Does Hadrian Automation Inc. want to make factories sexy again?
For Chief Executive Chris Power, that answer is an unambiguous “yes.”
“It’s a serious question,” he continued. “Aesthetics are really important for job creation and getting people back to meaningful work. No one wants to work in a legacy factory, especially if you grew up on the internet.”
At the 29th annual Milken Institute Global Conference this month, thousands of investment bankers, executives, economists and policymakers gathered in Beverly Hills to discuss a host of topics impacting our overall business and global economy.
The future of software – a cornerstone of the economy – was among those top of the lists. While the software industry has been heralded as a safe and high-earning career track as well as a major driver of the U.S. gross domestic product, the trades are becoming an increasingly important part of a new hardware-focused tech sector.
“Most of our products are built by small, engineering-focused five to 10 people,” said Julie Bush, co-founder and chief executive of defense tech company Valinor. “And of all of them, it’s maybe one software engineer at this point, maybe two. The place I am investing in when it comes to talent is the welders, the people bending metal.”
Boom by design
At the Future of War panel, where both Bush and Power spoke, participants explored the boom in the manufacturing and weapons sector which is only a stone’s throw away in the South Bay. Power, whose Torrance-based company Hadrian is building artificial intelligence-powered factories, is part of the hard tech renaissance that’s using software’s advanced capabilities to make domestic manufacturing at scale faster, cheaper and safer.
That means looking for workers that code, develop, and get their hands dirty on the factory floor rather than typing away at a standing desk, Power said. At Hadrian, around 40% of the software engineering team is made up of decades-long casting experts and welders, who once worked at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. – better known as SpaceX and which was founded in Hawthorne.
“If I can get a welder to rip a user interface, it’s probably going to be the best product design ever because they’re that close to the problem,” Power said. “It’s one of those accessibility things. If you’re a genius machinist or a welder and you’ve been doing it for 20 years, maybe you don’t have a Stanford CS degree, but you can do advanced trig in your head in 30 seconds. You can learn how to code.”
Manufacturing has seen a boost in the U.S. over the last few years as the country began to prioritize domestic manufacturing. In the last two years alone, advanced manufacturing startups have raised $32.3 billion, According to PitchBook Data Inc.
“What China has built in terms of manufacturing capacity is something I don’t think the world has seen before,” said Dino Mavrookas, co-founder and chief executive of Saronic Technologies. “Which means that our allies need the same capabilities. They’re thinking about reindustrializing and manufacturing the same way that we are.”
