Natan Linder Bio
Natan Linder is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tulip, a cloud-based platform transforming frontline operations. Tulip enables some of the world’s largest manufacturers to build AI-enabled, connected applications that improve quality, efficiency, and traceability across their operations. Natan is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of Formlabs, a leader in professional desktop 3D printing.
Drawing on nearly 30 years of experience in computer science, design, manufacturing, and entrepreneurship, Natan develops composable, human-centric systems that enable continuous transformation. Prior to founding Tulip, he held leadership roles at Samsung, Sun Microsystems, and Rethink Robotics. At Samsung, he co-founded and led the company’s R&D Center in Israel, launching globally deployed mobile technologies.
Natan is the co-author of Augmented Lean: A Human-Centric Framework for Managing Frontline Operations, which challenges conventional approaches to digital transformation. He holds a PhD and an MSc from the MIT Media Lab, where his research focused on integrating physical and digital systems to enhance human capabilities.
Natan Linder has hosted 39 Episodes.
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From the Classroom to the Shop Floor: Building the Future Industrial Workforce
February 18th, 2026 | Season 6 | 30 mins 33 secs
4ir, ai, automation, digital transformation, industry 4.0, management, manufacturing, operations, supply chains, technology, workforce
Manufacturing’s future depends on talent. Jacob “MFG Kid” Sanchez shares practical ideas for growing interest in the industry and building the technical skills modern operations demand.
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The Human Infrastructure of Manufacturing with Stacey Weismiller of AMFI
January 22nd, 2026 | Season 6 | 35 mins 10 secs
4ir, ai, automation, digital transformation, industry 4.0, management, manufacturing, operations, supply chains, technology, workforce
Stacey Weismiller, Founder of the American Manufacturing Futures Institute, explores the human infrastructure of manufacturing, why workforce access and community matter, and how AI and automation can augment people rather than replace them.
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The Real Problem AI Needs to Solve in Manufacturing
January 15th, 2026 | 21 mins 9 secs
4ir, ai, automation, digital transformation, industry 4.0, management, manufacturing, operations, supply chains, technology, workforce
In this conversation, Chris Luecke, host of the Manufacturing Happy Hour podcast, joins Natan Linder to discuss AI in manufacturing, and how Mitsubishi Electric’s lead investment in Tulip’s $120M Series D helps to accelerate our mission to scale our composable platform, support an open ecosystem for frontline operations, and supports AI-enabled and human-driven innovation.
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Giving Robots "Common Sense": Inside RightHand Robotics with Yaro Tenzer
December 18th, 2025 | Season 6 | 30 mins 52 secs
4ir, ai, automation, digital transformation, industry 4.0, management, manufacturing, operations, supply chains, technology, workforce
Yaro Tenzer (RightHand Robotics) explains how LLMs give robots "common sense". He discusses the 10x drop in hardware costs and why purpose-built automation beats humanoid hype in factories.
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The Future Process Engineer with Chris Luecke of Manufacturing Happy Hour
December 4th, 2025 | Season 6 | 37 mins 42 secs
4ir, ai, automation, digital transformation, industry 4.0, management, manufacturing, operations, supply chains, technology, workforce
Chris Luecke of Manufacturing Happy Hour joins Natan Linder to explore how the process engineer role is changing, how AI is showing up on the shop floor, and why human insight still drives the best manufacturing teams.
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AI, Industry, and the Human Story with MIT’s David Mindell
November 13th, 2025 | Season 6 | 36 mins 36 secs
4ir, ai, automation, digital transformation, industry 4.0, management, manufacturing, operations, supply chains, technology, workforce
MIT Professor and author David Mindell discusses The New Lunar Society and what centuries of innovation reveal about AI, industry, and the future of human work.
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Operations Calling 2025 Recap: From AI Hype Into Real World Results
October 16th, 2025 | Season 6 | 31 mins 20 secs
4ir, agentic ai, ai, automation, digital transformation, industry 4.0, management, manufacturing, manufacturing ai, operations, supply chains, technology, workforce
Post-event reflections on Operations Calling 2025 — Tulip CMO Madilynn Castillo joins Natan to unpack the energy and community behind a turning point for operational AI and the next era of continuous transformation.
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Reindustrializing in 2025 — AI, Scale, and the Future of U.S. Manufacturing with MIT’s Liz Reynolds
August 14th, 2025 | Season 5 | 22 mins 36 secs
4ir, ai, automation, digital transformation, economy, industry, industry 4.0, management, manufacturing, operations, policy, politics, supply chains, technology, workforce
Fresh from Detroit's Reindustrialize conference, Liz Reynolds, manufacturing and workforce expert at MIT, joins Natan to discuss America's reindustrialization momentum, AI adoption in operations, and the massive scale challenge facing US manufacturers globally.
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AI, Agility, and Enterprise Architecture – Reflections on Season 5 of Augmented Ops
June 18th, 2025 | Season 5 | 18 mins 38 secs
ai, citizen development, composability
Natan Linder and Erik Mirandette close the season, separating AI hype from shop-floor value, spotlighting citizen developers, charting the fall of monolithic MES for composable tech stacks, and stressing adaptability as the edge amid constant volatility.
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The Future of Quality and Validation with AstraZeneca’s Bob Buhlmann
June 4th, 2025 | Season 5 | 28 mins 59 secs
pharma, quality, validation
Bob Buhlmann, Head of Quality Digital and Computer Strategy at AstraZeneca explores the evolution of quality in the pharma industry, the role of validation in an era of rapid technological advancement, and why pharma can be so slow to adopt new tech.
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Lighthouses, Lean, and the Human Factor in Digital Transformation with AstraZeneca’s Jim Fox
May 7th, 2025 | Season 5 | 24 mins 49 secs
automation, change management, lean, pharma
Jim Fox, SVP Americas Supply Operations at AstraZeneca, shares his perspective on humans vs. automation in pharma manufacturing, building trust in emerging tech, and how agility and lean principles drive innovation in an increasingly personalized industry.
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Rethinking Governance, eBR, and the CIO Role from the Ground Up with NextPharma’s Joel Fidalgo
April 23rd, 2025 | Season 5 | 29 mins 4 secs
ebr, governance, pharma, quality
Joel Fidalgo, CIO of Next Pharma, shares a CDMO’s perspective on how to bridge IT and operations, taking a new approach to MES and eBR, and the challenges of agility, quality, and data integration in the pharma space.