Description
Ryan Gariepy is the co-founder and former CTO of Clearpath Robotics and Otto Motors, acquired by Rockwell Automation for $600M+ in 2023. He bootstrapped the company for five years with only $300K in funding, reached profitability in 18 months, and spent 14 years building mobile robotics platforms that became the industry standard for research and industrial automation. ( If you’re looking for inspiration and lessons from other founders, Founders in Arms is hosting a founders roundtable with Rajat Suri, Immad Akhund, and Max Mullen next Wed Jan 14th at Mercury HQ. Discussing war stories and sharing lessons with a group of founders, as part of Founders-in-Arms podcast. Will be food and drinks. Capacity strictly limited at 50 so apply early if you’re interested: https://luma.com/dk97inyk ) What you'll learn: Why robotics is a systems discipline where progress stacks rather than explodes How to bootstrap a hardware company to $10M revenue before raising venture capital Why robotics follows 20-50% sustained growth for decades vs. software's boom-bust cycles The "promise problem" with humanoid robots and why form factor shapes user expectations How manufacturing in Canada (not China) became a strategic advantage for Clearpath Why founders overestimate 2-year progress but underestimate 10-year impact in robotics The real economics of humanoid robots: $20K cost becomes $80K landed price How robotics investment differs from software: less competitive, more defensible Why experience compounds in hardware but expires in software careers Investment criteria for robotics: engineering risk vs. technical risk and go-to-market strategy In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction and live event announcement (03:29) Ryan's background: Clearpath Robotics and Otto Motors (04:06) Building two brands under one company (06:29) The 14-year journey: challenges and non-linear growth (07:11) Bootstrapping robotics when "nobody thought you could make money" (08:17) Reaching profitability in 18 months with research customers (10:28) Building robotics platforms for MIT, universities, and research labs (11:03) Manufacturing in Canada vs. outsourcing to Asia (15:05) Reconnecting after 20 years: the Waterloo entrepreneurship connection (16:17) Working at Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics) (18:10) Why robotics is more exciting now than ever in history (19:21) Robotics as systems discipline: no single breakthrough technology (21:22) The overhype cycle and realistic expectations (22:14) Software explodes then crashes; robotics compounds for decades (23:36) Why hardware is harder but more mission-driven (25:27) The talent pool advantage: people irrationally love hardware (27:30) Physical AI and real-world impact beyond software optimization (28:07) Humanoid robots: incredible tech, miscalibrated expectations (32:41) The "promise problem": form factors make promises to users (34:35) Consumer robotics examples: Matic cleaning robot (35:59) Asia...