Heavy Hitters: The Digital Industrial Podcast: Recent Episodes
Ty Findley
The podcast where heavy industrial industries meet the venture capital ecosystem. Interviewing thought-leading investors and founders to better understand the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for digital industrial innovation.
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 wave of VC behind it.
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 ever before, and finally why “digitalizing the middle” is such a critical effort to ensure our USA industrial skilled labor (heroes) isn’t left behind the current wave of technology 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 it comes to which tactical media tools and channels are most effective in 2024.
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 differentiated value and networks for the portfolio, and finally a “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” overview.
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 over the last 2 years!), and finally shares “Metrics that Matter” that SVB identified as critical to building a successful and healthy business in this ecosystem.
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 advanced manufacturing technologies the research identified as the highest impact opportunities ahead and the associated action plans to accelerate those technologies adoption (hint: the human element is still as critical as ever), and finally discuss the dynamics and ideas behind trying to fund all of this innovation and aligned action plans.
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 (with an NBA-inspired twist!), and finally how family offices with legacy roots in industrial markets are playing a bigger role than ever both in engaging and investing into the venture ecosystem.
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 alignment between both corporate strategic LPs and financial LPs, and finally we chat on her current outlook how Ai will make an impact on the Built World.
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 transportation innovation to thrive, and finally shares lessons learned from investing in transportation business models that may combine both hardware and software components.
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 manner at scale, and outlines what it will take to drive more established family office networks to setup venture investing capabilities that can further bridge legacy, established industries with the accelerating technology innovation ecosystem.
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 this category, and brings us home sharing a “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” outlook.
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 breakthroughs”, and given the nuance involved with industrial innovation, what the company signals and founder indicators are that get their team excited.
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.
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 organization), and finally details why the Labs team is specifically scouting for manufacturing operations innovation in 2024.
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 how she activates networks within her region of stakeholders across founders, investors, industrial operators, civic leaders, and non-profits.
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 decade (hint: founders, funders, exits, etc. have all ramped!), and finally defines some hard-earned lessons learned as to what is required in these sectors from a capitalization strategy and building businesses efficiently.
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 “What’s Hot and What’s Hype?”.
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 shares some 2024 look-ahead thoughts on trends he is most interested in for un-sexy industries.
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.
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 play key roles in industrial settings, and finally a “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” section.
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 manufacturing efforts will be closely linked with associated nearshoring efforts in LATAM, and what efforts are underway to build up ecosystem and the associated talent base required for the next decade in manufacturing.
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 scale the go-to-market engine of a startup when selling into the nuances of the construction market.
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 on the aforementioned unit economic analysis ahead of traditional founder archetype and team dynamics heuristics when making investment decisions.
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 ecosystem around this category and how even emerging managers can effectively build community.
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 for investing in early-stage supply chain technology.
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 to stand out in today’s VC landscape.
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's competitive VC landscape.
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 ecosystem, and shares some tips on how distributor innovation business models have matured over the last decade.
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 to where he sees US domestic manufacturing capabilities headed to become more intelligent, hyper-connected, and highly automated.
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), and “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” currently in the builtworld ecosystem.
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 add value back into the companies they invest behind.
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 finally a chat on “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” for digital industrial innovation.
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 why maintaining US competitiveness in manufacturing is currently one of the greatest challenges and opportunities facing the US in the decades ahead (a matter of national security).
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 dedicated Climate Fund is supporting Toyota’s goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.
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”.
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 public sector), and how The Engine has chosen tools and frameworks that enable the firm to quantify and deliver on its deep commitment to having a positive impact on the world.
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 trends they are closely monitoring going into 2023 (hint, re/near-shoring pairs nicely with his LatAm interest!).
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 supply chain innovation has occurred over the last decade that led us to today, and finally a 2023 crystal ball session about where both innovation and deal-making trends are headed in this sector. I might even ask them what they would do first if they were made Department of Transportation Secretary for a day...
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 nuanced opportunities and challenges associated with scaling into these markets, and what it takes today to be a differentiated DeepTech investor that founders want to partner with.
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 up with competitors Convoy and JB Hunt to form a data interoperability consortium and make freight appointment scheduling more efficient for the entire industry.
