Heavy Hitters: The Digital Industrial Podcast
This podcast explores the intersection of heavy industrial industries and the venture capital ecosystem. Host Ty Findley interviews thought-leading investors and founders about the opportunities and challenges facing digital industrial innovation. The show aims to provide insights into how technology and capital are reshaping traditional industrial sectors.
Episodes
120. Elisabeth Reynolds, MIT - Reindustrialize Through Priority Technologies
Liz outlines a then and now macro backdrop as to how reindustrialization has only accelerated over the last 2 years since we discussed the topic on Heavy Hitters, details why she and her MIT colleague wrote "Priority Technologies" to frame in six critical focus areas needed to build the innovation and industrial ecosystems that will keep the US secure and drive economic prosperity, share
119. Gene Hodge, Mortenson - Hardhats & Hackathons
Gene outlines the when, why, and how a 72 year old premier general contractor setup a formal innovation group, i4 (and associated BLUlabs R&D facility efforts), how Mortenson consciously takes a people-led, inclusive approach to rolling out innovation ensuring talent in the field doesn’t feel like innovation is “happening to them”, why the firm developed a Director of AI role and the architype
118. Tony Leopold, United Rentals - Rise of Rental
Rise of the construction and power rental market is an understatement title for this episode, and Tony helps us unpack the macro and technology shifts underway underpinning this builtworld boom to support the AI race. We discuss how the world’s largest equipment rental company, United Rentals (30 years old, 28,500 employees,1,750 rental locations spanning multiple continents), is approaching this
117. John Somers (AEM) + Matt Abeles (ABC) - Plowing Innovation Ahead to CONEXPO 2026
We discuss why North America’s largest construction trade show, CONEXPO, is launching a new “Ground Breakers Stage” specifically aimed at spotlighting future innovation ahead, how industry leading trade associations like AEM and ABC took a ‘mixed fleet’ outlook to collaborate on their respective innovation trends and efforts to bolster CONEXPO 2026, how AI-enabled heavy machinery autonomy specific
116. Mark Schwartz, Trimble - The Best Kept $2.31B ARR Secret Bridging the Physical and Digital Divide
Mark outlines why the Trimble Dimensions conference last November was the right time to make such a big AI splash in the AECO sectors, details where the company is headed with its expansion of the Trimble Marketplace to create a more open and integrated ecosystem, looks back on lessons from his prior Chief Digital Officer role as to what it has taken both technically and culturally inside Trimble
115. John Jacobs, JE Dunn - The 10-Year Foundation: How JE Dunn Built a Data Blueprint for the AI Era
John walks us through the story on both the ‘Why’ and the ‘How’ a 101 year old general contractor built a single common data environment underneath every business unit (a foundation that has been laid for over a decade now!), shares the cultural alignment required to execute a technology strategy like that, outlines how that common data environment now enables their internal Citizen Technology eff
114. Joe Foster, Holman Robotics - Launching an End-to-End Robotics Solution Within a 100 Year Old Global Automotive Services Leader
Joe shares the why, who, and how Holman Robotics was launched within a 100+ year old global automotive services business, what it takes to scale robotic automation solutions from pilots to scaled deployments, how Holman succeeded internally with their own robotic automation deployments before launching Holman Robotics externally, and finally how Holman is approaching AI internally and within its r
113. Alice Leung, Brick & Mortar Ventures - Building Out the Future of Construction Tech
Alice shares why the firm launched the first AEC-focused accelerator, Formwork Labs, and what the ecosystem gap was it wanted to fill for founders, how her construction operating experience informs her outlook as an AEC investor and what she looks for in founders (hint, industry experience can be a “double edged sword”), details a then and now lookback on the key drivers behind all the current inv
112. Mark Hawkins, Venture/Operating Partner - Industrial Innovation Through a CFO's Lens
Mark shares both his career journey across some of the world’s premier technology companies and how his roots growing up in a Midwest industrial town + degree in operations management gave him a unique vantage point/passion for optimizing some of the world’s premier supply chains for those technology companies, details his lessons learned on what it takes to scale and lead a finance function withi
111. Rachael Ferrera, Zachry Construction - Breaking Ground: The Future of Horizontal Construction
