The Story of Thread: Building the Epic of Utility Infrastructure

A generator explosion on a North Dakota ranch would spark a multi-generational journey to transform utility infrastructure. Josh Riedy‘s grandfather and uncle bore visible scars from that incident, which drove his grandfather to start the area’s first power cooperative. Decades later, this family history would inspire Thread’s creation.

The catalyst came in 2013 when an October ice storm devastated the same cooperative’s infrastructure. “People were out of power not for days, not for weeks, but for months. It was catastrophic,” Josh recalls. “That just led me to believe that…that industry of all industries, needed modern tooling to make their jobs safer.”

Thread’s founding team met at the University of North Dakota while creating software for FedEx. Josh, along with co-founders Dr. Jim Higgins and Dr. Travis Desel, combined their expertise in aviation and computer science to tackle utility infrastructure challenges.

Their break came through Microsoft’s TechSpark program, designed to spark technology innovation away from the coasts. After a TED talk in Fargo, Josh received an unexpected invitation to meet Microsoft President Brad Smith. “Almost one of those situations where you think it’s a prank call,” Josh shares. That meeting turned into a 90-minute deep dive into Thread’s business plan, resulting in their first $100,000 investment.

Thread took an unconventional approach to market entry, establishing a co-development partnership with XL Energy. Instead of seeking immediate revenue, they focused on understanding and solving real industry problems. “We had to earn the business… We identified the problem. We identified a path to a solution, and we didn’t get paid until we proved it,” Josh explains.

The result? A new product category that Josh describes as “a mashup of ERP solutions, asset performance management solutions in particular, like SAP mashed up with robotics.” Their solution transformed dangerous, time-consuming inspections into efficient, safer processes. What once required “a three person crew repelling down turbines that are 80 meters in height” became “a one person job in roughly 20 minutes.”

Looking ahead, Thread is positioning itself to capitalize on the utility industry’s transformation to renewables. “There is a generational opportunity…utilities making the pivot into renewables and making a pivot away from large opex, which was fossil fuels and uranium, to produce power,” Josh notes. He envisions Thread becoming to utility digitization what Epic is to electronic medical records.

Just as his grandfather transformed power access in rural North Dakota, Josh aims to revolutionize how utilities manage infrastructure globally. “What epic is to electronic medical records, I do believe Thread will be to the digitization of our nation’s utilities and energy, and perhaps even DoD to follow,” he shares. This vision of becoming the central platform for utility digitization drives Thread’s next phase of growth.

For Thread, the story that began with a ranch generator explosion has evolved into a mission to transform how utilities worldwide manage and maintain critical infrastructure, demonstrating that transformative innovation can emerge from anywhere – even North Dakota.