We took an unconventional approach to building a robot.
- Designed by the Pixar illustrator behind Kung Fu Panda, Ratatouille, and Cars. No terminator vibes :)
- Invented custom hardware that costs less and performs better at a wide range of complicated tasks.
- Piloted prototypes in real homes, offices, and warehouses (video of an old prototype).
- Embraced Sutton’s Bitter Lesson for autonomy by initially having partial teleoperation alongside thoughtful privacy controls.
- Moved to Shenzhen for two months to build a manufacturing supply chain.
- Kept the team small.
- Self-funded the majority, alongside support from investors including Alexandr Wang (Scale), Simon Last (Notion), Ben Mann (Anthropic), and Debo Olaosebikan (Kepler).
We’d like to make robots a good thing for the maximum number of people. As part of that, we’re setting up a foundation which holds a majority of our founder’s shares, to help counter the negative effects of job displacement. We’ll share more details as they’re ready.
