In this episode, Madelyn O’Farrell speaks with Didi Caldwell, President and CEO of Global Location Strategies, about why site selection is a core supply chain decision rather than just a real estate choice. They cover common mistakes companies make, such as overvaluing incentives and underestimating labor market realities, and break down the key cost drivers of energy, labor, and logistics alongside risk and quality. Didi explains how shocks like COVID-19, tariffs, geopolitical conflict, and export controls have pushed manufacturers to prioritize resilience, multimodal logistics, and more rigorous environmental and utility due diligence. The conversation also explores sector-specific trends in automotive, pharma, metals, and AI-driven data centers, along with structural challenges like labor shortages, grid constraints, and water stress. Listeners come away with a clearer understanding of how demographic shifts, infrastructure needs, and emerging AI tools will shape manufacturing location strategy in the decade ahead, plus practical advice on why expert-led, data-driven site selection is critical for long-term success.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• What Global Location Strategies Actually Does Day-To-Day (0:46)
• Why Site Selection is a Core Supply Chain Decision, Not Just Real Estate (2:12)
• Balancing Cost, Quality, and Risk in Choosing a Location (4:04)
• How Covid, Tariffs, and Geopolitics Changed Supply Chain Strategy (5:39)
• Practical Ways Companies Mitigate Risk in Site Selection (7:17)
• Foreign Trade Zones, Bonded Warehouses, and Tariff Strategies (9:07)
• Building Multimodal Logistics Resilience and Avoiding Single Points of Failure (10:34)
• Sector-Specific Trends: Energy, EVs, Pharma, and Labor Constraints (12:12)
• Demographic Cliff, Grid Transformation, and Water Stress (14:56)
• Emerging AI-Driven Supply Chains and Future Location Strategy (17:57)
• Rapid Fire Segment for Didi (18:17)  
• The Critical Importance Of Expert, Data-Driven Site Selection (21:28)

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc.

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