 

[00:30:42] Marc Gonyea: I enjoy my sleep, though. 

[00:30:44] I do. 

[00:30:44] Connor Spiegelman: But do you actively enjoy your sleep? 

[00:30:46] Marc Gonyea: I wake up, and I’m like, “Man, that was fun.” But yeah. 

[00:30:49] Chris Corcoran: Not. 

[00:30:50] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. So, so then you’re looking at, you’re like 16 hours outta your day pretty, you know, not fun, and then you’re supposed to cram all this fun into 8 hours.

[00:30:57] Marc Gonyea: I, I’d rather enjoy 16 and, you know, or I’d rather enjoy all 24, which is what I, I, how I feel today. Good. 

[00:31:03] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:31:03] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You, you have, and let, let’s go down another little exit route here. We’ll get back on the freeway in a second. Let’s run the automotive theme. You have had lots of opportunities to leave Carbon.

[00:31:15] Connor Spiegelman: Sure. 

[00:31:15] Marc Gonyea: No doubt about it. I know memoryBlue people alums get hit up all the time. 

[00:31:18] Connor Spiegelman: Sure. 

[00:31:19] Marc Gonyea: If you’re living in the heart of it all, you just said having fun at work is important to you. 

[00:31:24] Connor Spiegelman: Yes. 

[00:31:24] Marc Gonyea: How, how, why have you, and it’s very fashionable, although I’ll look at some people’s LinkedIn profile, like, three and a half jobs in four years.

[00:31:32] I don’t know about that. Why have you stayed? 

[00:31:35] Connor Spiegelman: Well, well, I believe this company will be special, and I think I should start off by saying that, and I’m in it to win it. Uh, but at the same time, I’m, I’m having fun, and I’m learning so much about,I, I realized, like I told you, I was into sports,

[00:31:46] like, I used to not care about anything science-related, manufacturing-related, but it turned into my passion, and now it’s kind of like, you know, I’m just kind of seeing where it goes and having fun with it. 

[00:31:58] Marc Gonyea: Got it. 

[00:31:58] So, you moved up the ladder. Tell, tell, tell us about the moving up, the, the food chain there at Carbon 

[00:32:03] and how that happened.

[00:32:04] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah, so I’ve had a quite a bit of roles at Carbon because, you know, we’re a young startup, and things shift constantly. And so, um, you know, I started off as an SDR, was then promoted to SDR manager about a year and a half into the role, I believe. And then I served in that role for nine months before being transitioned,

[00:32:22] so I led a team of about four SDRs, actually. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll stop there and, and elaborate on that. So, I led a team of four SDRs and was really, you know, trying to establish what was kind of the sales development focus at that company because it had been to that point, you know, James and I kind of going, “Let’s do this,” you know, and they’re, “Yes.”

[00:32:38] You know? It’s like, “Well, let’s get more strategic and, you know, that, that sort of a thing. And then, uh, nine months into that role, we actually did hire a pretty big, we made a pretty big hire at CMO. Her name is, uh, Dara Treseder. I forgot, but she was, uh, she’s now at Autodesk and had actually been in SVP at, at Peloton, uh, after coming to Carbon.

[00:32:57] But when she came into Carbon, I actually really did, so I was transitioned into the inside sales role. And they were actually, uh, at that point had, uh, hired a director of demand gen who I had worked under, you know? Ultimately what happened from that role was really interesting.

[00:33:13] So, I became an inside sales force and focused on the automotive market where I was able to dive really deep into the automotive space and get really specific with my engagement, but also I was able to develop a, uh, the Carbon University program, which is, uh, where I do now sales account management and then a lot of, you know, product-specific enablement, uh, for my customers. 

[00:33:32] Marc Gonyea: And let’s talk about that.

[00:33:33] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:33:33] Marc Gonyea: So, things that happen all the time in business that are expected. 

[00:33:37] Connor Spiegelman: That are, that are expected. 

