FOF INVESTMENT: $987,000
Haddy founder and CEO John “Jay” Rogers responds to skeptics of his new 3D printed furniture in an unexpected way — the 6-foot-3-inch 200-pound Marine veteran jumps on top of an end table manufactured at his St. Petersburg plant. The table is thin with a curved design, yet it doesn’t sway or buckle.
“I do that because nobody expects it,” Rogers says. “This holds 800 pounds, not just 200.”
Haddy, an acronym for “Heroic Agile Designed Durable and Yours,” breaks down recycled and biodegradable materials into pellets which then are printed into tables, chairs and more. His 20 enterprise customers range from coffee shops to hotels to the U.S. Department of Energy. It will take a few more years before the business is retail-ready.
The goal is to have 200 microfactories manufacturing his goods around the world, but the immediate plan is to open at least two more in the United States next year — one in the Chicago/Wisconsin area and another either in Arizona or Southern California, Rogers says.
Haddy’s model only works if its factories are close to population centers, within an eight-hour shipping run from at least 20 million people.
It’s Rogers’ second 3D printing startup. Local Motors printed vehicles, including an autonomous shuttle, using the microfactory model. But it shut down in 2022. “It just was too early for the world,” Rogers says.
He “deliberately chose” to bring his 3D printers to Florida, noting that he grew up in Palm Beach. His grandfather, an entrepreneur who once owned the Indian Motorcycle company and built the Texas Industries cement and steel company, moved the family south nearly a century ago after he was diagnosed with rheumatic fever.
Rogers wanted to be in a city and found Miami’s cost of living too high for a startup’s staffers. In St. Petersburg, he met former state Sen. Jeff Brandes, whom Rogers describes as a “hyperconnector,” especially when it comes to automation and innovation. If nothing else, Haddy is innovative, even working in an artificial intelligence element. “We collect data on every single pixel that we print,” Rogers says, “so the next time that we print, we print better, faster, cheaper.”
Each furniture piece also comes with a chip that lets Haddy keep track of where the piece is and connects customers to the company. Rather than trash an old chair or table, Haddy will retrieve it, break it back into pellets and use it in future production. By doing so, materials costs are cut dramatically, Rogers says.
The Florida Opportunity Fund invested in Haddy in 2023 but also has passed on a different funding round, Rogers says.
Haddy might be right on time for reasons Rogers couldn’t have considered. Its St. Peterburg manufacturing plant officially opened in April, the same day that President Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, which would affect huge swaths of the furniture sector.
“We are the tech response to tariffs,” Rogers says. “Our phone has been ringing off the hook. Our pipeline has exploded since tariffs happened.” The company had about $500,000 in revenue last year. That could grow 10 to 20 times in 2025.