When Andrew Johnson first appeared on the Manufacturing Happy Hour podcast back in October 2020, he was known primarily for two ventures: his family’s O-ring distribution business and ShelfAware, the vendor-managed inventory company he’d co-founded five years earlier.
But as Johnson sat down for a follow-up conversation with host Chris Luecke over beers at Everywhere Beer Co. in Anaheim, California, it quickly became clear that his entrepreneurial journey had taken a bold new turn. Enter HeavyTech, Johnson’s latest venture, which is designing and building hybrid and electric machines for the construction, farming, and ranching industries.
“Heavy Tech was really, which is, I guess, predominantly what we’re trying to venture,” Johnson explained with a laugh. “Yeah, probably somewhere I lost my mind.”
But for all the self-deprecating humor, Johnson’s approach to building a manufacturing startup from the ground up has been anything but crazy. In fact, it’s a masterclass in how to leverage hard-won industry expertise, strategic relationships, and a whole lot of grit to bring a new kind of product to market.
The HeavyTech story began, as so many startups do, in a garage. Johnson and his partner, Mike, had been commiserating about the frustrations of their respective industries — Johnson in industrial distribution, Mike in equipment manufacturing. They realized there was an opportunity to design a new kind of machine that could bridge the gap between the two worlds.
Mike and I literally started building this machine in a garage. We pulled every relationship we had. I mean, you want to talk about LinkedIn connections, we tapped every single person we knew in the industry to even get parts.
But even as they were piecing together that prototype, Johnson and his team were already thinking about how to scale the business. They knew that taking on traditional venture capital would mean ceding control and potentially compromising their vision. So they turned to crowdfunding instead.
“As soon as you take a big check from some DC firm, you’re essentially under their thumb,” Johnson explained. “And the crowdfunding round allowed us to raise a bunch of money from a bunch of individuals who believe in the future vision of our company, and in small and only increments the cash starts rolling in from just like normal people who would eventually be our customers.”
Of course, even with that initial influx of cash, the road ahead was far from smooth. Johnson candidly recounted the “no money Mondays” when the team would huddle to figure out how they were going to make payroll that week. But through a combination of hustle, strategic partnerships, and a whole lot of faith in their vision, they kept pushing forward.
That happened more frequently than I’d like to admit, but you find a way and you trust the process. And if you believe in the end goal and you believe in your team, you just keep getting up every day and pushing that boulder up the hill.
One of the keys to weathering those ups and downs, Johnson believes, has been his diversification within the industrial space. In addition to HeavyTech, he continues to run the family O-ring business and ShelfAware — ventures that are distinct but complementary, allowing him to apply lessons learned across all three.
Just as critical has been his commitment to relationship-building and networking. Johnson pointed to his chance meeting with Mike, which began as a casual conversation over beers and ended up spawning a whole new company, as a prime example of the power of staying open to unexpected opportunities.
“You should always look for every opportunity to meet interesting people and learn about them and get to know them and be intentional with your relationships,” he urged. “You never know where they’re going to lead.”
For Johnson, that spirit of openness and intentionality has led to a manufacturing startup that is defying the odds — and proving that American industrial entrepreneurship is very much alive and well.
“I think it’s just, again, kind of just right place, right time, like one thing led to another,” he mused. “It is not something I planned. I’ll tell you that.”
Planned or not, it’s a journey that’s just getting started — and one that’s sure to be anything but boring.
“Here’s what I’ll tell you,” Johnson said as he raised a glass to toast the winding road ahead. “Strap in and hold on.”
To learn more about Andrew Johnson’s ventures, visit HeavyTech.com. And to hear more of the Manufacturing Happy Hour podcast, including Johnson’s first appearance back in 2020, visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com.
