The Derby Mill Series Automating Manufacturing (The Derby Mill Series ep 17)
The Derby Mill Series hosts are back to kick off Season 2 with an episode about automating factories—an extension of a discussion we began in the series’ first-ever episode. Here, hosts Ajay Agrawal, Rich Sutton, Sendhil Mullainathan and Niamh Gavin sit down with Vention founder and CEO Etienne Lacroix and CTO Francois Giguere. Vention’s mission: to become the default operating system for factory automation, combining modular hardware, intuitive design software, and low/no-code programming tools to speed deployment and enhance performance. The team asks, What if AI could go beyond design assistance and run fully autonomous, self-optimizing factories from concept to deployment?
About Vention
Vention is a vertically-integrated manufacturing automation platform. Its primary AI application today is predicting optimal component selection and system design. When a manufacturer specifies their automation needs, Vention’s AI recommends compatible parts, layouts, and configurations from its proprietary dataset of 400,000 labelled designs, with real-time pricing and compatibility checks. Vention serves more than 4,000 factories across more than industries, including facilities belonging to Tesla, L’Oréal, Amazon and Lockheed Martin.
GUESTS AND HOSTS
Etienne Lacroix, founder and CEO, VentionFrancois Giguere, CTO, VentionAjay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth PartnersRichard Sutton, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, 2024 Turing Award recipient, pioneer of reinforcement learning and professor, University of AlbertaSendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MITNiamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist, CEO, Emergent Platforms
LINKS
Vention CEO Etienne Lacroix explains the mission at Nvidia GTC 2025Vention websiteVention’s video tutorials mini-siteDerby Mill series website. Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners.Rich Sutton’s home page. Follow Rich on XSendhil Mullainathan’s website. Follow Sendhil on XBe sure to catch every episode of The Derby Mill Series by subscribing on the following platforms:YouTube // Spotify // Apple Podcasts
DISCUSSION POINTS
00:00 Cold open01:52 Automating manufacturing with Vention03:45 Factory assembly tasks05:40 AI for design07:48 Faster and cheaper10:28 When automation reaches its limits10:43 Pragmatic control system design12:02 AI training datasets12:58 Vention’s end-to-end platform15:20 Hybrid AI model approaches17:47 AI spotting unmet needs21:28 Manual versus automated processes27:46 Full process of factory automation37:20 Customer interfaces40:59 Data feedback and improvement45:58 Distribution shift in AI1:00:17 Adaptive AI in factories1:04:59 Final thoughts
NUGGETS
Why Automating Factories Is Becoming Faster and Cheaper (1701)Intrepid’s Ajay Agrawal asks Vention founder and CEO Etienne Lacroix why automating factories is becoming faster to do, and cheaper to implement.
Automating Automation (1702)Vention CTO Francois Giguere describes the future of AI-driven workflows, which he says includes the counterintuitive tagline of “automating automation.”
ML Can Fix the Black Box Model Challenges (1703)Why MIT’s Sendhil Mullainathan believes machine learning can do what physical models can’t.
DISCLAIMER
The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insights.intrepidgp.com