🎙️ Austin Bishop, co-founder of the New American Industrial Alliance (NAIA)—known by most as the people behind the REINDUSTRIALIZE conference—joins TOOL OR DIE to explain how an engineering kid from Cleveland ended up helping create one of the most influential gatherings in American manufacturing.
From early days of Atomic Industries to igniting a movement, Austin breaks down the convergence of venture capital, legacy SMBs, and policy leaders that’s driving America’s reindustrialization wave. REINDUSTRIALIZE isn’t another trade show—it’s a new convening model for serious builders, capital allocators, and government leaders reshaping U.S. industry, one where old heads and new make plans to accelerate American manufacturing.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 – On location at the Reagan Library
02:14 – Austin Bishop joins: from Cleveland roots to venture capital
04:45 – Founding Atomic Industries and confronting the tooling bottleneck
10:00 – Why venture capital ignored manufacturing until supply chain collapse
14:00 – How REINDUSTRIALIZE started as a small meetup and went viral
20:00 – The real mandate: connecting capital, operators, and policymakers
26:00 – Why REINDUSTRIALIZE avoids the trade show model
33:00 – Building a true cross-sector network: startups, SMBs, primes, and government
38:00 – The European industrial retreat vs. U.S. industrial resilience
44:00 – Reindustrialization as a nonpartisan national security imperative
50:00 – Why longtime U.S. manufacturers remain skeptical—and why that’s logical
55:00 – The last firms standing: SMBs thriving after 50 years of offshoring pressure
1:02:00 – Innovation isn’t always tech—it’s often business model expansion
Key Topics:
Why tooling remains the hidden bottleneck for global manufacturing
How venture capital is finally waking up to industrial capacity gaps
The accidental product-market fit behind REINDUSTRIALIZE’s rapid growth
Bridging venture, policy, defense, and legacy industrial operators
The deeply rational skepticism inside America’s remaining industrial base
The structural advantage the U.S. holds over Europe in industrial policy
Reindustrialization as a politically non-aligned but nationally urgent project
How SMBs are evolving to capture defense and government work
🔧 Learn more: reindustrialize.com
TOOL OR DIE is hosted by Joel Johnson, former science and technology journalist and corporate strategist who pioneered brands like Gizmodo, WIRED.com, and Wirecutter, and Alex Roy, a General Partner at New Industry Venture Capital (NIVC.us) known for breaking the Cannonball Run record and his work in autonomous vehicles. Each week, they speaks with the people actually rebuilding American manufacturing—one machine, one company, one idea at a time.
Follow them at:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joeljohnson | linkedin.com/in/alexroy
X: @joeljohnson | @alexroy144
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