Humans Who Build

Robotics adoption is increasing, and the talent pool building robotics applications is changing: the ever-curious and experimental software engineer is joining the mix!

Recognizing this shift, Viam has launched Viam Education, an initiative led by Shannon Bradshaw, SVP of Product and Education, to lower the barriers to robotics development and equip software engineers with the skills to build real-world robotics applications, even without prior robotics experience.

Shannon brings extensive experience in developer education, having built education programs at MongoDB and Cockroach Labs that delivered training and certification to millions of engineers. He also served as an Education Partner at Unusual Ventures. Now, at Viam, he is applying that experience to robotics.

In this episode of Humans Who Build, we learn:

• Education as a product growth lever: Lessons from MongoDB, Cockroach Labs, and Viam on integrating education into product strategy, from start to scale.

• Viam 101 and the evolving robotics talent pool: Making robotics accessible to software developers without prior robotics experience.

• From prototype to scale: Managing larger robot fleets and building the right infrastructure early.

• Productization and systems integrators: Reducing customization and lessons from Viam's partnership with Tech Mahindra.

For those of you not familiar with Viam's work: Viam, founded by MongoDB co-founder Eliot Horowitz, is a robotics software platform that enables developers and companies to build, deploy, and manage robotic applications without developing the underlying infrastructure from scratch.

At Protean, we're interested in understanding how technology companies move beyond successful prototypes to achieve repeatable adoption and growth. Shannon's experience offers an interesting perspective on how education can help expand the ecosystem of developers and companies building on a technology platform.

The first thing we noticed when we spoke to Tim Stuart for our latest episode of Humans Who Build was his calm and clarity of thought.That clarity reflected in his customer understanding, which led Dennis Bagley and his team at SPSA to partner with Tim's team at AMP. In November 2025, SPSA signed a 20-year agreement with AMP to scale automated waste processing to 540,000 tons annually by 2029. In the last episode, we discussed how the government decides who and how to partner with a new technology company. In this episode, we get the opposite side of things to prep for working with the government and scaling a small pilot to a 20-year agreement with a public authority (SPSA), a project designed to reach 540k tons of annual processing capacity by 2029. AMP is a waste-technology company using AI, robotics, and automated sortation systems to reduce labor costs, increase resource recovery, and deliver more reliable operations. It is backed by Sequoia Capital, Congruent Ventures, California State Teachers Retirement, among many others.Tim brings a particularly relevant perspective to these questions. Before joining AMP, he spent nearly 18 years at Republic Services, ultimately serving as Executive Vice President and COO. There, he led the adoption, implementation, and scaling of new technologies across a large operating network, while overseeing field operations, integrations, and digital operations strategy. Prior to Republic, Stuart spent approximately 11 years at Waste Management, IncIn this episode, we will learn:1. SPSA deal architecture: Scalability, risk, and execution capacity.2. Scaling technology inside a large enterprise: Lessons from Republic and AMP.3. AMP’s evolution from a robotics vendor to an operating company: The importance of long-term ownership and accountability.4. Underwriting risk as a hardware company and sharing it with partners: Technology, construction, operations, and performance risks.5. Funding the growth of a hardware company: Cash Flow from Operations vs. Fundraising.6. Building execution capacity across multiple large projects: Managing attention, capital, and operational resources.This episode is part of our Humans Who Build x Robots for America series, where we speak with robotics companies and their customers about what it takes to move industrial automation beyond pilots and into scaled deployment.Link in comments.#hardware #scale #government #robotics #roi

Public waste authorities are increasingly looking for ways to recover more material, extend landfill life, improve long-term economics, and modernize processing infrastructure.

In its 2024 assessment, the EPA estimated that the US needs $36-43bn of investment to modernize recycling infrastructure by 2030. The report notes that this modernization could include advanced technologies such as optical sorters and robotic arms as part of higher-end facility upgrades.

SPSA’s work with AMP is an early example of what that modernization can look like in practice. SPSA Waste Solutions is a regional public authority serving communities in southeastern Virginia and responsible for managing municipal solid waste and long-term disposal infrastructure. AMP is a waste-technology company using AI, robotics, and automated sortation systems to reduce labor costs, increase resource recovery, and deliver more reliable operations.

In November 2025, SPSA signed a 20-year agreement with AMP to scale automated waste processing across the region, with the project designed to reach 540,000 tons of annual processing capacity by 2029 and divert 50% of waste from landfill.

In our conversation with Dennis Bagley, Executive Director, SPSA, we focus on what industrial automation founders can learn from that process: how to work with government customers, build trust, structure fee and incentives, move from pilot to long-term deployment, and how a public service authority underwrites risk.

This episode is part of our Humans Who Build x Robots for America series, where we speak with robotics companies and their customers about what it takes to move industrial automation beyond pilots and into scaled deployment.

#wastemanagement #public #virginia #publicprivatepartnerships

In our first episode, we discussed that 98% of factories in the US are small and medium-sized businesses. But what does it actually take to deploy robots across these factories?

