The ReForge Podcast

The ReForge Podcast

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The ReForge Podcast episodes

  • Structural Steel Is Now the Critical Path (ReForge 031)

    In this episode, Matthew Chang and Colin Russ go without a guest to call two things: structural steel is now the critical path on American factory builds, and the customer-funded founder is the one most likely to survive the reindustrialization wave.

    If you care about manufacturing, construction, supply chain, policy, founders, this one is for you.

    What we cover

    • Why you now order steel before you submit the building permit
    • Dock lock hooks as an unofficial reindustrialization index
    • Data centers and factories competing for the same steel and electricians
    • Why South Carolina and Ohio keep winning site selection
    • The customer-funded model, and who venture money is actually built for

    Chapters

    00:00 Welcome and Episode Setup
     01:13 Actuators and Automation Wins
     02:22 Dock Lock Reindustrialization Metric
     06:20 Steel Shortages and Critical Path
     19:30 Permitting and State Playbooks
     28:19 Customer Funded Founders and Wrap Up

    Hosts: Matthew Chang and Colin Russ

    Find Matthew Chang:
    https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/

    Find Colin Russ:
    https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/

    Find Chang Robotics:
    https://changrobotics.ai | https://www.linkedin.com/company/changrobotics/

    Seven Steps to Reindustrialize America: https://www.thereforgepodcast.com/7steps

    Follow ReForge

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/

    Want to be a guest or partner?

    If you’re building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we’d love to hear from you.
     Email: [email protected]

    About ReForge

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America.
     This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.
     Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ.

    Produced by Chang Robotics.

    47 min
  • Why Robot Motors Still Come From China (with Mason Hensley) | ReForge 030

    In this episode, Matthew Chang and Colin Russ talk with Mason Hensley (Managing Director at American Stator) about why the stator is the real bottleneck in American robotics, and what it takes to build that supply chain here from the steel coil forward.

    If you care about robotics, supply chain, manufacturing, automation, domestic production, this one is for you.

    What we cover

    • Why roughly 80 percent of small stators come out of China
    • Die lead times of 20 weeks here versus a third of that in Asia
    • The epoxy coating machine that only exists in China
    • Winding as a service, and a send-cut-send experience for motors
    • Why a fully automated plant makes the US an export market

    Chapters

    00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
     01:45 Mason’s Path to Robotics
     08:47 Stators 101 and Supply Chain Gaps
     25:43 Epoxy Coating and Induction
     32:14 Winding as a Service
     41:22 Scaling American Stator

    Hosts: Matthew Chang and Colin Russ
     Guest: Mason Hensley, Managing Director at American Stator

    Find Mason Hensley:
     https://www.linkedin.com/in/masonhensley/ | https://americanstator.com | https://x.com/masonhensley

    Find Matthew Chang:
     https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/

    Find Colin Russ:
     https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/

    Find Chang Robotics:
     https://changrobotics.ai | https://www.linkedin.com/company/changrobotics/

    Seven Steps to Reindustrialize America: https://www.thereforgepodcast.com/7steps

    Follow ReForge

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/

    Want to be a guest or partner?

    If you’re building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we’d love to hear from you.
     Email: [email protected]

    About ReForge

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America.
     This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.
     Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ.

    Produced by Chang Robotics.

    50 min
  • What to Fix Before You Sell Your Business (with Ryan Ray Sr.) | ReForge 029

    In this episode, Matthew Chang and Colin Russ talk with Ryan Ray (Director of Partnerships at Ad Astra Equity Advisors) about why so many small manufacturers are worth far less than their owners expect, and why removing the owner from the business is the work that fixes almost everything else.

    If you care about manufacturing, capital, automation, and succession, this one is for you.

    What we cover

    - Owner dependency and the Thailand test
    - The twenty percent customer concentration rule
    - Using SBA lending as a valuation reality check
    - Linking your tools and cleaning your data before automating anything
    - Why talking to one buyer costs owners money

    Chapters

    00:00 Cold Open and Guest Intro
    04:39 Ray’s Background and Deal Network
    08:59 Succession, Valuation, and AI Upside
    25:15 Fixing Multiple Killers
    27:07 Premium for Clean Automation
    32:53 Mixers Slap Fight Wrap

    Hosts: Matthew Chang and Colin Russ
    Guest: Ryan Ray, Director of Partnerships at Ad Astra Equity Advisors

    Find Ryan Ray:
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanraysr/ | https://www.adastraequity.com/ | https://x.com/RyanRaySr

    Find Matthew Chang:
    https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/

    Find Colin Russ:
    https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/

    Find Chang Robotics:
    https://changrobotics.ai | https://www.linkedin.com/company/changrobotics/

    Seven Steps to Reindustrialize America: https://www.thereforgepodcast.com/7steps

    Resources mentioned

    The Frackers, the book on the shale revolution Ryan references when describing his survey company's work for Chesapeake

    Follow ReForge

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/

    Want to be a guest or partner?

