Hardware Podcasts

304: How to Build a Manufacturing Company from First Principles with Supersede CEO Sean Petterson

Manufacturing Happy Hour · 29 Sept 2026 · 47m

AI in practice: 2 real uses of AI described

What this episode covers

Sean Petterson, CEO of Supersede, explains how his company turns recycled plastic into structural building materials like Marine Board and OSB alternatives, starting with boats and expanding to RVs. He details a capital-efficient manufacturing model using small, distributed plants in Phoenix and Bristol, Indiana, to serve local markets and reduce logistics costs. Petterson highlights the use of AI for tool design, machine vision for quality control, and a custom-built ERP system developed without software developers to streamline operations. The company aims to build 10 plants in five years, leveraging first principles and domestic manufacturing trends to compete with traditional lumber products.

AI in practice

Where this conversation describes AI being used to build or deliver a product. Part of the AI in practice tracker.

Engineering & simulationSlack, Jira, GitHubbuilt ERP without software developers

The team used AI coding tools to build an internal ERP system without software developers, dispersing product management needs into Slack channels that fed into Jira and GitHub, allowing the production team to iteratively design the software they needed.

“we're doing by just dispersing the needs into effectively things like Slack channels, where we can backchannel things into into Slack, have that go up into Jiro, have that fall down into a GitHub repo, and have this iterative cycle where the team is truly designing the N ERP that is required for them.”

Sean Petterson · Hear it at 28:45

Sourcing & supply chainscrapersinformed product development based on pricing data

The company built software scrapers to monitor current pricing for lumber and other building materials, using this data to inform product development decisions such as adding features or dialing back costs based on market fluctuations.

“we build scrapers that understand what current pricing is. And so, Lumber, particularly, but most commodities that are in the building materials market fluctuates so heavily, particularly right now, just the state of global economic affairs, and, That, allowing us to inform that in our development process, is just saying, hey, maybe we can add this extra feature to this, or maybe we need to dial back this feature.”

Sean Petterson · Hear it at 40:46

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Supersede, PTC
Products
Marine Board, OSB

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