Building Deep Tech Podcast

🎙️ .@stefan_doerr_ is the co-founder and CEO of @NODERobotics, a Stuttgart-based company building the software layer behind scalable mobile robot fleets. In this episode, Stefan shares how his path into robotics started with curiosity, not founding ambitions. From mechanical engineering at TUM to autonomous driving research at BMW and years at Fraunhofer IPA, his focus was always the same: building systems that work in real factories, not just in research projects. We talk about the shift from research to entrepreneurship, why market understanding matters more than perfect technology, and how NODE Robotics emerged as a Fraunhofer spin-off with real customers from day one. Stefan explains why many mobile robot projects fail at scale, why software is the real bottleneck, and why modular, hardware-agnostic autonomy is critical for industrial adoption. A grounded conversation about decision-making under uncertainty, scaling beyond pilots, and what it really takes to turn applied research into a global deep tech product. Timestamps 00:00:05 – Welcome and episode intro 00:02:10 – Stefan’s background and path into robotics 00:05:00 – From academia to industrial systems 00:10:45 – Why NODE Robotics was founded 00:18:30 – Leaving research and becoming a founder 00:24:30 – Why mobile robots fail at scale 00:33:45 – Software as the real bottleneck 00:42:50 – Advice for founders and engineers 00:50:20 – Rapid fire and closing thoughts Building Deep Tech #93 “Scaling Is Harder Than Building the First Robot” With Stefan Dörr-Laukien, co-founder and CEO of NODE Robotics 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5GgbqR… 🎧 Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui… 🎬 YouTube: youtu.be/V3zFOhjgap8?si…

Everyone thinks humanoids learn dexterity by watching millions of hours of video. Wrong! Make a fist... cameras go blind.  A tiny Dutch startup fixed what billion-dollar labs couldn’t. 🧵

🎙️ I talked with Stephan van den Brink, founder and CEO of @ManusMeta, the company behind some of the most advanced data gloves used in robotics: Not only robotics: teleoperation, motion capture, and embodied AI. Manus started as a small student project and grew into a deep tech company trusted across the robotics world. We talk about Stephan's path from studying law and economics to discovering he was meant to build things, not file documents. He explains how the first Manus glove was built in evenings and weekends, how an early Kickstarter failure opened better doors, and how an accelerator program became the turning point for the company. Stephan shares how Manus shifted from VR gaming to B2B simulation, then to motion capture, and now to robotics. He explains why EMF tracking became their core technology and why precise hand data is suddenly in huge demand as humanoids and AI driven robots take off. We also talk about building a company for ten years, staying alive through hype cycles, making hard calls, and focusing on what real customers need. Building Deep Tech #92 "New Opportunities Grow From Every Failure" with Stephan van den Brink, founder and CEO of MANUS™. Watch and listen to the full interview 🎬 YouTube: youtu.be/uJ_7qunjbEQ 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/68yak8… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-…

🎙️ In episode #91 of Building Deep Tech, I talk with @___Harald___ , CTO at @comma_ai, where he and the team are building one of the most interesting autonomy efforts in the world: They work on end to end driving and generative world models is changing how small teams can compete with billion dollar labs. We talk about his path from electrical engineering in Belgium and Santa Barbara to joining comma as one of the earliest engineers. Harald explains how he helped turn a hacker project into a focused engineering team that ships reliable autonomy to thousands of real users. He walks me through comma’s move to a single neural network that controls the car from video input, why deleting code is often more powerful than adding more, and how his team uses world models to train on billions of synthetic miles that never existed on real roads. Harald also shares what it is like to build inside a company with no CEO, why simplicity beats complexity in autonomy systems, and how the new comma 4 and Body 2 signal a move beyond cars into general robotics. If you work in robotics, autonomy, or AI systems, this conversation is packed with lessons about engineering clarity, avoiding brittle stacks, and shipping real products with small teams. @builddeeptech #91 "The Real Truth Of Autonomy Lives In The Stats" with Harald Schäfer, CTO of comma.ai Below a short snippet - Challenges of Autonomous Driving. Our Full Conversation here: 🎬 YouTube: youtu.be/XPbZE3DBXQE 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3gTU5c… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ Dr. Hendrik Susemihl, CEO and Co-founder of @GoodBytz, shows how fully automated kitchens can solve the labor crisis in food service and still serve better: 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. @builddeeptech #90 "Why Are You Not Throwing Yourself Into This?" With Hendrik Susemihl, Co-Founder and CEO of Goodbytz. 🎬 YouTube: youtu.be/RPJa93p4d3U 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3SGgEl… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

