Reindustrialization isn’t going to be driven by a single megafactory or a headline-grabbing announcement on the coasts. It’s going to be built region by region, by places that already know how to make things and are willing to evolve how they do it.
This episode was recorded live at +Venture North in Milwaukee, bringing together investors, founders, and operators to talk candidly about what it really takes to scale manufacturing in the heartland. The conversations cut through the buzzwords and focus on fundamentals: affordable power, experienced talent, corporate customers who are willing to engage, and ecosystems that actually support manufacturers beyond the pitch deck.
You’ll hear why innovation may start anywhere, but scale almost always moves to regions with space, infrastructure, and people who know how to run plants. We also dig into how legacy industries adopt new technology without putting uptime at risk, and why reindustrialization won’t happen if workforce strategies stop at new graduates instead of upskilling the people already on the floor.
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3 Quick Things from this Episode
- Rosa Hathaway (Starframe Capital): From Starframe Capital’s perspective, a lot of hard tech starts on the coasts – but it doesn’t scale there. Once companies move past prototypes and need to build hundreds or thousands of units, places with space, experienced manufacturing talent, and lower costs start to matter. That’s where the middle of the country has a real edge.
- David Tearse (Karman Industries): What David sees at Karman Industries is that new technology usually doesn’t get rejected because it’s too cutting-edge. It stalls when it doesn’t line up with what plant teams actually care about day to day – uptime, reliability, and not breaking what already works. Adoption happens when the value is clear on the floor.
- Bill Berrien (Pindell Global Precision): From Bill’s seat at Pindell Global Precision, reindustrialization runs straight into a workforce reality. We can’t expect what people learned early in their careers to carry them for decades. Skills change, technology moves fast, and keeping up means building practical ways to upskill the people who are already in the plant.
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Tweetable Quotes
- Once you start needing manufacturing facilities for making hundreds, thousands of products, that’s when companies really start looking elsewhere.” – Rosa Hathaway
- “If we only look at giving new manufacturing skills to 18- to 22-year-olds, we will never meet the workforce needs fast enough to reindustrialize the country.” – Bill Berrien
- “Fifty percent of all end energy use is for thermal management — heating things up or cooling things down — and we do it in very inefficient ways.” – David Tearse
Please Scroll Down for Recommended Resources from this Episode
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Hexagon is the global leader in precision technologies at any scale. Their digital twins, robotics, and AI solutions are transforming the industries that shape our reality. Learn how Hexagon is helping unlock next level innovation, bringing the power of automation, simulation, and real-time quality control to the smallest shop floor or the largest enterprise.
What We Discussed at +Venture North
- Why reindustrialization scale-up is likely to happen “between the coasts” (and what regions need to compete)
- How places like Tulsa and Milwaukee can win by leaning into their industrial DNA instead of trying to copy Silicon Valley
- Why cost of power is quietly becoming one of the biggest deciding factors in where manufacturing expands
- How Karman Industries is electrifying thermal processes (and why process engineers hate watching usable heat go “out the roof”)
- What it really takes to get legacy plants comfortable adopting new technology without risking uptime or performance metrics
- Bill Berrien’s take on workforce: reindustrialization requires upskilling the incumbent workforce, not just training new entrants
- What healthy ecosystems measure (and what they don’t): founders getting funded, exits, corporate engagement, and a community that’s genuinely welcoming
Recommended Resources
- NVNG Investment Advisors, a venture capital fund-of-funds backed by local corporations, focused on strengthening industrial innovation ecosystems.
- Starframe Capital, a Tulsa-based firm supporting hard tech scale-up across the middle of the U.S., connecting founders with capital, industry, and municipalities.
- Karman Industries, developing breakthrough thermal technologies that transform industrial energy use, reduce cost, and eliminate emissions.
- Pindell Global Precision, a precision manufacturing company based near Milwaukee, with a focus on workforce development and upskilling.
Connect with Everyone
Bill Berrien | Grady Buchanan | Will Gray | Rosa Hathaway | David Tearse
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