Case Study: How All Metals Helped Moonshot Scale Fast

July 31, 2024

At All Metals, we work with partners in across a variety of industries. From oil and gas to commercial kitchens, our parts end up in many different sectors of the economy serving a wide range of purposes. 

In recent years, we’ve started doing a lot of work in the data center industry, helping our clients keep pace with the booming demand. Today, we’re profiling one valued customer that is growing extremely quickly in this exciting industry. 

The Customer: Moonshot

Based in Denton, Texas, Moonshot is a data center infrastructure company. They specialize in manufacturing electrical equipment for data centers, while also helping customers to design and build data centers. Moonshot began in 2020, and they’ve grown exponentially in a few short years. To understand how they’ve grown so fast, you have to know their full story.

Ethan Ellenberg, founder and CEO of Moonshot, began his career as an engineer working for oil and gas companies before moving to the data center industry in 2020. Because cryptocurrency is so deeply linked to data centers, Ellenberg became interested in the crypto industry right as a boom cycle began.

He realized that electrical systems to support data centers and cryptomining were in short supply, and he could use his skills to help meet this demand. He quickly found his first customer, who wanted a quarter of a million dollars worth of electrical control panels for crypto mining – and he wanted them in a week. Just a few years later, Moonshot now has an engineering, procurement and construction division as well as a panel shop division.

The Issue: Finding a Precision Sheet Metal Fabrication Partner That Can Grow With Them – Fast

It’s only been three years since Moonshot wired those panels in the parking lot, but their revenue has grown exponentially. The company, after all, sits in one of the most exciting spaces in today’s technological landscape. With the massive growth of AI and crypto expected to continue in the coming years, the number of data centers will need to drastically increase over the coming years.

That has created a lot of opportunity, and Moonshot needed to find a sheet metal fabrication partner that could help them seize the moment. All Metals was the perfect fit. With so many capabilities in-house, we were ready to help Moonshot with all the sheet metal fabricating services needed to build its equipment. As a one-stop-shop full of superior sheet metal solutions for Moonshot’s fabricating needs, All Metals was ready to enable their growth and reliably deliver the quality parts on the timeline they promised. 

The Solution: Working with All Metals Fabricating

Ellenberg was introduced to Lance Thrailkill of All Metals through another vendor, and it turned out to be the perfect match. All Metals began designing and making parts like shelving, backplanes, enclosures, brackets and much, much more for Moonshot. Ellenberg quickly realized this was the reliable partner that he had been looking for. 

“The attention to detail at All Metals is very high,” Ellenbeg said. “They go the extra mile with us – they even allowed us to put a rack in their shop. They bend over backward to make things happen, and we haven’t missed any of our shipments with All Metals.”

Moonshot could, in theory, do its sheet metal work in-house. But to bring in the equipment and personnel to do sheet metal fab in-house would’ve been a massive capital expenditure commitment. Ellenberg was not interested in taking on the risk of that capital commitment and instead realized finding an expert partner would be a simpler path to growth. And at All Metals, we’ve relished the opportunity to make miracles happen for such an exciting customer.

 "Moonshot is doing innovative work in an exciting field, and we're thrilled to be able to partner with them and support their growth,” said Thrailkill. “A critical aspect of their success has been to lean on our engineering services to help design their parts in a way that is efficiently manufacturable. In some cases we have done their design, and since they have bolstered their engineering department, they now start the design and submit it to us to review for design for manufacturability before going to production. This approach allows them to go straight to production often times instead of having to do multiple rounds of prototypes, which has been a differentiator for them. By making design suggestions, we actually saved them over $100K on one part!"
“With any metal fabrication, we’d always prefer to go through All Metals,” Ellenberg added. “All Metals is our competitive advantage.”

We help all of our customers meet their goals like we helped Moonshot – with design for manufacturability input, quality parts and reliable delivery. Request a quote to find out what we can do for you.

Make All Metals Fabricating your first choice in servicing your metal fabrication needs.

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