Rachael digs into the history behind Zachry’s now >100 years (!) of construction operation, shares a then & now look back on how she has seen Zachry evolve technology and innovation during her nearly 2 decades of service, details why an Ideation and Investments function was stood up, outlines that nuance between ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ construction projects, and finishes with a “What’s
110. Aaron Toppston, GS Futures - Building the Future of the Built Environment
Aaron shares the back story on why one of Korea’s largest conglomerates stood up GS Futures and its associated Built Environment fund, how they balance objectives between financial returns and strategic impact, details why the construction industry is “allergic to overhead” and where that presents opportunity ahead for innovation, and finally discusses some current built environment tech trends ar
109. Jake Brown, NFI - Innovating Supply Chain & Logistics since 1932
Jake outlines why a company like NFI (that has been innovating supply chain & logisitcs since 1932!) decided to stand up a ventures effort in NFI Ventures, how NFI approaches build, buy, partner decisions, what their ventures team lessons learned are when vetting deal flow, ensuring succesful pilot launches, and engaing successful firm-wide deployments, how their firm is approaching the AI in
108. Thai Nguyen, Hensel Phelps - Diverge's Mission to Build the Future of the AEC Industryuture
Thai shares the backstory on why one of the world’s premier GCs decided to launch innovation and investment platform Diverge, details how Diverge has developed a systematic process to discover, evaluate, operationally mobilize, and invest in AEC innovators, gives a pulse check on where the industry is at balancing the critical human element with advancements in robotics and AI automation, and fina
107. Dan Renouard + Rodd Langenhagen, Baird - Intersection of Industrial Innovation and Capital Markets
We kickoff with a macro capital markets 1H’25 lookback and 2H’25 look ahead, dig in on how industrial software has gone from “relative obscurity” +15 years ago to now one of the biggest sectors in software today, discuss how the exit environment for industrial innovation is shaping up going into the fall and which sectors are showing the most green shoots, and finally search for the signal from t
106. Troy Ryley, Echo Global Logistics - The Road Ahead for US/Mexico Cross-Border
Troy narrates through his three decades of US/Mexico cross-border experience that led him to now standing up yet another cross-border operation, Echo Mexico, shares his outlook where he believes US trade with Mexico is headed coming out of the tariff negotiations, details what the opportunities and challenges are for anyone considering expanding freight services into cross-border applications, and
105. Ian Kinne, Hillwood - Building a "Mobility Innovation Zone"
Ian shares the back story on how the 27,000-acre, master-planned development by Hillwood turned into Alliance, TX (a global logistics hub that has generated more than 66,000 jobs and an estimated $130B in regional economic impact!), why the Mobility Innovation Zone (MIZ) was stood up within Alliance to connect, “people, places, and ideas that push innovation forward in surface and air mobility”, h
104. Dave Anderson, Supply Chain Ventures - Where Supply Chain VC Began
Dave shares his 20+ year journey launching and scaling Supply Chain Ventures where supply chain VC all began, details a historical look back on major supply chain events and innovation inflection points that have shaped where we are at today (hint: supply chain is an incredibly enduring investment sector), outlines what he thinks is investable vs. not in this latest wave of AI applied to supply ch
103. All-In Supply Chain Innovation 4.0
The band is back together after the 2025 supply chain conference blitz and we cover how we tactically approach conference season, where the macro supply chain winds are blowing this year (tariffs, DOGE, regulatory changes, etc.), what role the latest AI into supply chain push is playing (tip: watch out for 'Annual Curiosity Revenue'), and how we think VC specilization has played out after crossing
102. Dave Katzman, PTC - Onshape to PTC, a Manuf. Innovation Journey
Dave shares his story of building up the Go-to-Market (GTM) engine at Onshape before it was acquired by PTC in 2019, what functional and leadership lessons he learned within that Onshape experience (venture-backed) that has translated to PTC (premier incumbent), how his team at the Velocity Group operates within the broader PTC organization, what lessons he has learned when it comes to recruiting
101. Kristina Nilsson, J.P. Morgan - Applied Technology in 2025
Kristina outlines what macro trends she sees ahead in 2025
