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PODCAST

Building Deep Tech

The show for founders building real deep tech. Each episode features founders, executives, and builders in AI, robotics, and hardware — breaking down how they build, scale, and learn. Hosted by Ilir Aliu | 22Astronauts. Whether you’re building now or just curious — tune in.

technology

All Episodes

00:56:12

Ep 80 | You Will Die If You Don’t Do It (w/ Bob van...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/09/18

🎙️ I talked with Bob van Luijt, co-founder and CEO of Weaviate, the open-source vector database that's become core infrastructure for AI-native applications.We talk about how Bob grew up in a small Dutch town, started coding in QBasic, and built his first software company while still in school. Then came the unexpected turn: jazz. He shares how studying music (from a conservatory in the Netherlands to Berklee in Boston) taught him grit, deep focus, and how to think in systems. For Bob, writing

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00:56:03

Ep 79 | Calm Down, Slow It All Down, Let Clarity...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/09/07

In this episode, I talk with Vikash Kumar, Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon and founder of MyoLab.AI, where he’s building human-embodied AI systems:We talk about growing up in a small Indian town, the influence of his mother on his early learning, and how a robotics club at IIT Kharagpur set him on a 15-year path through the world’s top labs.From a PhD at the University of Washington, to OpenAI, Google Brain, Meta FAIR, and now his own company! Vikash shares how his curiosity evolved from

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00:55:00

Ep 78 | Don't Start With A Whiteboard, Talk To...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/08/26

I talked with Brennand Pierce, founder and CEO ofKinisi Robotics, where he’s building one-armed mobile manipulators:Designed to automate warehouse tasks like picking, palletizing, and labeling and many more.After nearly two decades in robotics, Bren brings a rare mix of academic depth, startup experience, and hands-on engineering to the conversation.We talk about growing up fascinated by sci-fi and Japanese hobby robots, studying computer science at Exeter, earning a Master’s at the Bristol Robotics

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00:48:56

Ep 77 | If Other People Can Do It, Why Not Us? (w/...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/08/25

In this episode, I talk with Aaron Tan, PhD, Co-founder of Syncere, where he’s reimagining domestic robotics:A robotic lamp capable of folding laundry!One single video of the concept went viral, pulling in over 4 million views and sparking thousands of conversations online.We talk about growing up in Taiwan, immigrating to Canada as a teenager, and how a Lego Mindstorms kit from his father kicked off a lifelong obsession with robots. Aaron walks me through his path from a Bachelor’s and Master’s at

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01:14:07

Ep 76 | Fear and Pressure Fade When Joy Takes Over...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/08/21

In this episode, I talk with Brendah Njiru, founder of HOMY Robotics, where she’s building emotionally intelligent humanoid robots for senior living:With a background in neuroscience and Alzheimer’s research at Cornell, Brendah brings a rare scientific depth to robotics.We talk about her upbringing in Kenya, her early obsession with medicine, and what pulled her into AI and hardware. She shares how she transitioned from labs to startups, why senior care is the perfect proving ground for home

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00:51:20

Ep 75 | We Should Scale It Up Ourselves (w/ Lerrel...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/08/13

In this episode, I talk with Lerrel Pinto, Assistant Professor at NYU and one of the most cited researchers in robotics today:His work spans everything from self-supervised learning to robot dexterity, and he's on a mission to make robots generalize the way humans do.We talk about growing up in India, building his own education at IIT, and what led him to Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, and now New York. Lerrel explains how his lab at NYU, GRAIL, tackles robot learning at scale (from representation

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01:06:27

Ep 74 | Why Early Corporate Experience Is Valuable...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/08/07

I sit down with Benji Barash, CEO of Roboto AI, to talk Amazon, robotics, and why knowing what to do with your data is key to scaling:Benji spent years at Amazon working on drone delivery, but started to see a growing problem in robotics, the data was piling up faster than teams could make sense of it.He left Amazon to build a solution. Today, Roboto AI helps robotics companies analyze massive amounts of sensor logs and time-series data. It’s like a copilot for engineers trying to figure out why

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00:50:46

Ep 73 | Learn It Yourself Before Hiring for Expertise...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/07/31

In this episode, I talk with Madison Maxey, founder of LOOMIA, a company building soft, flexible electronics for everything: Everything? Everything! From robotics to automotive interiors. Maddie’s journey spans fashion school, a Thiel Fellowship, a return to Stanford in her mid-20s to study material science, and a decade of turning prototypes into real-world tech.We talk about growing up with a soldering iron and a sewing machine, how she designed a smart jacket for Zac Posen and Google, and why

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00:53:14

Ep 72 | Found the perfect track, combining science...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/07/10

Yesterday, they launched a $299 robot. It looks like a toy, but it opens up a world of AI. Today, I talk to the person who made it real.Matthieu Lapeyre is the founder of Pollen Robotics and one of the most quietly influential roboticists in Europe. He’s been building open-source humanoids long before it was cool, from Poppy to Reachy to Reachy Mini.We talk about how growing up without a tech background shaped him, why he left research to ship hardware, and how he kept going through years of

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00:54:56

Ep 71 | The Team Ends Up Like Charting the Path Too...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/07/03

In this episode, I talk with Kaan Dogrusoz, Co-Founder and CEO of Weave Robotics, a YC-backed team building Isaac, a personal home robot:Kaan grew up in Istanbul, chased curiosity across physics, art, and engineering, and eventually made his way to Carnegie Mellon, then Apple, where he spent nearly a decade working on robotics and shipping features like Double Tap on the Apple Watch.But something kept pulling at him. He didn’t want to be part of a massive machine anymore. He wanted to build

