Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob Sneed.
Hi Jacob, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I had a farm truck from the 90s, a ‘96 K1500 to be exact. When my first car got wrecked, my uncle sold it to me. After being in my family for 3 generations, the thing was pretty beat up. I needed to make it a daily driver, so I started working on it, replacing things as I got to them. This led to a problem; a lot of the parts I wanted did not exist online. A main one that peeved me was the cupholders. The stock ones were 3 cupholders that were rendered functionally useless, either too shallow or too small for any modern cup. So I found myself making inserts and adapters so these cupholders could fit the cans, Yeti’s, and cups that I was using in my life. During this time, I had to go to work every morning to my explosives lab at MST, where I designed and tested explosive devices as I was pursuing my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. I tended to come in early and stay late, often into the early morning. I lost count of the amount of redbulls that I drank, but what I did find was that those old cupholders and those skinny cans were not compatible. I spilled them all over the floor, my seats, the cupholders, and so I created a “hockey puck” adapter that sized down the cupholders to fit both large and small redbull cans. This very quickly grew into more parts for my truck as I changed and tested these. Before I knew it, I had a catalog of about 30 parts that came from my own endeavors and friend’s requests for their trucks, as well. My roommate had started a small 3D-printing business in the same vein; parts for the SUV that he owned. And I decided I had enough parts to try and do the same. So I bought a 3D-printer, put my parts online, and the rest is history!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Well, I didn’t make a single sale for 6 months. I started in September of 2024, and had no engagement until March of 2025. I had left my job and my school and moved across the country in continued pursuance of my degree. I was all in with this business, despite the fact that I had no money to speak of, and had spent all of what little I did have to buy supplies so that I would be able to put out orders when they came. At times, I was choosing between dinner and 3D-printer filament. I remember one week, I had used the last quarters I had to fill up my motorcycle tank to get back and forth from school, buy a half loaf of bread, and some tomatoes. All I could eat was tomato sandwiches. Over the next six months, though, I kept getting more and more orders, and I kept making parts. My girlfriend had an old Corolla that I made parts for, and I ended up getting another (slightly newer) farm truck that I made parts for too. It went from nothing to overwhelming in the blink of an eye, and I found myself spending 5-6 hours a day making sure orders were going out and designing my websites and new parts. It paid off, now it essentially pays for my rent and all the hobbies I like to do.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
All I have is this 3D-printing business. I spend my time making new parts for vehicles I have, putting them online, and seeing whether they’ll sell or not. I have to utilize CAD, and I also have to do maintenance on the 3D-printers themselves.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
There’re two mindsets one can have while making business related decisions: “What will I lose because of this” and “What can I gain through this.” If you are focused on how you can fail, the feat that comes with that will never allow you to be all that you can. When you focus on success, there is so much that you will risk. But you gain much more than you would’ve imagined through fear.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.incendiary-concepts.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ErEoSCdtZ/
