- SendCutSend raised a $110M round backed by Sequoia, Paradigm, and Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison.
- Its founder and CEO Jim Belosic previously went viral for hiring from places like donut shops and Dollar Tree, suggesting the manufacturing skills gap comes from incumbents not wanting to train workers on the job.
- The company’s unconventional hiring practices resulted in greater diversity, with women being represented across the company, Belosic tells Tech Funding News.
US-based SendCutSend just hit unicorn status on a $110 million round backed by Sequoia, Paradigm, and Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison. The Reno manufacturer is now eyeing an ‘anything factory’ — and has a hiring policy to match.
Founded in 2018, SendCutSend is an on-demand manufacturer that lets customers upload a design, get an instant quote, and order precision-cut metal parts that are shipped in as little as two days.
The company swaps out traditional manufacturing’s slow, opaque quote processes with a software-driven, buy-now platform, earning it a $1 billion valuation from some of venture capital’s biggest names. It essentially turns manufacturing into a hybrid e-commerce and tech platform.
The fresh funds saw participation from Sandy Kory and Mark Sugarman, who previously backed a $6 million friends and family round.
SendCutSend made a $1 billion five-year commitment to US jobs and facilities, meaning more than $250 million will go toward expanding existing facilities and building new high-tech manufacturing hubs across the country. Cash will also be directed to new US jobs and domestically sourced materials.
It comes amid concern of a skills shortage, fuelled in part by countries attempting to firm up their own domestic industries again. Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute found the manufacturing labour shortage could see 2.1 million jobs unfilled by 2030, costing the US economy as much as $1 trillion.
Founder and CEO Jim Belosic isn’t convinced — incumbents just aren’t willing to train people up, he says. In contrast, his company is investing in on-the-job training. In a viral post on Twitter/X in May 2026, Belosic listed the previous jobs of his 12 newest manufacturing hires: donut shop worker, VA nurse, Dollar Tree associate, janitor, bartender, and others.
“Relying on someone else (a school, the government) to create skilled labor for you means you’re gonna be waiting a while. Just do it yourself,” he writes, suggesting that the manufacturing talent shortage is partly self-inflicted. At SendCutSend, a 19-year-old and a 52-year-old run million-dollar machines right next to each other.
“Both produce great parts. The labor supply is endless if you are willing to put in the effort,” the post notes.
The company’s unconventional hiring tactics have led to greater representation across the board, Belosic tells Tech Funding News. Its marketing team is predominantly women, for instance.
“Diversity at SendCutSend isn’t a formal initiative; it’s just how we operate. Women are present across the company – in shipping, in production, purchasing, in office, etc,” he says.
“Manufacturing has always had room for sharp, capable people regardless of gender, and we’ve never approached hiring any other way. We’re genuinely excited to see more women entering manufacturing. The interest is there. The talent is there. The industry is changing, and we think that’s a good thing for everyone.”
With the most recent funding, SendCutSend is on track for 500 employees by July 2026, with around 250 hires planned across three US facilities by year-end.
The additional capacity will be used to expand the products it offers as the deep tech boom diversifies where its parts are used: in orbit, on the ocean floor, to Antarctic research stations, and even professional race tracks.
“The range of environments that manufactured components now have to perform in is wider than it has ever been, and it keeps growing. What that tells us is that demand for precision, speed, and reliability is not consolidating around one industry or one application, but actually spreading across dozens more of them,” Belosic says.
“The manufacturers who win in that environment are the ones who built the flexibility to serve all of them.”
That’s how SendCutSend is positioning itself as it builds what it’s calling an ‘anything factory’.
“We are not trying to predict which direction any one customer is going to go, but rather, are building the kind of operation that is ready when they get there, whether that is low Earth orbit or the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The customers are already telling us where things are heading. Our job is to make sure we can say yes when they call,” Belosic adds.