from both the public and private markets and zooms in how those trends will play into her Applied Technology focus areas, shares the evolution she has witnessed within the industrial innovation ecosystem over the past two decades (both investors and innovators), details why she believes recent advances in AI have the potential to reenergiz
100. Peter J. Holt, HOLT Group - Ironspring Ventures 5 Year Lookback + Lookahead
On the turn of Ironspring Ventures 5 year anniversary (!), Peter shares the story of the Holt family background and his own journey to now leading HOLT Group, details the various industrial businesses and associated sectors that HOLT Group operates within (hint: “Dynamic” is a core value),
outlines how those efforts are clearly complementary to the genesis and ongoing efforts at Ironspring Venture
99. Josh Kanner, Oracle - The Impact of AI in Construction
Josh shares a then and now look back on his 20-year journey building multiple Builtworld startups and what key evolution points he has seen in the ecosystem, details how Oracle Construction and Engineering is leveraging AI to help customers and their skilled workforce do their jobs better and more safely, outlines how responsibly applying AI in construction can advance the entire industry, and wal
98. Nick Kim, Upfront Ventures - SoCal's Industrial Innovation Resurgence
Nick walks us through how he and Upfront went about furthering development of their national infrastructure and hard tech focus areas, shares his outlook on the LA and SoCal industrial resurgence that is underway, discusses the rich SoCal industrial history underpinning this resurgence (“primes” and associated talent have been there for decades!), and details why the human element involved in indu
97. Sivan Zamir, Xylem - Building a More Water-Secure World
Sivan details both why Xylem set up a corporate innovation and venture capital team in 2021 and how those efforts move the needle for a $8B revenue F500 water-focused corporation that spans 150 countries and 23,000 employees, dives into how integral water and water technology are for the current Ai frenzy and data center boom to actually achieve the potential everyone is hoping for, outlines some
96. Craig Fuller, Freightwaves - RIP Great Freight Recession
Craig shares his story from growing up in the freight industry to what led him to found Freightwaves, takes us behind the scenes of his industry statements/predictions both entering (2022) and exiting (2024) the current freight recession and what the blow back was from being out ahead on market moving data like that, channels his inner Sec. of the Department of Transportation on what his vision wo
95. Dave Yuan, Tidemark - Dominating Control Points in VaaS
Dave shares why he took on the challenge of building Tidemark after over 20 years in the venture asset class (and garnering Midas List recognition), how Tidemark takes on a product ethos in building its Vertical SaaS (VaaS) value-add capabilities such as content and community events among other efforts, VaaS learnings from recent research they’ve done on “Control Points” and a benchmarking study o
94. Usman Shuja, Bluebeam - Ai in AEC
Usman shares how Ai is entering the AEC ecosystem faster than ever and how Bluebeam has developed a 4-part Ai framework to guide the company's approach, details why careful attention to the ethical considerations of Ai’s deployment within the AEC environment is key to long term success, describes some of his lessons learned on what is takes to scale commercial adoption in industrial innovation fro
93. Zach Fredericks, Primary Venture Partners - Road Ahead for Supply Chain
Zach dives into the Primary thesis on supply chain innovation bringing better interoperability, decreasing operational complexity, and better financial infrastructure into this sector, shares his outlook on how Ai will impact logistics operations, explains his reasoning for business model evolution to “sell work not SaaS”, and where he sees the future headed for this sector after nearly a 10-year
92. Elisabeth Reynolds, MIT - The USA Manufacturing Agenda
Liz walks us through the USA manufacturing agenda detailing where we’re at given past and present efforts, shares how government funding and the private capital markets can be better bridged together so that manufacturing and supply chain innovation efforts actually hit scale, discusses both why now is different and why we’re seeing more innovation talent and capital flood into manufacturing than
91. Chris Ott, Creative Blue - Strategic Storytelling in Industrial Innovation
Chris shares what strategic storytelling is and the difference between a story and a strategic story, why this is all very important for industrial innovators to get right, how founders can get started to sell their vision more effectively (thematically and tactically) by building their personal brand which in-turn bolsters the company brand, and finally a “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” section when