    If you're building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we'd love to hear from you.

    Email: [email protected]

    About ReForge

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America.

    This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.

    Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ.

    Produced by Chang Robotics.

    47 min
  • We Could Open Two Factories a Year (with Caleb Chamberlain) | ReForge 028

    In this episode, Matthew Chang and Colin Russ talk with Caleb Chamberlain (Co-Founder and CEO at OSH Cut) about building a fabrication company that competes on predictability and software instead of cash burn, and why that model scales across the country.

    If you care about manufacturing, automation, supply chain, industrial AI, capital, this one is for you.

    What we cover

    • Monte Carlo simulation for capacity and bottleneck planning
    • Why OSH Cut picked Cincinnati for site two
    • Dropping shops where traditional shops already cluster
    • Bootstrapping with a HELOC instead of venture capital
    • Data center demand displacing everyone else's capacity

    Chapters

    00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
     01:11 Caleb's Journey to OSHCut
     05:37 Scaling OSHCut with R&D and Smart Capacity
     25:53 Why Cincinnati Matters
     29:23 Scaling Shops Nationwide
     40:13 Funding Moats and Wrap

    Hosts: Matthew Chang and Colin Russ
    Guest: Caleb Chamberlain, Co-Founder and CEO at OSH Cut

    Find Caleb Chamberlain:
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/caleb-chamberlain-a4029711/?isSelfProfile=false https://oshcut.com | https://x.com/CalebChamberla6

    Find Matthew Chang:
    https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/

    Find Colin Russ:
    https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/

    Find Chang Robotics:
    https://changrobotics.ai | https://www.linkedin.com/company/changrobotics/

    Seven Steps to Reindustrialize America: https://www.thereforgepodcast.com/7steps

    Resources mentioned

    • Seven Powers by Hamilton Helmer
    • ISM Purchasing Managers Index for manufacturing

    Follow ReForge

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/

    Want to be a guest or partner?

    If you're building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we'd love to hear from you.
     Email: [email protected]

    About ReForge

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America.
     This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.
     Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ.

    Produced by Chang Robotics.

    50 min
  • Raw Material Prices Are Up Eighty Percent (with Will Alverson) | ReForge 027

    In this episode, Matthew Chang and Colin Russ talk with Will Alverson (Managing Partner at Accurate Metal Products) about running a second generation steel plate business with no leverage through a demand boom he thinks is real, driven almost entirely by AI CapEx, and fragile enough to have a single point of failure.

    If you care about manufacturing, capital, supply chain, workforce, policy, this one is for you.

    What we cover

    • Copper as a macro barometer
    • CapEx without leverage
    • Raw material prices up about 80 percent
    • Why the bull run is fragile
    • MIT's technologist role between technician and engineer

    Chapters

    00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
     01:55 Will's Midwest Manufacturing Story
     04:14 Family Business Origins and Rite Hite
     06:52 Running Profitable Growth and CapEx
     17:28 Bull Run Signals and Market Risks
     30:37 MIT Workforce Program and Wrap-Up

    Hosts: Matthew Chang and Colin Russ
     Guest: Will Alverson, Managing Partner at Accurate Metal Products


    Find Will Alverson:
    https://x.com/will_alverson | https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-alverson/ | https://ampflame.com/

    Find Matthew Chang:
    https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/

    Find Colin Russ:
    https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/

    Find Chang Robotics:
    https://changrobotics.ai | https://www.linkedin.com/company/changrobotics/

    Seven Steps to Reindustrialize America: https://www.thereforgepodcast.com/7steps


    Follow ReForge

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/

    Want to be a guest or partner?

    If you're building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we'd love to hear from you.
     Email: [email protected]

    About ReForge

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America.
     This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.
     Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ.

