Nick ODonnell, 25

During his entrepreneurship program at Florida State University, Nick ODonnell started looking into 3D printing.

His first 3D printing business idea? Have people record a message and make bracelets out of the resulting sound waves. Then, at a symposium, he saw furniture made from a printer. “I thought it was the coolest thing,” he says. “I thought, ‘I need to learn how to do it.’” So he did.

Up next? In his senior year of college, ODonnell taught himself how to make furniture using 3D printing technology, designing a chair as a conceptual piece just to see if he could do it. “The way I like to look at it is I was the first customer,” he says. “I made it because it was the design I myself would like to have.”