Grace Brown is the founder and CEO of Andromeda, building social companion robots designed for aged care and healthcare environments:

In this episode, Grace shares a founder journey that started long before a company existed. She had been building robots since her teenage years, but the real motivation appeared during COVID lockdowns. People in care facilities were physically supported, yet emotionally isolated. The goal became simple. Build a robot people actually want around them.

We talk about learning outside the curriculum, reaching out to mentors early, and running long real-world pilots before the product was ready. Instead of waiting for perfection, Andromeda deployed unfinished systems into nursing homes to understand behavior, trust, and human reaction.

Grace explains why the hardest problem in social robotics is not intelligence but comfort. A robot can function technically and still fail if people feel uneasy around it. Design, personality, and interaction determine adoption more than raw capability.

We also discuss building a company as a young founder, hiring commercial leadership early, and how moving into the US startup ecosystem changed the pace of decisions and iteration.

You don't want to miss this one!