Diaspora NZ with David Booth S3 | E8 – Adrian Macneil (Co-Founder & CEO at Foxglove) on Developer Tools for Robotics, and Why Ambitious Kiwis Need to Go — and Come Back Smarter
12 snips
May 1, 2025 
Adrian Macneil, co-founder and CEO of Foxglove, has a rich background in robotics and engineering, having led teams at Cruise and Coinbase. In this discussion, he reveals how a tool from Cruise sparked the birth of Foxglove, a crucial player in robotics developer tools. Adrian highlights the pivotal moment for robotics akin to the 1980s PC surge, emphasizing the need for simpler, repeatable robot tasks. He also shares his belief that Kiwi founders should gain international experience before returning home, strengthening New Zealand's startup ecosystem.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Startup Culture Inside GM Acquisition
- Adrian described joining Cruise post-GM acquisition and the early culture clashes over IT, cloud and processes.
- Cruise fought for operational independence and largely kept working like a startup despite corporate ownership.
Self-Driving Stack Is Reusable
- The autonomy stack built for self-driving cars maps to many other robotics problems.
- Any system with sensors, local decision-making and actuation can reuse that same infrastructure.
Customers From Tractors To Warehouses
- Foxglove customers span self-driving firms, agricultural autonomy teams (e.g., John Deere) and warehouse robots.
- Use cases include autonomous tractors, sprayers, package movers and pallet loading/unloading.
