Techno-Industrialism: Bridging Technology and Manufacturing

Aaron Slodov — CEO of Atomic Industries, a company he co-founded back in 2019 and has raised over $20 million from leading investors like Toyota Ventures, Impatient Ventures, Narya Capital, 8090 Industries, and others!

Atomic is on a mission to exascale the American manufacturing sector, starting with making tool and die-making orders of magnitude easier and faster through advanced automation.

Through the lens of Aaron’s underlying techno-industrialist philosophy, we’ll unpack what exascaling our industrial base even means, confronting the post-industrial myth and the rich history of manufacturing in Ohio, the opportunity for technology and the implications of automation in building physical things, why more young smart ambitious people should consider careers in manufacturing and heavy industry relative to software-as-a-service companies, the pursuit of Monozukuri, Atomic Industries role to play in all of this, and a whole lot more.

(You can find a link to Aaron’s techno-industrialist manifesto, published in February of 2024 in the show-notes to this episode)

Prior to Atomic, Aaron studied physics in college, pursued a PhD in power systems engineering where he focused on electrical grid infrastructure and energy storage systems, had a stint at Google as an Operations Engineer, and then went on in 2014 to co-found Remesh, an AI-market-research startup, which has gone on to raise over $40mm in funding. 

This was one of my favorite conversations on the podcast so far — Aaron’s passion for applying technology to solve big-picture social and scientific problems and his ambition to build companies to that end is inspiring!

(As a disclaimer to this episode, I am personally a small investor in Atomic Industries)

-----

LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abslodov/
https://twitter.com/aphysicist
https://www.atomic.industries/
https://www.piratewires.com/p/techno-industrialist-manifesto
https://twitter.com/newindustrials

-----

SPONSORS: John Carroll University Boler College of Business || Impact Architects & Ninety

John Carroll University Boler College of Business: https://business.jcu.edu/ 
As we’ve heard time and time again from entrepreneurs on Lay of The Land — many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University —  success in this ever-changing world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technology and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen… all qualities nurtured through the Boler College of Business!

With 4 different MBA programs of study — spanning Professional, Online, Hybrid, and 1-Year-Flexible — The Boler College of Business provides flexible timelines and various class structures for each MBA Track — including online, in-person, hybrid and asynchronous — to offer the most effective options for you, in addition to the ability to participate in an elective International Study Tour, providing unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture.

The career impact of a Boler MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University’s Boler MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu

The Boler College of Business is fully accredited by AACSB International, the highest accreditation a College of Business can have.

Impact Architects & Ninety
Lay of The Land is brought to you by Ninety. As a Lay of The Land listener, you can leverage a free trial with Ninety, the platform that helps teams build great companies and the only officially licensed software for EOS® — used by over 7,000 companies and 100,000 users!

This episode is brought to you by Impact Architects. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations throughout NEO, Impact Architects helps those leaders — many of whom we’ve heard from as guests on Lay of The Land — realize their visions and build great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much, that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love! As a listener, you can sit down for a free consultation with Impact Architects by visiting ia.layoftheland.fm!

-----

Stay up to date by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here.

Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and many more.

Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/

Follow Jeffrey Stern on X @sternJefe — https://twitter.com/sternjefe

Follow Lay of The Land on X @podlayoftheland

https://www.jeffreys.page/