The Techne Connect

In this episode we speak with Bentzion Levinson, Founder and CEO of Heven Aerotech, about building a global drone company from first principles and scaling in one of the fastest-moving sectors in the world.

Bentzion shares how his journey from military service into entrepreneurship shaped his perspective on leadership, responsibility, and building technology with real-world impact. He explains why timing matters as much as the idea itself, and how spotting the shift from drones as cameras to drones as autonomous systems created a clear opportunity.

The conversation explores the realities of building in defence technology, from early-stage uncertainty and personal sacrifice to scaling manufacturing and competing in a rapidly evolving global market. Bentzion also breaks down the role of hydrogen fuel cells, AI, and autonomous systems in shaping the next generation of aerial platforms.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we speak with Theo Nash, CEO of Mundane, about building robots for real work and why the future of robotics should focus on labour amplification, not labour replacement.

Theo shares his journey from electrical engineering in the UK to studying in China and at Stanford, before co founding Mundane to tackle the dull, dangerous and repetitive work that robots are best placed to handle.

He explains why Mundane took a full stack approach, from hardware and control systems to human robot interfaces, and why the real challenge is not flashy demos but building robots that create economic value in real environments.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Mark Bjornsgaard, Founder & Chief Innovation Officer of Deep Green, shares his journey into entrepreneurship and the thinking behind building a new model for data centre infrastructure.

Mark discusses the importance of testing assumptions, killing weak ideas early, and approaching entrepreneurship through disciplined experimentation rather than blind belief.

The conversation explores Deep Green’s mission to reuse heat from data centres, the growing power challenge driven by AI, and why distributed computing could reshape how data centres are built in the future.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Mark Bjornsgaard, Founder & Chief Innovation Officer of Deep Green, shares his journey into entrepreneurship and the thinking behind building a new model for data centre infrastructure.

Mark discusses the importance of testing assumptions, killing weak ideas early, and approaching entrepreneurship through disciplined experimentation rather than blind belief.

The conversation explores Deep Green’s mission to reuse heat from data centres, the growing power challenge driven by AI, and why distributed computing could reshape how data centres are built in the future.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we speak with Kraettli Epperson, CEO and Co-Founder of Vigilant Aerospace, about autonomous aviation safety and building the systems that enable drones to operate at scale.

Kraettli shares his journey as a serial entrepreneur, from early internet startups to founding a company at the forefront of airspace management and collision avoidance for uncrewed aircraft.

The conversation explores aviation regulation, beyond visual line of sight operations, detect and avoid systems, and why safety is the foundation for the future of autonomous flight. Kraettli also explains how Vigilant Aerospace works across commercial, defence, and advanced air mobility markets, and why clear communication and cross functional engineering are critical in this space.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Behind the Vision, we speak with Tad Mielnicki, CEO and Founder of Larx.

Tad shares his journey into entrepreneurship, the lessons he learned from earlier ventures, and how Larks was built to turn fragmented visual and operational data into faster, clearer decision-making. They discuss startup resilience, product-market fit, customer-led growth, and why mission-driven teams matter when building in defence and commercial technology.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Behind the Robot, Adam Ewing speaks with Roman Ilyushin, Technology Leader in Robotic Fleet Infrastructure, about building software ecosystems for large scale robotic fleets.

Roman shares his journey from SaaS into robotics as a service and explains how robotics platforms combine software, cloud systems, and hardware to deliver real world outcomes. The conversation explores agricultural robotics, the importance of ROI in automation, and why farmers prioritise results over technology.

They also discuss the future of robotics platforms, including ecosystem standardisation, AI driven models, and the system level thinking engineers need to succeed in robotics.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Behind the Vision, we speak with Willem-Jan Lamers, Founder and CEO of Ambyon. He shares how a personal experience in hospital care led him to build a company focused on solving one of healthcare’s biggest challenges, time lost to logistics and administration.

He breaks down how Ambyon is using robotics and physical AI to remove non-clinical tasks from nurses and healthcare staff, allowing them to focus on patients. The conversation covers his journey from early entrepreneurship to building and exiting a previous robotics company, and the lessons learned along the way.

You hear how Ambyon approached problem discovery through deep market research, why understanding the end user matters more than building technology first, and how to validate real demand before scaling.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded live in Notting Hill, London, this episode of Behind the Capital explores the world of early-stage investing in hard tech and techno-industrial innovation.

You hear from Rob Eloff, Partner at Tamarack Global, as he shares his journey into venture capital and the thinking behind the firm’s investment approach. He explains why the focus is shifting back to the physical world, how AI and simulation are shaping new industrial opportunities, and why sectors like space, energy, defence and advanced manufacturing are drawing more attention from investors. He also shares what he looks for in founders, why resilience and self-awareness matter, and how the right capital partner helps companies move from early conviction to long-term value.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we speak with Tony Rios, VP of Navigation Engineering at ANELLO Photonics, about a career spent building inertial navigation systems across space, consumer electronics, and aviation. Tony explains how he started on space shuttle navigation at Rockwell International, moved into satellite controls at The Aerospace Corporation, then joined Crossbow Technology as an early employee to help bring MEMS inertial systems into real products.

He shares what it took to embed algorithms on constrained hardware, calibrate low performance MEMS sensors, and deliver one of the first FAA certified MEMS Attitude Heading and Reference Systems for general aviation.

The conversation covers leadership paths, why Tony prefers small, technical teams, and how his work later expanded into Apple products including Vision Pro, and advanced air mobility at Archer Aviation. They close with a real example of handling a critical certification issue, owning mistakes, and solving complex problems in partnership with customers.

The Techne Connect Podcast 🎧

Thank you for listening to Techne Connect! This podcast takes you inside the companies and conversations shaping the future of engineering.

From space and defence to robotics, AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation mobility, each episode features the founders, engineers and technology leaders building tomorrow's world.

Through candid discussions on innovation, leadership, product development and career journeys, the podcast uncovers the ideas, challenges and breakthroughs driving the world's fastest-moving industries. Whether you're an engineer, founder, investor or simply fascinated by emerging technology.

Techne Connect offers a front-row seat to the people creating what's next.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.