🎙️ Episode #59: Willpower, Product Thinking & Building Vention... with Etienne Lacroix:

In today’s episode, I talk with Etienne Lacroix, Founder and CEO of Vention, a company making industrial automation faster, more accessible, and more affordable for manufacturers around the world.

Etienne shares the roots of his drive and discipline, shaped by a father who was full of energy and a mother who placed strict value on education. We talk about how those influences helped him develop the mindset needed to build and lead a company.

He walks us through his early days; from mountain bike design, to engineering competitions, to working at GE and later McKinsey. Etienne also opens up about his decision to leave consulting, guided by three mental tests he uses to evaluate big moves.

One of my favorite parts: we dive into his personal framework: Memory, CPU, and Will to Kill, as a way to think about founder effectiveness.

It's a simple but powerful mental model.

Toward the end, we explore how Vention works, and how their “Lego-like” approach to automation is changing the way manufacturers build and deploy systems on the factory floor.

Lots of gems in this one. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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