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In this episode of First Builders, Amber Illig and Rachel Tsui sit down with Zane Hengsperger, Founder and CEO of Nox Metals, an AI-powered metal supplier building automated factories in Detroit.
Zane grew up around manufacturing. His father owned a machine shop, and from an early age he saw how the industry actually works on the ground. After a brief stint in tech, he made a deliberate decision to return to the industrial world, driven by a belief that rebuilding America’s manufacturing base is both economically and strategically critical.
Through Nox Metals, Zane is rethinking how raw materials move through the supply chain. By combining software, automation, and factory operations, his team is working to deliver metal faster, more reliably, and at lower cost. The goal is not just incremental improvement, but a fundamental shift in how industrial supply chains operate.
This conversation explores what it really takes to build a hard tech company, from running a physical factory to navigating outdated systems and unlocking speed through technology. It also highlights why manufacturing is becoming one of the most important frontiers for builders today.
WHAT WE COVER
- Why Zane left tech to pursue manufacturing and reindustrialization
- How the metal supply chain actually works and where it breaks down
- Treating the factory itself as the product
- Using software and AI to compress timelines from days into hours
- Why U.S.-based production has a growing advantage in speed and responsiveness
- Selling modern tools to industries that have operated the same way for decades
- The importance of capturing tribal knowledge and digitizing factory operations
- Building in public and how it impacts hiring, customers, and momentum
- The realities of running a physical operation where problems cannot be solved from a laptop
- Why raw capacity, not just innovation, is critical to rebuilding industry
This episode is a clear look at what building in the physical world actually demands. It challenges the idea that the most important companies will be purely software-driven and makes the case that the next wave of impact will come from combining software with real-world infrastructure.
Zane’s perspective also highlights a broader shift. Manufacturing is no longer just legacy industry. It is becoming a space where ambitious founders can tackle massive, unsolved problems with both economic and national significance.
FOLLOW ZANE HENGSPERGER
Website: https://noxmetals.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zanehh/
X: https://x.com/zanehengsperger
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@noxmetals
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Nox-Metals/61586796136699/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noxmetals.co/
FOLLOW THE COUNCIL & FIRST BUILDERS
YouTube: @firstbuilderspod
Instagram: @thecouncilcapital
Twitter/X: @first_builders_
TikTok: @firstbuilderspod
LinkedIn: The Council
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