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00:54:17

Ep 70 | Real Confidence Comes From The Work (w/...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/06/26

🎙️ I talked with Benjamin Bolte, founder of K-Scale Labs, who left Meta to build something he actually believes in: an open-source humanoid robot!After working on Autopilot at Tesla, he saw the inside of Optimus and decided the big players were getting it wrong.Benjamin walks me through how he built the first robot with Alibaba parts and 3D-printed parts in his apartment, why raising too much money too early is a trap, and how soldering wires all night helped him remember why he’s doing this in the

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01:13:07

Ep 69 | You can really build things with a small team...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/06/19

In this episode, I talk with ⁠Nikolaus West⁠, Co-Founder & CEO of Rerun; their team is building the data stack for Physical AI:We get into the early days of Rerun: how an open-source visualization tool for multimodal data became widely adopted across robotics, spatial computing, and even inside companies like Apple and Meta. But that was just the start. Now, they’re building a full-stack platform for logging, querying, and managing robotic-scale data, from raw logs to model training.Niko shares

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00:55:45

Ep 68: Personal Agency and Shaping One's Own Life...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/06/12

🎙️ I spoke with Chang Liu, founder and CEO of Extend Robotics, a startup developing intuitive VR interfaces to control robot arms and train AI models using real-world data.Chang shares his story from growing up in China to moving to the UK for university, studying at Newcastle and Southampton, and completing a PhD in aerial robotics. After postdoc work at Imperial College on autonomous drone systems, he made the leap into entrepreneurship and started Extend Robotics.We talk about the early pivots

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00:53:01

Ep 67: Doing Plan A to Do B Doesn’t Work (w/ Dhanush...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/06/04

Took me 2 years to land this one...🎙️ In this episode, I talk with ⁠Dhanush Radhakrishnan⁠, Co-Founder and CEO of ⁠Clone Robotics⁠:The company building lifelike, musculoskeletal androids that move like humans and could become the next personal computing platform.Dhanush shares how watching Iron Man at 13 sparked a lifelong obsession with tech, leading him from plasma thrusters and nuclear fusion research to founding a YC-backed robotics company now making headlines with their human-like androids.We

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00:55:04

Ep 66 | Ship One New Product Every Week Until...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/05/21

In Episode #66, I talk with Tibo LOUIS-LUCAS, founder of Tweet Hunter and Taplio, two SaaS tools he built, scaled, and sold for over $10 million:Tibo shares how he went from a series of startup failures to shipping one new product every week with his co-founder. That process eventually led to Tweet Hunter. What started as a personal tool to grow on Twitter turned into a fast-growing SaaS company doing over $100k MRR.We talk about why he stepped away from managing teams, what he learned from building

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01:04:41

Ep 65 | The Failing Part is Not Very Valuable if You...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/05/15

In this episode, I talk with Victor Splittgerber, CEO of WAKU Care; a Berlin-based company redefining maintenance for robots, machines, and automation systems.Victor shares how his early curiosity (and an eBay side hustle selling Star Wars kits at 15) laid the groundwork for becoming a founder. From rowing for Berlin’s national team to studying mechanical engineering in Dresden, to building his first startup out of moss, he’s always followed ideas that made sense to him, both technically and

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01:01:04

Ep 64 | Degrees and Job Doesn't Matter - What Matters...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/05/08

I talked to ⁠Haixuan Xavier Tao⁠, founder of 1ms.ai⁠ and maintainer of ⁠Dora-rs⁠, a Rust framework linking AI and robotics for modular, cloud-first systems.Haixuan shares his personal journey growing up in a Chinese immigrant family in France, the sense of duty that shaped his career path, and how he went from BCG and BNP Paribas to writing Rust for fun. We talk about his father's entrepreneurial story, why he walked away from corporate prestige, and how open-source became his outlet to give

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00:52:32

Ep 63 | At the Start, Fundamental Knowledge Matters...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/04/29

In Episode #63, I talk with Dmitrii Rudnitckii, VP and former CTO at Humanoid, with 25+ years in automation, encryption, computer vision, and robotics:We cover his journey from automating ships in the late 90s to building autonomous factories and now leading one of the most ambitious humanoid robot projects in the UK.Dmitrii shares insights about studying computer science in Russia, the importance of deep fundamentals over quick wins, the challenges of moving into leadership, and why soft skills are

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00:54:47

Ep 62 | Physical AI Has a Data Problem (w/ Pedro...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/04/25

Episode #62 of Building Deep Tech!With Pedro Milcent, Co-Founder of Deplace AI; data collection & curation for robotics and physical AI:In this episode, I chat with Pedro Milcent, a French-Brazilian founder building something new in the world of robotics and AI. Pedro’s story starts unconventionally, as he finished high school at 14, went straight to law school, then pivoted to business, earning a full-ride scholarship to USC before diving into the startup world.Pedro’s first startup, Payby,

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00:54:54

Ep 61 | Bad feedback is the most important feedback...

Building Deep Tech ·

2025/04/16

In this episode, I talk with Nicolas Rabault, former CTO and Co-Founder of Pollen Robotics, recently acquired by Hugging Face:Nicolas had a rocky start. He struggled in school and took an unconventional path into engineering, driven by a deep obsession with hacking, building, and making things move.He shares the story behind Pollen: how a small research team in Bordeaux built one of the most beloved open-source robotics platforms, and why openness and modularity were at the core of their

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