Matthew Chang, PE and Colin Russ take Episode 31 of the ReForge Podcast. Two calls in this one. First, structural steel has become the critical path on factory builds. You cannot get a mill order inside six months, which means owners are now buying their steel package before the building permit is approved and before the earthwork starts. Second, the customer-funded founder is the one most likely to make it through this wave, and venture capital was never really built for someone with roots, kids, and a mortgage in a flyover state. 👉 Watch the full episode on Rumble: rumble.com/v7h32ka-structura…

The ReForge Podcast - Ep. 040 xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1aKbdEayy…

“If you’re trying to hit a bill of materials target of 65, 75 percent, you absolutely have to have your actuators and motors made domestically.” — @masonhensley, EP 030

Defense stator work is cost plus, so nobody optimizes it. A technician picks up a stator, sprays epoxy on it, puts it in a little induction heater, one in, one out. If you can bill a hundred dollars for the part, you never build the line that would make it cheaper. (EP 030)

The ReForge Podcast - Ep. 039: Gues Nick Lease (@Benefitsguynick ) Joins Matt ( @MatthewChang) and Colin (@thaaatColin) on @thereforgepod xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1qKVmyqaY…

“We’ve gotten some quotes from some shops that are saying it’d take them 14 to 16 months, and they’ve got a backlog they’re working with.” — @masonhensley, EP 030

A stator is 50 layers of silicon steel, each two tenths of a millimeter thick, about two sheets of printer paper. You stamp it in layers instead of machining it from solid so the motor doesn’t cook itself on eddy current. Every robot joint you’ve seen starts here. (EP 030)

New episode! Mason Hensley of American Stator on why 80 percent of small stators come from China, what a 14-month die lead time does to a startup, and why the coating machine he needs is only made in one country. (EP 030) @masonhensley

"The buyer of your business is your final customer, and on some level they are your most important customer." — @ryanraysr, EP 029

Don't argue valuation with an owner. Take him to an SBA lender and ask what they'd lend on the business. Owners understand banks. If the bank says 3.2 and he wants 7, the conversation is over without anyone insulting anyone. (EP 029)

The ReForge Podcast - Ep. 038: Talk Pro-Rata to me xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1RKZzBlRg…

"Drop your phone right now, hop on a plane, and go to Thailand. Can you do that? And what areas can you not do that in? That's where you focus on removing yourself from the business." — @ryanraysr, EP 029

Most owners never name the game they're playing. They just play it. If it's family succession, be intentional about what that looks like, because a lot of sons and daughters burn out feeling like cheap labor dad won't pay for. The game can change. You still have to know which one you're in today. (EP 029)

New episode! Ryan Ray of Ad Astra Equity Advisors on why owners in their sixties call needing seven million for a company worth two, how the Thailand test tells you whether you can ever step away from your own shop, and why asking a bank what it would lend ends the valuation argument. (EP 029) @RyanRaySr rumble.com/v7gf75c-understan…

The ReForge Podcast: Episode 37 xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1AJEmvAvd…

"The presence of traditional shops signals plenty of demand, and our model is to capture the long tail of work that those shops don't want." — @CalebChambers6, EP 028

Same day turnaround stops mattering the second the part gets on a train. Shipping is 50 percent or more of the lead time on almost every order going east. That is the real argument for a second shop, and it has nothing to do with capacity. (EP 028)

"So when I say we're bootstrapped, we're really bootstrapped. So I took a HELOC on my house, which was paid off." — @CalebChambers6, EP 028

Averages hide the tail. Your average cycle time looks fine right up until a part gets scrapped, gets re-released, and the order ships late. Simulate the whole line a thousand times instead and you get a real number: this part ships on time 85 percent of the time. Now you have something to fix. (EP 028)

New episode! Caleb Chamberlain of OSH Cut on why they put their second shop where the competition is thickest, how Monte Carlo simulation tells them an order will ship late before it does, and why he funded the whole thing with a HELOC on his paid-off house. (EP 028) @CalebChambers6 rumble.com/v7g2un8-we-could-…