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ProcMart makes the small stuff matter
A factory can be brought down by something that fits in your palm. ProcMart built its business around the unglamorous purchases that keep production moving - then decided to make some of them itself.
Anish Popli and the business of small things
A steel-town childhood, a procurement desk at BHEL, and a question about who does the chasing. How the founder of ProcMart came to see a business in the purchases factories would rather not think about.
Flatirons Solutions makes the aircraft manual earn its keep
An aircraft manual has to survive revisions, local edits and a journey to the shop floor. Flatirons Solutions turns that paperwork into a connected maintenance workflow - and is now adding visual guidance to the job.
Brian Sartain and the Long Afterlife of an Airplane
Aircraft grow old slowly. Brian Sartain has built a career around the less glamorous, more exacting question of what keeps them useful when their original parts become yesterday's business.
The Billion-Dollar Supply Closet Hidden in Plain Sight
Zoro turned the unglamorous work of buying gloves, gauges, fasteners and floor cleaner into a $1.4 billion digital business. Its real product is not the wrench - it is making 13 million industrial items feel searchable, buyable and close at hand.
The Chemicals Behind Flight Are Usually Invisible. GracoRoberts Built a Business Around Them.
A tube of sealant can hold up an aircraft repair just as surely as an engine part. GracoRoberts has spent decades turning those small, specification-heavy materials into a global distribution, technical service and ecommerce business.
The Garage-Born Chemical Company That Keeps the World’s Machines Moving
CRC Industries began with one corrosion inhibitor mixed in a Pennsylvania garage. More than six decades later, its real product is a carefully engineered answer to an expensive question: what keeps a machine working instead of waiting?
The 133-Year-Old Company That Broke Itself Apart to Chase Jet Engines
General Electric spent a century as America's everything-company. In 2024 it broke itself into three and kept only the part that flies - and Wall Street decided the pieces were worth more than the whole ever was.
Falcon Aviation Services
Falcon Aviation Services is an Abu Dhabi-based aviation group founded in 2006 that has grown from an offshore oil-and-gas helicopter operator into one of the Middle East's most diversified private-aviation companies. Operating from Al Bateen Executive Airport and Dubai, it offers helicopter and business-jet charter, aircraft management, MRO engineering, CAMO, fixed base operator (FBO) services, heliport management, medevac and sightseeing helicopter tours. Holding UAE and San Marino Air Operator Certificates and running a modern fixed- and rotary-wing fleet, Falcon is also pioneering next-generation urban air mobility as Archer Aviation's UAE vertiport partner.
R.S. Hughes Co., Inc.
R.S. Hughes Co., Inc. is a privately held, employee-owned industrial distributor founded in 1954. From its Sunnyvale, California headquarters it runs more than 40 stocking warehouses across the United States, Mexico, and Costa Rica, carrying over 350,000 products - adhesives, abrasives, tapes, safety gear, labels, electrical and shipping supplies - for aerospace, OEM, and MRO customers. Its Saunders division provides custom cutting and converting, and the company pairs deep local inventory with trained product specialists.
Bob McCollum
Bob McCollum is the long-serving CEO and driving force behind R.S. Hughes Co., Inc., an employee-owned industrial distributor headquartered in Sunnyvale, California that has grown into a $527 million enterprise spanning North America. A University of Michigan alumnus and former college quarterback, McCollum spent decades building RS Hughes into one of North America's top 50 industrial distributors, known for its culture of integrity and genuine care for employees. He has been recognized for significant philanthropic contributions to the University of Michigan athletics program, endowing the quarterbacks coaching position with a $2 million gift in 2022.
Zymbly
Zymbly is a UK-based AI startup that builds voice-first copilots for aircraft maintenance technicians - automating troubleshooting, parts lookup, and compliance documentation so mechanics can spend their time fixing planes instead of drowning in paperwork. Backed by Y Combinator (W26) and built by a team with deep roots in aviation and enterprise AI, Zymbly targets an industry facing a global shortage of 43,000 technicians and a maintenance capacity crisis.