90. Zeeza Cole, BCV - Industrial Renaissance
Zeeza details how 20 years of investing in the physical world led BCV to launch their Industrial Renaissance practice, what are the unique confluence of events in 2024 that have combined to usher in “a new era in industrials”, what 3 key lessons learned stick out that BCV will be leaning into in the next decade of investing, how BCV’s broader Bain Capital family enables the BCV platform to drive d
89. Jack Garza, SVB - The State of Hardware-as-a-Service
Jack outlines how Silicon Valley Bank defines Hardware-as-a-Service and why SVB produces research on this business model, shares what the key lessons learned were and the macro trends identified in this 2nd edition of this research report, details how Hardware-as-a-Service investing stacks up against the broader VC deals and dollars dropoff (hint: VCs at the steed stage have increased investment o
88. Addis Goldman & Brady Helwig, Special Competitive Studies Project - National Action Plan for Advanced Manufacturing
Addis and Brady share why the Special Competitive Studies Project was formed and how the organization’s research efforts culminate in Action Plans like the latest one just released on US Advanced Manufacturing, outline the geopolitical backdrop currently at play between the US and China when it comes to keeping the US long-term competitive in domestic manufacturing capabilities, detail the advance
87. Jonathan Campbell, Campbell Companies - Moving the Dirt World Forward
Jonathan details how he balances long-standing incumbent stability while also staying agile/open to new innovative ideas and engaging external innovators, why direct investing in the venture asset class was a strategy chosen to further innovation efforts, what you have to do as an operator to attract, develop, and retain “Dirt World” talent that can sustain a strong culture within an organization
86. Sarah Liu, Fifth Wall - Building a Built World Network Effect
Sarah shares the story how Fifth Wall has scaled its sector-focused approach from launch in 2016 to today now managing >$3B AUM across several different product offerings, describes how the fund leverages its >110 owner and operator LPs from the real estate industry to add value to Fifth Wall’s stakeholders and ‘manufacture alpha’ in their returns, details how to balance the varying incentive alig
85. Reilly Brennan, Trucks Venture Capital - Transportation Innovation Rolls On
Reilly details a sector-specific then-and-now look back from his more than two decades of transportation experience, shares how the venture asset class has shifted in light of the momentum in this sector and what this has meant for sector-focused VC firms, outlines why building ecosystem and collaboration across startups, investors, universities, regulators, etc. is needed for the next decade of t
84. Jason Pritzker, Fifty Three Stations - Bridging Legacy Industry and Venture Capital
Jason shares the origin story behind The Pritzker Organization (60 years of company-building expertise and over 200 transactions across industries representing ~$30B in equity value) and how those roots supported the launch of Fifty Three Stations $190M debut venture fund, details how the firm leverages its differentiated commercial ecosystem to drive portfolio company value-add in a repeatable ma
83. Leo Polovets, Susa + Humba Ventures - Intersection of Deep Tech & American Dynamism
Leo shares the origin story of why storied VC firm Susa Ventures decided to launch new fund, Humba Ventures, to invest at the intersection of deep tech and American Dynamism, details what differences are required to evaluate companies with that level of focus on deep tech, defends Humba’s thesis that deep tech is the best place to invest and build right now by dispelling 4 key misconceptions of th
82. Paul Kwan, General Catalyst - The Case for Global Resilience
Paul shares the why behind a storied venture firm like General Catalyst launching a focus on Global Resilience as one of the firm’s 4 key focus areas, how the firm leverages its firm-wide global and multi-stage breadth of mandate to truly get creative in solution formation, describes a sub-segment of their thesis defined around Industrial Resilience “aligning physical systems and digital breakthro
81. All-In Supply Chain Innovation 2.0
The besties get the fleet back together to discuss how the 2024 supply chain conference blitz kicked off, what's the insiders' outlook on VC funding supply chain tech despite the macro pullback in deals & dollars, where the freight market cycle sits currently (hint: still as cyclical as ever), and finally where the crystal ball outlooks are for the remainder of 2024.
