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 the noise when it comes to AI’s impact on industrials.
Jun 30, 2025•49 min
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 finally outlines how a pioneering firm like Echo balances building technology into its solutions an...
May 19, 2025•39 min
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”, how the MIZ has driven outsized impact into advancing autonomous vehicle innovation and testing throu...
May 05, 2025•45 min
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 chain use cases, and finally shares how Supply Chain Ventures dual VC and PE mandate both gives the fi...
Mar 31, 2025•44 min
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 the 5th year anniversary since we all wrote some research on the topic.
Mar 17, 2025•48 min
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 and composing a high functioning GTM team, and finally a “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” overview for m...
Feb 18, 2025•33 min
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 reenergize productivity gains in industrial settings that have stagnated over the last decade, and finally gi...
Feb 03, 2025•34 min
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 Ventures, reflects on his takeaways from the last 5 years of building Ironspring Ventures and what’s ahead ...
Jan 21, 2025•51 min
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 walks us through what his key lessons learned are from his three M&A transactions in the Builtworld...
Dec 23, 2024•36 min
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 industrial sectors is only going to be strengthened by the adoption of industrial automation (not replac...
Dec 16, 2024•39 min
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 of the water improvement efforts that will be required in order for international supply chain reshu...
Dec 09, 2024•33 min
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 would be and what he would do his first 90 days, and finally a “What’s Hot and What’s Hype” session fr...
Nov 25, 2024•55 min
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 on Vertical and SMB SaaS trends, how the Tidemark thesis and lessons learned apply to digital industr...
Oct 28, 2024•39 min
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 from his over a decade of experience across various industrial verticals, and finally a “What’s Hot and...
Oct 07, 2024•38 min
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.
Sep 23, 2024•38 min
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 i...
Aug 12, 2024•40 min
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.
Jul 29, 2024•36 min
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” overv...
Jul 15, 2024•31 min
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 ...
Jul 01, 2024•28 min
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 t...
Jun 21, 2024•38 min
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 market...
May 28, 2024•40 min
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 curre...
May 20, 2024•28 min
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 transportat...
May 13, 2024•32 min
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 se...
Apr 29, 2024•40 min
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.
Apr 15, 2024•31 min
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 founde...
Apr 01, 2024•34 min
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.
Mar 25, 2024•44 min
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 inn...
Feb 19, 2024•32 min
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 ...
Jan 24, 2024•31 min
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...
Jan 16, 2024•44 min