In this episode, I talk with @JonMSchwartz, co-founder and CEO of @Ultraroboticsco, 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. @builddeeptech #88 "Always a Bit of a Generalist, Never Only One Thing" with Jon Miller Schwartz, co-founder and CEO of Ultra. 🎬 YouTube: youtu.be/EzfU3jHAm0g 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5sfmGB… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ @ax_pey, co-founder & CEO of @innate_bot, shows you how to teach real robots with language and quick demos without being a roboticist. We talk about Axel’s path from France to Stanford and why he is betting on personal robotics you can program with prompts, code, and demonstrations. He explains Mars, Innate’s $2K teachable robot with a Jetson Orin Nano, RGB-D vision, wrist camera, 2D LiDAR, and a 6-DOF arm. We break down BASIC, their open embodied agent that plans, remembers spaces, and chains skills. You will hear how a new skill can be trained in under 30 minutes, runs locally, and can be shared across a fleet. Axel walks through real use cases like chess play with camera understanding, pick and place, tidying, and security patrols. We cover the SDK, the open platform approach on ROS2, and why Innate focuses on accessibility, teachability, and community. If you want an insight into his story, a clear playbook for getting hands-on with embodied AI, and moving from lab demos to working robots, this episode is for you. @builddeeptech #87 “Speed Is Objectively the Most Important Thing in Life.” With Axel Peytavin, co-founder & CEO of Innate. 🎬 YouTube: youtu.be/f5NYmYROKtU 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0h9D4E… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ Tom Zhang (@tom_jiahao), founder and CEO of @DaxoRobotics: 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. @builddeeptech #86 “It’s Not A Hardware Problem. It’s A System Problem.” With Tom Zhang, founder and CEO of Daxo Robotics. 🎬 YouTube: youtu.be/GUgQ5unfkXM 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3Xs7bY… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

For @bobvanluijt, building @weaviate_io wasn’t a choice... That’s how founders need to feel: “You will die if you don’t do it." 🎙️ I talked with Bob van Luijt, co-founder and CEO of Weaviate, the open-source vector database that's become core infrastructure for AI-native applications: We talk about how Bob grew up in a small Dutch town, started coding in QBasic, and built his first software company while still in school. Then came the unexpected turn: jazz. He shares how studying music (from a conservatory in the Netherlands to Berklee in Boston) taught him grit, deep focus, and how to think in systems. For Bob, writing code and playing music happen in the same part of the brain. We talk about how Weaviate began as a side project fueled by curiosity about the distance between words, and how that simple idea turned into one of the most used vector databases in the world. Bob explains how the release of transformer models unlocked everything, and how he's stayed focused on helping real developers build, not just chasing hype. We also get into his philosophy on building companies, how he thinks about talent and education, and why he believes too much "academic thinking" blocks real potential. Bob’s not in it for the ego or the exit... he’s building tools for other builders. @builddeeptech #80 "You Will Die If You Don’t Do It" with Bob van Luijt, co-founder and CEO of Weaviate 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/TrTaD3mn8PU 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4e1GC4… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ In this episode, I talk with @Vikashplus, Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon and founder of @MyolabAI, where he’s building human-embodied AI systems: We talk about growing up in a small Indian town, the influence of his mother on his early learning, and how a robotics club at IIT Kharagpur set him on a 15-year path through the world’s top labs. From a PhD at the University of Washington, to OpenAI, Google Brain, Meta FAIR, and now his own company! Vikash shares how his curiosity evolved from tinkering with machines to uncovering the fundamentals of embodied intelligence, and why he believes the future of AI is physical, not just linguistic. He also explains the bold vision behind MyoLab: building “digital twins” that are physiologically and behaviorally lifelike; AI companions that understand not just what you say, but who you are. We talk about how this intersects with robotics, health, memory, and agency, and why the path to general intelligence may start in the body, not the cloud. @builddeeptech #79 "Calm Down, Slow It All Down, Let Clarity Emerg." with Vikash Kumar, founder of MyoLab.AI 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/JXdzduq5B0Q 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/7l15J8… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-…

