Robotics

For investors already tracking the robotics and industrial automation space, 2025 may be validating what was long been predicted: robots

Presenting a business plan that only shows organic and a long time to break even, paired with a modest benefit after that, is not going to attract a lot of investors.

Peter Thiel has famously argued that failure often doesn’t teach us much; he calls failure “massively overrated,” noting that it’s hard to learn from failures because they usually result from many factors, not just one, which makes drawing useful lessons difficult.

Industrial automation is entering a “pivot era”, where market volatility, supply-chain shocks and labor scarcity force manufacturers to redesign production lines for constant change.

You can demo a prototype with flair; you cannot mass produce with wishful thinking. Moving from a bench-top success to repeatable output at speed introduces new physics; new vendors; new failure modes.

When investors compare hardware and software startups, they often focus on production costs and margins.

Why Investors Can’t Ignore Time-to-Market in Hardware Startups? In software, a two-week sprint can change everything. In hardware, those same two weeks barely get you through supplier negotiations.

Prototyping, tooling, and early manufacturing runs require significant upfront capital. Cash can burn faster than many investors expect before the first sale is made.

The debate between launching a show-stopping humanoid or building quietly through modular platforms is more than a matter of engineering style; it’s a strategic fork in the road.