Matthew Chang

1 in 4 packaging machines on Earth was made in one small Italian valley China is racing to steal it But every cigarette pack, pill blister, and milk carton probably came from a machine built here Here's the 100-year story of the secret packaging valley:

My robotics company of 20 years closed down at the end of 2024. It was a very hard time for me. I had to sell off most of my equipment, my 30k sq ft building, and dismantle by myself what I built piece by piece. I lost my identity, and went through some very dark times. I am still struggling, but I am coming out the other side. I kept my small 8k sq ft building, my Okuma CNC Machine, added a Haas TL2, still have my Omax 55100 waterjet, still making a patented product that I developed at my old company. Tesla is one of my customers. This is something I am doing on the side, I am now also the General Manager of Robotics at an integrator as a full-time job. I kept my head up the best I could, I kept moving forward. That was the most important part - keep moving forward, no matter what, even if it doesn't make any sense as to why. Here's a pic of my current setup...I call it "The Garage of Broken Dreams" lol. I am making the best of it and moving forward.

I’m excited to announce that Figure has signed a commercial agreement with Catalyst Brands, the operator of JCPenney, Aéropostale, and Brooks Brothers We’ll work to deploy humanoid robots at scale, starting with initial deployment in Reno, NV

I almost passed on Perseus Defense because they had zero ARR. That would have been the worst mistake of my career. Applying SaaS metrics to defense hardware is like judging a nuclear submarine by its app store rating. Perseus was founded by an engineer who led NASA's Titan Dragonfly program and another who built autonomous systems for Boeing and USV swarms for the Navy. The Ukraine conflict proved that $500 drones can destroy $100M military assets. Perseus was solving that problem at speed - a functional micro-UAS prototype in one week, two guided missile versions a month later. The DoD at the table is the early customer. That's not a pipeline. That's a market validation no ARR dashboard can replicate. Stop asking hardware founders about recurring revenue. Start asking whether the problem they're solving can afford to wait.

Founders: Here's how to structure pilots that actually close: - Max 30 days - 3 mandatory training sessions - Weekly usage metrics reviews - 2 required use cases completed - Success criteria defined up front Charge 25% of annual fee for the pilot. No more endless trials.

I think this area might be the most racist place in the world