The Pitch Interviews PartsBadger Owner Roy Dietsch

The Pitch did an interview with PartsBadger’s Owner Roy Dietsch. During that interview, Roy Dietsch discussed the goals of the company. Roy envisions a world where it’s easy, cheap and fast for manufacturers to order custom machine parts online.

PartsBadger aims to do that in a way that will “fundamentally change manufacturing,” Dietsch said — similar to the way in which Amazon Prime changed the market for consumer goods. PartsBadger offers instant online quotes and efficient production of manufactured parts for industries ranging from aerospace to consumer goods.

History of PartsBadger

Roy then discussed the history of PartsBadger in depth with The Pitch.

Dietsch started PartsBadger after struggling to purchase a customized part for his aerospace video systems business Rugged Video LLC, which is still in operation.

After sending out requests for quotes from 12 different companies, waiting a week to get responses, and finding only one shop that could make the part, Rugged Video determined it would be cheaper to buy the necessary equipment and make the part on its own — so it did.

“That whole experience kind of brought to my attention that the market for machine parts is broken,” Dietsch said.

Dietsch, who studied economics and mathematical sciences in college and took computer programming classes while earning an MBA, wrote an algorithm that would instantly provide quotes for machine parts. He also bought a computer numerical control (CNC) machine to manufacture the part for Rugged Video.

With that machine on hand, Rugged Video’s business transformed from developing one product a year to eight products a year, Dietsch said. From there, he officially formed PartsBadger.

Today, PartsBadger is both a technology company and a manufacturer that leverages innovations it develops on its own shop floor, as well as technologies it designed to help it source other parts from manufacturers around the world.

“PartsBadger took off, more or less, overnight,” Dietsch said. “We really hit the nail on the head from a market perspective as far as combining the technology with manufacturing.”

Where PartsBadger Stands Today

With more than 3,000 customers including NASA, General Dynamics, Toyota and Johnson Controls, PartsBadger ranked 525 on the 2021 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. and was the second-fastest-growing private firm in metropolitan Milwaukee based on its reported 936% three-year revenue growth.

Along its growth path, PartsBadger is expanding its in-house manufacturing capabilities and working to decrease production costs and lead times through increased automation. It currently has a 15,000-square-foot facility in Cedarburg but is looking to expand to around 60,000 square feet in Ozaukee or Washington county in the next 18 to 24 months, Dietsch said.

“We want to fundamentally change manufacturing,” he said. “We want to change how products are developed and how innovations get to market and we want to help all of our customers … get their products to market faster (so) they can innovate faster.”

See what PartsBadger is all about by requesting a quote with us.