NC Tweener Talks

Tad Schwendler, COO of Natrx, joins Scot Wingo to talk about manufacturing concrete structures that work with nature instead of against it. Natrx, a North Carolina company and Tweener Fund portfolio company, has developed a patented dry-forming process that injects moisture into dry material to create rough, complex structures capable of slowing water, encouraging natural sediment buildup, and even supporting live coral growth. Tad walks through the company's founding story, which traces back to coastal engineers doing oyster reef restoration at LSU and a chance meeting with NC State-connected software co-founders, and shares how his own background in corporate development and M&A led him into a hands-on operating role at a manufacturing startup. The conversation covers the physical scale of what Natrx builds, from three-foot units weighing just under a ton to twelve-thousand-pound structures bound for a coral restoration project in Hawaii, along with the company's growth: more than 85 physical deployments, over 100,000 units placed, and roughly 80 percent revenue growth year over year. It's a hands-on, visual episode and the first in a new series on North Carolina's under-the-radar physical manufacturing companies.

Timestamps:
00:00 Cold open and sponsor thanks

01:30 Welcome and series intro: NC's under-known manufacturing companies

03:12 Introducing Tad Schwindler, COO of Natrx

04:00 Formal welcome to the show

04:42 Tad's background: Atlanta, Duke, the Triangle

05:56 What does a COO actually do at Natrx?

07:58 Duke, Tulane, and a lifelong pull toward marine science

09:31 The founding story of Natrx

09:43 Two coastal engineers, oyster reefs, and LSU

11:13 Founded in 2018, commercializing by 2021

11:33 Nick's background: mechanical engineering meets software

12:52 What Natrx actually builds

13:13 Stopping water vs. working with it

15:44 Families of shapes: lattice, wave slope, and scaling up

19:02 How big are these things, and how deep do they go

21:12 What is "dry forming"?

22:07 The voxel: injecting moisture into dry material

22:55 The patent and the 10,000 sq ft Louisiana facility

23:37 Walking through the manufacturing process

26:01 How much does a unit weigh?

26:44 Shipping, barges, and why manufacturing stays centralized

29:13 Every unit is a little different: the voxel "snowflake" effect

30:02 How long do these structures last?

31:03 Growing live coral on the structures

32:30 How units get deployed in the water

33:56 Who's the customer?

35:50 Company scale: deployments, team size, revenue growth

37:14 What's next for Natrx, including a Series A

40:16 Why North Carolina is built for companies like this

41:40 Where to learn more: natrx.io

42:15 Credits and close

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Where to Find Tad Schwendler
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tadschwendler/
Natrx: https://natrx.io/

Where to Find Scot Wingo:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thescotwingo/
Tweener Times: https://www.tweenertimes.com/
X: https://x.com/scotwingo

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This episode of Triangle Tweener Talks is hosted by Scot Wingo, presented and produced by NC Tweener Fund, with creative assets and design support from Walk West. 

We couldn’t share posts like this without our amazing sponsors: 

Platinum: 
NC IDEA: https://ncidea.org

Gold Sponsors: 
- Balentine: https://www.balentine.com/triangle-entrepreneurs 
- EisnerAmpner: https://www.eisneramper.com 
- Robinson Bradshaw: https://www.robinsonbradshaw.com 
 
Silver Sponsors: 
- Automated Consulting Group: https://automated.co 
- Bank of America: https://business.bofa.com/en-us/content/technology-industry-group.html 

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