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 learned can apply directly into scaling go-to-market for supply chain software, and finally a “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” outlook on trends he is keeping an eye on.
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 a “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” outlook on where things are headed in 2023.
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 associated metrics/standards developing as best practices, and we wrap up discussing why its critical to define industrial sustainability impact both in terms of environmental and economic ROI markers to quantitatively build the case of just how important the industrial evolution is to society.
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 the rising trend of industrial family office venture investing is here to stay and which investment strategies best fit this model, and finally we wrap up with an outlook on "What's Hot and What's Hype" right now within Industry4.0.
Heavy Hitters episode 49 is live now with Koch Disruptive Technologies COO and Managing Director, Byron Knight. 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 Koch Labs was developed as a part of the KDT platform to drive differentiated value creation internally and externally to create a “virtuous cycle of mutual benefit”, and we wrap with a section of “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” in Industry4.0.
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 SEC rules to standardize and enhance climate-related disclosures for investors, how she thinks these potential SEC climate disclosure rules will be adopted in practice given how far behind most industrial corporations are in their digital transformation journeys, and we wrap up with a deals and dollars venture investment (and exit liquidity!) outlook on the trends she is seeing where Climate Tech is intersecting with industrials sectors.
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 investment in construction tech outpaced the overall VC industry 15-fold through 2019; and didn’t slow in 2020 or 2021!), and finally we discuss how the accelerated movement towards Pre-fabrication and Modular construction is ushering in major impact aligned to the term “Constructuring”.
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!), how companies can get started on their digital transformation journies and why you have to bring along the human element from the very outset, and finally why systems integrators are becoming an ever more critical component within the Industry4.0 transition towards digital and interoperable industrial capabilities.
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 components (tips: take the cash if available, building truly differentiated h/w products create clear moats), why the ‘blitzscaling’ model often doesn’t fit within industrial innovation and in some ways can be slightly destructive, and finally, tech trends on "What's Hype and What's Hot" including a shout out to fusion energy potential.
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 comes to pouring capital into the digitization of the supply chain.
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 prestigious corporations into the venture capital asset class, why he outlined in his new book “Hot Seat” that the most crucial component of leadership for a founder is a willingness to make decisions, where he thinks the Indsutry4.0 adoption cycle is at today and the challenges ahead to overcoming slow adoption (hint: get the money to the floor!), and finally we run through a “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” section.
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 between startups and corporate partners, and from the supply chain program’s global footprint (Silicon Valley, Toronto, Bentonville, Savannah, Antwerp, and Hamburg) Mike shares his outlook on global supply chain trends unfolding right now.
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 of national security for the US government to stay on top of (hint: a lot of offline infrastructure assets are being brought online faster than ever), and how In-Q-Tel tangibly works with its portfolio company to drive value back to a startup leveraging the breadth and reach of the federal government at their side (over a 50% hit-rate on commercial engagement introductions!).
We discuss the ‘6Ts’ framework Aaron developed to evaluate industrial automation innovation, how he analyzes the total market opportunity for robotic applications that are blazing new trails, the capitalization strategy he leverages for businesses that have both s/w and h/w components (bits meet atoms!), what role blitzscaling has to play in these industrial categories where bits meet atoms, and finally, we discuss the underlying macro factors and tailwinds that are at play globally leading to what Aaron coins “The Golden Age of Automation”.
Sunil outlines how he got the conviction to leave a premier VC platform to launch Ubiquity Ventures, breaks down his thesis and definition of investing in “Software beyond the screen”, shares how he defines Deep Tech (and what its not!), details how he got comfortable investing ahead of the curve in Deep Tech categories that often don’t have clear exit potential paths/comparables at the outset, and finally, Sunil provides a critique of why Elon Musk’s comment of “Space is hard” is not only wrong but counterproductive to the ecosystem.
Heavy Hitters episode 37 is live now thanks to BuiltWorlds allowing the release of their 2021 US Summit panel discussion “Tech Strategy: Build vs. Buy”. Listen in on the discussion I hosted with a diverse group of Builtworld experts including Stacy Scopano at JE Dunn, Meg Baldini at Procore, Vivin Hegde at Hilti, and Dave Burns at McCarthy. We cover a lot of ground including evaluating frameworks to decide on “Build vs. Buy (or Partner!)”, how subsequent implementation considerations weigh heavily into those decisions, what tech trends are currently prominent to this discussion, and how the current capital market environment is driving various incentive structures (rationale & irrational) into the equation.
