# Accelerating the Pace of Innovation and Hardware Manufacturing with Nick Pinkston (Part 1 of 3)

- Show: [Manufacturing Happy Hour](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour)
- Published: 2022-10-18
- Length: 41m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2022-10-18-accelerating-the-pace-of-innovation-and-hardware-manufacturing-with-nick-pinksto
- Listen: https://manufacturinghappyhour.com/112

## Summary

Nick Pinkston, Founder and CEO of Volition, discusses his background growing up in rural Pennsylvania and his mission to accelerate hardware innovation by making manufacturing more agile. He details the evolution of his career through Hack PGH, CloudFab, and the deep-tech startup Plethora, explaining why he shifted focus to Volition, a marketplace organizing millions of industrial components. Pinkston explains how Volition solves the complexity of sourcing by harmonizing technical data, enabling engineers to find specific parts like servos through semantic and image-based search rather than simple keyword matching.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2022-10-18-accelerating-the-pace-of-innovation-and-hardware-manufacturing-with-nick-pinksto#t=0) Introduction: Nick Pinkston and Volition
- [4:19](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2022-10-18-accelerating-the-pace-of-innovation-and-hardware-manufacturing-with-nick-pinksto#t=259) Background: Growing up in Rural Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh
- [7:30](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2022-10-18-accelerating-the-pace-of-innovation-and-hardware-manufacturing-with-nick-pinksto#t=450) Mission: Accelerating Hardware Innovation and Democratizing Manufacturing
- [9:43](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2022-10-18-accelerating-the-pace-of-innovation-and-hardware-manufacturing-with-nick-pinksto#t=583) Volition: Organizing the World's Industrial Components
- [12:24](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2022-10-18-accelerating-the-pace-of-innovation-and-hardware-manufacturing-with-nick-pinksto#t=744) Early Career: From Maker Spaces to CloudFab and Plethora
- [16:39](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2022-10-18-accelerating-the-pace-of-innovation-and-hardware-manufacturing-with-nick-pinksto#t=999) Manufacturing Challenges: Flexibility, Setup Costs, and Reconfigurability
- [20:52](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2022-10-18-accelerating-the-pace-of-innovation-and-hardware-manufacturing-with-nick-pinksto#t=1252) Startup Journey: Hack PGH, CloudFab, and the Pivot to Volition
- [33:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2022-10-18-accelerating-the-pace-of-innovation-and-hardware-manufacturing-with-nick-pinksto#t=1980) Volition's Function: Search, Taxonomy, and CAD Integration

## Topics

- [Sourcing & supply chain](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/sourcing-and-supply-chain)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Industrial & consumer product design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/industrial-design)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Volition (company)
- Plethora (company)
- CloudFab (company)
- Hack PGH (other)
- McMaster-Carr (other)
- DigiKey (other)
- GrabCAD (company)
- Protolabs (company)
- Zomety (company)
- Fictive (company)
- FormLabs (company)
- Hadrian (company)
- Darby Dragon (other)
- Altium (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [#037 - Disrupting with digital manufacturing, with Nick Pinkston of Plethora, USA](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2017-09-13-037-disrupting-with-digital-manufacturing-with-nick-pinkston-of-plethora-usa) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [Matchmaking Supply and Demand for Parts Manufacturing w/ Markus Seibold](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2024-10-15-matchmaking-supply-and-demand-for-parts-manufacturing-w-markus-seibold) (The Manufacturing Executive)
- [Julie Schulte | Parts & Hardware Tools for R&D Engineers](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2023-04-28-julie-schulte-parts-hardware-tools-for-r-d-engineers) (Being an Engineer)
- [An Interview with Jonathan Hirschman of PCB:NG](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2016-05-20-an-interview-with-jonathan-hirschman-of-pcb-ng) (The Amp Hour)
- [Zane Hengsperger (Founder/CEO, Nox Metals)](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/just-gonna-send-it/2026-03-25-zane-hengsperger-founder-ceo-nox-metals) (Just Gonna Send It)

## Citing this page

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