StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Drew Baglino

Founder & CEO, Heron Power · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveengineer@baglino ↗heronpower.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

He is the founder and CEO of Heron Power, developing power electronics to modernize grid infrastructure. Prior to founding Heron Power, he spent 18 years at Tesla as Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering, directing electric vehicle powertrain design and utility-scale energy storage products.

7statements → 6claims → 4claims resolved → 75%fully supported → 4.14/5average certainty → 1.86/5average debate potential →

3 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 assertions · 1 insight · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Drew argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Baglino: Heron Power builds solid-state transformers to replace traditional grid materials
“At Heron Power, we're focused on building solid-state transformers to use silicon and software to replace steel, oil, and copper in power conversion at data centers, large-scale energy installations like solar and battery projects and others.”
Drew Baglino May 13, 2026 ▶ 5:16 The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Baglino: World's leading silicon carbide producer is US-based
“The world's leading producer of silicon carbide, which is a key power semiconductor, is based here in the U.S.”
Drew Baglino May 13, 2026 ▶ 0:37 The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
50% certainty 4
100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Everything Drew Baglino said on the a16z Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baglino: US-China factory labor differential is under 10% of COGS
“Yeah, I mean, these, today's factories are really automated. If you're building a new factory today, you know, in China or the U.S., the labor differential is less than 10% of cost of goods sold. It might even be less than five percent.”
Drew Baglino May 13, 2026 ▶ 10:34 The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z
Assertion Contradicted
Baglino: World's leading silicon carbide producer is US-based
“The world's leading producer of silicon carbide, which is a key power semiconductor, is based here in the U.S.”
Drew Baglino May 13, 2026 ▶ 0:37 The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z
Assertion Supported
Baglino: Heron Power builds solid-state transformers to replace traditional grid materials
“At Heron Power, we're focused on building solid-state transformers to use silicon and software to replace steel, oil, and copper in power conversion at data centers, large-scale energy installations like solar and battery projects and others.”
Drew Baglino May 13, 2026 ▶ 5:16 The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baglino: All 7,000 car parts are within 3 hours in China clusters
“If you look at, you know, China, they are so thoughtful about building these industrial areas, you know, everything that you could possibly need to build a car which has 7000 parts in it, you know, is within less than a three hours drive.”
Drew Baglino May 13, 2026 ▶ 11:05 The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z
Insight
Baglino: Existential urgency drove Tesla's peak team performance
“Many times in Tesla's history, You know, the company's future success, really, like, whether or not the paycheck will clear, you know, was bet on the team within the company executing well. And that is a very, like, focusing reality. And it drives people to do…”
Drew Baglino May 13, 2026 ▶ 16:45 The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z
Assertion Supported
Baglino: Tesla built the Lathrop Megafactory in 11 months
“I built the mega factory with my team. You know, my team was super awesome. Hello in Lathrop, California in 11 months. It was a JCPenney warehouse. 11 months later, the first product came off the line.”
Drew Baglino May 13, 2026 ▶ 9:32 The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z
Assertion Supported
Baglino: A federal highway trust fund for the grid has never existed
“I like the idea of a federal highway trust fund for the grid. It never has existed.”
Drew Baglino May 13, 2026 ▶ 22:51 The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
The Founders Who Left Tesla to Rebuild America | a16z May 13, 2026 8m
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 1,000 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more