David Venditto CEO, Infinity Tools

Infinity Tools - Rumor and Innuendo

The real deal from Infinity Tools CEO

As told to Tom Hintz, Publisher, Newwoodworker.com

(Note: This interview with David Venditto, Infinity Tools CEO, was conducted on 4-1-04. The questions were formulated by Tom Hintz and David Venditto's responses are presented here unedited.)

   While the world of cyberspace is overwhelmingly useful, it has a dark side.
   Internet-based forums allow woodworkers to get answers to questions from their counterparts worldwide, sometimes within minutes. Those same qualities allow misinformation to spread just as quickly.
   Recently, speculation on some woodworking forums regarding the relationship between Infinity Tool and Jesada Tool has evolved from weak suspicions by some to unfounded representations of fact by others. This unchecked rumor-mongering is not healthy for woodworking forums in general, and certainly not for the companies involved.

NewWoodworker Received more than one email from folks who "visited" the Infinity facility. One said it was actually the Jesada building, the other claimed the Infinity brand was nothing more than a business card on the desk of the Jesada owner, Gerard Davich. The reality is, neither is true. Click image to enlarge

   To get authoritative answers to some of the questions, NewWoodworker.com spoke with David Venditto, CEO of Infinity Tools. Venditto's unedited answers are presented below.
   It should be noted that Infinity Tools and NewWoodworker.com have no financial interest in each other. NewWoodworker.com has provided technical writing services to Infinity Tools for a fee in the past. NewWoodworker.com has also reviewed some Infinity Tool products, as we have products from many other companies.
   At this writing, NewWoodworker.com has not spoken to Jesada Tools regarding these issues, though that invitation has been made.
   Jesada Tools is under no obligation to respond to my questions. Should they opt not to participate, that should not be construed to mean anything other than they didn't want to talk to me. Anything else is pure speculation, like what got us here in the first place.

NewWoodworker (NWW) - How did Infinity Tools get started?

David Venditto (DV) - Infinity Tools started about two years ago, here in Clearwater, Florida. It's been about a year since we bought the business from a gentleman named Corey Spann.
   When it started, they offered about 53 different items, and they had some dealers in the United States.

NWW - I understand your family has a long history in router bits and woodworking tools in general. Tell us about that.

DV - I grew up around tool manufacturing, router bit plants, saw blade plants. When I was a kid, I'd go into the office with my dad, Carlo, on weekends and saw how the products were made, the sale of the products, development of new products and that sort of thing. That's part of my background.
   When I graduated from college, I started a router bit manufacturing company. This is where the majority of my experience comes from in terms of tool design, the ingredients that go into making the best router bit.
   My dad has been in the router bit/saw blade/woodworking tool business probably over 30 years. My dad worked for Freud, he was the president of Freud in the United States for I think 15 or 20 years. Then he started his own company. The name of that company was Jesada Tools. That's where I began my experience in manufacturing, design, catalog and Internet sales.
    In 1999, I wanted to continue my education so I left Jesada, went to Europe for about a year and a half and got my masters degree in business from a business school in London. While I was gone, my father decided to sell the business (Jesada), this being over three years ago. When I came back, I realized I missed the industry that I had grown up around, so I decided to get into the business again. Corey Spann (the originator of Infinity Tools) came along, he wanted to get out of the business, so the timing worked out very well.

NWW - What is the theory behind the Infinity Tools brand?

The Infinity shelves hold lots of product, a key in Venditto's desire to offer fast customer service. NWW has been "assured" by emailers that Infinity orders are really shipped from the Jesada plant. Wrong again. Click image to enlarge

DV - The main goal that we have at Infinity is to produce the best quality products we can and only top our quality with our service. In other words, insuring the customer has a fantastic experience when dealing with Infinity Tools both from a quality product and customer service standpoint.

NWW - Where are Infinity Tool products made?

DV - Most Infinity products are made in the United States. We have factories in different places in the US that make our products exactly to my specifications. Collectively we bring 20 or 30 years of experience in the business and apply that to tool design and working with contacts we have developed over the years.
   I think this is a big differentiator between Infinity and most of the other catalog companies in the market. I have specific experience in the manufacture of these tools. We have engineering that is done by us, in-house, collaborations and strategic relationships with factories that produce our products to our exact specifications.

In all of the dealings NWW has had with David Venditto, he has been very straight-forward and interested in servicing his customers. The reports we have received from those who actually bought products from Infinity indicate he is succeeding. Click image to enlarge

   Jesada makes a few of our products. The reality is, when you buy a product from a factory, in a sense you have invested in that factory. We have made investments in various factories all over the world. We do not have products made in China.
   I do take advantage of the fact I have traveled all over the world, and visited factories in many places and have contacts really in all four corners of the earth in terms of tool manufacturing, whether it be the US, Taiwan, Italy or Australia. Again, we source globally, but right now, nothing is being imported from China.

NWW - The numbering on Infinity products looks very similar to those on Jesada products. Why is that?

DV - The numbering system we use is similar because of my familiarity with the parts. I can give a much faster and more accurate answer to a customer inquiry because I know the family of parts and the corresponding numbers. I didn't think a new numbering system would be as efficient as a format we knew.

NWW - Where do you see Infinity Tools going in the next five years?

DV - We are very excited about the future. We are just now developing a new line of brazed shaper cutters. We are also developing a new high-end line of aluminum head shaper tooling with indexable, all-carbide knives that you can throw away. We are also developing a complete new line of saw blades to follow up the success of the Dadonator (stacked dado set).
   I really want to be known as the premiere cutting tool catalog. When people want a product to cut wood, to size wood, we hope to be the supplier of choice for people who buy over the Internet or through catalogs.

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