How I Made It: Joseph Alonso, Founder of Novo Modo Machining

Joseph Alonso founded Novo Modo in 2023 with an idea to use standardized cells for complex five-axis work. By the end of 2025, he was projecting $4 million in annual revenue.

At 13 years old when my parents were divorcing, I had already started thinking, “I need to figure out how to be an adult and I need to make sure I can figure life out.” I found out that there's laws that allowed you to work full-time if you're emancipated while you're in high school.

By the age of 16, that whole plan had come together. I had moved out and had a full-time job in a welding company. About that time, I took the machining courses at the Sno-Isle Skill Center and found out I like that way more than I liked welding.

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Being super young in industry, most everybody's quite a bit older than you and most everybody there treats you like a little brother. They'll pick on you, but they'll also bring you along. I got a lot of close relationships being a 16-, 17-, 18-year-old in a machine shop. I also had a real job and also real money, so I had to start to thinking about things differently in life and be responsible.

By 19 years old, I bought my first house. By 22, I bought my second house. By 27, my third house. I kept all the previous ones and turned them into rentals. I was also saving money and investing, which helped me from a financial management standpoint for launching a company. You know, one, having money, but two, learning how to manage that money, how to look at investments, how to figure out the return on an investment.

Alonso plans to expand Novo Modo as a franchise model, targeting 10 new facilities by the company’s 10^th anniversary in 2033. Image provided by Novo Modo Machining.

I was helping someone launch a company when a friend said I should do this for myself instead of only helping other people do it. I realized it was time for me to put my money where my mouth is and see whether or not Novo Modo, which translates to “New Way,” could actually be something valuable. That’s what led me to build a startup with a concept that does not fit the norm of 99% of machine shops in the U.S.

I read a book by Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. He said something in that book, and I'm going to paraphrase, but it resonates with me still: If you look at any decision you're ever going to make, and you can analyze it to the point of understanding all the worst things that can happen, and you're alright with every one of those potentially worst things — as long as the worst thing isn't death or dismemberment — and you're able to live with that, then what's holding you back? That caused me to take a leap of faith in the business.

Manufacturing is an industry where you will get back what you invest into it. So if you just go there every day, just be an operator and you're happy with that, that's fine. But if your goal is to be a machinist and also a self-made millionaire, it is absolutely plausible to do that. But none of this will ever work if you don't have a positive attitude.