Lay of the Land #169: Aaron Slodov of Atomic Industries — Techno-Industrial Optimism and Exascaling American Manufacturing

In this episode of Lay of the Land, host Jeffrey Stern speaks with Aaron Slodov, CEO and co-founder of Atomic Industries, about the future of American manufacturing and his philosophy of techno-industrialism.

Slodov’s career path began in physics and power systems engineering, with early work at Google and later as co-founder of Remesh, an AI-driven market research startup. After raising over $40M for Remesh, he shifted focus to the “world of atoms” and founded Atomic Industries in 2019. Backed by more than $20M, the company is working to transform tool and die making—a critical but opaque part of the manufacturing supply chain—through automation and AI.

Slodov explains techno-industrialism as the merging of two historically distant fields: advanced technology and heavy industry. He argues that U.S. manufacturing has been hollowed out by decades of offshoring, leading to a dangerous loss of trade knowledge. The pandemic and supply-chain crises exposed these vulnerabilities, highlighting the need for a new generation of companies to reindustrialize America.

Atomic’s mission is to exoscale the industrial base—borrowing a concept from computing—by dramatically accelerating how quickly designs can move into production. By teaching machines to replicate the tacit knowledge of master toolmakers, Atomic aims to make manufacturing faster, cheaper, and more resilient.

Throughout the conversation, Slodov stresses why ambitious young talent should consider careers in manufacturing over purely digital ventures. He points to historical precedents in Ohio’s industrial rise, cultural concepts like Japan’s monozukuri (craftsmanship in making), and examples from Tesla and SpaceX that show what’s possible when technology and production are fused.

Ultimately, Slodov sees startups like Atomic as the vanguard of a movement to rebuild U.S. industrial strength, creating not just efficiency but renewed prestige and purpose in making the physical things society depends on.