[18] Among the seven founders[8] were Ric Fulop[2] and Jonah Myerberg of A123 Systems, Rick Chin of SolidWorks, and Yet-Ming Chiang, Ely Sachs, Christopher Schuh,[18] and A. John Hart of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

[13] At the time of its founding, the company was developing a process for metal 3D printing that would be fast and small enough for office settings.

[19] Xconomy wrote that the company's intent was to create a metal 3D printer that would "churn out parts more quickly" and be "much cheaper, smaller, safer and easier to operate" than alternatives on the market.

[12] To eliminate the need for trained personnel to operate the equipment, dangerous features such as lasers were not made a part of the design process.

[19] Initially the company raised around $14 million in startup funding,[19] with leading Series A funders including New Enterprise Associates, Kleiner Perkins, and Lux Capital.

[4][5][17] With total raised brought to $97 million,[4][5][17] the capital was used for research and development, with plans to begin selling the first product later that year[5] in a variety of industries.

[22] Desktop Metals was also working with BMW in Munich to explore eliminating the need to warehouse parts,[4] and companies such as Milwaukee Tools[23] and Jabil Circuit Inc. A U.S. were evaluating the printers for production use.

[25] Both systems include a printer, furnace, and cloud-based software to operate the machines,[12] with the ability to print several hundred alloy types.

The first printer went to Google's Advanced Technology and Products Group[34] and among other early customers were the United States Navy, Built-Rite Tool & Die, and Lumenium.

[9] As the process doesn't utilize high power lasers,[51] or hazardous materials, the Studio System can be housed inside office spaces[13] with standard wall outlets.

When the shape is complete, it is placed in a furnace which burns away the polymers and "compacts the metal particles by sintering them together at just below their melting point.

[9] The sintering causes predictable shrinking, which the system's software compensates for by making items slightly larger during the printing step.

[31] The Production System uses a printing method where droplets of a binding agent are "jetted" onto a metal powder in heated layers.

[55] Desktop Metal developed Live Parts,[34] an AI software for users to automatically generate printable object designs.