Three Animals, One Mission: Inside the Minds of Pete and Ben

Hey everyone — Al here. I wasn't on this week's Chips and Tips. It was just Pete and Ben behind the mics. And honestly that's what made it great.

As CEO my job is not to be in every room. It's to build a company where the right people can thrive and where the culture takes over when I'm not there. That's exactly what this episode captured.

The Ohio Offsite: Designed by Leaders, Owned by the Team

Justin, our CTO, organized the experiences that shaped the week — from the machines we ran to the late-night shop sessions. He made sure the team wasn't just together but learning through doing.

Scott, our Chief of Staff, built an agenda that left room for magic. It wasn't a packed itinerary — it was a structure that gave the team just enough direction while still leaving space for spontaneous collaboration, real conversations, and some surprisingly emotional moments.

If you want to see what I mean, Adam Morley captured the week beautifully in this short film:

You'll see people breaking tools, sharing ideas, staring way too hard at a string-powered bowling lane. It's the most honest view I've ever seen of what we're trying to build here.

Why It Mattered

Pete said it was emotional. I believe him. He came from running a shop. He stepped away from the grind but somewhere in that week he fell back in love with the small things — deburring a part, loading the saw, figuring out the right way to file a corner.

Ben did what Ben always does — he took it seriously. He designed a utility knife for the team to machine together, then ignored Justin's instructions and mushroomed a pin into the aluminum. That part's on his desk now. A permanent reminder that the best lessons come from screwing up.

More than anything I saw a group of people who weren't just collaborating. They were proud. That's the real test of culture.

The Roadmap: Golden, Otter, Armadillo

Pete laid out three product initiatives in this episode — and they've stuck with me. We're calling them Project Golden, Project Otter, and Project Armadillo. Each one captures a trait we're building into the product and a quality we expect from ourselves.

Golden — Smart, obedient, reliable. Like a golden retriever. Not a black box, not a new CAM system — just software that understands what you're trying to do and improves every time you give it guidance.

Otter — Easy, playful, welcoming. Onboarding in industrial software usually feels like getting a root canal. Otter flips that. Pete and Paul turned a 14-minute manual tool setup into a one-second action. It's not magic — it's just thoughtful software.

Armadillo — Battle-tested, no excuses. Every two weeks we pick a real part. Toolpath must generate G-code that cuts — no edits allowed. If it breaks we fix it. This is how we push from helpful to truly hands-free.

Tool Recommendations That Actually Help

Pete gave Toolpath nothing but a tap and a STEP file — no tool library, no setup — just to see what would happen.

Toolpath solved the entire part.

It searched across vendor catalogs, recommended tools with proper geometry, and built a machinable program. It was fast, transparent, and 100 percent aligned with the part's features.

This wasn't a demo. This was Pete trying to break the product.

It worked anyway.

That's not just helpful for programmers — it's a game-changer for design engineers doing DFM. You can now gut-check a part and know what tools exist to cut it without ever opening a catalog or waiting on someone in the shop to weigh in.

Workholding That Just Works

Workholding setup in Fusion used to be a fragile ritual. Now with one checkbox — Import Workholding — Toolpath can bring in your vise, your stock, your origins, and even your parametric references.

What used to take half a dozen steps is now one click. This is where having real machinists on the team pays off — because we don't just build features. We build the workflows we wish we had when we were cutting parts full-time.

Why I'm Writing This

Not just because of what we're building. But who's building it. And how.

Justin created the space. Scott set the tone. Pete and Ben carried the torch. The team showed up, made it real, and shared it with the world.

This is the culture I get to represent. This is the team I get to serve. That's what makes my job worth doing.

And we're just getting started.

— Al