Exclusive | Chris Power of Hadrian: $10B or Zero, Revitalizing American Manufacturing
Hadrian, recently announced a $117M Series B round to revitalize American industry, on top of the $90M raised to date from existing investors such as Founders Fund, a16z, Lux Capital, & more..
Exclusive: Chris Power of Hadrian: $10B or Zero, Revitalizing American Manufacturing
In this podcast, Molly O'Shea interviews Chris Power, Founder of Hadrian, which recently announced a $117M Series B round to revitalize American industry. This was on top of the $90M raised to date from existing investors such as Founders Fund, a16z, Lux Capital, Commodity Capital, and more.
For background, Hadrian is a US-based automated precision component factory that enables Space & Defense manufacturers to get parts 10x faster, and halve the cost to make Rockets, Satellites, Jets & Drones. Headquartered down in Torrance, CA, Hadrian sits amongst industry leaders such as SpaceX, Anduril, Relativity, ABL, Varda, and more.
The financing included participation from RTX Ventures – the venture arm of US Department of Defense prime contractor RTX (formerly called Raytheon) – as well as Construct Capital, WCM Investment Management, Bracket Capital, Shrug Capital, Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, S&A, Silent Ventures, Cubit Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Tru Arrow Partners, and other existing investors.
Having raised over $200M in just 3 years, the company recently had to pursue an accelerated fundraise to meet demand from large customers and expand its factory and operations across states to support its growth. The company's vertical integration, focus on software and robotics, and emphasis on talent and workforce development, create an industry-leading moat.
Resources & Timestamps below..
The conversation covers:
The importance of manufacturing for global competitiveness
America's position in global trade
Building a "Tesla-hard" business
Strong vibe shift in the industry
Recruiting and investor momentum
Early days of Hadrian
Staying sharp, reflecting & resetting as a ‘zero to one’ Founder
Drilling holes in servers
Building for the future
Hadrian is actively hiring software engineers and other roles to continue scaling its operations. Email: jobs@hadrian.co or visit https://www.hadrian.co/careers
Resources:
Hadrian Automation’s CEO wants to defy history and revitalize American industry [TechCrunch]
Inside the Future of American Manufacturing [Startup Documentary] [John Coogan]
Chris Power: How Do We Massively Scale Our Manufacturing? [Jason Carman’s S3]
Timestamps:
(00:00) Preview
(02:02) Hadrian's Massive Series B Raise and Mission to Revitalize American Industry
(05:24) The Strategic Decision Behind Hadrian's Emergency Fundraise
(07:32) Chris' Backstory and the Challenges/Opportunities in Manufacturing Software
(12:55) Scaling Operations and the Future of Hadrian's Factories
(14:51) On Hadrian's Vertical Integration and Moat
(18:39) Recruiting and Training: The Backbone of Hadrian's Success
(22:15) Pitching to Software Engineers and the Engineering Challenges at Hadrian
(25:33) Expanding the Team and the Future Goals for Hadrian
(26:52) Chris Power's Bullish Stance on American Manufacturing
(30:42) Vibe Shift in the Venture Capital Ecosystem
(36:10) Foundational Challenges of Deep Tech Startups
(40:28) Reorienting and Resetting While Scaling a Company
(48:26) Future Outlook for Hadrian and Deep Tech Innovation
(51:09) Wrap
I love what you’re doing with this publication Molly. Podcasts like this are awesome. What an interview.
I love Hadrian’s approach to recruiting. Upskilling workers from outside manufacturing flips the script on the “skills gap” narrative. It’s not just automation that scales; it’s trust in people plus systems. That’s the overlooked moat.
Also worth calling out: Chris frames vertical integration not just as efficiency, but as survival. Building software and factory ops together isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s what makes the model work at all. Most failed attempts in this space bolted software onto legacy shops. Hadrian started clean.
A question I keep coming back to: As deep tech startups like Hadrian scale, what mechanisms (besides capital) can help investors and policymakers stay aligned with the realities of physical production?