[00:33:38] Marc Gonyea: But that aren’t, that aren’t expected. Sorry, my mumble my words sometimes. Like, they’re not expected. And everyone has, like, a, they think they have a plan. Plans change.

[00:33:49] Right? So, particularly in emerging technology companies.

[00:33:51] So, what advice do you have for people who think, “I think I’m gonna do this one thing, and then a new hire comes in or get around the funding, and the company goes,” like, how do you react to that and how should you, especially when you think, you know? 

[00:34:02] Connor Spiegelman: Make yourself as valuable as you, as you think you should be, and develop skills that will translate no matter what change comes.

[00:34:10] And I think in building invaluable skills and having good relationships, and all of that is important to, you know, self-preservation, uh, in a, in a fast-changing world that, that, you know, is constantly changing for small, big, any sort of company these days, if you like. If you have a skillset, you’re, you’re employable.

[00:34:28] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You’re seeing this right now, what’s going on in the economy, right? And you obviously were doing a good job because these companies like this don’t keep people around just for the heck of it, or you were adding some value. 

[00:34:40] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:34:41] Marc Gonyea: Can you elaborate a little bit more on kind of, you, you said something about making yourself or seeing opportunities in the company? 

[00:34:49] Like, you, when you were talking about this university program, so you, you had, you, you got into this inside sales education, automotive accounts, and you obviously have a, based upon the answer you gave Chris, you obviously understand how’s Carbon in that space. It sounds like you kind of saw some else, another opportunity there that you thought the company could take advantage of?

[00:35:09] Connor Spiegelman: Yes. 

[00:35:10] Marc Gonyea: And you, you pitched it. 

[00:35:11] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. So, that was, uh, really cool. So, so James and I were both given the permission to work with universities. And James was much more successful than me out the gate. He sold to four universities, uh, in an outside sales role, so we were given, um, not an inside sales official title, but we were given the luxury of closing deals and, you know, all of that while working here.

[00:35:33] Marc Gonyea: You kinda earned the opportunity, but. 

[00:35:34] Connor Spiegelman: Yes, exactly. I’ll start reframing first. 

[00:35:36] Marc Gonyea: Yes, yes. 

[00:35:37] Connor Spiegelman: I’m noticing maybe that’s not a good thing. 

[00:35:40] Marc Gonyea: I, the success you’ve had. But I like you’re very humble, which is self-deprecating, which is great. But, like, but so you were given. 

[00:35:48] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. So, so, so he, so he did that.

[00:35:49] He, he sold the first four, and I was like, you know, I was like, “All right, well, I’m just gonna move over to SDR manager at that point.” And so, you know, I did that. But the reason that we actually even got it at first was because none of the AEs at the time really even wanted to talk to a university.

[00:36:05] Basically, they were like, they wanna print something that’s impossible. They want it specifically for them, and they want it for free. This is not worth the time. And so, you know, that’s why they gave it to us. James transitioned from that role into an account manager role working with our Carbon partner network or our manufacturers, and then when I was transitioned in back into the inside sales role, they, I said, “Well, I’d also like to add this function.” And, you know, me and the VP of sales at the time worked on developing a program and, uh, you know, ever since then I, I’ve been running that program and working. 

[00:36:35] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about the program.

[00:36:37] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. So, the Carbon University program is essentially an olive branch that Carbon is trying to extend into the education space to really learn and influence this market because we know that 3D printing is gonna be a hundred X bigger in the future,

[00:36:52] Connor Spiegelman: and so we wanna develop a program that allows us to gain, you know, student users, perform research that can lead to new products that are 3D printed with Carbon and, you know, in general, academia opens up a lot of doors in a lot of different ways for, uh, for various means. And so, when I took over the program, you know, or when I started the program, I immediately found that my customers, you know, weren’t given the full suite of capabilities that we could even enable for them, so I worked to, you know, get them much more involved with the company, become an advocate for ’em. About a, a year into that, I was able to finally really focus ’cause I, I actually made a pitch to now CEO Phil at the time and, and my and other managers, to say, you know, “I’ve developed a pipe and, you know, it’s pretty significant and, and this is worth my time. Would you mind taking, making this a full-time role and allowing me to really, you know, develop this?” 

