BONUS: From a Sabbatical to Building the First Full-Stack Industrial AI Company with Andres Naranjo, CEO of Software Toolbox

Andres Naranjo sailed a race around the world, wrote Japan's digital agenda, and spent his sabbatical teaching himself AI from scratch.

This week Chris sits down with Andres, CEO of Software Toolbox, to hear some incredible life stories and dig into what bringing AI into the industrial world looks like right now.

Andres has lived a lot of lives as a consultant, entrepreneur, ocean racer and AI builder. He's pretty direct about why he walked away from consulting to pursue his current endeavors - the AI wave was moving far too fast to be on the side-lines of it.

There's also practical conversation here for anyone thinking about how to deploy AI on the plant floor, and Andres' breakdown of how to effectively train an agent.

In this episode, find out:

• Why Andres left one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world to go build things himself
• What sailing a race around the world taught him about data, analytics and machine learning
• What the industrial tech stack of the future actually looks like and why it's simpler than anyone is making it sound
• The difference between machine learning, generative AI and agentic AI and why confusing them is holding the industry back
• Why the era of the dashboard is over and what should replace it
• What an AI agent actually is, how you train one, and where on the plant floor you should be deploying it first
• Why Andres bought Software Toolbox instead of building from scratch and the simple framework behind that decision
• Why Andres moved back to Silicon Valley after Japan and what he saw happening in AI that made him think it was time to stop advising and start building

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Tweetable Quotes:

• “AI is a salad bowl of technologies and almost always people conflate one with the other in really strange ways.” - Andres Naranjo, CEO of Software Toolbox
• “ It is a wonderful time to build. It's probably the best time ever. I want it to be in it. I didn't want to be on the side-lines for it.” - Andres Naranjo, CEO of Software Toolbox
• “There are many ways to lean in, and it's okay if there is some failure. Everything is a normal distribution. You’ve got to blow up rockets to land rockets on the moon.” - Andres Naranjo, CEO of Software Toolbox

Links & mentions:

• Software Toolbox is a full-stack industrial AI company, delivering industrial connectivity software, data platforms, and AI agents that augment the people working in manufacturing and process industries.
• Allie integrates intelligence into factory operations: learning from machines, sensors and systems to detect problems, recommend actions and coordinate responses in real time.

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.