80. Anna Farberov, PepsiCo Labs - CPG Innovation Meets Digital Industrial
Anna explains the origin story of why PepsiCo decided to launch Labs and how those efforts for a global CPG company tie into the digital industrial ecosystem, details how the Labs team programmatically both identifies and collaborates with startups to drive a win/win for Pepsi business units and the startups (hint: Labs acts a single point of contact accelerator within the 340k employee organizati
79. Maggie Kenefake, Iron Prairie Ventures - Industrial Tech in America's Heartland
Maggie shares the origin story of why she launched an industrial tech venture firm in America’s heartland, details how she builds a competitive advantage leveraging a six-state Midwest region of industrial stakeholders to drive value for her portfolio, explains why sector-focused emerging managers play a critical role behind this industrial tech thesis, and shares some tactical lessons learned on
78. Matt Trotter, Stifel Venture Bank - Venturing into 2024
Matt outlines why Stifel (~$7B market cap + 8,000 employees) expanded its venture banking group in 2023 to further support the innovation economy, dusts off his crystal ball to describe where the venture market is headed in 2024 and how that macro outlook will play into the digital industrial sectors, shares a ‘then & now’ look on how the digital industrial ecosystem has evolved over the last
77. Chris Stern, Trimble Ventures - Connect & Scale
Chris describes both the why behind Trimble standing up a corporate venture capital (CVC) strategy and what he means by Trimble Ventures being an “and” within the company’s innovation efforts, details how the CVC platform aims to accelerate growth and drive value for its portfolio companies (hint: aligns to corporate objectives to Connect & Scale), and a 2024 look-ahead crystal ball session of
76. Vijen Patel, The 81 Collection - Innovating Un-sexy Industries
Vijen details both what he defines as un-sexy industries and why he cares about driving innovation into the 81% of the US GDP underserved by VC, outlines how he activates a differentiated network of founders who’ve built in un-sexy industries to drive value for his firm, describes the founders fund ethos he instills into his VC firm by leveraging his own prior experience as a founder, and finally
75. Emily Fritze, The Westly Group - Growth Environment for Industrial, Energy, Buildings, and Mobility Innovation
Emily shares a macro outlook on the growth stage ecosystem aligned to sectors in industrial tech, mobility, buildings, and energy, discusses lessons learned investing in these sectors for both software and hardware-enabled software (“bits meet atoms”) business models, and outlines how The Westly Group approaches climate tech investing as its evolved over the last couple of decades.
74. Marianne Wu, Congruent Ventures - Industrial Tech is Climate Tech
Marianne outlines what Climate Tech means to Congruent, shares how her unique industrial innovation background has shaped her own outlook on this topic (hint: all industrial tech companies are climate tech companies), gives us an outlook on how far along we are in the digital industrial adoption curve and what she sees ahead, describes how both hardware (atoms) and software (bits) innovation will
73. Ryan Kelly, AMT - The Next Decade in Manufacturing
Ryan shares how a 120 year old manufacturing trade association remains out in front driving technology innovation forward in the industry and why AMT launched a Tech Lab in Silicon Valley to support that, discusses what “The State of US Manuf.” currently is, defines how the industry has more of an adoption hurdle than we do an innovation hurdle, outlines how the accelerated US reshoring manufactur
72. Scott Wolfe, Levelset - The State of Builtworld Innovation
Scott shares why he decided to transition into advising and angel investing in builtworld startups after selling his company to Procore in 2021, details the value he hopes to bring from an operator-to-operator perspective (hint: 3 horizons of vision setting), advises what he thinks the state of ConTech currently is now vs. what has been maturing over the last decade, and describes what it takes to
71. Tom Chi, At One Ventures - Accelerating a Net Positive Industrial Economy
Tom shares how a coral reef led to the genesis of At One Ventures launch, defines what “Net Positive” investing means within the current climate tech landscape, outlines At One’s physics fundamentals approach (matter, time, energy, and space) to screening deep tech innovation that in-turn has the potential to upend the unit economics of established industries, and describes why he is more focused
70. Nate Williams, UNION Labs - Deeptech, Where What is Meets What Could Be
