🤝 Additive Ambitions: A Conversation with Tali Rosman

A Q&A with an expert who has done it

I’m really excited to share with you this Q&A interview with Tali Rosman, an industry expert in the additive manufacturing world. Tali has a rich background as a business advisor, EIR, and dealmaker. She made waves in the industry, particularly during her tenure as General Manager at Elem Additive under Xerox. There, she successfully led the company from an R&D prototype to commercial success, showcasing her skill for turning innovative ideas into market-ready solutions. Our conversation with Tali isn't just about celebrating her achievements; it's about diving deep into the hows of transforming a patented technology into a commercial business, and why this journey is crucial for anyone looking to innovate in today's tech landscape.

1/ Tali, I'm curious about your journey into the world of additive manufacturing with Elem Additive via Xerox. What made you jump into the founder's shoes and get things rolling?

To give some background, Xerox was looking to evaluate the commercial potential and take to market the liquid metal jetting technology it owned. I joined to build a startup under Xerox, called Elem Additive (Elem for short) and we took this very early stage technology, matured it, commercialized it and signed on customers such as the US Navy and Siemens, and eventually sold the company to another Additive Manufacturing (AM) company, called AddiTec. 

My decision to join was primarily driven by my excitement with the liquid metal technology and the potential I saw for it. On top of it, at that point in my career, I felt that all the different roles I’ve done till then – strategy, corporate development (mergers & acquisitions and minority investments), product and sales management – have prepared me for a ‘founder-CEO’ role, which requires leading and overseeing all these different elements of the business.

2/ Dealing with new tech and patents can be a rollercoaster. At Elem Additive, what were some tough spots you hit, and how did you navigate through them? 

There were quite a few. Aside from the highly common questions you run into, of what to patent and what to keep as a trade secret, and how to consider the costs of patenting versus the value (i.e. could the money be better spent elsewhere as you’re trying to grow the business), one challenge that was interesting is the collaboration with research centers and how you address IP developed in these collaborations. Deciding what’s an appropriate area for collaboration and where you’re coming too close to the ‘secret sauce’ is an interesting dilemma. 

3/ Could you break down how you take a cool patent or tech idea and turn it into something real and tangible? What's your go-to strategy for this?

The most important thing is Product Market Fit. That is, are you solving a real problem, a real pain point that your target customers are experiencing – and would these target customers be willing to pay for your solution. It sounds obvious but I’ve seen so many innovators who have developed a solution where there is no problem to be solved. They’ve been in the lab working on something for 5 years without talking to potential customers and validating the value of their proposed solution. I can’t stress how important PMF is. 

4/ In your playbook, how do you line up market needs with the right patents or tech to develop? Any pro tips?

I think it needs to start with understanding customer pain points and how these are being addressed today, and then thinking if we can address it in a *much* better way. By *much*, I mean that customers aren’t likely to switch for incremental improvements, so you need to find a solution that’s 10X better. 

To be honest, that wasn’t the case with us at Elem. I joined when the technology was already in existence, in an early TRL (technology readiness level), but the target customers weren’t yet defined. This is where coming from the industry (of additive manufacturing) is important, because then you can look at a technology like liquid metal jetting and very quickly understand where the sweet spot is. 

For us, the pain point was that the existing metal AM technologies were mainly based on powders. Powders are toxic & explosive, hard to deploy, hard to operate, and cumbersome in terms of getting parts (both because of the printers’ complexities and because of the lengthy post-processing). So if you could offer a metal AM technology that solves these real pain points – you’ve got a worthwhile solution. Which is precisely what we had: Offering a wire-based technology, that is easy & safe to deploy, easy & safe to use, and can offer same-day-turnaround metal parts. 

The pro tip is digging deeper on solving the pain-points. To give an example, a pain point we’ve heard is the steep learning curve required for the powder-based systems. And some companies were trying to solve this by offering more extensive onsite training, etc. The better way to solve it is to just have an easy-to-use technology and then you avoid the steep learning curve altogether, which is what we were offering.

5/ Innovation's great, but it's got to make business sense too. How do you keep a balance between chasing the next big thing and keeping things practical and scalable?