Tim shares his own driver for jumping into the digital industrial investment ecosystem, what he defines as the ‘pre-covid and post-covid’ macro factors that outlined the time was now to focus on these industrial markets in order to both drive alpha for the fund and align to OpenView’s mission to “improve people’s working lives”, why he thinks specialization and having a prepared mind are critical to moving fast within industrial automation applications, how OpenView applies their Product-Led Growth (PLG) model into blue collar industries, and aligned to deploying resources such as PLG, how their platform leverages an impressive 6:1 OpenView employee headcount-to-portfolio company ratio to drive value for their portfolio.
We walk through how Brentt found himself carving out a thematic focus on the Builtworld ecosystem within Greycroft, how he defines the Builtworld ecosystem start-to-finish, why the time was now to begin investing behind that thesis to drive alpha for their fund, why its critical to be thematically and sector-focused in order to compete within the venture asset class today, how Greycroft leverages their value-add platform of resources to support founders scaling in these sectors, share Builtworlds themes of “What’s Hot and What’s Hype”, and how he evaluates exit potential within the emerging Builtworld ecosystem.
Cutler shares why a world-recognized, 60-year old general contractor decided in 2018 to launch a dedicated innovation division, Dysruptek, what his latest industry pulse on the state of construction tech today is, what some of the unique challenges that come with deploying innovation within a construction environment, how he leverages Dysruptek’s corporate venture capital platform to drive sector-focused value both to startups and to Haskell, and we wrap up discussing construction tech trends “What’s Hot and What’s Hype”.
Chris walks us through the history that led to Fontinalis Partners launching one of the very first thematic VC funds specifically targeted on mobility and “Reinventing the way people and goods move”, how the broader mobility ecosystem has evolved over the past 12 years since launching the fund and what that has meant to Fontinalis’s thematic strategy, why sector-focus and thematic specialization in venture capital is important to compete in the current VC asset class, why the automotive industry specifically is somewhat unrecognizable from the decades past, and finally his thoughts on “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” within the mobility ecosystem right now.
Sam shares how his iconic, early-stage enterprise s/w venture fund found itself investing in emerging tech applications like warehouse robotics, drones, etc., outlines why “cognitive applications” will be the next generation of great s/w companies and how those apps are built on top of the current foundation of cloud & SaaS infrastructure, describes how Scale leverages their Mega-Trends Process to identify the upside potential/alpha within emerging technologies, walks us through lessons learned of what does and doesn’t work to hit product-market-fit in industrial robotic settings where bits meet atoms (hint: start with doing one high-frequency task associated with a tangible ROI really well!), and finally he discusses how he thinks about early-stage investment syndication within these emerging tech and industrial applications.
Canaan is a storied, early-stage venture VC fund that has been around 34 years with ~6B AUM across 12 funds, and Rayfe discusses what the macro factors were that led Canaan into expanding a frontier and industrial tech thesis that would drive alpha for their fund. With a large and diverse partnership that is split 1/3 healthcare (digital, biopharma, medtech) and 2/3 tech (consumer, fintech, enterprise/cloud, frontier), he discusses both how to navigate a partnership into a new investment category/thesis and how the diversity of thinking within such a broad partnership leads to the beneficial cross-pollination of complimentary ideas and networks. He discusses how he leverages his thematic specialization to diligence and win deals (hint: a prepared mind from specializing = speed!), how he thinks about financing syndication nuances aligned to the categories of frontier and industrial tech applications (hint: supercharge networks), and finally why he is for off-cycle founder conversations to ensure deep relationships are built long before a fundraising process.
Ginger explains why a private, fourth-generation family-owned industrials business founded in 1930 with over 38 operating companies (heavy construction and materials, environmental services, and specialty chemicals) would spool up a venture group, how her team leverages the extensive resources of The Heritage Group to drive differentiated value to their portfolio companies, why we should all remember industrial innovation relies on physical world innovation (i.e. hardware) not just digital innovation, what team DNA is required to lead these hard tech innovations that often require physical materials, and finally a capital markets discussion on the downstream investment and exit underwriting outlook in these categories (hint: value the moat!).