Nate defines how he thinks about “deeptech”, outlines what the current state of venture investing is in the category (tip: deeptech does not have to be capital intensive!), shares how their firm gets comfortable investing ahead of the curve in deeptech categories that may not currently have mature exit environments and/or comps to benchmark, and wraps up discussing the importance of building ecosy
69. Brian Laung Aoaeh, REFASHIOND Ventures - Refashioning a More Sustainable Supply Chain
Brian shares the REFASHIOND thesis behind the need to refashion the global supply chain, why he believes that “supply chain innovation is the foundation on which all sustainability initiatives must rest”, details how the current venture activity level in supply chain isn’t representative of the sector’s accelerated operational need for innovation, and finally outlines six rules their team defines
68. Rick Zullo, Equal Ventures - Having a Prepared Mind
Rick discusses the advantages of having a prepared mind in the 5 key sectors Equal Ventures focuses on, shares a review and look-ahead for the supply chain sector, defines what “Climate Tech” is and how it squarely aligns to the digital industrial ecosystem, and outlines what an Emerging Manager is and how critical it is for an Emerging Manager to have a real, unique competitive advantage in order
67. Esteban Reyes, Zenda Capital - Redefining Underserved Industries in the US and LATAM
Esteban shares how he defines “underserved” economic sectors, why he created the fund to back those founders who are redefining those overlooked industries, what specifically he is looking to evaluate at the earliest stages of investment, what the unique aspects of investing in underserved LATAM sectors are, and he shares his current outlook on what it takes to be an emerging manager in today'
66. Alex Moazed, Applico - The Rise of the Distributor
Alex breaks down the definition of a B2B distributor and the critical role they play in the industrial supply chain ($8T in spend flows through them!), outlines why he believes in working with distributors directly to support their digital journeys as opposed to innovating around them, discusses his playbook “The S Curve of B2B Unbundling” on how to drive tech innovation into the distributor ecosy
65. Sujeet Chand, Rockwell Automation - Industrial Automation and Controls, Powering Society
Sujeet details the history behind industrial automation software and hardware (hint: PLCs have been around since 1969!), how he defines “3 levels” within the industrial automation s/w stack that are driving convergence between OT and IT environments, what it takes to build a scalable and repeatable go-to-market engine when selling industrial automation innovation, and finally a macro zoom-out as t
64. Kaushal Diwan, DPR - Evaluating and Investing in Construction Innovation
Kaushal shares the context of ‘why’ one of the world’s premier general contractors has taken innovation so seriously since its founding, how that innovation focus led to standing up their corporate venture capital efforts at WND Ventures, how DPR has defined a highly structured process for engaging external innovation start-to-finish (key: align internal and external incentive alignment early), an
63. Ben Fife, GS Growth - What's Happening in Growth Stage for Industrial Innovation?
Ben shares an outlook on what’s going on in the growth stage ecosystem given the current market reset (spoiler: lots of capital still to deploy and they remain active), dives into how that reset is impacting the industrial innovation sector now and going forward, what he is evaluating growth stage companies on, and how his team at GS Growth harnesses the vast, global resources of Goldman Sachs to
62. Karen Kerr, Exposition Ventures - The Infrastructure of Doing Business
Karen explains how the Chicago Columbian Exposition spurred on the 2nd industrial revolution and inspired the launch of her firm, why there has been such an explosion of venture capital interest and investment in digital industrial innovation over the last decade, what will be required of both the public and private US ecosystems to accelerate the current manufacturing revitalization underway, and
61. Dennis Muilenburg, New Vista Capital - A Matter of National Security
Dennis shares how a lifetime dedicated to aerospace innovation led him to co-founding New Vista Capital as his next chapter after Boeing, what the transferable lessons learned are that bridge from running one of the world’s largest industrial companies to early-stage innovation, what he sees as accelerating market trends behind the firm’s aerospace and national security thematic focus areas, and w
60. Jim Adler, Toyota Ventures - Discovering What’s Next For Toyota
