Josh Wolfe & Chris Power - Factories of the Future - [Invest Like the Best, EP.281]

My guests today are Josh Wolfe and Chris Power. Josh will be a familiar voice to many of you and is the co-founder and General Partner of Lux Capital. Chris is the founder and CEO of advanced manufacturing start-up, Hadrian. Most of our discussion centers on the need to modernize the factories that supply our space and defense industries. But given the current market environment, we also talk about capital conditions and the responsibility to build products that really matter. Please enjoy this conversation with Josh Wolfe and Chris Power.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Show Notes

[00:02:40] - [First question] - An overview of the precision manufacturing industry writ large

[00:08:28] - Why the manufacturing sector has so many great investment opportunities

[00:12:58] - Anduril Breakdown; What Hadrian in its final form will unlock for manufacturing

[00:16:08] - What the demand side looks like for manufacturers in its current state today 

[00:18:29] - How the nature of demand will shift for this style of manufacturing in the future

[00:22:51] - Important rare earth materials, supply chain constraints, and the revival of commodities 

[00:27:55] - The key set of jobs being done by mom and pop shops that could be innovated on and done within a Hadrian factory 

[00:30:35] - What is going on inside of a Hadrian factory and how they will evolve over time 

[00:32:10] - Prosecuting diligence on someone's ability to execute on their behalf

[00:37:14] - The PhD arrogance trap and how a Hadrian machine will be better in five years from now

[00:48:08] - Breadth of ability versus focus and selling parts to buyers early on

[00:50:42] - Lessons learned and advice for understanding the focus problem 

[00:56:39] - Fat startup vs. lean startups and making the hardest irreversible decision during Hadrian’s early days

[00:58:31] - Enduring more schlep work than less being a good signal

[00:59:06] - Chris’ thoughts on the future of Hadrian and defining the exciting and scary edges of the spectrum of outcomes

[01:03:36] - Josh’s thoughts on the future of Hadrian and defining the exciting and scary edges of the spectrum of outcomes

[01:07:22] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for Chris