“Pull, Not Push” Needs to Be Adopted More in the AM Industry

Pull vs. Push: A Lesson from Arc’s Acquisition of Desktop Metal

The big news in additive manufacturing this week was that Arc Public Benefit Corporation acquired what was left of Desktop Metal. As a former Desktop Metal employee, that headline hit close to home. But what really stood out to me wasn’t the acquisition itself — it was how Arc’s CEO, Bryan Wisk, explained the decision in his announcement.

In it, he outlined a philosophy borrowed from Bell Labs: “Pull, not Push.”

• Push innovation starts with a technology looking for a use.

• Pull innovation starts with urgent, concrete applications and works backward to the science.

It sounds simple, but this distinction is exactly what has been missing at Desktop Metal — and, frankly, across much of the additive industry.

The Problem with “Push” in AM

Too many industrial AM companies are pushing. They launch a new printer or material, then try to convince the world to use it. It’s like showing up with a random puzzle piece and hoping someone out there is holding the matching piece. Most of the time, it doesn’t fit.

As a past application engineer, I’ve lived this firsthand. Finding use cases is tough — especially when you don’t have deep expertise in different industries that might benefit. Often, it’s a case of not knowing what you don’t know, which means many niche applications never get discovered unless they happen to find you.

This “push” approach can work for hobbyist and consumer printers, because the audience is broad and experimental — people will try things until something sticks. (In fact, that’s part of what I do at Niche 3D.) But industrial AM doesn’t compete with other printers; it competes with machining, molding, and casting. That’s a much higher bar.

If your technology doesn’t solve a specific, urgent problem better than traditional manufacturing, it won’t gain traction.

Why “Pull” Works

The companies succeeding today are doing some version of “pull.” They start with a clear application:

• A medical device that can only be manufactured additively.

• An aerospace part that demands lightweighting and geometric complexity.

• Customized products that need to scale efficiently.

From there, they work backward: What material is required? What process makes it possible? Sometimes they already have one piece of the puzzle. Sometimes they need to develop both. But the key difference is that the application leads the way.

That’s what Bell Labs did for decades — and it’s what Arc wants to bring to Desktop Metal.

Why It Resonates with Me

When I started Niche 3D, I wasn’t trying to build the next “one-size-fits-all” printer company. I’d already seen how that story ends: with technology searching for a purpose. Instead, I focused on applications: companies that needed parts to improve processes, teams that needed prototypes to move products forward, and custom solutions where injection molding just didn’t make sense.

Along the way, I experimented — not by “pushing” the tech I had, but by exploring what it could actually do. That exploration opened pathways to new applications and products worth pursuing.

My mindset has evolved: I no longer just look for puzzle pieces that fit. I identify applications and then work backward to develop the processes and designs that make them possible. Hearing Bryan Wisk put it so clearly — “Pull, not Push” — reminded me why I left the big AM companies and committed to Niche 3D full time to focus on applications.

The Bigger Lesson for AM

Arc’s acquisition of Desktop Metal could be more than a business move. It could be a wake-up call for the entire additive manufacturing industry. Tech for tech’s sake isn’t enough anymore.

If you’re in AM, the question isn’t: “How do we sell this printer?” It’s:

• What problems are people desperate to solve?

• What can additive do that nothing else can?

• How do we work backward from that need?

That’s how the industry grows. Not by pushing more puzzle pieces into the market, but by pulling real-world challenges into focus — and solving them.

It’s the mindset I’m building Niche 3D on. And it’s the mindset I believe the whole industry needs to embrace.