Trevor outlines how having a sector focus, and associated domain expertise, provides a prepared mind that allows him to both underwrite investments quickly and provide sector-aligned value back to their portfolio companies, where he thinks the venture asset class is headed between sector focused funds and generalist funds, why Blackhorn expanded its multi-stage investment capabilities from seed-to-growth with an opportunity fund that provides the ability to ‘play through’ with investments throughout the lifecycle of a company, how specialized growth equity (and SPACs!) has a key role to play within some of the sub-sectors involved with industrial innovation, and we finish with some tech trends of “What’s hot and what’s hype”.
Travis explains how they saw the opportunity to build an architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) and real estate focused network of investors to launch Building Ventures to invest in ‘sapling-stage’ companies, helps define what the terms Built Environment and Builtworld mean to them, outlines why buildings and the associated construction process of making them have a massive role to play in sustainability efforts going forward, why he feels the term “Constructuring” is indicative of how construction is evolving to be more like manufacturing settings, and how he thinks about the end game for startups in this Builtworld sector.
Bryan has easily been one of the most active investment bankers within the digital industrial ecosystem, and he kicks off the discussion outlining why he believes Desktop Metal’s SPAC in late 2020 was the catalyst that set off the record level of dry powder in the capital markets to target the digital manufacturing ecosystem. He walks us through how 8 months after Desktop Metal’s SPAC there have been 61 transactions and ~$7B in transaction volume; which is on par for the entire history of investment in this category. Of those 61 deals, 22 deals and $5B were in public equity (SPACS, Follow-ons, IPOs), 22 deals and $1.3B were in M&A, and 17 deals and $420M were in private markets. We then discuss why we both feel this current flurry of manufacturing investment activity both is not a bubble and is structurally very different than the digital manufacturing wave of 2013-2014 (3D Systems, Stratasys, Protolabs, etc.), and how SPACs specifically have re-emerged in the capital markets to fill a growth-stage investment gap that existed in this category. Finally, we wrap up with a ‘What’s hot and what’s hype?’ section on innovation trends Bryan is seeing in the market.
Gina leads the DHL Americas Innovation Center, a 28,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility in Chicago where customers, partners, academia, and thought leaders can experience the next generation of logistics in an interactive showroom environment. From her vantage point helping create the logistics of tomorrow, we discuss what logistics innovation is hot and what is hype, why DHL’s recent sustainability pledge to be emissions free by 2050 is a critical initiative, how to deploy and actually scale innovation within challenging real-world logistics environments, and why we should all be preparing to advance the topic of the future of work within these supply chain environments.
Supply chain tech startups raked in $7.7 billion in venture funding in Q1 2021, an increase of 90.6% over last quarter and a staggering 355.1% year over year (Pitchbook), and transportation & logistics subsegments were a major part of that activity. Mike & I discuss the innovation journey Ryder took to launching Ryder Ventures, what trends and technologies his team are focused on, how he defines and approaches last mile innovation to meet ever-increasing customer experience requirements, and where he sees the broader transportation and logistics ecosystem headed to further engage in the startup ecosystem.
Guy’s unique background, blended between deep tech and capital markets, guides us through a fun discussion on the topic of “Deep Tech”. We define what “Deep Tech” is, outline why we’re already living in a ‘Present Future’ surrounded by these technologies, evaluate how the future of work will be impacted by these innovations, and then bring it all back to how the capital markets are exploding with funding growth in this category to meet the opportunity ahead.
Family office direct investing into the private markets, and the venture capital asset class specifically, is at an all-time high. Cindy joins us to outline how the Perot Jain office leverages its extensive industrial operator network and physical infrastructure footprint to gather market intelligence on real-world pain points to invest behind, how their broader platform leverages all of its resources to drive tangible value back to startups targeted at those pain points (hint: they’ve actually developed a master-planned smart city, Alliance, Texas, that also serves as a supply chain & mobility testbed for startups), and finally why she feels family office direct investing is here to stay.