It is not only about the technology, but also about financing, deployment, integration, maintenance, updates, and continuous optimization that ultimately drive robotics adoption. Formic Technologies is building exactly this infrastructure through its RaaS (Robotics as a Service) model. For customers, it is essentially an on-demand robotic workforce that can show up and perform production tasks with guaranteed performance and uptime.

Formic has deployed robots across ~150 factories in the US. In 2025, the company built the largest independent robot fleet in the country and surpassed 500,000 production hours, moving 468 million pounds of product with 99.3% system uptime. The company has raised capital from Blackhorn Ventures, Mitsubishi HC Capital America, Lux Capital, FJ Labs, and Initialized Capital, among others.

Formic’s Founder and CEO, Saman Farid, recently hosted us at their new facility in Oakland, CA, where we recorded the latest episode of Humans Who Build. Before founding Formic, Saman invested in ~40 robotics companies at Baidu Ventures and Comet Labs. He has also recently launched Robots for America, a coalition focused on accelerating robotics adoption across American manufacturing.

In this episode, we learn:

1. How Formic’s scaling process changed from 0–10, 10–50, and 50–150 factory deployments?
2. How Formic built customer success and sales teams, and how that changed with scale?
3. RaaS: Pricing model, various risks associated for the RaaS seller, and how to underwrite them?
4. What robotics founders consistently underestimate when deploying solutions in real factories?
5. Why innovation centers at large OEMs can become a major distraction for startups?
6. Why startups should be cautious about relying on system integrators for early distribution?

#robotics #america #manufacturing #ai #roi #integration

If you enjoyed the episode, please like and subscribe to the podcast. Our episodes provide actionable insights for industrial automation founders and operators looking to scale their companies, powered by world-class builders.

Manufacturing is not new to the US. It has been a core foundation of its economic rise. But the way we think about manufacturing is undergoing a structural shift.

While traditional assembly-line production models optimized for low-mix, high-volume output (e.g., automotive) continue to exist, evolving customer and business needs are driving increasing importance of high-mix, low-volume production environments.

For example, in a Blue Yonder 2024 survey, 92% of respondents were willing to pay extra for personalized vehicle features - a clear signal of rising demand for customization. Further, global military expenditure reached ~$2.89tn in 2025, its highest level as a share of GDP since 2009. At the same time, the US Department of War has proposed ~$3.3bn toward additive manufacturing-related initiatives, reflecting a growing focus on faster, more flexible production systems for complex, program-specific components.

Machina Labs serves these requirements. Founded in 2019, Machina Labs operates intelligent, software-defined factories that manufacture complex metal structures for defense, aerospace, and mobility. In February 2026, it raised $124mm from Woven Capital (Toyota’s growth-stage venture arm), Lockheed Martin Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures, and Strategic Development Fund (SDF), and announced a joint venture with SDF focused on producing advanced metal structures in the region.

In the latest episode of Humans Who Build with Edward Mehr, Co-founder & CEO of Machina Labs, we discuss the following themes, among others:

1. What it takes to build and scale factories in high-mix environments?
2. How to work with the US Department of War?
3. Capital formation and partnerships when building in hardware.
4. How entrepreneurship makes you more grateful?

Please watch and share any feedback or questions from your journey of building an industrial automation company. We’ll bring in world-class operators and founders to answer them!

#defense #mobility #departmentofwar #manufacturing #customparts

Technological innovation in industrial automation is strong. But technology alone is not enough, especially when looking to scale your solutions at some of the most sophisticated OEMs in the world.

As Adi Prasad puts it, manufacturing is a systems problem!

With over a decade of OEM wisdom, in the most recent episode of Humans Who Build, Adi answers the most common questions that industrial automation founders have:

• What mechanisms and stakeholders inside enterprise OEMs evaluate and decide on new automation solutions?
• How to think about building automation products - around specific processes or broader systems?
• When does automation actually make things worse in factories?
• How tightly coupled are tooling and automation - can one be changed without the other?
• How do manufacturing environments differ across Apple, Tesla, and Rivian?
• What does Adi think about his former boss, RJ Scaringe's new startup, Mind Robotics? :)

Adi has been on the manufacturing teams of some of the most significant OEMs of the world, leading the launch of Tesla’s Model 3 battery-enclosure lines, Apple’s iPhone battery ramp, and three Rivian module lines. He also briefly worked with Travis Kalanick at CloudKitchens.

After 2 years at HBS, he co-founded Matter, along with his former colleagues and friends including Charly Mwangi, Aish Varadhan, and Aditya Ranjan. At Matter, they are building America's autonomous manufacturing infrastructure, the software, hardware, and factory network focused on complex electromechanical products.

Please enjoy the episode. If you liked it, and want to learn more about the industrial automation space, please like and subscribe. :)

#factories #manufacturing #tesla #systems #artificialintelligence

98% of manufacturing firms in the US are small and high-mix businesses.

Yet most conversations around industrial automation today are centered on robots and humanoids. What about automation for the businesses that actually make up the majority?

Alex Huckstepp is building AI software to accelerate operations of exactly these businesses at his new company, Uptool. Its first product is an AI quoting software that ensures that machine and fabrication shops meet the demands of global hardware innovation. Uptool has raised $6M in seed funding from leading industrial tech and vertical AI investors including Khosla Ventures, Eclipse, Bessemer Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins.