    Produced by Chang Robotics.




    38 min
  • Modernize or Close Your Doors (with Cole Studer) | ReForge 026

    In this episode, Matthew Chang and Colin Russ talk with Cole Studer (CTO at Miltech Manufacturing and CEO at Mericron) about what it actually takes to modernize a rural American machine shop, and why the same person rebuilding that shop floor is also building Mericron, an American chipset meant to replace the Chinese one most of our automation quietly runs on. 

    If you care about manufacturing, automation, workforce, supply chain, and reshoring, this one is for you. 

     

    What we cover 

    • Modernizing a job shop in rural western Kansas 
    • Machinists as the real growth constraint 
    • Paying city wages in a small town 
    • ITAR compliance as an automation blocker 
    • Building an American alternative to the ESP32 

     

    Chapters 

    00:00 Welcome and Episode Intro 
     01:08 Meet Cole and Miltech 
     06:00 Shop Capabilities and Big Machines 
     11:34 Scaling Up in Rural Kansas 
     20:28 Automation and ITAR Constraints 
     27:42 Mericron American ESP32 Mission 

     

    Hosts: Matthew Chang and Colin Russ 
     Guest: Cole Studer, CTO at Miltech Manufacturing and CEO at Mericron 

    Find Cole Studer:
     https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-studer-3323a5104/ | https://www.miltechmanufacturing.com/ | https://www.mericron.com/ | https://x.com/photoncmndr 

    Find Matthew Chang:
     https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/ 

    Find Colin Russ:
     https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/ 

    Find Chang Robotics:
     https://changrobotics.ai | https://www.linkedin.com/company/changrobotics/ 

    Seven Steps to Reindustrialize America: https://www.thereforgepodcast.com/7steps 

     

    Follow ReForge 

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/ 

     

    Want to be a guest or partner? 

    If you're building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we'd love to hear from you.
     Email: [email protected] 


    About ReForge 

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America. 

    This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing. 

    Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ. 

    Produced by Chang Robotics. 

    37 min
  • We Went Looking for Duct Tape (with Daniel Scott Mitchell) | ReForge 025

    In this episode, Matthew Chang and Colin Russ talk with Daniel Scott Mitchell (Co-Founder & CTO at Takton) about what he learned touring 150-plus American factories before building anything, and why the future of American industry depends on keeping small shops alive rather than waiting for them to fail.

    If you care about manufacturing, machine monitoring, industrial IoT, small and midsize shops, family businesses, or reindustrialization, this one is for you.

    What we cover

    • Spending the first six months after launch touring factories instead of selling, and why that took investors who were actually aligned
    • Going from Tesla Skunk Works and Rivian's van launch to tier two and tier three suppliers, and how different that world is
    • Shops running thousands of SKUs on whiteboards and paper while still hitting 99 percent on-time delivery
    • Getting tribal knowledge out of Frank's head, and the low-friction approach of handing him a pair of smart glasses instead of asking for an SOP manual
    • Takton Sense: non-invasive power and vibration sensing, a 15-minute install, air gapped from the machine, checking every minute whether the machine is running and whether it is running well
    • Why it is closer to an Oura Ring than a diagnostic, and what "symptom radar" means for a machine
    • The 20 percent of advanced manufacturing technology that delivers 80 percent of the impact, and building the Kirkland brand version of the manufacturing tech stack
    • Why MT Connect is great and still not enough when a shop's newest machine has telemetry and the other 28 have none
    • A customer running a machine he thinks dates to the 1890s, originally belt driven off a water wheel, and the only two questions that matter before installing
    • Why vendors built for Fortune 500 procurement make technology impossible to try, and what no minimum contract and a hardware buyback actually unlock
    • 98 percent of US factories have fewer than 500 employees, and why that ecosystem does not exist anywhere else in the world
    • Pushback on the idea that American industry needs the boomers to retire before it can recover
    • Looking for duct tape as a product research method, and the a la carte versus prix fixe test for manufacturing software

    Chapters

    00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
     01:36 150 Factories Road Trip
     05:11 Capturing Tribal Knowledge
     07:49 Takton Sense Explained
     17:17 Adoption Barriers and Trust
     31:38 What's Next and Wrap Up

    Hosts: Matthew Chang and Colin Russ
     Guest: Daniel Scott Mitchell, Co-Founder & CTO at Takton

    Find Daniel Scott Mitchell:
     https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielscottmitchell/ | https://x.com/danielmitchell

    Find Matthew Chang:
     https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.instagram.com/the.matthewchang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/ | https://www.tiktok.com/@the.matthewchang

    Find Colin Russ:
     https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/

    Find Chang Robotics: https://changrobotics.ai

    Resources mentioned

    Seven Steps to Reindustrialize America: https://www.thereforgepodcast.com/7steps

    Follow ReForge

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/

    Want to be a guest or partner?

