Intro
My first conversation with Aaron Slodov, Cofounder of Atomic Industries and Reindustrialize, recorded at Reindustrialize in Detroit.
Aaron’s interest in manufacturing began with a frustrating experience trying to get a simple product made. Friends working in hardware told him to go to China. American suppliers were focused on customers with much larger production budgets.
He became fixated on the work behind the product: designing and building the mold that makes it possible to manufacture the part.
Much of that process depends on expertise accumulated over decades. Experienced toolmakers know what works, what will fail, and how to solve problems that aren’t written down. As those workers retire, the knowledge can disappear with them.
Atomic is working to capture that expertise in software, improve the design process, and use those capabilities to manufacture parts. We discuss how the company brings software engineers and tradespeople together, why engineers need to spend time on the factory floor, and the ambition to extend manufacturing knowledge upstream into product design.
We also get into the financing of industrial businesses, Detroit’s opportunity, and how Reindustrialize has developed into a gathering place for people building the next generation of American industry.
What we cover
• The manufacturing bottleneck: Why tool and die making matters, how molds get designed, and where software can improve a process built around experience and iteration.
• Preserving skills and building better jobs: Capturing trade knowledge, training new people, and why Aaron believes future factory work could become more productive, attractive, and better paid.
• Atomic’s master plan: Becoming exceptionally good at mold making, expanding production, and helping designers understand whether a part can be manufactured before it reaches the factory.
• Building an industrial business: Winning customer trust, supply-chain resilience, financing growth, and the distinction between a capital-intensive business and an inefficient one.
• The Reindustrialize movement: Bringing founders, investors, and manufacturers together in Detroit, measuring the relationships and deals that follow, and keeping the community useful as it grows.
There’s also a personal connection to this episode. Reindustrialize was part of what gave me the final push to launch We The Builders. We discuss some of the relationships and opportunities that have come out of those rooms since.
Watch on YouTube
Follow on X / Twitter
Aaron Slodov: https://x.com/aphysicist
Atomic Industries: https://x.com/atomic_inc
Reindustrialize: https://x.com/reindsummit
Suffiyan Malik: https://x.com/suffiyanmalikk
We The Builders: https://x.com/WeThe_Builders
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:36 The frustration that led to Atomic Industries
05:09 Bringing manufacturing expertise and software together
06:00 Tool and die making explained
08:25 Putting software in the driver’s seat
09:31 Preserving and scaling trade knowledge
11:02 Recruiting tradespeople into a technology company
13:27 Training talent and the future of factory jobs
15:26 Detroit, the Midwest, and attracting engineers
17:45 Getting software engineers onto the factory floor
18:31 Building culture around the mission
21:38 Scaling Atomic’s factories and team
23:23 The Atomic master plan
25:31 Bringing manufacturing knowledge into product design
27:45 Production as a service
29:33 Customers, sales, and proving reliability
32:29 Supply-chain resilience and proximity
32:51 Fundraising for industrial companies
35:48 Capital intensity versus capital efficiency
38:26 Building the Reindustrialize movement
41:19 Attracting people who want to tackle hard problems
44:00 Monopolies, innovation, and everyday consumers
46:16 Measuring Reindustrialize’s impact and what comes next
49:30 How Reindustrialize helped launch We The Builders
51:27 Closing
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