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a 3D printer today? My own guess is under a 100K personal 3D printers have been sold. If that estimate doubles each year, it takes five years to get to a million. If it triples each year we get to a million in two and a half years. What will motivate a million people to buy a 3D printer? Will the utility of it persuade buyers to consider it as another household appliance? Will it be seen as common household tool, like a Dremel? Or will it be considered a form of entertainment, like a game console or media player? Will it be considered a specialized piece of equipment for recreational hobbyists, like rocketry or boats?

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz plays the investing game different from much of its VC cohort. Rather than scattering its money around a relatively large number of startups, the Silicon Valley firm places big bets on a handful of companies and industries. Today, Andreessen Horowitz is placing a very big bet, $30 million, on Shapeways and 3-D printing.