Building Deep Tech

Albane Dersy turned down Goldman Sachs to build Inbolt, a robotics company now deployed in factories across the world. Her story is a masterclass in execution:In this episode, we talk about how Albane grew up in Paris, pushed her way through the French prep school system, and found her path into entrepreneurship after a semester at Wharton opened her eyes to what was possible. She explains how she met her two co-founders during the X EC program, and how the first version of Inbolt had nothing to do with robots. They started with a real-time guidance tool for workers and later pivoted to industrial robots after spending months on factory floors and seeing where customers really needed help.Albane walks through what it takes to sell and deploy automation inside global companies. She talks about why founders need to be on site all the time, and why selling early matters more than waiting for perfect reliability. She explains why deployment is everything in manufacturing and how Inbolt built a system that retrofit existing robots, reduced downtime, and proved value in a few weeks instead of years.We also talk about ambition, hard work, and the pressure she faced breaking into industries that are not always welcoming to young founders. Albane shares her early years in boxing gyms, her drive to be taken seriously, and the mindset that helped her operate and grow a company that now works with some of the biggest manufacturers in the world.If you want a clear look at how real robotics gets deployed at scale, and what it takes to build a company inside the most demanding industry in the world, this is an episode you should hear.

Dr. Hendrik Susemihl, CEO and Co founder of GoodBytz, shows you how fully automated kitchens can solve the labor crisis in food service and still serve better, fresher food at scale.We talk about his path from taking apart PCs as a teenager, to building large automation systems at Fraunhofer, to becoming CTO at NEURA Robotics. Hendrik explains why he walked away from a safe leadership role after his father’s heart attacks, how going plant based changed how he sees food, and why he became obsessed with the question: if I can cook healthy meals quickly at home, why is it so hard to get that quality in hospitals, canteens, and on the road.Hendrik breaks down how GoodBytz works in practice: a compact robotic kitchen that cooks up to 150 meals per hour, runs 24/7, and delivers consistent quality in places like university hospitals and motorway sites. We get into what they learned from running their own Lieferando brand, why he mostly ignores CVs and hires for people who build things for fun, and how a small Hamburg startup ended up signing a landmark contract with the US Army to feed soldiers in South Korea.If you care about robotics with real deployment, food at scale, or building a deep tech company that actually ships, this episode will be very useful for you.

In this episode, I talk with Jon Miller Schwartz, co-founder and CEO of Ultra, about how to actually get robots deployed in warehouses:We walk through Jon’s journey from tearing apart electronics on a tiny New York City workbench to Harvey Mudd, early YC startups in 3D printing, and building one of the first highly automated factories at Voodoo Manufacturing. Jon explains why those painful years with “last generation” robots convinced him to start Ultra and focus on one thing first e commerce order packing as a beachhead for real industrial deployment.He breaks down how Ultra’s robots drop into existing pack stations, learn from examples instead of brittle scripts, and why he believes in multi purpose robots before truly general purpose systems. We talk about force sensitive dexterity, what most people get wrong about warehouse automation, and how a small team in Brooklyn already has robots running live for customers. If you care about turning AI and robotics into shipped systems instead of slideware, this one is for you.

Axel Peytavin, co-founder and CEO of Innate, specializes in making personal robotics accessible to everyone. He shares his journey from France to Stanford, revealing how early coding shaped his path. Axel discusses Innate’s new $2K teachable robot, which can learn skills rapidly, highlighting its real-world applications like security patrols and chess playing. He emphasizes the importance of speed in innovation and how personal robots could revolutionize technology in a way similar to personal computers, advocating for an open, collaborative approach in the field.

Tom Zhang, founder and CEO of Daxo Robotics: with over 100 actuators they challenge everything we thought we knew about dexterity.In this episode, we talk about his journey from growing up in a mountain village in China to launching one of the most talked-about robotics startups of 2025.Tom shares how early life on a family orchard shaped his fascination with building and problem-solving, what he learned during his years at Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab, and why he believes the robotics industry has been climbing the wrong mountain by chasing simplicity instead of embracing complexity.We explore the story behind Daxo’s “Muscle v0” hand, how it was built in days with 108 tiny motors and off-the-shelf materials, and why redundancy, not minimalism, might hold the key to human-level adaptability. Tom also talks about his earlier success in agricultural robotics, raising over a million dollars in pre-seed funding, and what it takes to pivot from apple orchards to general-purpose robot dexterity.If you’re interested in robotics, entrepreneurship, or the mindset of founders who challenge fundamental assumptions, you’ll want to hear this conversation with Tom.