From dexterous hands to imitation from internet videos, his group keeps dropping breakthroughs that set the tone for the field. @LerrelPinto’s lab at NYU has quietly reshaped robotic learning. A breakdown 🧵 [📍SAVE MEGA THREAD FOR LATER📍]

🎙️Ep 75: In this episode, I talk with @LerrelPinto, Assistant Professor at NYU and one of the most cited researchers in robotics today: His work spans everything from self-supervised learning to robot dexterity, and he's on a mission to make robots generalize the way humans do. We talk about growing up in India, building his own education at IIT, and what led him to Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, and now New York. Lerrel explains how his lab at NYU, GRAIL, tackles robot learning at scale (from representation learning to reinforcement learning) and why open-source, affordable robots are core to his approach. He also shares what it’s like launching his new stealth-mode startup, Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), while running one of the top research labs in the country. We talk about how his teaching, mentoring, and outreach are shaping the next generation of roboticists. @builddeeptech #75 "We Should Scale It Up Ourselves" with Lerrel Pinto, Assistant Professor at NYU and ARI Co-Founder. 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/OdXld87t1nk 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3hX66x… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ I sit down with @BBarash, CEO of @roboto_ai, to talk Amazon, robotics, and why knowing what to do with your data is key to scaling: Benji spent years at Amazon working on drone delivery, but started to see a growing problem in robotics, the data was piling up faster than teams could make sense of it. He left Amazon to build a solution. Today, Roboto AI helps robotics companies analyze massive amounts of sensor logs and time-series data. It’s like a copilot for engineers trying to figure out why something broke, how to improve it, and what to do next. We talk about growing up in the UK, getting into programming way before school even taught it, and what it takes to go from big tech to a lean startup. Benji shares what surprised him about building in the real world, how he works across time zones with his co-founder in Zurich, and what it means to build tools that help others scale. @builddeeptech #74 "Why Early Corporate Experience Is Valuable for Entrepreneurs” With Benji Barash, co-founder and CEO of Roboto AI 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/pahOY4UIMxk 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1QpsBu… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ In this episode, I talk with Madison Maxey, founder of @loomia_tech, a company building soft, flexible electronics for everything: Everything? Everything! From robotics to automotive interiors. Maddie’s journey spans fashion school, a Thiel Fellowship, a return to Stanford in her mid-20s to study material science, and a decade of turning prototypes into real-world tech. We talk about growing up with a soldering iron and a sewing machine, how she designed a smart jacket for Zac Posen and Google, and why building a company means more than building a product. She shares what it took to land early customers like Airbus, how she balances long timelines with fast-moving industries, and why her goal is to build something meaningful over 30 years, not just raise another round. We talk about early wins, hard lessons, the beauty of tactile sensing, and why confidence comes from doing hard things until they start to feel normal. @builddeeptech #73 “Learn It Yourself Before Hiring for Expertise” with Madison Maxey, founder of LOOMIA 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/dMVY36mloYE 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4WemSv… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ Yesterday, they launched a $299 robot. It looks like a toy, but it opens up a world of AI. Today, I talk to the person who made it real: @matth_lapeyre is the co-founder of @pollenrobotics and one of the most quietly influential roboticists in Europe. He’s been building open-source humanoids long before it was cool, from Poppy to Reachy to Reachy Mini. We talk about how growing up without a tech background shaped him, why he left research to ship hardware, and how he kept going through years of bootstrapping with barely enough to pay the team. He shares what it’s really like to live on the edge for years, and how joining @huggingface gave them the launchpad they needed. We also get into the making of Reachy Mini, why it's designed to be unbreakable, what inspired the egg-shaped head, and how it could become the iPhone moment for robotics. @builddeeptech #72 "Found the perfect track, combining science and design." Matthieu Lapeyre, co-founder of Pollen Robotics 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/oJnTAC9YCOI 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4fVa25… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ In this episode, I talk with @kaandogrusoz, Co-Founder and CEO of @weaverobotics, a YC-backed team building Isaac, a personal home robot: Kaan grew up in Istanbul, chased curiosity across physics, art, and engineering, and eventually made his way to Carnegie Mellon, then Apple, where he spent nearly a decade working on robotics and shipping features like Double Tap on the Apple Watch. But something kept pulling at him. He didn’t want to be part of a massive machine anymore. He wanted to build something real, something personal, a robot he’d want in his own home. That’s how Isaac was born. A home robot built not for factories or labs, but for laundry piles and living rooms. We talk about leaving comfort behind, learning by doing, what it’s like to live with your own prototype, and why he thinks shipping a robot (not just dreaming one) is the hardest and most honest thing a founder can do. @builddeeptech #71 "The Team Ends Up Like Charting The Path, Too" With Kaan Dogrusoz, Co-Founder and CEO of Weave Robotics 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/9rEy1tHYOq4 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/684tCp… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ I talked with @benjamin_bolte, founder of @kscalelabs, who left Meta to build something he actually believes in: an open-source humanoid robot! After working on Autopilot at Tesla, he saw the inside of Optimus and decided the big players were getting it wrong. Benjamin walks me through how he built the first robot with Alibaba parts and 3D-printed parts in his apartment, why raising too much money too early is a trap, and how soldering wires all night helped him remember why he’s doing this in the first place. He’s not chasing prestige or funding rounds. He’s trying to ship a $9K robot that can do your laundry. We talk about his time at Tesla and Meta, how he thinks about mortality, the power of conviction, why open-source matters, and what it really takes to build hardware that people want to own. @builddeeptech #70 "Real Confidence Comes From The Work" With Benjamin Bolte 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/niD-HybvsoM 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3avwi9… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️ In this episode, I talk with @NikolausWest, Co-Founder & CEO of @rerundotio: their team is building the data stack for Physical AI. We get into the early days of Rerun: how an open-source visualization tool for multimodal data became widely adopted across robotics, spatial computing, and even inside companies like Apple and Meta. But that was just the start. Now, they’re building a full-stack platform for logging, querying, and managing robotic-scale data, from raw logs to model training. Niko shares his personal journey from business school in London to engineering in Sweden, to startups in retail, Kenya, and AR. Along the way, he learned the hard truth: physical AI teams are still flying blind when it comes to data. That pain turned into obsession, and obsession turned into Rerun. @builddeeptech #69 "You can really build things with a small team." With Nikolaus West, Co-Founder of Rerun. 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/tfyeeKLH9UQ 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5G2tRq… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…