[00:37:44] Marc Gonyea: So, it’s kind of like a side project. 

[00:37:46] Connor Spiegelman: It was like, “Let’s see what you can do.” 

[00:37:47] Marc Gonyea: It’s like all those things I hear about that happens at Google, but none of ’em actually come to fruition.

[00:37:51] It’s just keyword search revenue dollars. But, but you were running. 

[00:37:56] Connor Spiegelman: Balloons are in the news now, though. 

[00:37:57] Marc Gonyea: Balloons are in the news, right? They’re not accurate. The AI stuff, but that’s, we’ll hold that later. But, so, you had been doing this in addition to your other role? 

[00:38:06] Connor Spiegelman: Yes. 

[00:38:07] Marc Gonyea: And as this was happening, you’re like, “Man, there’s something here.”

[00:38:09] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. And, and, and so what we were finding is that in two areas, but really one major area, soft robotics. We were finding. 

[00:38:15] Marc Gonyea: What’d you say? 

[00:38:16] Connor Spiegelman: Soft robotics. 

[00:38:17] Marc Gonyea: What is that? 

[00:38:17] Connor Spiegelman: So, soft robotics is basically, you know, how robots these days are rigid, there’s Mr. Roboto and whatnot, but, but if you look at, you know, human bodies, they’re all soft tissue.

[00:38:26] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:38:26] Connor Spiegelman: And there’s a, a lot of, you know, functionality with that. And so, there’s a whole field of research right now that’s dedicated to looking at biological organisms and how to create synthetic sort of robots that have this functionality for, like, cleaning nuclear reactors or going into ocean, into space.

[00:38:41] Marc Gonyea: Oh, that is awesome. 

[00:38:42] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. It’s, uh. 

[00:38:43] Marc Gonyea: Keep thinking of those boxes, dynamic robots that are gonna come and, like, you know, make sure I don’t do anything wrong, but I, I like the idea of them cleaning the nuclear reactors. 

[00:38:51] Connor Spiegelman: Exactly. 

[00:38:52] And I think robots are gonna really enable a lot of really great things in the future, particularly, at least, with space travel.

[00:38:58] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Excellent. All right, so hold on, we’re down a path there. So, you developed this. 

[00:39:04] Connor Spiegelman: So, so we, we had differentiation there because we can print soft materials and the structure that we called the lattice, where we can now start to integrate things like sensors and electronics so they can be stimulated and, and move in various ways and start,

[00:39:17] you know, integrating machine learning to start calculating their own responses to various things. And so, it’s a really exciting field that a lot of people are interested in. And so, you know, I, you know, developed a lot of, we actually have key opinion leaders in that field to our customers, and so I really, you know, made sure to get those customers into the spotlight, have marketing articles written about them, work with them personally, enable them and then learn from them

[00:39:40] how do I can develop my own program. And so, over the last two years, and I’m in a new role now, but over the last two years, I honestly hit up every single professor who 3D prints, uh, who does 3D printing, and I’m trying to, you know, build, like I, I’ve given 15 or 20 guest lecturers at universities around the country

[00:39:57] and I’m really trying to, you know, grow this technology from an adoption sort of a standpoint and, you know, ’cause I think the capabilities are there, obviously. But with the program, I think it’s all about adoption, enabling research and, and now we’re focusing on how we can work with universities and companies together.

[00:40:13] Chris Corcoran: Hey, so who, what type of professors? Like, what, what field are they in typically? 

[00:40:18] Connor Spiegelman: So, uh, we work with, for instance, like, IMT, C Sales, so the computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory. As well as, and so there’s a, you know, uh, researchers in there that could be like a postdoc level, but they report to a, a really influential roboticist by the name of Daniela Russ.

