Lay of The Land #225: Jeff Berlin (Bridge Industries) — American Manufacturing, Permanent Capital, and Patiently Scaling an Industrial Platform
Jeff Berlin is the Founder and President of Bridge Industries & Chairman and CEO of TransTech Energy. Jeff’s journey spans from his early days at Parker Hannifin to helping grow Hawk Corporation from a $20 million single-plant business into a $200 million global operation, and ultimately to founding his own company, Bridge — an industrial holding company anchored by TransTech — that has quietly scaled into a multi-hundred-million-dollar enterprise based in Chagrin Falls.
In our conversation, we cover Jeff’s conviction in the importance of American manufacturing and how it shaped his career-long commitment to building enduring businesses; the creation of Bridge Industries and his intentional choice of a permanent holding-company model over traditional private equity; the more than 25-fold scaling of TransTech into a diversified industrial platform with over 700 employees, up from just 35 a decade earlier; and the lessons learned along the way — the resilience and philosophy that guide him, how to weather downturns, usefulness as a true measure of value and success, culture across companies, and much more.
00:00:00 - The Roots of American Manufacturing Belief
00:07:35 - Formative Experiences in Leadership
00:09:00 - Transformational Growth at Hawk
00:11:55 - Resilience in Business
00:13:10 - The Birth of Bridge
00:14:14 - Understanding Industrial Holding Companies
00:16:25 - Differentiation from Traditional Private Equity
00:19:00 - The Journey of Bridge
00:20:47 - Strategic Growth and Acquisitions
00:27:31 - Managing Geographic Expansion
00:30:01 - Introducing TransTech
00:31:28 - Building Infrastructure for Energy Solutions
00:35:59 - Strategic Growth and Acquisition Insights
00:38:10 - The Importance of Vertical Integration
00:42:51 - Cultural Dynamics in Business Integration
00:43:43 - The State of American Manufacturing
00:46:30 - Defining Success and Value Creation
00:48:10 - Future Ambitions for Bridge and TransTech
00:49:40 - Mentorship and Leadership Evolution
00:51:22 - Understanding the Nature of Industrial Work
00:54:40 - The Role of Infrastructure in Daily Life
00:55:56 - Excitement for Future Challenges
00:58:07 - Investing in Financial and IT Infrastructure
00:59:52 - Automation and Its Implications
01:01:53 - Guiding Wisdom and Philosophy
01:02:51 - Renewable Natural Gas and Environmental Impact
01:05:51 - Hidden Gem
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LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-berlin-9b156a12/
https://bridgeind.com/
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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 over 200 other Cleveland Entrepreneurs.
Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/
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