Maximilian Schilling, co-founder and CEO of warmwind, is building a new kind of browser where AI works like a digital employee: clicking, typing, and navigating apps visually instead of through APIs. In this episode, we talk about his mission to make automation transparent, reliable, and accessible for every business, and how he’s building one of Europe’s most ambitious AI startups from Jena, Germany.We dive into Max’s story, from growing up in a family that both inspired and warned him against entrepreneurship, to starting his first business at 14, and selling his second before launching Warmwind. He shares how financial independence as a teenager shaped his drive, why failure never felt like a real risk, and how curiosity (not comfort) has guided every decision he’s made.Max also explains Warmwind’s approach to building Warmwind OS, a browser-based system where AI agents automate workflows for small and medium businesses by acting on the screen instead of behind closed APIs. We talk about building reliable software, hiring in Europe, retraining vision-first AI models, and why he believes European founders should channel their “rage to compete” into world-class products.If you’re interested in AI, automation, or the mindset behind building bold companies from scratch, you’ll love this conversation with Max.

Robots still need weeks of coding to learn one new task. Xavier (Tianhao) Chi is changing that with Mbodi AI:Mbodi helps industrial robots learn through language and demonstration. No coding, no engineers, just simple instruction. We talk about how his team is closing the gap between advanced AI research and real factory floors, and what that means for the future of automation.Xavier shares his path from growing up in Shenyang to leading Google Public DNS, one of the internet’s core services, and why he left to build Mbodi with his co-founder. He explains why the next wave of robotics will come from adaptable software, not humanoids.We also talk about risk, ambition, and what it takes to move from stable engineering to startup chaos. Xavier breaks down Mbodi’s hybrid AI approach, its sub-0.5 second response times, and how their partnership with ABB is turning it into real deployments.A must-listen for anyone building in robotics, AI, or industrial automation.

Ashish Kapoor is building General Robotics to solve the biggest deployment problem in robotics: Getting real robots to work in the real world. In this episode, he shares how he’s doing it, and why most robotics stacks aren’t built to scale.We talk about growing up in India, studying at IIT and MIT, and how his mindset shifted from solving hard problems to finding the right ones. Ashish shares why he left research to start General Robotics, the limits of today’s robotics stacks, and how Grid aims to solve the deployment bottleneck, especially for enterprises drowning in PoCs and fragmented software.He also opens up about his background in aviation, building his own airplane, and how he's betting on cloud-first skills infrastructure while others chase edge. This one’s packed with insight from someone who’s worked across every layer of the robotics stack... and is now trying to make it all work in the real world.

In this episode, I talk with Brian Walker, founder and CEO of REVEL, the company building the simulation backbone for humanoid robotics. Brian’s journey started far from Silicon Valley: growing up in the Czech Republic and working on Hollywood sets like Avatar and The Mandalorian, where he helped pioneer real-time XR production.We talk about what pulled him from filmmaking into robotics, and how sci-fi inspired him to stop watching the future and start building it. Brian shares why he founded REVEL to create a massive library of digital twins, turning real-world products into high-fidelity simulation assets so robots can train on them before ever touching them.His goal? To make every product “robot-ready” and compress a decade of physical experience into just hours of training.We also dive into his views on self-education, outsider thinking, and why he acquired a startup during a 20-hour hackathon, with a mic-drop and a €20K offer.If you’re into robotics, simulation, or stories of wild career pivots, don’t miss this one.

A Stanford physicist leaves academia to build open-source software for humanoid robots? I talked to OpenMind founder Jan Liphardt: OpenMind a new robotics company building an open-source, AI-native operating system for humanoid robots.We talk about being born in Germany, his upbringing in Michigan, early love for taking things apart, and how his path led from biochemistry at Reed to a PhD at Cambridge, then faculty roles at Berkeley and Stanford.Jan shares why he made the leap from academia to entrepreneurship, how a Nature paper and a Christmas Eve email nudged him out of the lab, and what drives his belief in transparency, modularity, and decentralized control for intelligent machines.We also discuss OpenMind’s strategy, where robots download their rulebooks from Ethereum, and why he thinks humanoids won't fold your laundry... but could teach your kids or assist in hospitals.