
The Industry Innovator: Joseph Visconti
When Joseph Visconti bought Fort Pierce boat manufacturer Twin Vee in 2015, he had neither marine nor manufacturing experience. What he did have was a vision for where he could take the company. “I’m a serial entrepreneur,” says Visconti, 58. “I like fixing broken businesses, and I like giving people opportunities.” In the past eight years, the Juno Beach resident has grown the 29-year-old company from $3 million in sales to $33 million, from 25 employees to 180, and manufactures 240 boats a year. In 2021, he not only took the company public on NASDAQ, but he also started a new company—Forza X1—creating electric boats for the mass market. The boats, which run up to 40 mph on five hours of battery time, were designed and engineered under the leadership of industry innovator Jim Leffew, whom Visconti hired to fulfill his vision of an affordable, eco-friendly electric boat line. “I read a study that said in Florida alone, the oil and gas that come out of recreational boats annually is equivalent to the Exxon Valdez spill,” says Visconti. His Forza X1 boats not only have significantly less impact on the environment, but they offer a better boating experience too. “They are so quiet, you can hear the ocean and the breeze,” he says. Electric motors also use 90 percent fewer moving parts, making them more efficient and economical to manufacture than combustion engines. Visconti rolled out the first Forza X1 to the marine market this past July. And next year, he plans to open a new facility in North Carolina, with the goal of eventually putting 1,000 electric boats on the water every year. Says Visconti: “I want to build the leading mass-production electric boat company in the world.”
Shot on location in Fort Pierce
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