Ignite VC: Scaling Industrial Startups from Zero to Global Impact with Renan Devillieres | Ep194

Ignite: Conversations on Startups, Venture Capital, Tech, Future, and Society

Renan Devillieres is the founder and CEO of OSS Ventures, a venture studio dedicated to building startups that transform the manufacturing industry. With a background in economics, consulting, and factory leadership—and later scaling his first AI startup through Series B—Renan brings unique insights into the intersection of technology, operations, and entrepreneurship. In this episode, he shares how his journey from corporate life to startup building led him to launch OSS Ventures, and why he believes the future of factories lies in software-defined automation and bold founders willing to reshape industry.

In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

00:01 – Introduction and Name Pronunciation

01:08 – Math Background and OECD Economist

02:51 – Corporate Career and Entrepreneurial Realization

05:06 – First Startup and AI Job Matching

07:50 – GDPR Challenges and Exit

09:35 – Tesla Factory Visit and Inspiration

14:12 – Mapping Startups and Launching OSS Ventures

17:57 – Bootstrapping OSS and Early Experiments

20:02 – Founder Matching and Validation Process

22:33 – OSS Ventures Results and Portfolio Growth

23:15 – Traits of Successful Industrial Founders

25:24 – Founder Selection Process and “Hell Yes or No”

32:13 – AI, Automation, and Factory Transformation

36:18 – Dark Factories and Software-Defined Manufacturing

40:08 – Europe’s Role in Industrial Innovation

42:13 – Software Bottlenecks in Industry 4.0

44:52 – The Future of Supply Chains and Microfactories

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