That’s arguably one of the biggest challenges, especially with hardware: At which point do you move from advancing the design and adding features to the ‘design freeze’ so you can start building the sellable product and be able to discuss the product specs with customers. 

With software it’s much easier, because you can ‘push’ updates. But with hardware, it’s a whole different challenge. For example, if we wanted to add another material to the printer we might need to change the design of the printhead. This will delay parts ordering, which delays printer building, which of course delays revenues. On the other hand, if you release the printer without that additional material, you might sell less printers. The decision of when you have a “sellable” product, i.e. a product for which there’ll be *enough* paying customers (*enough* is also a conversation on its own) is a critical one.

6/ Building a team for a tech-centric startup seems like a huge task. How do you find the right people to handle the complex stuff in advanced manufacturing tech? Did any of the inventors tag along for the ride? 

Building the right team is the most important thing. We were fortunate to have the original team that developed the technology as part of Elem, but I needed to hire for all the other functions, from engineering through product, to go-to-market. 

I had a unique challenge in the hiring process as Elem was part of a large corporation. Unlike an independent startup that can run fast and make ‘judgement calls’ on hiring, I needed to have detailed job descriptions, align roles to Xerox’s “employee level” and be subject to Xerox’s pay ranges for these “levels”. Of course, every hire needed to go through the Xerox HR systems, which as can be expected at large corporations, were much slower and bureaucratical than any startup would have liked. 

Getting startup-mindset people to join Elem, when they’re experiencing a large corporation hiring process, wasn’t easy and required me spending a disproportionate amount of time on hiring, including everything from reviewing hundreds of profiles on Linkedin to being very diligent and intentional with the interviews to ensure not just a professional, but also a cultural, fit to Elem. 

I’m very proud of the truly best-in-class team we’ve built at Elem and of the exceptional culture we’ve created.

7/ Not every idea is a winner. Got any stories about plans at Xerox that didn't work out and what you learned from those experiences?

So many and I’m not sure I can share all of them 😊. 

PMF aside, which we’ve already discussed, the other critical element is expectations alignment with your investors (in our case, Xerox management). Hardware doesn’t scale like software, and the sales cycles for manufacturing capital equipment are excruciatingly long. Ensuring your investors have the required length of breath and financial patience that’s required is critical for success.

8/ You're the expert here. Where do you think additive manufacturing and Industry 4.0 are headed in the next decade?

In the next decade, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more distributed, localized manufacturing. While sustainability has been a factor in setting the vision of localized manufacturing, the real compelling event pushing it forward is the need to assure supply chain resiliency. In the face of the many disruptions we’ve seen to supply chains in the last few years and the rising geopolitical tensions, countries and companies alike are looking to secure their supply chains. The convergence of technological developments, including AM, cyber, AI and other technologies, will make this vision a reality in the next decade.  

9/ For someone eager to dive into the additive manufacturing or tech scene, especially around patents and new tech, what advice would you give?

For those eager to delve into the AM scene, my advice is to be curious: Start reading and leverage the many online resources, including webinars and workshops. Closely follow industry publications, attend relevant conferences, and connect with professionals in the field. This will not only enhance your technical skills but also provide insights into emerging trends, helping you make informed decisions when considering your AM path.  

10/ On a more personal note, how do you keep the innovation spark alive in a field that's always changing? Any personal habits or routines that help you stay on top of your game?

For me, it’s that I’m genuinely passionate about this industry and always eager to learn. Following my own advise above, aside from reading a lot and attending conferences, I also acquired the habit of scheduling virtual coffees with industry experts, in the broadest sense of the word: From innovators to investors, from OEMs to end users, across industries and technologies. 

It's always great to see how many people are open to grabbing a 30-minute zoom to discuss emerging technologies and industry trends and exchange views. Reaching out to people – and also being generous with my own time and knowledge – is very powerful.

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Tali, I’m looking forward to doing more interviews, are there any industry experts that you’d like to hear from? Share in the comments below.

🎨 About the artist

Moebius (Jean Giraud), a French artist, known for his work in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées tradition and his collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky.