Lessons from robotics successes and failures

Editor’s Observe: This text is predicated on Dorota Shortell’s presentation at RoboBusiness 2025. Keep tuned for extra post-show protection and insights from this yr’s occasion.

With the quantity of consideration given to robotics, humanoids, and bodily AI, there are a lot of new entrants and startups within the discipline. They typically have nice, even industry-changing concepts, however what’s going to it take to show a good suggestion into enterprise success? We all know that almost all of latest companies fail, so what did those that succeeded do to get there? Studying from each firms who’ve developed profitable robotics companies and likewise from those that have failed or needed to pivot, offers newer robotics firms insights on what actions they need to take to maximise their probabilities of constructing a sustainable enterprise.

Tapping into each the 20+ years’ of {hardware}, mechatronic merchandise, and automatic robotic techniques expertise at Simplexity Product Growth and interviews with leaders at over a dozen robotics firms, I’ve compiled these key classes realized that I shared throughout my discuss at RoboBusiness final week in Santa Clara, Calif. They’ll greatest be categorized as falling into 5 predominant classes:

• Product market match
• Funding
• Growth course of
• Crew
• Scaling

I’ll dive into every one in additional element, beginning with a quote to set the stage.

1. Product market match

“Perceive crucial buyer issues first and construct new know-how second. Constructing a brand new robotic ought to solely come after you’ve gotten conviction that it’ll remedy an issue price fixing. In any other case, you threat constructing one thing attention-grabbing, however finally ineffective.”

– Christopher Carlson, govt vice chairman, analysis, company Growth, and Intuitive Ventures

Carlson and I went to graduate college collectively at Stanford and over the previous 12+ years he’s had a really profitable profession at surgical robotic maker Intuitive. Intuitive has been a robotics chief for 30 years, so studying what they did within the early years and the way they develop robots now could be one thing that aspiring robotics firms may attempt to emulate. Christopher actually emphasised how product market match is among the key distinguishing components between success and failure, additionally echoed by fairly a number of of the opposite robotics leaders who I interviewed. The teachings underneath this class are:

Construct your organization round what individuals will purchase: In case you solely take away one studying, it’s to be laser targeted on creating an answer for a crucial buyer want versus specializing in constructing a robotic. The businesses who needed to do a tough pivot or didn’t make it out there most frequently cited that they had been too targeted on constructing cool robotic know-how and never spending sufficient time understanding buyer wants. The recommendation right here is to construct your organization round understanding your shopper, not simply on attention-grabbing technological advances. A easy answer that solves a crucial want is a lot better than a complicated answer that’s solely a “good to have” for potential shoppers.

Use a quick suggestions cycle – ideate, validate with buyer suggestions, iterate on the design: When you perceive what the crucial want is that your organization might be addressing, then it’s time to collect concepts for the right way to remedy it and get as a lot suggestions from clients as you possibly can previous to constructing {hardware}. This might be restricted as most clients might want to see/attempt what you’re providing, however doing preliminary interviews helps slim down the issue and outline a product structure that’s extra seemingly to achieve success.

Dusty Robotics did this by interviewing shoppers for a number of months previous to constructing their robotic. Then it’s essential construct {hardware}, collect extra suggestions from clients, and hold iterating on the design, in quick cycles. Don’t be in stealth mode. Construct in public because you don’t have a number of pictures on aim. It’s a must to know there’s a marketplace for what you’re constructing if you go on the market.

Safe a beachhead shopper and co-develop with them: Corporations who had been profitable at specializing in the shopper mentioned that co-development and having shut collaboration was crucial. Fairly than attempting to promote a accomplished robotic right into a shopper web site, they might have their engineers on the shopper websites working alongside the shopper to hone the know-how. This was most frequently completed by having a service enterprise mannequin moderately than a product mannequin.

For instance, Dusty Robotics supplied its robotic as a service first, the place they might print the development strains on the brand new building previous to attempting to promote the robotic. This allowed them to find unspoken buyer wants comparable to that the load of the robotic wanted to be gentle sufficient for an individual to hold from ground to ground and to determine the right way to account for winds current in open building. Additionally they didn’t want the robotic to be good as they might deliver one other robotic to the client web site as a spare in case the primary one had any points.

Don’t underestimate the challenges of know-how adoption: Whilst you hear that there could also be resistance to shoppers adopting new know-how, watch out to not be so enamored together with your concept that you just brush that apart. BioMotum realized this later of their improvement cycle. Whereas they knew that an early design with cables was tough for individuals to grasp and placed on, they thought that the truth that individuals would get such superior outcomes from utilizing their robotic ankle help machine that the way it appeared was not as essential. Solely later did they notice that the person expertise is crucial to success of the corporate since if individuals don’t understand how or aren’t keen to place it on, then the outcomes don’t matter. BioMotum’s CEO and co-founder, Ray Browning, said “it’s by no means concerning the know-how – it’s about utilizing it.”

Simplify to solely crucial product options: It’s a giant mistake to attempt to get each potential characteristic into the primary launch of your product. Fairly, it’s essential be laser targeted on the only incarnation of your product that folks will purchase. A course of that Camino Robotics, a developer of robotic help walkers for the aged, used is to write down down all of the potential product options after which to have potential customers select which certainly one of simply two options at a time they might select. Additionally they had customers stroll via their day, which frequently revealed unmet wants. That helped slim down the listing to these options that had been crucial versus nice-to-have.

Additionally, one other firm, Civ Robotics, which is designing surveying robots for outside terrain, beneficial having a price related to doing a pilot with a buyer moderately than doing it totally free. Individuals are most severe when cash is concerned. Ensure the issue you’re fixing is essential sufficient to the client, even when it’s technologically easy. Attempt to get income as quick as potential.

2. Funding

“It’s powerful to work with the entrepreneur that is aware of every little thing. Simple to speculate if they’ve an open mindset and know the place they might use assist”

– David Chessler, Chessler Holdings

Chessler is a profitable investor, nonetheless in about 22 working firms. He’s invested tens of thousands and thousands in capital through the years and is at present operating a program referred to as HUSTLE on entrepreneurship in College of South Florida, which incubates pupil concepts.

It at all times prices extra and takes longer than you suppose: A typical cause firms fail is that they run out of cash or can not safe their subsequent spherical of funding previous to operating out of money. New entrepreneurs are sometimes stunned by how a lot further prices the enterprise finally ends up having past what was modeled of their first marketing strategy. In any case, you’re inventing one thing new and disruptive that the market hasn’t seen earlier than, so you possibly can’t have an ideal prediction of how a lot it’ll value. What you possibly can have although is estimates primarily based on earlier related tasks which mentors and corporations who’ve beforehand introduced merchandise to market might help estimate. Pay attention and study and add contingencies to your funds for the unknown areas that would take longer than you suppose. It’s additionally simpler to boost more cash when you’ve got chosen your traders properly and they’re keen to maintain investing in you for future rounds.

Develop a sustainable enterprise mannequin: Will you earn money by promoting your product or promoting a service that your product can do? What number of do it’s essential promote to breakeven? What are the continued prices when you do begin promoting them (guarantee, continued improvement, achievement, stock, and many others)? How a lot money will you want for up-front stock prices? How will tariffs and provide chain disruptions have an effect on your prices and timelines? What phrases will you supply your shoppers? How will rivals react to your providing? What pricing pressures will you see? What are shoppers truly going to pay versus what they are saying they might pay? These are simply a number of the questions you have to be answering. What founders additionally generally don’t notice is that the enterprise mannequin will seemingly reshape the structure of your product. So getting that functionality inside your organization early on is crucial to constructing the services or products providing that may permit your organization to flourish for years.

Select traders properly: It’s tempting to take the primary time period sheet that’s supplied to you however keep in mind that you’re interviewing for a long-term relationship. One of many robotics startups that I interviewed commented that it could have been rather more useful if their traders had automation, {hardware}, and manufacturing experience. It was at all times a problem to elucidate these elements of the enterprise and so they didn’t have significant connections to leverage to assist the entrepreneur of their enterprise.

An investor that I talked with additionally mirrored that sentiment from the opposite perspective. If he doesn’t have the flexibility to stack the deck in his and the entrepreneur’s favor by introducing them to key shoppers or massive gamers out there, then he doesn’t really feel his cash will create a large enough affect to speculate. Your main traders will seemingly even have a seat in your board of administrators so be sure that they will make introductions for you in your discipline and, in flip, be sure that to be clear with them in your progress.

What traders search for:

• Is it disruptive?
• What’s the market measurement of the chance?
• Can we (the traders) add worth?
• Is the crew there to execute?
• How lengthy will it take to get to implementation?

Attempt inventive advertising and marketing to preserve money: When you obtain funding, you need to stretch it so far as potential. There are two nice examples of this that emerged from the interviews. The primary is from Clayton Wooden, former CEO of Picnic Works, the place moderately than getting a sales space at CES, which prices tens of 1000’s of {dollars}, they acquired a spot within the space the place meals was served to show their pizza making robotic. They ended up on three “better of CES” lists in January 2020 with out incurring the traditional expense that will take.

One other instance is from Aadeel Akhtar, CEO and founder at PSYONIC, who has invented and developed a complicated bionic arm. Fairly than paying for tradeshow cubicles, he walks round reveals holding a dwell demo of his arm. He additionally will get in contact with YouTube influencers to characteristic the arm doing inventive duties like bottle tips and flaming board breaking. Every of these movies ended up getting 2 to 4 million views, basically totally free.

Paint the longer term moderately than explaining your product: One of many serial entrepreneurs whom I interviewed has been fairly profitable at elevating cash at a number of startups that he’s led through the years. I requested him what his secret is to with the ability to elevate cash repeatedly. He mentioned that it’s all about storytelling, not explaining the product that you’ve got. You’re not promoting the product you’ve gotten nor the place you’re at. You’re promoting what your product can allow sooner or later. How will your robotic assist tackle profound labor shortages or deliver higher instruments which might be easy to make use of that may prolong the capability of the labor? Paint an image that your traders can see and really feel.

3. Growth course of

“Early on it’s laborious to get significant buyer suggestions about your concept with out constructing it. Make one thing fast & soiled to study from the client as early as potential. Nonetheless, in the event you construct one thing too prototype-y at a later stage, the client might reject it.”

– Philipp Herget, co-founder, Dusty Robotics

Dusty Robotics’ autonomous cell robotic prints building drawings instantly on the flooring of latest buildings. Dusty Robotics has been round since 2018 and raised over $69 million in funding.

Use off-the-shelf {hardware} and open-source software program on your MVP: The robotics firms who’ve been profitable discovered intelligent and fast methods of making prototypes to indicate potential shoppers shortly. They cited utilizing off-the-shelf improvement kits, open-source software program, and parts of merchandise already available on the market to get a prototype that works effectively sufficient to begin gathering real-world knowledge and buyer suggestions. Solely invent what you want. Civ Robotics is an efficient instance of this who was capable of begin testing early variations of their land surveying robotic inside 4 months.

Embrace necessities, Gantt charts, and product course of rigor on the proper stage: There was a particular correlation between these firms who had formally written down their necessities after which adopted a structured product improvement course of and their success. The businesses who struggled probably the most did the design in an ad-hoc method. Whereas this may be acceptable at first if you’re in experimentation mode (Section 0 Exploration within the course of chart beneath), it was inefficient and detrimental to success in the course of the core improvement phases. Growing {hardware} is totally different than software program. One of many feedback I heard was that they need to have gone sluggish to go quick. Slowing down, writing down necessities, planning, and following a confirmed improvement course of for {hardware} saves time in the long term because you don’t find yourself redoing as a lot work. Beneath is an instance of the product improvement course of we use at Simplexity.

Create testbeds to check key performance in parallel: One of many different errors that much less skilled firms make when creating {hardware} is to construct the whole product suddenly after which take a look at it. Subsystem testbeds allow you to take a look at and iterate on the difficult subsystems with out the distraction of interactions with different subsystems which can have their very own points. The extra skilled firms interviewed construct testbeds to dial in efficiency of a subsystem. For instance, you possibly can take the motor meeting mounted on a bench and take a look at the top effector independently, permitting the engineering crew engaged on the tremendous construction to run in parallel. Don’t attempt to do the important thing science/invention concurrently whereas attempting to develop the product. Establish key dangerous core know-how gadgets first and de-risk them on effectively managed testbeds.

Use digital twins and simulations: Digital twins or simulation can considerably pace up your improvement cycles. For instance, you possibly can simulate the dynamics of movement in seconds in a simulation versus doing it in {hardware} which might take days. However last testing and debugging are at all times achieved on the {hardware}.

Don’t begin the FDA course of too quickly for regulated merchandise: Just a few of the businesses I interviewed had robotics merchandise that had been additionally medical in nature and controlled by the FDA. One warning that they had was to not begin the FDA course of too early. When you present your design to the FDA, then there may be resistance in altering it, which is probably not greatest for the product. When creating a product, you’ve gotten 3 unknowns:

• Desirability: does your product fulfill an unmet want out there?
• Feasibility: are you able to technically obtain the unmet want?
• Viability: is your enterprise mannequin viable sufficient to be aggressive out there?

To learn extra about these unknowns, try Christopher Carlson’s article on a Sustainable Product Framework.

Within the early stage, you need to bounce between assumptions on these three actually quick. Solely upon getting confirmed that it’s a good suggestion, you then transfer to a extra commonplace section gate course of that goes into the regulatory framework. Corporations who had FDA regulated merchandise cited how tough it was to make the pivot to the product that will be wanted to achieve success out there since they already had medical trial knowledge with their preliminary design.

4. Crew

“Teamwork and management are complicated character traits which might be typically referenced by many individuals however are broadly in poor health outlined regardless of the mountain of books and accessible lessons.”

– George Linscott, previously of Visicon Applied sciences

Linscott turned a commodity enterprise right into a extremely profitable product line. He grew the corporate right into a worthwhile entity with over 100 staff after which had a really profitable exit.

Founders, keep humble: As cited within the Investor part above, it’s acceptable, and even most well-liked, to confess that you just don’t know every little thing as a founder. It’s a lot simpler to put money into founders who’ve an open mindset and know the place they will use assist. After all, it’s essential be assured and enthusiastic about your concept, however to not the purpose of getting a giant ego. Startups who’ve technically succesful leaders who’re additionally humble and worth their crew are probably the most profitable.

Search a powerful technical co-founder with {hardware} improvement expertise: One of many firms who shut down said that they had been lacking a powerful technical co-founder with {hardware} improvement expertise. Having the suitable management internally, who understands the right way to develop merchandise was a key differentiator. You want somebody in your crew who understands the nuances between totally different time constants of creating mechanical and electrical {hardware} versus software program and the right way to optimize the interaction between them. It must also be famous that firms have been profitable in outsourcing their engineering improvement to product improvement corporations like Simplexity and even unbiased contractors, however having somebody internally who helps drive the structure and imaginative and prescient for the product may be very useful.

Rent the suitable individuals: When asking firms about their failure areas, a typical development famous was the problem of hiring and generally hiring the unsuitable particular person. This was normally as a result of hiring too quick, however even with one of the best interview course of, with sufficient development, a number of unhealthy hires can sneak in. Crimson flags to look out for are individuals with large egos, who’re poisonous, and who will not be coachable. You need to rent individuals with a development mindset who’re keen to study. That mentioned, you additionally need to rent probably the most skilled individuals you can afford. Though new faculty graduates are tremendous good and value much less in wage, the errors they will make as a result of lack of expertise can value the businesses greater than if that they had simply employed a extra senior particular person. One particular person additionally famous to rent people who find themselves “cussed ” sufficient to totally end a product. Observe-through and tenacity are crucial in a difficult atmosphere like a startup.

Develop your management & administration expertise: Being a founder and a superb supervisor are two totally different ability units. You generally is a nice technologist, however not essentially an ideal CEO. Whereas it’s actually potential for one particular person to do each successfully, management and administration enhance with coaching, teaching, and follow. If your organization is profitable, then your crew will develop and it’s essential determine the right way to develop and encourage them in a constructive trend (or rent somebody who can). These tender expertise can generally be dismissed by gifted technical founders, but the leaders who’ve many years of expertise commented that these expertise are what permit an organization to flourish and proceed hiring wonderful staff.

Search a number of mentors: You’d be stunned by how many individuals are keen to offer freely of their time to assist. Most people who find themselves profitable additionally need to see others have success and are keen to supply recommendation and mentorship when requested. It was additionally famous by one of many entrepreneurs that they benefited from totally different mentors for various levels of their firm. Your organization and your journey will hold evolving, so hold looking for mentors who proceed to problem your mind-set and who’re good on the subsequent portion of your enterprise. At first you might want somebody who is nice at getting funding, however then later you might want somebody who has efficiently scaled into excessive quantity manufacturing.

5. Scaling

“Scaling is the toughest half, not engineering.”

– Matt Frost, senior {hardware} supervisor, Amazon Robotics

Frost works on Amazon Robotics’ Vulcan bin choosing robotic. They’ve deployed Alpha techniques and are actually scaling up.

It’s simpler to go from zero to prototype than from prototype to manufacturing: Even with preliminary success, companies underestimate the trouble it takes from constructing tens of items to tons of/1000’s. Design for manufacturing, meeting, service, take a look at, and security together with creating correctly dimensioned GD&T manufacturing drawings, writing work directions, qualifying manufacturing companions, and different New Product Introduction (NPI) actions take a whole lot of time and value. One firm mentioned that the prototyping stage over 3 years value lower than 1 yr of attempting to get to manufacturing ramp. The design shouldn’t be full with the proof-of-concept prototype. That’s when the true work begins. One other one mentioned that the money hit for ramping up stock was a lot larger than they anticipated. These are the sorts of prices that may sink an organization and trigger them to fail at scale, even after they’ve splendidly useful prototypes and a superb market match.

Plan for & take a look at your product: Planning for testing your product must be began originally of your improvement as you write down the necessities. If it’s a real requirement, then there must be a method of testing it to substantiate that the robotic will meet it. This generally means placing in design options to make testing simpler, comparable to take a look at factors on a customized PCBA design. Be sure you have a plan for the way you’ll take a look at particular person subsystems after which your complete product coming off the manufacturing line early within the design course of, not as an afterthought. Linscott said that constructing testbeds in cooperation with their clients helped them keep away from most main points when doing acceptance testing. One other advice from a profitable robotics firm was to do extremely accelerated life testing. Overload the system and over-cycle it to search out the failure factors early.

Automate for manufacturing: As you scale into larger volumes, you need to search for methods to automate or a minimum of semi-automate the manufacturing of your robotic. Semi-automated manufacturing could also be an ideal match for top amount sub assemblies that require off-the-shelf decide and place, gluing or fastening applied sciences. Take into account customized automation if essential to manufacture your product and punctiliously analyze the fee profit in all scaling phases.

Tariffs & multi-sourcing: Within the current political local weather, a number of of the businesses interviewed associated that tariffs grew to become unpredictable. They needed to have a technique for multi-sourcing their product manufacturing in several geographic areas. This isn’t easy to arrange appropriately, so working with a agency who might help you qualify contract producers and have a design and manufacturing package deal prepared at hand off to them for quoting is crucial. In case you need assistance, Simplexity does do that as a part of our NPI course of. A warning right here is to be cautious of contract producers who’re keen to do the design work for “free”. They accomplish that with the stipulation that you should have them do all of the manufacturing on your product and because you didn’t pay for the design, you don’t personal it. It’s then very tough to maneuver to a different producer or have a number of ones since then it’s essential pay somebody to reverse engineer your product to get the design package deal it’s essential get a number of quotes.

Search the flywheel impact: After getting efficiently scaled into quantity, search for flywheel results of making a robotic system that may be utilized to multiple buyer want. For instance, Intuitive was capable of leverage the core mechatronic drive that they used for one software after which standardized it as a core functionality for different adjoining purposes. Their system that would reliably lower, sew, and retract created a flywheel impact as soon as it was leveraged into purposes past laparoscopy. This success allowed them to draw nice technologists, retain them, after which make higher merchandise. Success breeds success.

Conclusion

I’m grateful that over a dozen firms had been keen to have a candid dialog with me about their failures and successes. Whereas I had hypothesized that firms who confirmed their prototypes to potential shoppers sooner could be extra profitable, there was not a direct correlation. Even the businesses who finally needed to shut their doorways confirmed their know-how early and acquired suggestions. The important thing differentiator was those who had been capable of get income early from shoppers. Those that had clients keen to pay whereas nonetheless in improvement and co-develop with them had been those with continued success. I encourage you to study from all these classes, be fanatical about understanding your clients’ ache factors, construct a powerful crew, and observe a confirmed course of that will help you obtain your targets. And in the event you want engineering assist alongside the way in which, Simplexity is right here for you.

In regards to the Writer

Dorota Shortell is the CEO of Simplexity Product Growth, an engineering design agency specializing within the design of {hardware}, robotics, and mechatronics. Dorota holds a BSME from Loyola Marymount College, earned her MSME at Stanford College underneath an NSF Fellowship, and has accomplished the Government Management Program at Stanford’s Graduate Faculty of Enterprise.

She is a US patent holder and has over 20 years of latest product improvement expertise. She was acknowledged by the Portland Enterprise Journal as a Forty underneath 40 Award winner and an Government to Watch.