Ep. 98 - Larry Harrell, Perfect Point EDM

How Perfect Point EDM Took a Seven-Minute Job Down to Ten SecondsMost founders we meet sell a new product, but today’s guest, Larry Harrell, sells a new way to do an old job.For as long as there have been aircraft, mechanics have removed fasteners with a twist drill. On aluminum, that works. On titanium, Inconel and composites, it means three to seven minutes of hard, focused work per fastener, a real risk of damage to the hole, and sore shoulders at the end of every shift. Perfect Point EDM built a handheld tool that does the same job in about 10 seconds.While the technology was hard, in speaking with Larry, I learned that it was far from the longest part of the valley.About Larry HarrellLarry started as a flight test engineer, testing NASA and military aircraft. He led flight test for the first flight of the B-2 and delivered the first two operational B-2s, the Spirit of Missouri and the Spirit of California, to Whiteman Air Force Base.That success built him a reputation as a hard worker who could be trusted to deliver the goods. Still, he was awfully surprised when a former boss asked him to come to corporate and help run the company’s M&A deals. Larry was shocked, responding that him he tested airplanes and knew nothing about mergers and acquisitions. But his boss insisted that “I can teach you that. What I need is somebody that can get something done.” Larry spent the consolidation years of the 1990s and 2000s on the Northrop Grumman M&A team, building out a pure play defense portfolio.He has, in his words, “failed at retirement three times.” The third failure was Perfect Point.About Perfect Point EDMPerfect Point EDM is a Huntington Beach, California company that makes the E-Drill, a handheld electrical discharge machining (EDM) tool for aerospace fastener removal. The tool cuts a ring through the fastener head with controlled electrical sparks while it flushes the cut with water and vacuums away the debris. A computer runs the whole cut. The operator lines up the tool, pulls the trigger, and waits for the tool to finish the job.The company started in 2005 on the machining side. A Navy visit around 2009 pointed it at fastener removal. Larry joined around 2010 to raise capital, took over as CEO in 2016, and later moved to Executive Chairman. In July 2025, the Air Force awarded Perfect Point an SBIR Phase III contract worth up to $9.4 million for E-Drill 2.0. Today 22 people build about 20 machines a month.Learn more: https://ppedm.com/For more Crossing the Valley: valleycrossers.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.valleycrossers.com