[00:40:35] And Rob Shepherd is an associate professor at Cornell. The founder of our company is now at Stanford, Joe. And so, there’s a lot of the, these types of customers, but, but the ones that I’m focused on now really are directors of manufacturing centers at universities. And so, these people are, their main purpose is to grow the GDP within the area.

[00:40:54] Connor Spiegelman: And so, looking at, you know, job growth and retention and getting parts into production, you know, 3D printing can help offload a lot of that initial cost or get parts into production quickly, so we’re starting to work with them. 

[00:41:06] Marc Gonyea: So, hey, how, what, how does everybody, when you walk into the IMT lab, you tell them, “I’m with the Chico,” how does that go down?

[00:41:13] Connor Spiegelman: Well, it’s not the first thing I mention, but. 

[00:41:16] Marc Gonyea: Here’s the guy with carpets. 

[00:41:19] Connor Spiegelman: But I, I, I always have that in the back of my head, and I, and I cherish the, I laugh to myself as I think about, you know? I’m talking to these professors, and I’m, and I’m honestly, technically on a ver, like, I wouldn’t say a very similar level, but they’re not, they don’t have to talk down to me in any way, and I can actually help them solve the problems that they have. 

[00:41:37] Marc Gonyea: Well, your pa, your passion for this 

[00:41:39] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah, exactly. 

[00:41:40] Marc Gonyea: is undeniable. Right? And your knowledge shines through. Right? I just, I just gotta, I’m, yeah. 

[00:41:47] Connor Spiegelman: It’s just like, it’s funny to think that you’re from Chico State and you’re having these conversations, but I, I think, like, what it’s taught me is that you can do anything as long as you have the right mindset.

[00:41:56] Marc Gonyea: Do you know what you can do? For all those SDRs listening, what you can do is put yourself in the conference room and make 284 dials and kick up 11 opportunities. 285. 

[00:42:06] Connor Spiegelman: 285. 

[00:42:06] Marc Gonyea: 285. So, you can put yourself in a position. 

[00:42:10] Connor Spiegelman: Sorry. ‘Cause they need to beat me. 

[00:42:13] They should get you got, you got the number right.

[00:42:15] Marc Gonyea: Okay, good. All right. Good. Yeah, they need to get more, 285. One more dial. 

[00:42:20] Connor Spiegelman: Maybe more than that. 

[00:42:21] Marc Gonyea: I mean, this is a, such a lesson for people who are SDRs, who people get into the SDR, right? And we tell them, “Look, this is an opportunity for you ideally to break into tech sales. But what it also is, it’s an opportunity for you to get into, you get into the company with your SDR skillset because you, you’re the type of person who’s gonna show up at the office at 5:30 and create outbound lists out of thin air.”

[00:42:44] Connor Spiegelman: Exactly. 

[00:42:45] Marc Gonyea: By building lists of, of people in manufacturing and at automotive companies. 

[00:42:49] Connor Spiegelman: And that’s honestly a bigger differentiator than where you went to college. 

[00:42:52] Marc Gonyea: Exactly. That’s why I like joking about it so much. Chris and I don’t care about where people went to college. It doesn’t matter. We care about other things.

[00:42:59] It doesn’t matter. But you getting into this role and crushing this one very important piece of the sales pipeline and puts you in a position to go, and I want to, you said you pitched this, what, what do you mean you pitched this whole idea of this education thing? 

[00:43:15] Connor Spiegelman: Well, well, so, you know, the education market is, so it, it had the reputation, right, of not being an attractive market. But at other companies, you know, this is a pretty decent market. However, there is, we still have to figure out is it a big market for us based on the fact that we have a subscription model and we’re a premier, you know, technology, and we don’t understand where we’re differentiated, right?

[00:43:38] Connor Spiegelman: And so, what I had to do in the meantime was develop that business case essentially. And so, I did that and then presented the pros, the cons, the this and the that about the company included the pipeline that I, I could potentially generate and, you know, on the spot they said, “You know, this is good enough.