Ram has deep experience on both sides of the tech startup and incumbent table, and he brings that experience to help drive SAP’s current SAP.iO corporate innovation platform efforts. We discuss why when SAP kicked off SAP.io in 2016 it all started and ended with thinking about how to drive value to their customers, how SAP.iO has become a gold standard in corporate innovation via activating multiple levers internally and externally (internal corporate venture investing through SAP.iO Fund, SAP.iO Foundries accelerators, SAP.iO Venture Studio efforts, and external venture investment partnership with Sapphire Partners), how his team is leveraging a confluence of innovation trends (open source, API, Ai/ML, platformization) to both support customers on their digitization journeys and drive strategic value and interesting insights back to SAP across different industries and lines of business, and why its critical to take an open ecosystem and platform approach where curated partnerships can flourish with integrations connecting customers and startups.
Julian was ahead of the curve in identifying the e-comm wave that is now transforming our industrial supply chain, and he founded Schematic Ventures to go all-in on that shift to better compete in a venture capital asset class that is only getting more and more competitive. We talk about his transition from being a generalist into a very focused specialist investor, how sector specialization compounds learnings and benefits to his network and within the portfolio, why he is adapting his fund construction strategy to adapt to the emerging pre-seed category and ballooning seed-stage round sizes, why VC specialization benefits decrease as you enter later stage growth investing, and how investors in this sector must take both a grounded exit outlook and an optimistic outlook as to where new addressable markets may form over time. Finally, he even throws in some tactical advice on fundraising for founders in these sectors.
Dynamo was one of the very first sector-focused VC funds that lasered in on supply chain. Santosh outlines how they leverage that sector focus to add value in 3 distinct areas at the pre-seed and seed stage when founders truly need a trusted partner (not just capital), how having a focused 'prepared mind' provides him an advantage in helping founders navigate these complex industrial supply chain settings, and why fund size drives fund construction strategy in a VC asset class that is blurring the lines of how a ‘seed’ round is defined today. We wrap the episode outlining why early-stage VC is still all about carefully evaluating the human element behind the team.
There has never been a more critical and more opportune time than right now to revitalize the US manufacturing base, and as the Global Head of Manufacturing for McKinsey, Enno has one the most unique vantage points in the world on this topic. We discuss how the US excels at manuf. tech innovation but has work to do in adopting and scaling those technologies domestically, why it’s critical to both bring new talent into and build a more inclusive manufacturing workforce, why McKinsey and the World Economic Forum created the ‘Global Lighthouse Network’ to highlight the best digital manuf. efforts in the world, and having looked across over 10M factories, which innovation trends are making an impact (spoiler: it's not about a specific technology, it's about systems change). Finally, we both align on the analogy that we’re only in the “1stinning” of Industry4.0 adoption!
As the cloud infrastructure heavyweight within industrials, Microsoft is now throwing its resources behind startups through its Microsoft for Startups platform to accelerate vertical growth for both sides. Having sold his last IoT software company into Microsoft in 2016, and now leading Microsoft for Startups focus on industry verticals, Tom brings us a very unique perspective as to how the times have changed for what startups do and don't need to build themselves. We cover a range of topics including where Microsoft wants to start and stop when partnering with a startup, how their platform can help a startup accelerate the path from ideation to MVP to product/market fit as an enterprise-ready solution, what drives a 'build vs. buy vs. partner' decision, and finally, which trends Tom sees emerging in 2021 (hint, Microsoft Teams now has ~115M daily active users). Summary pro tip for startups, don't recreate the tech platform wheel!
Industy4.0 will not succeed without a vibrant and diverse community of both private and public support. As P33’s resident Industry4.0 and Ventures expert, Brandi helps lead P33’s mission to turbocharge Chicago’s tech ecosystem stimulating growth and providing inclusive opportunity to all through orchestrating the various voices of the business, startup, non-profit, and government communities. She discusses why building up an inclusive Industry4.0 ecosystem is so important to both P33’s focus on Chicago’s future and the US economy more broadly, how their “Company Connect” effort supports growing tech companies with structured introductions and engagements into industrial incumbents, and finally, how P33 is playing a powerful role to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion are brought to the forefront to further a more inclusive future in tech.
There is more inorganic growth activity within the digital industrial ecosystem than ever before, and given there have been over 120 completed acquisitions for over $4B in consideration during David's 18-year tenure at Autodesk, he has seen this wave since the beginning. We discuss how his team uses inorganic activities to find step-function acceleration for Autodesk's roadmap, why he approaches early-stage venture capital investing in a win/win/win mindset, and why it's critical for the current rush of new capital sources into these sectors to build a healthy, viable ecosystem for the long term.