🎙️I talk to the founders, researchers, and engineers building robotics & deep tech. The hard parts, and how they get through them. 📍buildingdeep.tech 50+ episodes in. Here’s what you’ll get ↓

Took me 2 years to land this one... 🎙️ In this episode, I talk with ⁠@dhanushisrad, Co-Founder and CEO of ⁠@clonerobotics⁠: The company is building lifelike, musculoskeletal androids that move like humans and could become the next personal computing platform. Dhanush shares how watching Iron Man at 13 sparked a lifelong obsession with tech, leading him from plasma thrusters and nuclear fusion research to founding a YC-backed robotics company now making headlines with their human-like androids. We talk about why his first startup didn’t work out (and why Plan A to do B never does), how he met his co-founder on the internet, and why moving to Poland turned out to be one of the best decisions for focus and execution. Clone is going against the grain: from hydraulics to neural net control, from soft-body design to building general-purpose robots from scratch. This convo is packed with vision, hard-earned insights, and a founder who’s not afraid to do things differently. Give it a listen. You’ll see why people are paying attention. @builddeeptech #67 "Doing Plan A to Do B Doesn’t Work" With Dhanush Radhakrishnan⁠ 🎥 YouTube: youtu.be/BQVLf-65i_M 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/78kDIU… 🎧 Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bui…