From 5 printers in an apartment to a 200+ printer factory selling into 26 of the 27 EU member statesFrom 5 printers in an apartment to a 200+ printer factory selling into 26 of the 27 EU member states

The business plan was written for a Master's in Entrepreneurship and won an EU start-up grant (about EUR 60K, ranked first among applicants). The factory started with 5 printers in a small apartment in Targu Jiu. Within a year it pivoted from consumers to engineering buyers, and it became an approved and audited production partner of one of the largest on-demand manufacturing platforms in the EU.

What was broken

A factory in a regional town, selling custom parts to engineers across Europe with a team of four. A buyer needed a trustworthy price from a CAD file without waiting for a person, customer records sat in five separate sales channels, and AI assistants had no way to ask the factory for a quote at all: a web form is not an interface a model can use.

What it cost

• With a team of 4 including contractors, every request answered by hand is time taken from production.
• Five sales channels with different GDPR and marketplace contract rules on who may be contacted.
• No channel at all for the engineers who already ask AI assistants for help.

The brief

Sell custom manufacturing to engineers across Europe from a regional town, with a team of four. That means instant, trustworthy prices from a CAD file, a checkout that works in the buyer's language and currency, and operations that do not need a sales team to answer every request.

• A team of 4 including contractors, so software has to replace headcount.
• Prices must be right: every quote is a commitment the factory has to honour at a margin.
• Export-led: about half of all orders go to German-speaking markets.
• Customer data from five sales channels, with GDPR and marketplace contract rules on who may be contacted.

• Founder: strategy, P&L, pricing, production and sales.
• Hired and trained the staff, on site and digitally, with the SOPs and the ISO 9001 audit documentation he wrote. A team of 4 including contractors, plus external production, logistics, certification and creative partners.
• Hands-on across FDM and SLA production, 3D modelling, the full 3D workflow and design for manufacturing.
• Sole engineer of the software, directing parallel AI coding agents behind tests and review gates.

1. 00

   2022

   A business plan written for a Master's in Entrepreneurship wins an EU start-up grant (ranked first, about EUR 60K, non-repayable). 5 printers in an apartment in Targu Jiu. No outside equity.

2. 01

   Jun 2022

   Company registered, production starts on 5 printers in the apartment.

3. 02

   2023

   From consumers to engineering buyers, and approved as a production partner of one of the largest on-demand manufacturing platforms in the EU.

4. 03

   2023 to 2024

   Team hired and trained on site and remotely, SOPs and ISO 9001 audit documentation written, production moved into a dedicated hall (2024). 3Descu is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company.

5. 04

   Scale

   Fleet past 200 printers and an export business: buyers in 26 of the 27 EU member states, 45% of orders shipping to Germany.

6. 05

   1 Jun 2026

   First commit of the quoting platform. 929 commits and ~400 merged pull requests follow in under five months.

7. 06

   2 Oct 2026

   The platform live in four languages: English, German, French and Dutch.

8. 07

   18 Oct 2026

   MCP server listed in the official MCP Registry; then Glama and 4 community directories through merged pull requests.

9. 08

   21 to 25 Oct 2026

   A zero-budget press launch: 10 articles in national, regional and international trade press within a week.

10. 100

    Today

    A 200+ printer factory, turnover x65 in three years at a 57% net margin, 2,000+ orders from 1,600+ buyers in 30 countries, rated 4.7/5 by 200+ verified buyers.

What was built

• The team and the operation. Adrian hired and trained the staff, on site and remotely, and wrote the SOPs and the ISO 9001 audit documentation. He is hands-on with every step: FDM and SLA production, 3D modelling and design for manufacturing.
• Instant quoting platform (quote.3descu.com): upload a 3D file, get mesh analysis in the browser (watertight check, volume, bounding box), a price in under a minute, payment by card, bank or PayPal, PDF offers, a customer portal and an admin back office. English, German, French and Dutch.
• An MCP server so AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude can quote real parts: 4 tools, keyless, rate-limited, prices calibrated on measured parts. Listed in the official MCP Registry as io.github.cadi27tech/3descu-quote, on Glama, and in 4 community directories through merged pull requests.
• A release gate of 120+ automated checkers running about 260K assertions on every release, with mutation-tested guards so a checker that stops catching errors is itself caught.
• A EUR 0 per month social publisher on GitHub Actions (public repo) that posts a full quarter's calendar on schedule: 45 published, 3 missed, and missed posts are never backfilled.
• A unified customer ledger: five sales channels merged into one audited ledger reconciled to within EUR 1, with GDPR and contract suppression rules enforced in code.

• ISO 9001:2015 certified company, with documented SOPs.
• GDPR and contract rules enforced in code: marketplace-sourced customer records are held suppression-only.
• e-Factura invoicing with EU VAT reverse charge for VIES-valid business buyers.
• Every release passes 120+ checkers and about 260K assertions; guards are mutation-tested, so a checker that stops catching errors is caught itself.
• Public claims (counts, ratings, press) are checked by scripts for drift against the source data.
• The MCP server is keyless and rate-limited, with prices calibrated on measured parts.

How it was tested

Every release passes 120+ checkers and about 260K assertions. Public claims (counts, ratings, press) are checked by scripts for drift against the source data. 3Descu is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company and ranks 1st in Gorj county in three ListaFirme Topul Firmelor 2026 categories (professional and design services), based on filed accounts.

• Everything: code in its own repository, its own Supabase and Stripe accounts, no agency in the loop.
• A public MCP server and a public social-publishing agent that others can inspect.

• React
• TypeScript
• Supabase (PostgreSQL, Edge Functions)
• Stripe
• Model Context Protocol
• GitHub Actions
• Meta Graph API

Links

• The quoting platform
• MCP Registry entry
• Social publishing agent (GitHub)
• Press coverage

1. Buyer review4.7/5 from 200+ buyers

   The precision of the parts were astonishingly good

2. Press21 Oct 2026

   Povestea de succes a unui gorjean: Adrian Capraru a pornit cu 5 imprimante 3D si a construit o fabrica ce produce pentru toata Europa

   In EnglishThe success story of a man from Gorj: Adrian Capraru started with 5 3D printers and built a factory that produces for the whole of Europe.

3. Press24 Oct 2026

   Adrian Căpraru, antreprenorul din Gorj care transformă imprimarea 3D într-o afacere europeană

   In EnglishAdrian Capraru, the entrepreneur from Gorj turning 3D printing into a European business.

4. Press24 Oct 2026

   3Descu enables 3D printing quotes through ChatGPT and Claude