[00:43:54] Like we’re gonna, we’re gonna make this happen. The transition’s gonna happen. It’s gonna take a couple months, but, you know, you’re gonna be in this new role.” 

[00:44:00] Marc Gonyea: You essentially created a role for yourself. 

[00:44:02] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:44:03] Chris Corcoran: How cool is it that you are putting your fingerprints all over this business by coming up with these ideas, these concepts, proving them out, testing ’em, pitching them, delivering on them?

[00:44:14] I mean, you’re having an enormous impact. That’s why it’s fun, right? 

[00:44:19] Connor Spiegelman: Uh, it’s, it’s, like, and it’s like you see yourself growing while you’re doing it, and you’re like, “Holy crap. You know, this is awesome.” 

[00:44:28] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, I, Mike Mishler, knows how to identify talent. 

[00:44:31] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah, he does. 

[00:44:33] Marc Gonyea: That guy. 

[00:44:34] He, he could be at an advanced scout for any sports league in the world.

[00:44:38] Any business. 

[00:44:38] Connor Spiegelman: I think we need a, yeah, we need to, we need to, he’s doing well, but, you know, if he, if he wasn’t, we should help him out. 

[00:44:46] Marc Gonyea: We could bring Mike Mishler back in for round 2, Chris. So, you mentioned, are you doing something different now, or are you doing the same? 

[00:44:53] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah, I’m in like a, so we’ve just reorganized the company, and so my, uh, skillset actually with memoryBlue has a well-positioned before this role that’s kind of like coming to light.

[00:45:05] And so my, my new title is a Business Development Director in Education and New Business. But in many respects, I’m, you know, in, in many functions I’m, you know, gonna start to be running campaigns. I’m the, you know, point of contact for a lot of new business development. And, you know, I, I know really a lot of the applications across all the industries based on how long I’ve been there and kind of the core knowledge I have on the technology and the research I’ve done, so I’m able to plug and play kind of wherever and we’re kind of figuring out, like, within our team, right, we have a focus on, you know, as many parts into production with 3D printing as possible, which is a shift from, you know, our previous model, which was more traditional and focused on getting machines out the door.

[00:45:43] And so, now it’s kind of like, I think we’re looking really at our whole team and going like, “How do we do this best?” But with me in particular, I, like, I have a lot of ideas. And I’ve written 40-page reports and 10 proposals and. 

[00:45:54] Marc Gonyea: All these 20 presentations? 

[00:45:56] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah.

[00:45:56] For all these ideas. And, you know, I’m working, marching down this path, and I’m kind of, I’m, I’m gonna see where this, where this role takes me.

[00:46:03] Marc Gonyea: But you said like the, the memoryBlue Foundation, is that the abound piece? 

[00:46:07] Connor Spiegelman: The, the skills, the, the foundation that I felt like it gave me was like, if you’re in business, like, you gotta, if you’re, if you’re in business development, like, and there’s a whole world out there, you’ve gotta efficiently and in a good way generate as much business as possible to put forth a hundred percent of your effort and, and to do as good as you can do.

[00:46:28] And, uh, I feel like memoryBlue well positions you for that because, you know, you guys are coming in here every day for six months and doing just that. And when you do that for six months, it becomes ingrained in you, you know? As long as you, as long as you happen to do it. And then. 

[00:46:42] Marc Gonyea: Well, we do it the way we make you do it. 

[00:46:43] Connor Spiegelman: Ex, exactly.

[00:46:44] And it becomes ingrained, and then you think about it, right? But yeah, I agree. Like, the, yeah, there’s a lot that I learned here that was just kind of like, “Oh. You guys, you know, you’re a more senior role than me, but you don’t like the cold call, but we don’t have inbound leads that is sufficient for you, so what are you gonna do? And don’t look at me the whole time ’cause I’m, I’m, I’m working with 10 reps, you know? And I’m one of two people.” So, it’s kind of like, it’s sink or swim, and I, in some sense, in some instances, and you gotta learn how to swim, and I feel it. 

