About — ELI HIVE

01 · Problem

Record reshoring demand is landing on a shrinking industrial base.

America is rich in job-shop capacity — hundreds of thousands of small manufacturers with machines, floors, and skilled operators. But skilled workers are reaching retirement, shop owners want to retire, and the software to run a programmable, automated, continuously-learning floor barely exists.

Hard tooling demands upfront capex and locks you to one product. The workbench is flexible but doesn't scale. Between them — 10 to 10,000 units a year — sits the missing middle: the most valuable real estate in manufacturing, and the dead zone few incumbents serve.

55%+

Owners 55+

Over half of small-shop owners are nearing retirement, with few succession paths.

~70%

Machinists 45+

The skilled workforce is aging out faster than it can be replaced.

$150K–$5M

Hard-tooling lock-in

Per-station to per-line capex, 36–50 week builds, one product forever.

Our answer: don't re-tool. Re-route.

Standardize the container, not the product. A hexagonal HIVE CELL wraps any proven OEM machine with vision, sensors, edge compute, and a universal interface — making it AI-addressable. The HIVE MIND orchestrates the line and learns from every run, so knowledge compounds at the orchestration layer instead of living in the tooling or in one operator's head.

The team

Operators, not slideware.

A zero-to-one builder and a three-nines operator, with a capital chair and an economist CFO — already running a live facility and working software.

CEO · Founder

Marcus Metzger

Founder & Executive Director, HICAM

0→1 startup visionary with a manufacturing-tech background. Founder & Executive Director of HICAM. A decade-plus running a Tier 1 rapid-prototyping and digital-fabrication business in New York City, shipping real hardware and leading teams through production with a national network.

HICAMTier 1 prototypingFuture Space NYC

linkedin.com/in/marcusmetzgeram

CTO · Founder

Charles Donly

Three-nines / Six Sigma manufacturing executive

20 years across advanced manufacturing in China and the U.S.; hundreds of millions in capex roadmap; teams of hundreds of engineers. Six Sigma MBB. Naval Reactors. Former AI/GPU CTO.

Six Sigma MBBNaval Reactors20 yrs advanced mfgAI/GPU CTO

linkedin.com/in/charlesdonly

Chair

Robert Walker

Chairman, HICAM

Investment veteran with political and capital relationships. Veteran investment executive; built HICAM's institutional base and brings the capital network behind Austin's advanced-manufacturing push.

CFO

Jon Hockenyos

Founder & President, TXP

Economic insights with institutional connections. TXP is the economic-analysis firm behind hundreds of public- and private-sector engagements; Jon structured the Travis County incentive deal that brought Tesla's Gigafactory to Austin.

What is already de-risked

HICAM

Live $20M, 50K sq ft Austin campus; 10K sq ft for ELI

HIVE MIND

Physical agent harness; first KUKA KR60 cell in progress

Professional network

Legal counsel: Larry Waks, Esq. · Accounting: Cherry Bekaert LLP

Austin ecosystem

Industrial, defense, and dual-use connections

Austin, TX · the assets

Most teams pitch a stack. We already built the place it runs.

Three assets are already in place in Austin.

The facility

HICAM

A live $20M, 50K sq ft advanced-manufacturing campus in Austin — the funnel, the trained workforce, and the defense credibility, run as a 501(c)(3). ELI operates in 10K sq ft of it, with an option on more.

The software

HIVE MIND

The orchestration layer — author, design, run, learn. A working MVP, demonstrated live.

The interface

HIVE CELLS

The physical agent harness — any machine, made AI-addressable. Built with Kinematic Trees, our robotics-integration partner. A KUKA KR60 is installed and integration is underway.

HICAM is a related 501(c)(3) founded by ELI's founders. Facility, rent and services are set at fair market value and papered by outside counsel.

Built within a network that includes

Kinematic TreesARM InstituteNextFlexAmerica MakesCarnegie Mellon RoboticsUC Santa BarbaraCapital FactoryAustin Community CollegeProcess-equipment OEM partners

Relationships range from active partnerships to early conversations. Logos available on request.

05 · Roadmap

From first cell to a government vehicle in motion.

Q4 2026

First demo cell

A live KUKA KR60 integrated and orchestrated as a HIVE cell: software driving real steel.

Mid-2027

First HIVE line + named customers

~8 cells, roughly two lines. Real logos coming through the floor.

2026–27

Government vehicle in motion

AS9100 + ITAR registered; defense-aligned from the start, front-loaded months 1–9.

2027–28

Scaling beyond the first line

Proven cell library, multiple lines, and a defense-qualified floor.

The physical agent harness for programmable manufacturing.

Record reshoring demand is landing on a shrinking industrial base.

Our answer: don't re-tool. Re-route.

Operators, not slideware.

Marcus Metzger

Charles Donly

Robert Walker

Jon Hockenyos

Most teams pitch a stack. We already built the place it runs.

HICAM

HIVE MIND

HIVE CELLS

From first cell to a government vehicle in motion.

First demo cell

First HIVE line + named customers

Government vehicle in motion

Scaling beyond the first line

Come see the floor.