Before Uptool, Alex spent over a decade leading sales & BD and GTM functions for some of the most important advanced manufacturing companies in the country including Stratasys, Carbon, ARRIS, and Machina Labs. Therefore, he understands what constitutes an effective sales strategy, whether you are starting from scratch or have scaled up to multiple millions of dollars in revenue.

Our conversations with hard-tech and industrial automation founders consistently highlight that sales is one of the most difficult functions to get right. In our first episode of Humans Who Build with Alex, we break down how he has approached sales and GTM across his career.

Details of the topics covered in this episode:

• The small and high-mix opportunity: Nature of these businesses and stakeholders, state of operations and the role of business automation, performance measurement.
• Key pillars of industrial sales and GTM strategy, including stakeholder dynamics and building early customer partnerships.
• Challenges in scaling from pilot to production: Customer or industry selection, problem definition, deployment complexity, and preparation for successful deployments.
• Hiring for industrial sales and maintaining a sales team's optimism and tenacity amidst long-sales cycles.
• Fundraising models for industrial companies: Venture vs bootstrapped, partnerships with CVCs.

At Protean, we are building a community of executives across manufacturing operations, vendor management, and factory systems. This includes OEMs, system integrators, and a small group of founders, with the goal of making the process more informed and genuinely collaborative.

What sales or GTM challenges are you facing in your company? Are you interested in connecting with OEM teams to better understand their requirements? Please DM us at [email protected].

In an increasingly complex investment world impacted by advanced technology, global pandemics, and wars, it has become important to ground our processes in fundamentals, developed through an understanding of how the world works and rigorous stress-testing.

Erin Miles, Partner and Member of the Operating Committee at Bridgewater Associates, is guiding her team to do exactly that! As Head of Alpha Engine, Erin shares responsibility for the strategy and oversight of the investment team behind Bridgewater’s flagship fund Pure Alpha.

Erin joined Bridgewater right after her undergraduate studies in Neurobiology and Neurosciences at Harvard, having quickly realized that she did not want to run a science lab! :)

In this episode of Women Who Build, we will learn the following:

• What is Bridgewater's Alpha Engine? 📈
• Erin's Systematic approach to investing, management decisions, and life!
• Implementation of technology (of course, including AI) in investing.
• 🌎 Macro: Long-term interest rates movement, China outlook, other emerging markets with growth potential, e.g., India.
• 🧑‍💼👩‍💼 What makes a great investor in today's AI-first world?

Listen and learn!

If you liked this episode and want to hear more from us, subscribe to our channel and hit the notification bell to stay updated!

#hedgefunds #technology #investing #obsession

Very rarely you come across people who define their jobs as building a "movement." We have been lucky to call Loretta McCarthy, Co-CEO and Managing Partner, Golden Seeds, a guest at Women Who Build, as she is exactly that person.

Golden Seeds is one of the largest and most active angel investment organizations in the US with ~300 angel investors and invests in early-stage women-led businesses.

Loretta was previously Executive Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer at OppenheimerFunds and a marketing executive at American Express. Early in her career, she was an executive at the Dayton-Hudson Corporation (later Target Corp.). Ms. McCarthy has served as a board member of many organizations, both for-profit companies and not-for-profit organizations.

In this episode, we discuss 3 main topics:

• Angel Investing: Building an investor consortium serving a common goal and evolution of angel investing in the past 2 decades.
• Key considerations for founders raising angel funds.
• The Great Wealth Transfer and its impact.

Listen and learn!

#investing #angelinvesting #technology #fundraising

How we dress defines our personality in the eyes of others, but most importantly, in our own eyes!

Our Women Who Build guest today, Elizabeth von der Goltz, has been at the forefront of building global fashion companies that dress us. Known for her sharp ability to spot the brands we wear and identify lasting trends, Elizabeth has also leveraged her Sixth sense and her business acumen to drive strategy and manage the P&L of major fashion enterprises.

Most recently serving as the Chief Fashion and Merchandising Officer at FARFETCH, Elizabeth has spent decades shaping the high-end retail landscape. She began her career as an Assistant Buyer at Barneys New York and quickly rose through the ranks at Bergdorf Goodman, where she played a pivotal role in modernizing the store’s offerings and boosting sales for top brands. Later, as the Global Buying Director at YOOX NET-A-PORTER and Chief Commercial Officer at MATCHESFASHION.

In this episode, Elizabeth shares exclusive insights on:

- What to build in fashion today: Brand vs a tech enabled solution.

⁠- What does it take to build a fashion company: Supply chain, distribution, designer, short-term vs long-term trends.

⁠- How is the fashion sector evolving: Why are sales of LVMH and Gucci going down but Ralph Lauren is stable?

- ⁠Opportunities in the Indian luxury market.

- ⁠Our favorite: Differences in fashion in New York City and London.

If you liked this episode and want to hear more from us, subscribe to our channel and hit the notification bell to stay updated!

⁠#Businessgrowth⁠ ⁠⁠#FARFETCH⁠ ⁠#Fashion⁠ ⁠#womenwhobuild⁠ ⁠#luxury