    If you're building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we'd love to hear from you.
     Email: [email protected]

    About ReForge

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America.
     This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.
     Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ.

    Produced by Chang Robotics.

    37 min
  • Reindustrialize? There's No Re About It (with Jack Watson) | ReForge 024

    In this episode, Matthew Chang and Colin Russ talk with Jack Watson (Business Development Manager at HFW Industries) about thermal spray coatings, the engineering knowledge that walked out of corporate America, and why the Rust Belt is a better bet than its reputation suggests.

    If you care about manufacturing, thermal spray, industrial reliability, workforce training, the Rust Belt, or reindustrialization, this one is for you.

    What we cover

    • Four generations at HFW Industries, starting with his great-grandfather Harold in 1947, and what the name actually stands for
    • What thermal spray coating does, and how it takes a rolling mill component from four months between teardowns to two years
    • Matt's walkthrough of the Buffalo plant, the robotic thermal spray cell, and the HVOF systems a SpaceX engineer confirmed are essentially rocket engines
    • Why corporate engineering teams went from hundreds of people to a handful, and how partners like HFW absorbed that materials and process knowledge
    • The reliability and uptime case: why buying industry-standard equipment and partnering on coatings beats specifying exotic metallurgy up front
    • Rust Belt advantages nobody markets: affordability, access to water and natural gas, proximity to most of North America's population, and a coworker who bought a house at 26
    • Retaining university graduates, and what Columbus did that Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, and Detroit can copy
    • Why heavy industry has to show what is behind the walls if it expects anyone to apply
    • Jack's blunt take that most industrial training in America is failing, what a real four-year apprenticeship looked like at HFW in the 1970s, and why not every hire pans out
    • The three-quarter-million-dollar spray shop upgrade and technical ceramics as the next frontier for turbines, electronics, and semiconductor work

    Chapters

    00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
     02:11 HFW Origins and Legacy
     05:32 Factory Tour and Thermal Spray
     09:37 Why OEMs Need Partners
     14:28 Rust Belt Revival Advantages
     27:16 Workforce Training and Wrap Up

    Hosts: Matthew Chang and Colin Russ
     Guest: Jack Watson, Business Development Manager at HFW Industries

    Find Jack Watson:
     https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackwatson22/

    Find HFW Industries:
     https://hfwindustries.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/hfw-industries-inc-/

    Find Matthew Chang:
     https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.instagram.com/the.matthewchang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/ | https://www.tiktok.com/@the.matthewchang

    Find Colin Russ:
     https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/

    Find Chang Robotics: https://changrobotics.ai

    Resources mentioned

    Seven Steps to Reindustrialize America: https://www.thereforgepodcast.com/7steps

    Follow ReForge

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/

    Want to be a guest or partner?

    If you're building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we'd love to hear from you.
     Email: [email protected]

    About ReForge

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America.
     This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.
     Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ.

    Produced by Chang Robotics.

    35 min
  • Reindustrialization News Rundown: Chips, Ships, and Minerals | ReForge 023

    In this episode, Colin Russ runs the ReForge reindustrialization news rundown: what moved this week across defense contracting, semiconductors, aluminum, critical minerals, shipbuilding, and defense propulsion, and what it actually means for the shops and factories on the other end of those headlines.

    If you care about manufacturing, defense contracting, semiconductors, industrial policy, tariffs, or reshoring, this one is for you.

