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PODCAST

Top of Mind with Brad Porter

He built Amazon’s robot army. Then walked away. Why? To build something bigger. Top of Mind is a weekly 2–5 minute audio drop from Brad Porter—former Amazon VP of Robotics, Scale AI CTO, and now founder of Cobot. Each short episode delivers raw, unfiltered insights on leadership, automation, and the chaos of building at the edge of physical AI. From warehouse floors to the frontier of machine intelligence, this is what it sounds like when a Silicon Valley leader thinks out loud.

technology entrepreneurship

All Episodes

4:15

Ambitious Culture

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/08/10

We don’t always talk about the importance of having an ambitious culture. Ambitious cultures can be tricky to manage. Ambitious people have ambitious expectations. They push you, they challenge you. But ambitious people in ambitious cultures can achieve ambitious things. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

7:48

Money, Risks, and Startups

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/08/03

This week I follow up from last week’s post to go deeper into my philosophy on personal finances. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

4:13

Talent

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/30

In this Top of Mind, I'm talking about talent and why it’s critical to our companies, but also our country. (Recorded in June, 2025) Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

9:34

Money, Success, and Drive

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/28

Today I’m talking about money and success and drive. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

5:42

Lessons From My Father

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/23

I share lessons from my father that shaped how I think about leadership and physical AI. (Recorded on Father’s Day - 6/15/2025) Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

3:05

Gliding Into Product Market Fit

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/22

I talk about finding thermal bubbles that can help you glide into product market fit. (Recorded in June, 2025) Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

7:39

China Robotics and Managing Blind Spots

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/20

This week, I talk about China robotics and mechanisms for managing blind spots Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

4:06

The Value of Compounding

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/19

Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, MIT Athena, Netscape, Tellme, Amazon Robotics, Cobot… I cover it all in under 4 minutes. (Recorded in May, 2025) Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

3:15

Scaling Robotics Foundational Model

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/18

I share some insights into how we think about solving the headwinds to building a foundation model for physical AI, share a bit about the value of getting into the field and building great partnerships, and just the value of connecting in person in what has become a digital-first world. (Recorded in April, 2025) Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

6:36

How to Win a Race

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/18

In this Top of Mind, I talk about humanoids vs cobots, and share a powerful insight on success that I learned from my grandfather. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

6:40

A Robotically-Enabled Abundant Future

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/17

Today's "Top of Mind" discusses our abundant future. This is a topic Vinod Khosla spoke about that I've also been thinking about a lot. In today's world in developed countries, most of us do not need to worry about raising our own food. Yet in the late 1700's over 76% of society worked in agriculture. AI and robotics are going to eliminate much of the work we do every day. I also discuss Amazon's step function jump with their reported 25% productivity and 25% speed improvement at ...

en-us

6:04

How to Land a Robotics Internship (or Career)

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/16

I share some tips on "How to Land a Great Robotics Internship!" and building your resume to differentiate. Simulation experience is in demand. Highlight the tools you've used. NVIDIA Omniverse IsaacSim skills are particularly in demand.Low-level debugging skills are extremely valuable. Learn to use the oscilloscope and trace back to the firmware.Highlight any experience you have in the workforce. If you've worked in a warehouse or grocery store or hospital or anywhere where you've seen ...

en-us

1:58

Tyranny of the 50/50 Decision

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/16

I think a lot about decision velocity, particularly how do we make high quality decisions quickly? One of the traps I see I call "the 50/50 decision". The 50/50 decision is a decision between two nearly identical options. The challenge when two options are nearly identical is that deciding which is better becomes very hard! You can spend a lot of time trying to find a reason why A or B is a better choice. A good example of this was my first car. I was deciding between a Honda CRV and a Toyota...

en-us

5:14

U.S. Robotics Imperative

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/13

This week I talk about the imperative that the US be great at building drones and the criticality of robotics to that mission. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

6:08

Self-Play in Foundational Models

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/12

In this Top of Mind, I talk about the value of self-play in approaching novel problems and robotics foundational models. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

3:08

Leadership Lesson From Jensen Huang

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/11

I share a leadership story that I learned from Jensen Huang during a private forum. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

6:30

Lesson From A Nobel Laureate

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/10

I share a bit of a Cobot update and a leadership insight I learned as a freshman at MIT from the late Dr Henry Kendall, Nobel Prize Winner for discovery of the Quark. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

5:44

Is China ahead in AI and robotics?

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/10

In this Top of Mind, I talk about China's AI and robotics capability and what it means for the U.S.. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

4:48

Upgrading Your Feet

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/09

I share thoughts on upgrading … your shoes, your feet, technology, etc. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

8:17

Humanoids

Top of Mind with Brad Porter ·

2025/07/08

In this week's top-of-mind, I talk about humanoid robots. Everything from the type of work they might or might not do, what our robotically-rich future might look like, and why I think we're seeing a surge of activity here now. Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/brad-porter-s-top-of-mind-7346603629086167040/

en-us

62 results

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