#74 Sue Helper: Re-industrialization Starts With Coherent Strategy

You know, it's funny.

It's funny.

Literally, my next question was about government procurement because it drives me crazy.

So I have to give you an anecdote.

So I'm going to go down a little rabbit hole.

Okay, ready? Okay.

so I've always kind of felt this.

It's like, you know, when, cause when you're coming from like, from my perspective, I'm backing very early stage entrepreneurs, creating different tech, different technology, changing the way that we make things.

So maybe it's biomanufacturing, maybe it's early state, like automated R and D labs, like all these, all these different things.

And what you realize, like that innovation, early stage economy is very messy.

And if it's, and if it's something that's, I've always said this, which is like when you look at the government spend, the federal government spend on a lot of these different things, especially the boring stuff, which we're going to get into, because the boring stuff's really like the screws and where the rubber meets the road, right? Where it's like the capital markets from our capital markets aren't going to go fund that for a variety of reasons.

They want the sexy advanced manufacturing stuff.

And so I've always said this, that it's like if we just had a coordinated program for kind of this kind of early stage economy, just more across the board, not just the advanced manufacturing sectors.

It literally changes the game for the entrepreneurs and the small businesses who are trying to create more domestic supply chain.

So like one example.

I have a gentleman that...

So he makes bio-based industrial lubricants.

It's interesting.

Something you guys never think about.

He makes all of their total loss formulations with American-grown soy.

So he buys it all direct from American soy farmers.

He works for some of the larger equipment owners like Stanley and Black & Decker and stuff.

But...

Basically, and what he's created is he's been able to prove that his industrial lubricants, his whole portfolio of them, can outperform petroleum.

And it's actually obviously better for the human operator and the planet.