Heavy Hitters: The Digital Industrial Podcast Ty Findley

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.