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Into The Forge Season 2: Noah Ready-Campbell from Built
Welcome to Season 2!
In each of our podcasts, we ask top hardware entrepreneurs the same 10 questions to better understand the challenges and best practices in starting a hardware company. In Season 2 Episode 1, Lemnos’s Eric Klein talks with Noah Ready-Campbell of Built Robotics, a Lemnos portfolio company. Built recently announced $15 million in Series A funding to get its autonomous track loader to market.
I grew up in rural Vermont and worked for my dad pretty much every summer. I did a lot manual labor, construction, carpentry, and carpenter’s assistant kind of work. When I was thinking about robotics, I thought, “Maybe there’s a way to bring robotics into construction in some way, shape, or form.” In our vision for the company, we automate heavy equipment to make construction safer, faster, and more affordable.
No, we first came up with this idea for an e-commerce business. It was called Twice, and the idea was basically to be an online secondhand clothing store. When I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, it was clear to me that I really wanted a business where technology was the core. I decided that robotics was the one for me because it felt like it was maybe a little bit further outside of Google’s sweet spot. I’d studied Computer Science in school and got a Master’s as well, but I’d never done anything in robotics. I just started learning. I probably spent six months just reading about robotics, talking to people, and then refreshing myself on “Oh, yeah. That’s how an electric motor works.” I was definitely intimidated by hardware at first. The thing I realized is that for most hardware businesses, the core of what they’re doing is actually still software.
I really needed to, again, roll up my sleeves. My parents live in rural Vermont. I rented a 15-ton John Deere excavator, and I said “Hey, mom. You’ve always said you wanted to have a pond. I’m going to dig you a pond.” So I spent a week on this machine. I put 77 hours on it. I started to understand what are the areas where a robot could be helpful. Then I traveled around the country talking to every excavation contractor that I even tangentially knew—a lot of like uncles, fathers-in-law, and friends of mine. I got a lot of really good feedback.
I think there are two dimensions. One is industry expertise. For us, that’s hardware, robotics, perception software, construction, excavation, etc. Then there’s general company-building stuff, which is how you run a fundraising process, what are the legal ins and outs here, etc. I think that since I had done another company before, I felt a little bit more comfortable in the general company-building stuff, but I had a lot to learn on the robotics side of things. That’s actually one of the big reasons I wanted to work with Lemnos. You’ve got a reputation as being the hardware seed stage fund in Silicon Valley. I wanted to work with you so that I could kind of see around corners based on the pattern recognition that you guys have.
The Forge that you have at Lemnos, it’s a litt
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By Eric KleinWelcome to Season 2!
In each of our podcasts, we ask top hardware entrepreneurs the same 10 questions to better understand the challenges and best practices in starting a hardware company. In Season 2 Episode 1, Lemnos’s Eric Klein talks with Noah Ready-Campbell of Built Robotics, a Lemnos portfolio company. Built recently announced $15 million in Series A funding to get its autonomous track loader to market.
I grew up in rural Vermont and worked for my dad pretty much every summer. I did a lot manual labor, construction, carpentry, and carpenter’s assistant kind of work. When I was thinking about robotics, I thought, “Maybe there’s a way to bring robotics into construction in some way, shape, or form.” In our vision for the company, we automate heavy equipment to make construction safer, faster, and more affordable.
No, we first came up with this idea for an e-commerce business. It was called Twice, and the idea was basically to be an online secondhand clothing store. When I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, it was clear to me that I really wanted a business where technology was the core. I decided that robotics was the one for me because it felt like it was maybe a little bit further outside of Google’s sweet spot. I’d studied Computer Science in school and got a Master’s as well, but I’d never done anything in robotics. I just started learning. I probably spent six months just reading about robotics, talking to people, and then refreshing myself on “Oh, yeah. That’s how an electric motor works.” I was definitely intimidated by hardware at first. The thing I realized is that for most hardware businesses, the core of what they’re doing is actually still software.
I really needed to, again, roll up my sleeves. My parents live in rural Vermont. I rented a 15-ton John Deere excavator, and I said “Hey, mom. You’ve always said you wanted to have a pond. I’m going to dig you a pond.” So I spent a week on this machine. I put 77 hours on it. I started to understand what are the areas where a robot could be helpful. Then I traveled around the country talking to every excavation contractor that I even tangentially knew—a lot of like uncles, fathers-in-law, and friends of mine. I got a lot of really good feedback.
I think there are two dimensions. One is industry expertise. For us, that’s hardware, robotics, perception software, construction, excavation, etc. Then there’s general company-building stuff, which is how you run a fundraising process, what are the legal ins and outs here, etc. I think that since I had done another company before, I felt a little bit more comfortable in the general company-building stuff, but I had a lot to learn on the robotics side of things. That’s actually one of the big reasons I wanted to work with Lemnos. You’ve got a reputation as being the hardware seed stage fund in Silicon Valley. I wanted to work with you so that I could kind of see around corners based on the pattern recognition that you guys have.
The Forge that you have at Lemnos, it’s a litt