x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu

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. We talk about systems, mistakes, GTM strategy, funding lessons, and how to move from research to traction. Hosted by Ilir Aliu from 22Astronauts. Whether you’re building now or just curious — tune in.

technology

All Episodes

00:55:20

Ep 93 | Scaling Is Harder Than Building The First...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/12/18

Stefan Dörr-Laukien is the co-founder and CEO of NODE Robotics, a Stuttgart-based company building the software layer behind scalable mobile robot fleets.In this episode, Stefan shares how his path into robotics did not start with founding ambitions, but with curiosity for how machines work. From studying mechanical engineering at TUM to hands-on autonomous driving research at BMW and years at Fraunhofer IPA, his motivation was always the same: building systems that work in the real world, not just

en

00:46:30

Ep 92 | New Opportunities Grow From Every Failure (w/...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/12/11

I talked with Stephan van den Brink, founder and CEO of MANUS™, the company behind some of the most advanced data gloves used in robotics:Not only robotics: teleoperation, motion capture, and embodied AI. Manus started as a small student project and grew into a deep tech company trusted across the robotics world.We talk about Stephan's path from studying law and economics to discovering he was meant to build things, not file documents. He explains how the first Manus glove was built in evenings and

en

00:55:05

Ep 91 | The Real Truth Of Autonomy Lives In The Stats...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/12/04

In this episode, I talk with Harald Schäfer, CTO at comma.ai, where he is leading one of the most interesting autonomy efforts in the world:They work on end to end driving and generative world models is changing how small teams can compete with billion dollar labs.We talk about his path from electrical engineering in Belgium and Santa Barbara to joining comma as one of the earliest engineers. Harald explains how he helped turn a hacker project into a focused engineering team that ships reliable

en

00:49:44

Ep 89 | Business Masterclass: Selling First Before...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/11/20

Albane Dersy turned down Goldman Sachs to build Inbolt, a robotics company now deployed in factories across the world. Her story is a masterclass in execution:In this episode, we talk about how Albane grew up in Paris, pushed her way through the French prep school system, and found her path into entrepreneurship after a semester at Wharton opened her eyes to what was possible. She explains how she met her two co-founders during the X EC program, and how the first version of Inbolt had nothing to do

en

01:02:56

Ep 90 | Why are you not throwing yourself into this?...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/11/20

Dr. Hendrik Susemihl, CEO and Co founder of GoodBytz, shows you how fully automated kitchens can solve the labor crisis in food service and still serve better, fresher food at scale.We talk about his path from taking apart PCs as a teenager, to building large automation systems at Fraunhofer, to becoming CTO at NEURA Robotics. Hendrik explains why he walked away from a safe leadership role after his father’s heart attacks, how going plant based changed how he sees food, and why he became obsessed

en

00:51:50

Ep 88 | Always a Bit of a Generalist, Never Only One...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/11/13

In this episode, I talk with Jon Miller Schwartz, co-founder and CEO of Ultra, about how to actually get robots deployed in warehouses:We walk through Jon’s journey from tearing apart electronics on a tiny New York City workbench to Harvey Mudd, early YC startups in 3D printing, and building one of the first highly automated factories at Voodoo Manufacturing. Jon explains why those painful years with “last generation” robots convinced him to start Ultra and focus on one thing first e commerce order

en

00:58:36

Ep 87 | Speed Is Objectively the Most Important Thing...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/11/06

Axel Peytavin, co-founder & CEO of Innate, shows you how to teach real robots with language and quick demos without being a roboticist.We talk about Axel’s path from France to Stanford and why he is betting on personal robotics you can program with prompts, code, and demonstrations. He explains Mars, Innate’s $2K teachable robot with a Jetson Orin Nano, RGB-D vision, wrist camera, 2D LiDAR, and a 6-DOF arm.We break down BASIC, their open embodied agent that plans, remembers spaces, and chains

en

00:53:38

Ep 86 | It’s Not A Hardware Problem. It’s A System...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/10/29

Tom Zhang, founder and CEO of Daxo Robotics: with over 100 actuators they challenge everything we thought we knew about dexterity.In this episode, we talk about his journey from growing up in a mountain village in China to launching one of the most talked-about robotics startups of 2025.Tom shares how early life on a family orchard shaped his fascination with building and problem-solving, what he learned during his years at Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab, and why he believes

en

00:54:59

Ep 85 | Having A Company Is Maybe The Hardest Way To...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/10/24

Maximilian Schilling, co-founder and CTO of warmwind, is building a new kind of browser where AI works like a digital employee: clicking, typing, and navigating apps visually instead of through APIs. In this episode, we talk about his mission to make automation transparent, reliable, and accessible for every business, and how he’s building one of Europe’s most ambitious AI startups from Jena, Germany.We dive into Max’s story, from growing up in a family that both inspired and warned him against

en

00:50:06

Ep 84 | Fundamental Improvement Over Incremental...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/10/16

Robots still need weeks of coding to learn one new task. Xavier (Tianhao) Chi is changing that with Mbodi AI:Mbodi helps industrial robots learn through language and demonstration. No coding, no engineers, just simple instruction. We talk about how his team is closing the gap between advanced AI research and real factory floors, and what that means for the future of automation.Xavier shares his path from growing up in Shenyang to leading Google Public DNS, one of the internet’s core services, and

en

01:00:14

Ep. 83 | You Become Who You Hang Out With (w/ Ashish...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/10/09

Ashish Kapoor is building General Robotics to solve the biggest deployment problem in robotics: Getting real robots to work in the real world. In this episode, he shares how he’s doing it, and why most robotics stacks aren’t built to scale.We talk about growing up in India, studying at IIT and MIT, and how his mindset shifted from solving hard problems to finding the right ones. Ashish shares why he left research to start General Robotics, the limits of today’s robotics stacks, and how Grid aims to

en

01:01:45

Ep 82 | College Is Going to Be Obsolete by the End of...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/10/02

In this episode, I talk with Brian Walker, founder and CEO of REVEL, the company building the simulation backbone for humanoid robotics. Brian’s journey started far from Silicon Valley: growing up in the Czech Republic and working on Hollywood sets like Avatar and The Mandalorian, where he helped pioneer real-time XR production.We talk about what pulled him from filmmaking into robotics, and how sci-fi inspired him to stop watching the future and start building it. Brian shares why he founded REVEL

en

01:03:42

Ep 81 | Opportunities Only Arise After An Incredible...

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

2025/09/24

A Stanford physicist leaves academia to build open-source software for humanoid robots? I talked to OpenMind founder Jan Liphardt: OpenMind a new robotics company building an open-source, AI-native operating system for humanoid robots.We talk about being born in Germany, his upbringing in Michigan, early love for taking things apart, and how his path led from biochemistry at Reed to a PhD at Cambridge, then faculty roles at Berkeley and Stanford.Jan shares why he made the leap from academia to

en

00:56:12

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

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

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

en

00:56:03

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

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

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

en

00:55:00

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

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

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

en

00:48:56

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

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

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

en

01:14:07

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

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

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

en

00:51:20

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

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

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

en

01:06:27

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

Building Deep Tech with Ilir Aliu ·

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

en

93 results

Similar Podcasts

Lead With AI

Tamara Nall

Linux in the Ham Shack

Black Sparrow Media

Data Engineering Podcast

Tobias Macey

Eye On A.I.

Craig S. Smith

Reflections

Livewire Labs