[00:47:17] Marc Gonyea: It never goes away. Go ahead, Chris.

[00:47:20] Chris Corcoran: So, I, I guess what’s jumping off the, the page on this or coming through the audio the most for me here is just product and industry knowledge. Like, you’re an expert, like, you know, you can explain it to me, who knows very little about it, but then you can go to MIT and talk it to some postdoc.

[00:47:36] I mean, all these things, right? And I, I just, I think you’re shining an example of with your client or whatever your employer as an SDR, like, be a strong SDR, but really take the time to understand everything you possibly can about the technology and the problems it solves, all those things because when you do that, suddenly you become credible and interesting and it becomes a lot more fun, and you’re a lot more valuable.

[00:48:03] I mean, there’s very few people who, I mean, maybe at, at your employer, they’re, everyone knows this stuff, but in the industry, you’re like a, such a valued resource ’cause you can explain it and talk about it. 

[00:48:15] Connor Spiegelman: Exactly. Yeah. You wanna make yourself invaluable and, uh, when you do that then you, you should have a sense of job security.

[00:48:21] And I think that that allows you to feel like you can grow and then that if you feel like you can continue to grow, then who knows what the limit is. 

[00:48:30] Chris Corcoran: You’re such a specialist. You just know you, you know so much about, uh, this, this niche. It’s, it’s very interesting to hear all about it. 

[00:48:36] Connor Spiegelman: I would encourage anybody to learn about a niche, uh, like that.

[00:48:40] Yeah. 

[00:48:40] Marc Gonyea: Exactly. Exactly. 

[00:48:42] Chris Corcoran: Why is that important? I agree with you, but why is that important? 

[00:48:45] Connor Spiegelman: Well, I didn’t have a different answer than, than Marc, for instance, but, like, but, like, when I think about 3D printing, right, it, like, if you dive deep into a certain area like that, like, one, you can gain credibility, and you can develop a network quickly, and you can understand kind of the lay of the land in a way that’s unique into you.

[00:49:02] But, but also, like, if you dive deep into something, like, you can fundamentally learn a lot about everything in the world, right? And so, I do think that there’s a lot of value in finding something and just diving as deep as possible and learning about all the adjacent sort of, you know, things as well.

[00:49:19] Marc Gonyea: And you’re trying to, and you’re connecting it to revenue or opportunity as business development? 

[00:49:25] Connor Spiegelman: If, if I can tell you the material properties of a certain resin and where it can be used, you’re more likely to buy my 3D printer or buy my, or buy or make a, or make parts with my 3D printer. And so, you know, I’ve figured that out within the first two weeks, and ever since then, I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can.

[00:49:42] Chris Corcoran: Well, that’s, that’s a very obvious. 

[00:49:47] Connor Spiegelman: Thank you. 

[00:49:48] Marc Gonyea: As we wrap up here, I got a couple of questions for you, but you got anything else you wanna make sure we hit on? 

[00:49:54] Connor Spiegelman: Well, I, I did wanna ask you guys, so I remember looking at, you know, uh, our numbers, uh, when I was here six years ago, and I’ve been really impressed with the growth here.

[00:50:03] And, um, I would love to learn, you know, I think, everyone likes to learn what, what do you guys view as your keys to success in these last six years since I’ve been here? Chris? Is Chris the answer? 

[00:50:15] Marc Gonyea: Chris gets, since he’s remote, he gets to go first. 

[00:50:18] Chris Corcoran: I mean, I think it’s a, there’s a lot of different things.

[00:50:20] I think it’s, uh, one, it’s going to schools on-campus recruiting and, and finding people like you, Connor, and persuading them to accept a job working at this company when they’re, you know, in their fall of their super senior year. And then getting them up to speed and then, as quickly as possible through, through our environment, through our coaching and our development. But then also having the business model that allows a company like Carbon to get exposure to you and James.

