What does it take to guide a robotics startup from a napkin sketch to a $775 million exit? Oliver Mitchell, a venture capital partner at FF Venture Capital and author of "A Startup Field Guide in the Age of Robotics and AI" returns to Machine Minds to share hard-won lessons from the trenches of deep tech investing. From the dramatic rise and fall of Webvan to the triumph of Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), Oliver reveals why product-market fit isn't found in the lab - it's discovered in relentless customer conversations. We explore the pivotal mistakes founders make, why pivoting isn't failure but strategy, and how the right cap table can be the difference between scaling and stalling out.

Construction is one of the world’s most complex, risk-filled, and operationally fragmented industries — and also one of the last to benefit from automation. At Raise Robotics, CTO Rishabh Aggarwal is helping change that.

From capturing diesel soot to turn into ink, to designing CubeSats at NASA, to building autonomous harvesting robots in ag-tech, Rishabh’s journey has always been about one thing: building real technology that solves real problems.

From satellite missions and drone startups to international development work in Haiti, Peter Haas has carved one of the most unconventional and globally minded paths in robotics. Today, he’s combining decades of experience across academia, entrepreneurship, government, and humanitarian work to answer a pivotal question:

From retrofitting automation into existing warehouses to redefining how fast robotics can be deployed, SIMPL Automation is pioneering a more flexible, less disruptive path toward warehouse transformation.

In this episode, Ayman Labib, co-founder and CEO of SIMPL Automation, shares how his 25+ years in manufacturing and integration led him to build a company that’s challenging the traditional timelines, costs, and risks of warehouse automation.

Florian, CEO of InOrbit.Ai, shares his journey from cryptography researcher to big tech product leader — at companies like Microsoft, Adobe, and Facebook — and how that experience inspired him to tackle one of robotics’ biggest challenges: making robots work together seamlessly across diverse fleets and environments.

From interoperability and observability to performance and safety, this episode explores how InOrbit.AI is building the connective tissue of the robotics world — a “Google Translate for robots” that enables smarter, safer, and more efficient automation at scale.

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.