Thousands of guests have visited Oracle Industries Innovation Labs, physically and virtually, to see how this Big Tech giant is innovating to help shape the future of various industrial industry verticals. Burcin explains why he helped found the Innovation Labs with a mission to create an environment and physical space that offers hands-on experiences to learn in these industries that often can’t afford to ‘fail fast, fail often’ in operational industrial settings. He discusses how their labs act as a means of Innovation-as-a-Service to help their customers and partners effectively cut through the tech buzzwords to find real-world application and value. Finally, we cover the topic of ‘build vs. partner vs. buy’, and why regardless of the tactic chosen, it is key for Oracle to build a robust ecosystem of external partners and startups that can foster a win/win for all sides to learn from one another along this digital transformation journey.
With over 300 partners integrated into the Procore Marketplace, Procore is helping drive collaboration and build a startup ecosystem within a construction industry that is rapidly evolving. Kris is an industry insider who has played numerous roles inside a construction company from project engineer to leading cutting edge construction tech deployments in the field. He shares why, short of Tooey, he thinks he has the best job at Procore, why an open platform & ecosystem approach is critical to the future of construction, what challenges still exist at both the GC & sub-contractor levels, and “What’s hot and what’s hype” in emerging ConTech trends. Finally, Kris gives a refreshingly open answer to why he would never tell his partner ecosystem to only integrate with Procore.
Make no mistake, industrial-grade additive manufacturing is now here to stay. Hugh's background blending both financial market leadership at T. Rowe Price and operating leadership at 3D Systems brings an additive outlook very few have experienced. He discusses why this background led him to co-found the Additive Manuf. Ventures Group investment syndicate, why investor specialization is critical at the earliest stages, how this "2nd wave" of additive investment differs from the 2013 "1st wave" (hint: consumer vs. industrial applications), and the 5 friction points additive is now overcoming at a rapid pace.
In the world of digital industrial innovation, corporate venture capital (CVC) can play a major part in supporting and accelerating a startup's go-to-market efforts. CAT Ventures leader, Michael Young, is one of the most experienced corporate venture capitalists in the country, and he joins us to share his outlook on how CVC has evolved over time. We discuss his "3x3x3" investment framework, how a pilot/PoC should be approached, which terms matter when evaluating CVC investment, and why "A corporate's job isn't just to make a startup successful."
With its roots at Kleiner Perkins, G2VP is one of the first specialist venture capital funds to focus exclusively on how traditional industrial industries are digitizing. Zach discusses why VC specialization is just good business, makes the case for investors to "Get a Major", outlines why industrial digitization is moving faster than ever, and lays out why SPACs are just getting warmed up in these markets. We also outline why we both believe sustainability and resource efficiency are naturally tied directly to industrial technology investing.
Quick fact: an estimated 2.5% of global GPD flows through Prologis facilities that span 19 countries and ~1 billion sq/ft. Will joins us to outline how his venture arm, Prologis Ventures, helps this ~$78B market cap company stay ahead of the innovation curve. He discusses their outlook on fund construction, current innovation trends they are focused on, the power of the data they are collecting, and why VC specialization is more critical now than ever. Finally, we discuss a topic that is mission-critical to all of this... the human element of skilled laborers/heroes (!) who have bravely kept the supply chain moving throughout the global pandemic.
Mike walks us through how his Stanley X team is helping a 175 year old industrial staple, Stanley Black & Decker, stay innovative and on the leading edge of technology advancements. We discuss why they believe an open ecosystem approach is key within industrials, why they chose to build a venture studio model into their orginization, and how they select and screen which opportunities to engage with.
Did someone say something about infrastructure? David's role as Chief Innovation Officer within one of the world's largest engineering, procurement and construction firms keeps him as close to the center of this discussion as you can be. We discuss what's ahead for infrastructure innovation in 2021 and how his team takes a structured approach to engage with digital industrial innovators advancing the theme of "Less Dirt, More Data".
