
What robotics investors say they’re looking for in startup pitches - janober
https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/19/heres-what-robotics-investors-say-theyre-looking-for-in-startup-pitches
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Animats
What are the properties of successful robot startups?

\- iRobot - made enough on military contracts to enter the vacuum business.

\- Kiva - new, low-cost approach to warehouse operation. Changed fulfillment
industry. Bought by Amazon.

Those are about the only recent startups I can think of that made it.

Startups not doing too well:

\- Rethink Robotics - Rod Brooks' startup. Heavy on the hype, light on the
profits.

\- Abundant Robotics - apple-picking machine. VC financing, yes. Production
hardware shipping and being used, no.

In industrial robotics, the successes are all old-line industrial companies -
Fanuc, Epson, Comau, ABB, and Foxconn.

~~~
pryelluw
Stupid question:

Could it be that the lack of manufacturing in the US (when compared to China)
is hurting the robotics industry?

~~~
Animats
US manufacturing output is at an all time high.[1] (Finally back from the 2008
crash.) Much manufacturing is automated, but outside automotive, doesn't need
robots. Mostly special purpose machinery. A pick and place machine for
assembling PC boards is not considered a robot, although it has much the same
parts as an industrial robot arm, including a vision system.

[1]
[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OUTMS](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OUTMS)

~~~
saikat
US manufacturing output has had a boom because we include natural gas and oil
as manufacturing output, not just because of automation.

~~~
rebootthesystem
I would argue that US manufacturing has had a "boom" because no other option
existed.

When you find yourself at the bottom of a deep hole the only way to go is up.

That's what happened with the crash of 2008. See the chart posted by Animats,
here again for convenience:

[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OUTMS](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OUTMS)

As an aside, I love it when politicians take credit for naturally occurring
phenomena like this. Industry go pummeled during that crash and every single
business worked hard to claw their way out of the ditch. And then politicians
proclaim "The sun went down and we made it come up every morning for the last
six years!". You couldn't make this shit up.

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smaili
Interesting tidbit around the _founders_ :

> Boniske said it comes “back to the founders” and that, in her view, an ideal
> robotics founding team probably has three people, including the CEO who’s
> “going to be the visionary and drive the strategy of the overall company;
> this person is going to be doing the fundraising and recruiting. Then you’ve
> got the technologist who’s going to go and build out the engineering team
> and who ideally has a lot of robotics experience.”

The third piece — and it’s missing for a lot of teams, she said — is someone
who can communicate the exact value proposition for the customer and speak
their language.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
Former colleague moved back to Iowa to work on an agricultural start-up. Given
how prominently agriculture features in most drone pitch decks, I asked him
what he thought of them.

"They're great! We check them out every time they come to town. Usually bring
the kids, too."

"How do people like them?"

"They're nifty devices! Really futuristic."

"I mean when they use them."

"Use them? For what?"

"..."

"Haha, hell no. Those whippersnappers fly out here once a month at best. When
I need something, I go to our local tractor vendor my family's done business
with for generations."

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contingencies
China-based service-oriented robotics startup founder here. This is an
interesting but very US-centric perspective... over here in China, I don't
think it necessarily holds. What would be different? In my interactions with
western and Chinese investors thus far, I haven't seen much emphasis on team
makeup... most queries related to business model.

~~~
comstock
In my experience all investors say team is really important. However, they
rarely prove the team, ask much about their experience or background.

I think it's probably code for "has done a startup before" and "I kind of
liked them".