Jim shares the origin story of Toyota Ventures and how the firm leverages its $500M AUM to discover what's next for Toyota, how having a broad investment thesis beyond just core automotive and mobility helps avoid the innovators dilemma, what he is looking for in robotic-enabled innovation and the associated challenges and opportunities that come with those business models, and how having a de
59. Sam Smith-Eppsteiner, Innovation Endeavors - The Super Evolution is Here
Sam shares how the convergence of data, compute, and advanced engineering is leading to their thesis of “The Super Evolution”, how that thesis is intersecting and driving impact into industrial sectors, what the 4 key trends are that she is seeing develop behind tailwinds in industrials, and why she thinks of climate tech as a “persistent, horizontal underlying trend in nearly every space we touch
58. Katie Rae, The Engine - Tough Tech To Make a Positive Impact on the World
Katie shares The Engine’s definition of and approach to Tough Tech investing, her thoughts on why the Tough Tech category has shown fundraising resilience during a challenging time for the broader venture market, details how the firm drives value to their portfolio via both public and private sector partnership networks (stat: for every $1 raised from The Engine, raised another $1.22 from the publ
57. Steve Sloane, Menlo Ventures - "Cambrian Moment" in the Global Supply Chain
Steve shares why a storied Silicon Valley firm chose to form a pod of focused supply chain expertise, digs in on Menlo’s recent research that arrived at three fundamental themes shaping the global supply chain, offers his perspective on hot spots for supply chain innovation across the globe including why he is especially bullish on opportunities in the LatAm region, and wraps up with the four key
56. Manifest Conference 2023 - All-In Supply Chain Innovation
Hot off a trip to Vegas for the 2023 Manifest supply chain innovation conference, the four besties Chris Stallman of Fontinalis Partners, Julian Counihan of Schematic Ventures, Santosh Sankar of Dynamo Ventures, and host Ty Findley of Ironspring Ventures go off script digging in on a macro market pulse where we are now in the latest freight market cycle, a then & now reflection on what su
55. Alan Cohen, DCVC – DeepTech Tackling “The Other $80T in GDP”
Alan shares how DCVC both defines the fund’s DeepTech thesis and how his associated focus on attacking “trillion dollar problems” at the intersection of AI and traditional industries fits in, gives a macros market pulse on the deal dynamics ahead for DeepTech in 2023 as VC recalibration continues, DCVC’s lessons learned as to why DeepTech fund specialization is critical to really understanding the
54. Lior Ron, Uber Freight - Uber for Freight
Lior shares the origin story of both why Uber Freight was launched in 2017 and how the intrapreneurship support he had from Uber leadership was key to building this freight division, the circumstances and path Uber Freight took from launch into profitability in 2022, how far along we are in the autonomous, Class 8 trucking commercialization effort, and finally why Uber Freight decided to link
53. Mike Droesch, Bessemer - Roadmap to Supply Chain Software
Mike outlines how a systems engineering background working on maritime tugboats eventually led to building up the supply chain investment thesis at BVP, how the firm defined its “Roadmap to Supply Chain Software” research to overlap and compliment categories BVP already had deep expertise (enterprise software, vertical SaaS, digital infrastructure, etc.), how over a decade of Vertical SaaS lessons
52. Katherine Boyle, a16z - American Dynamism
Katherine shares with us the why & how the a16z American Dynamism practice was founded to build for America and the national interest (USA!), what it takes to scale a company within these legacy industries whether private or public end markets, a deep dive example into the ~3,000 foundational machine shops infrastructure underpinning the American economy and our national security, and finally
51. Lior Susan, Eclipse Ventures – Redefining physical industries and powering the ongoing industrial evolution
Lior shares what the two ah-ha moments were to launch Eclipse where he saw the tech growth potential ahead for industrial sectors, why the current global macro accelerants to innovation in these industrial sectors have him more bullish than ever on their strategy and additional capital providers piling in, lessons learned on business models at the “interaction of bits meet atoms” and the associate
50. Torie Crown, Four More Capital - A Multi-Generational Outlook on Industrial Innovation
Torie shares the origin story of launching a venture arm, Four More Capital, within the multi-generational Henry Crown & Company platform, how they formed a three-prong strategy to build internal operating company partnerships that in turn drive differentiated commercial value to both the operating companies and startups they work with (hint: show up and get on the plant floor in person), why