    What we cover

    • The Department of War halting CMMC Phase 2 and launching a 60 day review, and what that does to the smaller shops that already paid for third party certification
    • Why Phase 1 self assessments and NIST cybersecurity requirements are not a sunk cost, and how to position for Phase 2 coming back
    • Apple's multibillion dollar commitment to US made chips with Broadcom, and why a long term demand signal matters more than another subsidized fab
    • Targeted aluminum tariff relief tied to actual US smelting investment, and the multi year lag before that capacity comes online
    • Tighter waiver rules on critical minerals from adversarial suppliers, the near term pain that creates, and why artificial scarcity can pull private capital into domestic mining and refining
    • Saronic picking Brownsville for a $3.2 billion greenfield autonomous shipyard, and why Texas keeps winning these announcements
    • TSMC adding to its Arizona buildout, and Arizona yields reportedly matching mature Taiwan operations
    • Pratt & Whitney's Valox 1500 clearing a design milestone on a digital first approach, and why munitions and CCA timelines depend on that kind of speed

    Chapters

    00:00 Welcome and Rundown Setup
     00:46 Defense Cybersecurity Pause
     04:12 Made in USA Chips
     06:36 Aluminum and Minerals Policy
     13:41 Shipyard and Chip Megaprojects
     20:34 Defense Tech and Closing

    Host: Colin Russ

    Find Colin Russ:
     https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/

    Find Matthew Chang:
     https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.instagram.com/the.matthewchang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/ | https://www.tiktok.com/@the.matthewchang

    Find Chang Robotics: https://changrobotics.ai

    Resources mentioned

    Seven Steps to Reindustrialize America: https://www.thereforgepodcast.com/7steps

    Follow ReForge

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/

    Want to be a guest or partner?

    If you're building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we'd love to hear from you.
     Email: [email protected]

    About ReForge

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America.
     This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.
     Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ.

    Produced by Chang Robotics.

    26 min
  • What Survives to 2036 (with Const Ivanov) | ReForge 022

    In this episode, Matthew Chang and Colin Russ talk with Const Ivanov (Founder & CEO at DigiFabster) about what American manufacturing actually looks like in 2036, and which shops make it there.

    If you care about manufacturing, machine shops, automation, capital markets, workforce, or reindustrialization, this one is for you.

    What we cover

    • Running his own machine shop for six years, then building the quoting software he wished he had
    • Why "make manufacturing cool again" stalls out if the paycheck does not support a family, and the "my dad's job is cool" test Matt and Colin use instead
    • How much shop capacity is sitting idle, why shops turn down work they could technically take, and why the real US shop count is smaller than the number everyone repeats
    • Tourist capital: why the VC wave into general manufacturing likely leaves around 2028 to 2030, and who is left standing on boring revenue
    • The case for an SBA loan product built for manufacturers instead of chasing venture money
    • The silver tsunami, roll-ups, and how to tell a good shop asset from one that should retire
    • Why instant quoting is a cash flow strategy, not a website feature, when the alternative is net 90 and net 120

    Chapters

    00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
     01:47 From Machine Shop to DigiFabster
     05:01 Operator to Technologist Lessons
     09:16 What Survives to 2036
     20:02 Capital Shifts and Silver Tsunami
     34:21 DigiFabster Impact and Wrap Up

    Hosts: Matthew Chang and Colin Russ
    Guest: Const Ivanov, Founder & CEO at DigiFabster

    Find Const Ivanov:
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/c0nst/ | https://x.com/c0nst | https://digifabster.com/ | https://x.com/digifabster

    Find Matthew Chang:
    https://x.com/MatthewChang | https://www.instagram.com/the.matthewchang | https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewachang/ | https://www.tiktok.com/@the.matthewchang

    Find Colin Russ:
    https://x.com/ThaaatColin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinruss/

    Find Chang Robotics: https://changrobotics.ai

    Resources mentioned

    What survives to 2036, by Const Ivanov: https://x.com/c0nst/article/2077092078237135330
    The Hopium, Const's Substack: https://constiv.substack.com/
    DigiFabster: https://digifabster.com/

    Follow ReForge

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-reforge-podcast/
    X: https://x.com/thereforgepod
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereforgepod/
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereforgepod
    Website: https://thereforgepodcast.com/

    Want to be a guest or partner?

    If you're building, funding, operating, or shaping the future of U.S. manufacturing, we'd love to hear from you.
     Email: [email protected]

    About ReForge

    ReForge is a podcast featuring conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America.
     This show exists to prove American reindustrialization is possible, pivotal, and pressing.
     Hosted by Matthew Chang and Colin Russ.

    Produced by Chang Robotics.

    40 min

About The ReForge Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Conversations with the leaders reindustrializing America, from robotics and automation to policy, workforce development, and the future of U.S. manufacturing.