[00:50:46] And, and then bring you and James onto their payroll full-time. And what that does is it, it helps company, it helps our clients. It helps the SDRs that we hire, and then it just generates a lot of goodwill that when people leave Carbon or other companies and they, they need help, they’ll call us.

[00:51:07] Or they may have a younger brother or sister and who wants to get a start in tech, and they’ll refer us. So, it’s, it’s a, it’s just try to do the right thing for the right people long-term, and eventually that stuff takes off. 

[00:51:20] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. I, I really do like how you guys have run everything here, and, uh, it just makes sense to me, and, um yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

[00:51:28] Thanks, Chris. 

[00:51:29] Marc Gonyea: I would say, I would, everything Corcoran said I’d second. I think it’s very akin to kind of what you, you’ve been doing with your own career. Right? We’re passionate about it. We like to have fun. 

[00:51:41] Connor Spiegelman: Exactly. 

[00:51:42] Marc Gonyea: We make mistakes and try and learn from those mistakes. And just consistency.

[00:51:48] Keep coming back for more. 

[00:51:50] Connor Spiegelman: Even if you don’t want to. 

[00:51:52] Marc Gonyea: Even if you don’t want to. Right? We’re just gonna, we’re. Go ahead. What’s that? 

[00:51:57] Connor Spiegelman: Maybe tomorrow you don’t want to, it’s just maybe you don’t feel like it today, but that’s fine. You gotta live with it. 

[00:52:01] Marc Gonyea: You, you gotta do it when you don’t wanna do it.

[00:52:03] Connor Spiegelman: Yeah. 

[00:52:04] Marc Gonyea: Just gonna wear you out. Right? And the problems we have now is the problems we had then. We’ve tried to change and develop ’em, but you just keep addressing the same problem. Unfortunately, pipeline is important, growth. 

[00:52:18] Connor Spiegelman: And it’s a unique business model, right? Like, and, and that’s kind of, I think that’s such a big differentiator, right?

[00:52:24] Because it isn’t easy to hire a good SDR, and, uh, I think it’s probably one of the most challenging hires that I’ve seen. So, yeah, I think it makes sense. 

[00:52:32] Marc Gonyea: Oh, I’m glad you appreciate the model. I do. Well, let as you close things out. If you could go back in time the night before you started at memoryBlue, what advice would you have had for yourself? 

[00:52:43] Connor Spiegelman: Do whatever it is you think you’re about to do. Don’t do anything different. 

[00:52:50] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Alright. 

[00:52:51] Connor Spiegelman: I’m, I’m, I’m happy with where I’m at. And, uh, you know, ultimately, uh, I think that’s the most important thing.

[00:52:58] And, um, everything, my entire experience was great. There was a lot of learnings, but none of them were too bads, which was good. 

[00:53:05] Marc Gonyea: No. I mean, I would tell you, man, everybody thinks it’s going to be like, it’s the linear growth, right? But, like, if you get bounced around a little bit, you can be like, “Man, I’m working with this guy James, who I’m good friends with, who’s immensely talented.

[00:53:18] He set the pace. I gotta, I gotta catch his pace and then get a little bit ahead of him.” Like, that competition is good. You guys were on a journey together. Yeah. And, you know, you’ve developed all these relationships with people who work here and at Carbon, so that’s sound advice.

[00:53:32] Connor Spiegelman: Thank you. 

[00:53:32] Marc Gonyea: You got anything for Connor, Chris, before we let him get back, back to changing the world of 3D printing? 

[00:53:37] Chris Corcoran: No, no. This has been fascinating and, and, uh, it’s great to see the success that you, that you’ve earned over the last, you know, six, seven years. And, uh, I appreciate you coming back and sharing, sharing your wisdom with Marc, me, and our listeners.

[00:53:52] Connor Spiegelman: Thank you very much. And, you know, I’m wishing everybody luck and, and you both as well. 

[00:53:56] Chris Corcoran: Thank you. 

[00:53:57] Marc Gonyea: Good seeing you, man. 

[00:53:58] Connor Spiegelman: You as well.