49. Byron Knight, Koch Disruptive Technologies - Corporate Industry4.0 at Scale
Bryron shares when, how, and why a private corporation with $120B in revenue, 120,000 employees spread across 70 countries, 10 major platform businesses, 550 manuf. facilities, etc. decided to launch venture capital and growth equity platform, KDT, how their team decided which CVC investing structure was most aligned to drive value back to all of Koch Industries various platform businesses, why Ko
48. Sophie Purdom, Climate Tech VC - Breaking Down Climate Tech Within Industrials
Clean Tech, ESG, Sustainability, Decarbonization, Energy Transition, Impact Investing, etc. descriptors have all seemed to blur, and Sophie helps us tie this all together with her definition of ‘Sustainable Investing’ and how she buckets efforts into 7 climate-related industry sectors (spoiler alert: a further deep dive with 80 sub-sectors is coming shortly!). We then discuss the newly proposed SE
47. Stacy Scopano, JE Dunn - Constructuring and the Construction Innovation Wave
Stacy walks us through a macro-historical retrospective detailing what structural issues led to the last decade of rapid innovation within the construction ecosystem, outlines when, why, and how he has seen venture capital pour into the broader builtworld environment to accelerate digital transformation aligned to those structural issues (note according to McKinsey, on a comparative basis, VC inve
46. Eric Spiegel - Industry4.0, Just Get Started!
Eric explains how he defines Industry4.0 and walks us through a global outlook on how the US, Germany, and China are progressing their respective initiatives, what the challenges are associated with selling digital innovation into these industrials settings both for large enterprise accounts and the long tail of mid-market manufactures (tip: get them to see successful digital innovation in person!
45. Carl Bass - Maker Movement in 2022
Carl shares what led to his maker passion within industrial settings and re-launching Flying Moose, how the current Russia and Ukraine war (as well as Covid fallout) will impact global supply chains, how he is advising his h/w-oriented startups to harden their own supply chain and manufacturing capabilities, his strategy for capitalizing business models with sizeable 'bits meet atoms' h/w componen
44. Ankoor Patel, Kaleris - Rise of Rail
Ankoor outlines his macro take on what’s occurring within the current global supply chain strain, why customers are searching for integrated, end-to-end multi-mode/multi-node supply chain solutions to fix it, how rail and intermodal are critical pieces of the supply chain that are innovating faster than ever, and how the private equity asset class is clearly not sitting on the sidelines when it co
43. Jeff Immelt, NEA - Digital Industrial in 2022
Heavy Hitters episode 43 is live now with NEA Venture Partner, Jeff Immelt. As a GE Ventures alumni, this one is extra special to me. Jeff discusses how an interest in company creation led him into venture capital as his next chapter after GE, where his role as a Venture Partner fits into NEA’s fund strategy, how he transitioned his skillset from running one of the world’s largest and most prestig
42. Mike Zayonc, Plug & Play - Engaging Startups & Corporations to Fix the Global Supply Chain
Mike discusses what the trends and indicators were all the way back in 2017 that led Plug and Play to launch their supply chain focused program, how they leverage their extensive corporate network to build out a win/win/win model to drive value to startups, corporate partners, and Plug and Play, what the specific events and engagement tactics his team leverages to facilitate deep relationships bet
41. Steve Taub, In-Q-Tel - Digital Industrial is a National Security Issue
Steve explains what is meant by In-Q-Tel’s platform slogan to “combine the security savvy of government with the can-do curiosity of Silicon Valley”, why their efforts building a bridge between private sector innovation and federal government agencies is so important to us all from both an economic and a security perspective, how digital industrial innovations specifically are legitimate matters o
Recommended
Stand In The Circle
English with Olivia | Slow Conversations & Vocabulary
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
Learn 50 English Phrases While You Sleep | Everyday English Phrases & Vocabulary
پلی لیست | PlayList
Conspiracy Files with Paige Carter
Learn English A2 with Daily News | Simple English Listening Practice
Bible Tea
Bad Friends
Fantasy Flex
Solved Murders - True Crime Stories
紐約鳥｜New York Aperture
