CAD/CAM Magazine

34 I I feature _ home story CAD/CAM 2_2011 _During SCANDEFA, a major dental fair in Scandinavia, DTI recently visited the 3Shape head- quartersintheheartofdown-townCopenhagento learnaboutthecompany’snewproductsandfuture strategies. The historical building alongside Kon- gens Nytorv square and the Royal Danish Theatre has light and airy rooms, a perfect environment for a young, passionate and ambitious organisation driventodevelopthebesttechnologicalsolutionsin 3-D scanning and CAD/CAM. Often referred to as the “Google of the Dental Industry”, 3Shape was launched eleven years ago in aone-roomapartmentbytwoyoungandambitious graduate students from the Technical University of Denmark and Copenhagen Business School—Tais Clausen and Nikolaj Deichmann. At the time, Clausen was completing his master’s thesis on a groundbreaking 3-D scanning technology and Deichmann was finalising his Master’s degree in Fi- nance and Economics. Having met through friends, they joined forces to participate in the prestigious VentureCupbusinessplancompetition,established byMcKinseyandCo.,inwhichtheyfinishedsecond. Throughout the competition, they constantly con- sidered the manner in which the technology could be commercialised and thus the idea of launching 3Shape was born. Moving the dental worldfrom analogue to digital: 3Shape’s success story continues Authors_Bernhard Moldenhauer & Matthias Diessner, Germany From right to left: Nikolaj Deichmann (CFO), Tais Clausen (CTO) and one of the in-house developers at 3Shape. (Photo courtesy of 3Shape, Denmark)