From printing parts in combat zones to creating a rugged, mobile printer that works on land, sea, and air — Crater’s mission is transforming logistics and supply chains for the military. Eric Shnell, CEO and Co-Founder of Craitor, shares how the company was born from collaboration with the Marine Corps, what it means to innovate under pressure, and why continuous, in-motion 3D printing could change how we build and repair in the most extreme conditions.

Kevin Peterson, Co-founder and CTO of Bedrock Robotics, shares his 20-year journey from building self-driving cars and moon landers to leading autonomy at Waymo and now building machines that can literally move mountains. From lessons learned in scaling robotics startups to his philosophy on product milestones and company culture, this conversation dives deep into the realities of building technology that transforms the physical world.

Ryan Smith, a partner in the patent litigation and trial practice at Wilson Sonsini, and I dig into the legal backbone founders skip until it hurts—how to build an IP strategy that actually matches your business, when patents vs. trade secrets make sense, and why a “north star” patent plan should track where you’re going in 5–10 years, not just what you’re shipping today.

I sat down with Manas Punhani, Senior Associate at Woven Capital (Toyota’s growth fund), to dig into how growth investors judge traction, price risk, and help founders scale in industrial tech, robotics, and “physical AI.”

In this episode of Machine Minds, I sit down with Joseph Krause, co-founder and CEO of Radical AI. We talk about Joseph’s path from Rice University and the Army National Guard to building Radical AI.

I sat down with Nick Snoad, VP at Marlinspike, to talk about the surge of capital into defense and dual-use tech—and how he actually evaluates teams, markets, and milestones at the earliest stages.