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