John brings a very unique investment perspective having been an active participant in the famous 2010 energy investment wave and now actively investing in the broader digital industrial wave of venture investing underway. He gets very candid with how Energize Ventures evaluates deals and defines what he coins the "Pre-growth" round of financing. Finally, we dive deep into the importance of taking a data-driven exit analysis from the very earliest stage of company formation.
We're taking Heavy Hitters global! Francisco outlines how the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production platform he leads within the World Economic Forum is helping global leaders from business, government, academia and civil society anticipate the impact of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies on manufacturing and supply systems. We also touch on digital industrial adoption trends, what role the venture capital ecosystem has to play within this ecosystem, and the Global Lighthouse Network joint effort between the World Economic Forum and McKinsey to bring a spotlight on those industrial companies pushing the boundaries of innovation.
Intersecting at the heart of Silicon Valley and global construction innovation, the Hilti Tech Office has a front-row seat to where construction technology innovation is going. Vivin shares his outlook as to what his office is looking for when engaging and investing in early-stage innovation companies within this sector. And everyone likes talking about robots, right? We hit on that trend and many others evolving on construction sites globally.
As another one of the most accomplished venture investors in this sector, Bilal gives us a masterclass on how he and Lux Capital look for new ways of solving hard problems with a focus on both business and technical risk. We dive into both why he feels the industrial ecosystem is in the midst of going through radical transformation and why the "timeline and magnitude" of an ultimate exit in this sector gets determined over time. We even slip in a discussion about Elon moving from California to Texas!
Dayna is one of the most accomplished and pioneering venture capitalists within the digital industrial ecosystem. We discuss why she believes the time is now for transformation within these "foundational industries" that make up half of the US GDP. This coming wave of innovation was enough to convince her to launch out and co-found Construct Capital, and we talk about all facets, start-to-exit, of how she identifies and supports these innovative founders.
Honeywell Connected Enterprise Chief Commercial Officer, Usman Shuja, shares his experiences leading digital industrial innovation efforts within both a Fortune 100 industrial conglomerate and a hyper-growth, venture-backed startup. It's a rare combination within the digital industrial ecosystem to find someone who has led commercialization efforts at both ends of that spectrum, and we're fortunate to have Usman walk us through his outlook on what works and what doesn't work to scale in these industries.
As both a seasoned venture capital investor and corporate innovation changemaker, SE Ventures General Partner, Grant Allen, discusses his outlook on how corporate venture capital investing is evolving and expanding to better suit the broad range of corporate innovation approaches in market. And given his leadership experience linked to industrial giants Schneider Electric and ABB, Grant shares his lessons learned on what it takes to scale innovation efforts within these nuaced environments.
To kick off the Heavy Hitters podcast series, Rick Bullota joins us to discuss all aspects of past and present digital industrial innovation. Having spent his entire career focused on industrials, Rick provides a rare outlook on the topic as both an experienced operator and proven venture investor. His vantage point comes both from starting and exiting a number of successful industrial software companies, most notably Lighthammer and Thingworx, and from holding senior roles at companies such as SAP, Wonderware/Aveva, PTC, and Microsoft.
We could not be more fortunate to have Rick share his lessons learned on launching, operating, scaling and investing in digital industrial businesses.
Join us as deep dive into the world of digital industrial innovation.
Bridging innovative technology companies into legacy industrial industries may not get the same glitz & glamour as other parts of the venture capital ecosystem, but these “digital industrial” innovators are critical behind-the-scenes to advancing the way our world designs, builds, distributes and operates daily. Welcome to the Heavy Hitters podcast, the first podcast dedicated solely to bringing this important discussion of digital industrial innovation into the spotlight it deserves.
I’m your host Ty Findley, and along with my partners, run Ironspring Ventures a venture capital fund focused on investing in early-stage digital industrial companies. I’ve spent the last decade immersed in the digital industrial ecosystem as both an operator and investor talking with hundreds of founders, investors and industry veterans about their experiences innovating within these legacy industries. And on this podcast, we’ll pull the curtain back to talk with these industrial thought-leaders about their learnings on launching, operating, scaling and investing in digital industrial companies and capabilities.
The objective is simple. We simply cannot afford to leave these critical industries, and the amazing skilled labor powering them, behind the on-going technology wave. We hope this podcast fosters a new community of listeners to engage and help us collectively write a new chapter for the future of industrials.