It's not every day that you get to hone your skills with Elon Musk as your boss. It was while sourcing manufacturing equipment for Tesla's factory that Will Drery drew inspiration for Diagon, a startup that helps manufacturers source equipment.
“The large-scale projects that companies are building today (such as battery manufacturing) require very specific types of process equipment and automation equipment to build and automate the factories,” said Co-Founder and CEO. Drewery told TechCrunch. “I had been hearing and seeing trends in nearshoring and reshoring in American manufacturing. As a supply chain manager, I had been looking with a critical eye at how that actually happens. People intuitively understand that they want to source batteries for the cars they manufacture in or near the U.S., but if that capacity doesn't exist anywhere else, they can get qualified batteries. There is no way to find a supplier or have the right infrastructure to manufacture those products.”
In January 2023, he founded Diagon with Snackpass Vice President of Engineering Shri Muthu, leveraging his expertise in helping companies of all sizes source equipment for Tesla's electric vehicles and battery facilities. I made it possible. Companies in sectors such as automotive and aerospace can identify qualified suppliers from Diagon's network of equipment suppliers, system integrators and service providers and leverage the toolkit to manage their complex projects.
Diagon will also use artificial intelligence to determine what kind of infrastructure a company would need to become a qualified iron-based battery provider in the U.S. or in order for a company to manufacture those products. You're getting answers to questions like what kind of things do you need? ?
Originated on the east coast
Drewry, who spent most of his career as an equipment buyer, started his journey to Diagon in Pittsburgh. When Drewery was a child, his father and uncles worked in the steel industry. It was “a great way to make a living for a long time,” he said, until globalization moved manufacturing elsewhere.
“I was shocked to see that not only the industry was affected, but also the companies that support the industry,” Drewry said. “I had a hunch that being able to manufacture to support the local economy meant so much more.”
A few years later, Mr. Drewry joined PwC as a consultant and then the U.S. Department of Defense as a contractor. This role took him to Baghdad, where one of his projects was to help companies procure machinery and equipment to rebuild facilities damaged during the war.
After graduating from business school in 2012, Drewry moved to the Bay Area, where he heard about Tesla from a friend. The company had just purchased an old factory in Fremont, was removing old equipment, and needed someone to help source new equipment to manufacture the Tesla S, X, and her three models. .
A friend of mine brought his Tesla to Mr. Drewery's party, and after we took a joyride up and down the freeway, I thought, “I don't know what this company is doing, but I'd do anything to work there.'' Mr. Drewery recalls.
Work for Elon
Drewery said Tesla was like most organizations when it came to its supply chain.
“They don't focus as much on purchasing infrastructure for their factories. That tends to be left to engineers and other people within the organization,” Drewry says. “When I joined the company, I was the first person the company hired to procure this kind of machinery and equipment, in fact the first official purchaser. We were procuring materials.”
It was Drewry's job to source all the industrial robots, metal presses, and plastic molding machines. This has grown to source Tesla's entire manufacturing footprint in both Fremont and Buffalo, New York, as well as the Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada.
Drewry recalls that it was a great learning experience. It was difficult to identify suppliers and their locations. How to pay for these materials and how to actually source it all. That's because much equipment doesn't fit the criteria of what most supply chain managers buy, he said.
The Diagon dashboard provides a supplier search function for battery equipment.Image credit: Diagon
Drewry ended up taking a crash course in supply chain. He learned which suppliers were making which types of equipment, all about pricing, lead times, and other negotiations.
During this time, Drewery also gained experience building a fairly deep team to tackle it all. Drewry said his team had grown to 30 people and was managing about $700 million in capital investments annually. When he was with Tesla, the amount was about $3.5 billion.
“It was definitely one of the coolest jobs I’ve ever had, and I was surprised at how few tools there were to help you do it,” he said.
What was it like working with Elon Musk? “I learned nothing more than I did in that role, but it was the hardest thing I've ever done. ,” Drewry said.
Here's a small sample of what this includes: The best place to find companies that manufacture this type of equipment is at trade shows. But how do you take time off work to attend a conference when your boss is Elon Musk?
“A lot of times we had to stay out of sight,” Drewery said.
put those skills to work for others
Mr. Drewry worked at Tesla from 2013 to 2018. During this time, he also had to manage the delivery of all equipment and its testing and installation. This could take months or years, he said. While Drewry had a deep team to work with, he was often thinking about companies that didn't have the team or tools to do the same thing.
“This is why we felt the market needed Diagon,” Drewry said.
Diagon launched its equipment procurement and procurement platform in November 2023 after becoming part of startup accelerator Techstars. The company has grown to six employees and six of his customers, including Mitra Chem, Zeno Power, and Mighty Buildings.
The company will initially roll out the software platform in a pilot program for professional services customers, and plans to release it more broadly this summer, Drewry said.
The company recently raised $5.1 million, including a previous $800,000 SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) round. Westly Group led the round, with participation from Valia Ventures, Techstars, Foster Ventures, Foxe Capital, Anthemis, and ReFashiond Ventures.
This funding will give Diagon a good runway for the next two years and allow the company to aggressively hire new product and go-to-market leaders and more.
“We are currently developing tools to help customers better find suppliers and better interpret and summarize quotes,” Drewry said. “We'll roll them out as we develop them. We also have a runway to acquire new customers and build more products until we raise our Series A, which we haven't started raising yet. It's ready.”