Episode
BONUS: From a Sabbatical to Building the First Full-Stack Industrial AI Company with Andres Naranjo, CEO of Software Toolbox
- Podcast
- Manufacturing Happy Hour
- Published
- Jul 7, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 4001
- Processing state
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- http://manufacturinghappyhour.com
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Summary
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 Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “ A…